There are two kinds of beauty in life. Parent Trap future step-mom #### pretty, which is, you know, slathered make-up and starved skinny; and then there’s natural pretty. The kind of people that live with how they were born. I’ve always chosen to be natural pretty (Even if… In truth, I don’t really think I’m that pretty to begin with.)
But now my feelings about myself were sunk to a new low, because when that door opened and Alyssa stepped out in the red-T and jean shorts, I saw natural pretty – REALITY pretty walking out in the form of a supreme goddess.
Alyssa Palmer was the complete opposite of everything I thought she would be. I thought she would be artificial tan, paintbrush thick eyeliner, and manicure fake nails that are longer than my fingers all together.
But she was complete opposite. She wasn’t wearing any make-up from what I could tell – Other than maybe some faint blush. And yet she was so gorgeous with her cappuccino skin and pale green eyes that I felt like hitting something. I felt hideous and worthless compared to this older – and more artistically pretty girl. She looked like she was sculpted out to be Aphrodite… No wonder Justin chose to be around her.
The only thing that was vaguely modified was her hair, which to me looked before to be a dark chocolate curly look, but now there were a few tints of blondish highlights mixed into the spirals.
There would absolutely be no way to hate a girl this down to earth. Who, even before hearing her speak, I knew would be a sweet angel that fell from the heavens.
And yet I found a way. Though my face was carved out in a look of complete envious admiration, in my head I was already visualizing myself ripping the hair out of her pretty little head.
“Justin!” She squealed, throwing her hands up (Her fingernails were only painted a ninety-nine cent cherry red) and pulling them around Justin’s neck as she hugged him tightly. A bit of a show if you asked me, one that Jack was watching from afar as he chuckled under his breath at how red Justin’s face went in surprise.
Oh please… I thought in disgust, you know you like it you skank… Surprisingly, I wasn’t talking about Alyssa.
What was up with me today?
Justin chuckled nervously before prying Alyssa’s arms off from around his neck, looking into her pale green eyes with his shiny marble blues. “Hey…” He said back softly, not quite getting over the blush, “You called, right?” I was surprised to find that he was smiling lightly again, it lit up his pale face with some emotion and some of what I could see to be affection. Too bad he was aiming it at her, or I would have been happy for him.
Apparently Alyssa was a big flirt through everything going on, when she led us all to her living room; she sat down in Justin’s lap instead of occupying a seat of her own. Once she was comfortable with her butt in Justin’s lap (Justin, by the way, was reddening by the second. Jack found this very entertaining) she looked to both Jack and I and gave a white toothed glistening smile that I knew would haunt me until the day I died. “So,” She began, of course in that girlish high-pitched voice… That kind of reminded me of Janice, Justin’s step-momma, “I hear you two have been friends with Justin since childhood?”
Jack nodded, since I refused to speak, crossing a leg over his knee as he lay back against the couch casually, “Yup. From when Justin was a whiny six year old, to now where he’s a whiny eighteen year old.”
I haven’t known Justin that long, due to the fact that he’s two years older, (My mom met his at a book club thing) but I still went along with what Jack said. I could see him as a whiny six year old easily, so I rolled with it.
Alyssa looked back to Justin for a moment with her bottom lip sticking out in a supposed-to-be-cutesy look that only succeeded in making me want to walk out of the room and barf. Not just because of that, but because Justin started to kind of imitate her. So they looked like one of those sickening couples in the back of the theater that pay more attention two one another, boring into each other instead of paying attention to the movie they paid to see. Just like there, where I stay far away from that kind of scene of teen romance, I tried to avoid this scene. Justin wasn’t supposed to be enjoying this! He wasn’t allowed to damn it! He was supposed to be stubborn, crabby, and self-centered. He was supposed to be mean and aggressive. Secretive and egotistic. And above all, UNABLE TO LOVE THIS BRUNETTE DEVIL THAT WAS SITTING IN HIS LAP MAKING KISSY FACES.
I could tell Jack noticed my anger that was pitting from my heart and traveling to my hands, ready to rip the hair out of that pretty demonic girl’s head. So he quickly kind of hit me in the arm to get me back to my senses and out of homicidal mode.
That’s when I realized what I was doing. Why was I so angry? I knew that I knew the answer all along, but from the moment I had seen him in his room, I decided not to believe myself.
I did not love Justin Alec Simmons. FORMER best friend and now present enemy of betrayal for deserting me and almost breaking my nose from the wind friction of a swinging door. I did not love this pettish black haired menace that was now giving Eskimo kisses to this evil siren that was placed conveniently into his lap on the black leather couch. I did not. I absolutely, most certainly, WITHOUT A QUESTION did not love him.
But then again, if I didn’t…
Why could I see myself ripping Alyssa away and throwing her off of the balcony of her own apartment?
Because I was lying to myself. That’s why.
I was hooked.
It seems the Queen of the Underworld had wanted Justin over just because she missed him. OH PLEASE. He shouldn’t be manipulated by that, but of course, no one listens to me. Because he just smiled and hugged her, “Well I’m here now, aren’t I?” Oh god.
To my surprise, Jack was actually kind of getting sick of it as well. But that just confused me, because, I mean, he’s Jack. He likes everything. He would sing with Chel and me just to keep us from screaming at him. He would taste my mom’s recipes for her when she needed an opinion on whether she used too many spices (Oh please… Well all know mom doesn’t use spices – once again, ROAD KILL). In short, Jack is a completely durable bomb shelter from anything that would bug him, he’ll let anyone manipulate him just to keep them from getting angry at him. And yet, now, I was getting ready to stop Justin and Alyssa was kissing by probably ripping them apart like two pieces of Velcro. I turned in my seat and poked him in the arm, “Jack…” I whispered. When he turned, he wiped his expression away thinking I hadn’t seen his look of sheer annoyance, but of course, I’d seen it. I wouldn’t have explained to you how he was such a suck-up if I hadn’t. “I think we should leave,” I muttered in a slight frown, hating the fact I was willing to leave those two alone in a room.
Okay! I’ll admit, I have sort of a thing for Justin.
Don’t chew me out for it.
Jack nodded at this; he agreed very much I could tell. He’d rather touch a hot stove or bleach his hair blonde than sit here and watch those two making sickly faces of passion. He turned in his seat again and then stood, “Well,” He said, putting on an ######## smile, “I think we’re ready to go.” He was my hero, how bluntly he said “I WANT TO GO CAUSE I DON’T WANT TO SEE YOU MAKING OUT” right in Justin’s face.
Justin, I could tell, was sad from this request, but all the same, remembered that he was our ride home. So he nodded and looked at Alyssa again with a look of remorse, “I’ll see you later then?”
Alyssa nodded, also looking overly saddened by this comment. In her mind I could tell she was thinking of plans of revenge on the red-head that had stuck himself in and stopped her action with the hot black-haired blue eyed stud she had been able to sit down.
When we exited the apartment, a feeling of complete happiness washed over me. Glad that I was out of my own personal vision of hell that had come complete with the devil herself. When Justin walked out of the apartment building, of course with a sick good-bye, he pushed his black hair back, combing it through his fingers and taking a deep breath of exasperation. And at that moment, when his hair fell back to his eyes, and the door closed, he seemed to switch right back to Cranky Justin Mode. He stepped down the steps of the apartment complex and walked toward his car with just a grunt of gesture saying “Get in”.
On the way back to my apartment building (I was slightly happy to know that he remembered where I lived) I just had to say something, anything. Just to break the uncomfortable silence. “Um…” I first said, I saw Jack jerk at the sudden sound that broke through the silence, like maybe he’d been trying to sleep, “That Alyssa person… She seems… Nice.” I wasn’t sure what brought me to say that. Because I knew deep down I had a dark hatred of her that had grown like a fungus as we had sat there in her home, as I saw her kissing Justin so freely even with others around. I knew she was bad news, so I didn’t know what had brought me to say that. Probably because, even though I didn’t like the truth of it, it was one of the only questions that wouldn’t get Justin annoyed with me. I knew perfectly well he was crazy about this girl, so even though I didn’t like it, I had to accept it… At least… I needed to make it seem that way.
Justin just kind of nodded as he stared at the road, I once again noticed that we drove smoothly, almost like we were just gliding across, a hair above the road. He was a great driver, another thing that made him perfect. I was getting ready to add onto my sentence, but Justin beat me to it, “Yea… I’ve been seeing her for about a month now.”
This kind of stunned me, a month? They were that lovey-dovey in only a month. It took Justin three or four years to finally kiss me. What did I do wrong?
We finally reached my house after what seemed like forever. And when I got out of the car, almost in unison to the car door closing, came a loud excited scream from the direction of the apartments. “Key!” I knew that voice all too well; I turned expectantly right into my mother’s arms in a tight anaconda squeeze-ish hug. When she was done suffocating me, my mother turned to the silver Volvo and leaned down to look through the opened window where Justin sat smiling softly, “Hey.” He said warmly to my mother, ####### his head to the side and giving her the innocence he had given to that idiot Alyssa.
When my mom finally noticed my ride, she gasped and leaned down to start talking, even though Justin didn’t reply to it, she just kept talking. A few seconds later, Jack leaned over Justin to get his head in view of the window to start talking at the same speed as my mom. They were yacking off and Justin just sat there in the middle ignoring them. I was surprised his head didn’t explode. I couldn’t help but chuckle at the constant jabbering going on between two people that were so close in my life. And then there was Justin, sitting there staring in front of him, until my mother asked how things were doing at his house.
Justin blinked as he glanced up at her, surprised she was talking to him, he finally forged out his answer as he let his hands drop from the steering wheel after being clamped so tightly, “Things are… Fine.” That sudden pause had made me feel cold, fine? He was living with a new mother than obviously only wanted to be there to redecorate the house and brainwash him into a Stepford Son. I tried to hide the slight mood that had washed over me when he said that, but he glanced at me before I could wipe it away. He just frowned back at me. But not in hatred or annoyance as he usually did, more frowning as if he understood what I thought. He understood that I felt sorry for him, and that only made me feel terrible. I didn’t want to seem like I pitied him, I was quite the opposite.
“Dad got remarried a few years ago,” Justin continued as he looked away from me and back to my still grinning and oblivious mother, “Things have changed a lot… But I think I’ll be able to get used to them sometime or another. We all adjust sometime in our life, right?”
Mom nodded in agreement, “Yea, that’s right baby. Well, I don’t want to keep you all from returning home, so I guess I’ll see you all soon. Maybe you and your parents can come up sometime. We can reminisce about the things you kids did in middle school. You were so cute then.” She gave a stupid smile, not knowing that, at least to me, that was sort of insulting. But then again, I was used to it, haven’t your parents ever said to you “You were so cute then, why’d you change?” Joking of course, but either way, I’d heard it ten fold. Justin just chuckled weakly, “Yea. Maybe,” He muttered, looking almost uncomfortable now, “Well… I better take Jack home before he gets impatient,” He smiled weakly again as he ###### his head, “See you soon… See you later Key,” and then he left.
Everything froze. He had acknowledged me. He had really acknowledged me. He had even said bye. Romantic sorrowful memories flashed through my head again, I was almost beaten emotionally to tears. Did this mean he didn’t hate me?
“What a nice boy…” My mom said as she watched Justin drive off, “He’s gone through so much and yet he’s still smiling.”
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