White Liar (21 page)

 
 
 
 
Reaching down, Justin patted his knee.
 
"I'll be back tomorrow, after practice."
 
He held his probing gaze and John finally nodded again.
 
Whatever he had to say, Justin figured that he could tell him tomorrow when family wasn't around.
 
Right now, there was someone else that Justin wanted to speak with, a certain female that can't seem to leave well enough alone.
 
He had some questions and he needed some answers.

 
 
 
 
"Alana, Mr. and Mrs. Rhodes," Justin smiled, "I bid you all a good night."

 
 
 
 
"Bye Justin," Alana waved back to Justin from her seat by John's bed.
 

 
 
 
 
"Be careful," Mr. Rhodes said, speaking for the first time since Justin had walked into the room.

 
 
 
 
"I will," he promised, heading for the door.
 
His mind was already switching gears, knowing that John would in fact, be alright now.
 
With that much weight off of his chest, it was time for him to turn his focus back on the girl that had started all this mess in the first place.
 
He wanted to know why in the hell she had this grudge against him to begin with.
 
To Justin's knowledge, he hadn't done a damn thing to her and personally, he didn't think that he warranted the treatment that she had been giving him.

 
 
 
 
Stepping out of the hospital, Justin quickly ate up the distance between the door and his car.
 
The more that he thought about it, the more he stewed.
 
Who did this chick think she was?
 
She was a newbie at their school to begin with and in her first hour, she made it very clear that she had a vendetta against him.
 
 
Me,
 
of all people, Justin Pinnix
.
 
Everyone loved Justin, everyone adored him.
 
If they didn't want to be him, then they wanted to at least know him.
 

 
 
 
 
But not Chloe.
 
Chloe was different.
 
She showed up with a major chip on her shoulder and a colossal amount of attitude.
 
Pulling out onto the freeway, Justin started heading towards her house.
 
He memorized her address when they stole her file from the office, so he knew exactly where he was going.
 
Why he was doing this, he hadn't the faintest of ideas.
 
There was just something about the girl that he couldn't quite let go of.
 
He had so many questions, not enough answers, and it was beginning to drive him crazy.

 
 
 
The way that Justin saw it, the time of reckoning had arrived.
 
He had some questions to be answered and only she had the answers.
 
It was high time to find out exactly what her issue was with him.  Then maybe they could call some sort of truce and put all of their differences behind them for good.
 

 
 
 
 
 
Afterwards, all he needed was her promise to stay away from John.
 
He's a nice guy, probably too nice and didn't deserve what happened to him.
 
He wasn't about to let
 
something else happen to him either.
 
He may have been lucky this time, but the next time he may not bode so well, and that's a chance that he was not willing to take.

 
 
 
 
Seeing the large black numbers on the mailbox,
 
2332,
 
Justin knew he had the right place.
 
Pulling into the driveway, he parked the car. Justin cut off the ignition and stared up at the house.
 
 
Opening the drivers' side door, he took a deep cleansing breath and stepped out of the car.
 
He wasn't too sure what type of welcome he would receive and honestly, at this point, he really didn't care.

 
 
 
 
Chloe had seemed genuinely sorry for her actions, so this conversation may be nothing more than a formality of sorts.
 
Confirmation of where the lines were drawn, preventing any more mishaps in the future.
 

 
 
 
 
She could walk her way, Justin would walk his and both of them should be able to easily survive until the end of the year.

 
 
 
 
Standing on the front stoop, Justin pressed the small button that lit up and took a step back when he heard the bell ringing.
 
The sound of a motorcycle whizzing by pulled his attention to the road.
 
He hadn't realized that someone had opened the door until he heard her speak, or more like bark.

 
 
 
 
"What the hell are you doing here?"
 

 
 
 
 
Startling, Justin spun around, his eyes settling on the girl standing in front of him.
 
Her piercing gaze stung him, causing him to flinch back in response.
 
He didn't know this girl from Adam so he was perplexed with her sudden animosity towards him.
 

 
 
 
The girl seemed familiar to him, even passably pretty, but she was no one that he knew on a personal level.
 
They all went to the same school and he had seen her around with Chloe but other than that, he didn't know this chick.
 
"Um," Justin stuttered feeling a little self conscious. This was not a reaction he was used to.
 
Feeling out of sorts, Justin shoved his hands in his pockets and just asked her, "Is Chloe here?"

 
 
 
Erica continued to stare down her nose at Justin, the corner of her lips curled up into something that mimicked a snarl.
 
Man, he thought Chloe was bad with her highfalutin’ attitude, but this girl took the cake.
 
Her stony silence started to get to him.
 
"Well is she?" he asked again, letting his impatience show.

 
 
 
 
"No!" She snapped.
 
And before he could say anything else, she stepped back inside the house, slamming the door hard in his face.

 
 
 
Justin stood there on the stoop, his mouth gaped open, staring at the closed door.
 
All he could do was ask himself,
 
What in the hell just happened here?
 
No one has ever had the balls to slam a door in his face.
 
Didn't she know who he was? Shaking his head in disbelief, Justin clenched his back teeth.
 
This was not going to go down like this, not after the week that he just had.

 
 
 
 
Lifting his fist, he was poised to knock on the door, refusing to be denied when it suddenly swung open, catching him by surprise yet again.
 
Justin had been two seconds from telling the girl that slammed the door in his face exactly what he thought about her high handedness, when he stopped himself short.
 

 
 
 
 
Dropping his hand back down to his side, Justin realized that it wasn't the same snooty girl standing there.
 
Instead, in her place stood the very girl that he came to see to begin with and she didn't look the least bit happy.
 
No, actually, if the expression on her face said anything, Chloe looked down right pissed and damn, didn't that just add to the heightening drama.

Chapter 17

     Chloe came to a stop on the bottom stair after hearing the front door slam with a bang.  Curious, she peered around the corner and noticed Erica standing there, looking at the floor and mumbling to herself.  She was waving her hand in the air, totally unaware that Chloe was watching her. 

     Chloe couldn’t help but to wonder what in the world her cousin was doing.  Her interests were now piqued and she hopped off the bottom stair before walking around the corner to confront her.  “Who was at the door?”

    Erica's head snapped up and Chloe didn’t miss the slight curl of her lip.  “A nobody,” she snorted and lifted her chin.  Before Chloe could say anything else, Erica started to push by her, mistakenly thinking that was the end of the conversation. 

    Not in this life time, Chloe thought darkly. She was going to get some answers.

    Before Erica could escape, Chloe lunged and grabbed her by the arm, bringing her to another stop.  “That doesn’t answer my question Erica.  Let’s try this again.  Who was at the door?”

    Erica let out an indignant huff and rolled her eyes.  “It was stupid and I’m not in the mood to deal with stupid today, okay.”  She jerked her arm out of Chloe's hold hand and stalked back up the stairs.  Chloe watched her until she disappeared, seriously contemplating throwing something at her.  Her continually changing bitchy attitude was about to get on her ever lasting nerve.

    Chloe didn’t have a clue as to who ’stupid’ might be so she took it upon herself to see who it really was.  Going over to the door, she pulled it open and when she realized who it was, she couldn’t stop the deepening scowl that formed on her face.  The person standing on the stoop wasn’t ‘stupid’ as Erica had called him, but it was someone that Chloe didn’t want to deal with right now.  “What do you want?” she finally asked, not bothering to hide the curtness in her voice.

    Justin stood at the bottom of the steps, and turned around when he heard Chloe speak.  His hands were shoved deep into his Letterman jacket and he offered her a shy smile.

     “Chloe,” he started, sounding a little surprised to see her.  “I didn’t think you were here.”

    She just stared back at him, feeling a little bit dumbfounded and a whole lot of confused.  First of all, she wanted to know why Justin Pennix was standing on her door step and secondly, she wanted to know why was he looking for her in the first place.  It's not like the two of them could stand each other.

    Holding on to the edge of the door, more to keep up her own balance than anything, Chloe  continued to stare at him.  She wasn’t really sure where to start or even what she should say.  The whole situation was just plain awkward. She started by clearing her throat, and then placed her hand on her chest, settling on the simplest response.  “As you can see, I’m here, so what’s it to you?”

    Okay, it wasn’t a classic answer but it was better than just staring at him.

    For a flicker of a second, she could have sworn that she saw a shadow pass through his eyes, but before she could make anything of it, he quickly averted his gaze.  He casually lifted his shoulders in a small shrug.  There was a subtle up and down movement in his chest where his lungs took in a large gulp of air and then he loudly exhaled.  “Is there…” he started and stopped, turning back around to face Chloe.  “Is there somewhere that we can talk?  Alone?”

    Her thoughts immediately went to Erica and as much as she didn’t like her mega bitch attitude right now, she had to keep in mind what this guy did to her to make her that way.  He was a player and a master at his game.  He seduces, he uses and he moves on.  Justin was not someone that she wanted to consort with and if it hadn’t been for John’s accident, she wouldn’t be standing here now, conversing with him.