hapter 25

"Hey… Where are you guys?" I asked Hollie over the phone. I had just found a parking spot outside this pool hall. I was sitting inside my car with the air conditioner blasting, not wanting to walk into the pool hall alone if no one was there.

"Yeah, we're all inside sweetie. We're towards the back."

"Alright, I'll be right in." I hung up the phone and got out of the car. I made sure to beep my car shut and stuffed my keys into my Coach bag.

I headed inside the semi-crowded pool hall and saw my friends in the back. We had made plans for the Fourth of July weekend to hang out and play pool. It was great because I adored my friends and missed hanging out with them.

And Justin… well…we were seeing each other. But it was on the sneak. Ricky knew about it, but that was it. I couldn't bear to tell Hope or Savannah, I just thought they would be so disappointed in me.

But I had to say, I was really happy. He just seemed to bring a smile to my face with just a thought of him, or the sight of him or just by the sound of his voice. I knew I did love him; I just wasn't ready to let him know that.

**

It was a few days earlier; Justin and I had gone to the beach at night to talk and just be together. We were lying down on a blanket, just staring up at the stars. Everything was just so perfect.

"If you could change one thing about your life, what would it be?" I asked Justin out of the blue. A lot of people say I'm a really random person that I just say things that are just so whacked out, but sometimes it's good to do that. You get to know a person.

"What do you mean?"

"If you could change something about yourself or about the way something around you is? What would it be?"

"My Mom and sister would still be alive. I would have never kidnapped you, but I would have still gone after you." He replied, I half smiled.

"So I still would have been stalked?"

"Yep." Justin laughed, I leaned over and bit his arm lightly. "Ow! Hey! Mean."

"I'm so not mean." I pouted and laid my head back down. "But if I could change something…I would change how stubborn I am, and I'd of been born rich."

"Nice." Justin shook his head and smirked.

"But I mean the one thing I want that I can't change, is that I wish my Abuela would still be alive. I mean I know it was her time to go, because she was old and she was suffering, but I miss her. I think back and I can't believe she's been gone for only 5 years. It feels like so much longer."

"I know how you feel. Some days it feels like so much longer than 15 years that my Mother and sister died. Other days I can still picture my sister playing with her dolls and I can still see my Mom smiling at me, and telling me to protect my sister when we'd go play outside." He stared off for a moment, with this look in his eye and smile on his face. Justin's eyes started to tear up and he quickly wipes the tears away.

"Why does life have to be hard?"

"Because if it wasn't then we wouldn't learn anything, and we wouldn't experience anything. With pain comes knowledge and strength and compassion for others. It makes you truly human."

"When did you become the philosopher?" I giggled and poked Justin in the side.

"When you go through a lot of hardships you have to look on the bright side." Justin explained and pulled me closer to him. His strong arms were wrapped around me and I just felt so safe. "When I met you, I finally reached the bright side. Instead of always gazing at it from afar, I finally was able to get there."

"That was cute." I replied, placing a small kiss on his lips. "A little corny, but cute."

"Awww come on. I'm no poet but I tried with that one."

"It was corny. I'm sorry."

"Whatever! Bitch."

"I am SO not a bitch!" I replied and pouted at him.

"You know I was kidding baby…" He leaned over and kissed me softly, and goddamn, I melted. I was like putty in his hands.

**

"What's up guys?" I asked with a smile as I walked over to my friends. They were already playing a game of pool, so I just walked over and kissed everyone hello and sat down on a stool to watch them.

"Nothin, me and Tim are kicking Kayla and Mitch's asses!" Hollie exclaimed with a giggle. She grabbed her boyfriend's ass and placed a kiss on his lips.

"Please! We can still catch up!" Mitch replied and crossed his arms.

Mitch was always like that. He always had to win and he always had to be right.  He annoyed the shit out of me sometimes; we had a brother sister relationship.

"Man, just admit it, you fucking suck!" Tim laughed and made his shot, getting the solid red ball into the corner pocket. He was really hot and I had always had a slight crush on him, too bad he belonged to Hollie.

"Nice!" I stated with a laugh. "I'm sorry but my money's on Hollie and Tim."

"Just shut up Natalia. You bitch." Mitch joked; I stuck my middle finger up at him and grinned.

"So anyway, where's your mysterious boyfriend?" Kayla questioned and took her shot. She missed and huffed loudly.

"He'll be here soon. He just had some work to do." I said, shuffling through my bag and pulling out my pack of Orbit.

I popped a piece of the Orbit gum in my mouth and I swear to God, I felt like the commercial. It really does make you feel clean!

"Goddamn is that guy like always working?!" Hollie said, kidding around.

"Oh fuck you."

We continued playing pool. I suck so badly so I just watched. I attempted to play but I got massacred. I've always been terrible at pool.

**

About an hour later, Hollie, Kayla and I sat on a bunch of stools and watched Mitch and Tim play 9 ball. They were both pretty good so it was turning out to be a close game.

"Come on baby! Make the shot!" Kayla exclaimed, I giggled, mostly because I could see her becoming a soccer mom.

Mitch missed the shot and almost threw his pool stick across the room.

"Jesus! Look at that guy… he's gorgeous." Hollie whispered to us. I was looking down at my cell phone, checking a text message from Ricky. I died laughing when I read the message, "I GOT LUCKY!"

"Oh my God…" Kayla squealed. "He really is."

"And his body… it's just…"

"UHN!" My two friends exclaimed at the same time. I looked up at them quickly and snickered.

"You guys are insane!" I shook my head at my psychotic friends and flipped my cell phone shut. "Who's hot?"

"Him… the guy in the dark gray shirt and jeans." Hollie answered, I looked straight ahead and met Justin's gaze.

"He's not bad." I said, grinning at him.
“Not that bad? Woman are you blind?! He’s so fucking hot!” Kayla practically screamed.

Justin walked right up to me and kissed me softly. I heard my friends gasp and I wanted to laugh. We pulled away from the kiss and smiled at each other.

"Hey baby girl."

"Hi J. I missed you." I turned and looked at my friends. "Everyone this is Justin… Justin, this is Kayla, Hollie, Mitch and Tim." I pointed to every one of them and they waved. But the looks on Kayla and Hollie's faces were priceless.

"Nice to meet you." Mitch shook his hand and then Tim did the same.

My arms were wrapped around Justin's neck and I refused to let go of him. He smelled so good and he felt so good, it was like pure perfection. 

"You too." Justin answered. He sat down on the stool and I quickly made my way on his lap. "Who's winning?"

"Mitch is but that won't be for much longer." Tim said and took a shot. He got it in and jumped up. "Fuck yeah! I'm catching up bitch!"

"You play pool baby?" I smiled; Justin shook his head and laughed.

"Eh… yeah I'm alright. Tommy always kicks my ass in it."

"He probably rigs it. That bastard."

Justin just laughed at my logic and shook his head. His arms were wrapped tightly around my waist and I just felt so safe right there. Yeah, it was a seedy pool hall but it didn't matter. I was with him.

"Do you guys wanna go after this game?" Kayla asked Justin and I. I just nodded.

"Yeah that's cool… what do you guys wanna do?"

"I figured we could go back to my house. My parents are out and we have the pool and the hot tub. We could get the gang together again. It'll be fun." Hollie stated. I just nodded.

What she meant by "the gang" was the tiny group we'd hang out with in high school which consisted of me, Ricky, Hollie, Kayla, Mitch, Tim, and these other people that I was cool with but didn't really know all that well. There was also my ex, Dylan, but I doubted they'd bring him along.

"Sure. Sounds good."

"Annnd…. I WIN!" Tim yelled as he got the last ball into the left corner pocket as he stated. He jumped up and laughed. "I kicked your ass you pussy."

"Fuck you. I'll beat you next time." Mitch replied, laughing.

And we with that we were off to Hollie's house. God damn, I was in for a night of surprises.