Everything with you

Part 9

Justin

I left with a smile after sending Emma a text and watching her walk into her dorm. It soon disappeared when I remembered the look on Emma's face before she gave me her number. I had meant what I said earlier—that I wouldn't let anything like that happen again. I would make sure of it. I returned to Nate's to find that the party was still going on in full swing. I could see a couple of girls trying to talk to Ash, who was standing near the bar with a neutral expression on his face. I headed over to him and told him that I was leaving. I had enough of the party already, and I had an early morning tomorrow. I couldn't afford to be late to practice again. I have always been punctual. Nate and Ash, however, always show up late, and they get the extra rounds of warm-up too, not that they have any problems doing that. As I headed over the exit, I could feel Henry's eyes on me. I keep my eyes forward and head towards the door.

When I reached home, it was already past midnight. I tried my best not to wake up Jo and Ma, but I found Ma busy in the kitchen.

"Hey, ma.. What are you doing staying up so late?"

"Oh, why are you coming in so late? It's almost midnight!" she responds, startled.

"It's way past midnight, ma," I responded, inspecting what she was doing.

She swats my hand away, saying, " I'm baking cupcakes for your sister's school tomorrow. I forgot about it until about an hour ago."

"You didn't have to do that. She could have just told her teacher that she couldn't bring the cup cakes this time."

"No, I don't want her to miss out on these things," she says, entirely focused on frosting the damn cupcakes.

I could sense that she was not just talking about the cupcakes.

"You know everything's going to be fine, ma," I say gently. She lets out a deep breath and leans against the counter, still looking at the counter.

"My insurance will not cover all the chemo treatments , the current treatment costs are putting us in debt already. I think maybe we should stop everything."

My heart falls. "No, I won't let you give up, ma.. I'll find a job.". I can do something to help us out," I blabber. My mom just gives me a sad look, which breaks my heart.

"No, Justin.. I can't let you do that. You have enough on your plate as it is with your school and football. Let me see if I can squeeze in a few extra shifts at the office."

"No. I mean't what I said, I will look for a part-time job tomorrow, and you will not take up any extra shifts. You are already tired most of the time," I respond quickly. I know she will not agree, but I have to try my best.

She sighs in defeat, "It's getting late. Head up to your room; let's talk about this tomorrow. I'm done with the cupcakes.".

I nod in response and walk up to my room. Once behind my room's door, I grunted in frustration. It's days like this that make me think about my father. If he hadn't left us, my mom wouldn't have had to work so hard to bring us up. Although I am grateful that I got a full scholarship to UCLA, it doesn't mean that we had a lot of money. I needed to get a job quick and start helping my mom, but I had no idea how I would manage my school, soccer, and job. I couldn't risk slacking on the field because my scholarship was based on my athletic abilities.

A small chime brought me back from my thoughts as I received a text message. I smiled on seeing who it was from.

:)"Hey Justin! , Let's hope next time goes better than the last :). Good night!".

I quickly replied,

"I promise, it will be. Good night, Emma." I set my alarm for the following morning and tried to sleep, but it was always hard for me to sleep with so much going on in my mind. 

Emma

After my shower, I reach my room and find that Haley is on her bed, looking at her phone; she is in her slacks. She looks at me and says, "Hey Emma! Where have you been?".

"I went to a party with a friend," I say, sitting on my bed.

"Ooh, a party that is great! Nate had thrown a party today. Did you go to that one?" she asks, eyeing me curiously.

"Yes. My friend Joel took me.".

"Okay... I wanted to go too, but Nolan cancelled at the last minute," she says, frowning. Her small face looks like a puppy when she does that.

"That's too bad; you could have come with us.".

"Well, next time I will!" she says, smiling back at me.

"Umm... Is Nolan the one who stayed over earlier?" I ask a little uncomfortably.

"Shit! Yes, I totally forgot to ask you first about it. I'm sorry, Emma; it was just that my previous roommate didn't have any problems, so I kind of forgot," she replied, wincing.

"It's not a problem; I was just a little surprised," I say, smiling.

"Sorry Emma I didn't mean to scare you. I like you as a roommate. Please don't change rooms," she pleads.

"I'm not changing rooms. I'm fine with it really," I say with a reassuring smile.

"So... did you meet any guys at the party?" she asks me curiously, trying to change the subject.

"You could say that," I say, thinking back on everything that happened tonight. I do not want to share all the details of my embarrassment.

"Really? That's great, Emma. Which year is he in? Does he go to our school?"

"Umm... He does go to our school. I didn't really ask him anything more than that," I say, frowning. I never got a chance to ask many questions.

"Okay. What's his name? How did he lookk?" she asked me excitedly.

"His name is Justin; honestly, that's all I know." I give her a weak smile.

"Wait a minute! Was it Justin Shepard?" She asks me with a shocked expression.

"I didn't ask his last name either," I say.

Haley takes her phone and starts tapping away. "Yes! I found him," she squeals in excitement and practically jumps near me, showing me her phone. I see the screen, and it's a picture of Justin.

"Yes. That's him!" I say, curious to see that he has a lot of likes for his pictures.

"Shit! Emma, do you even know who he is? I just shake my head and am honestly a little scared now.

"He is the captain of the soccer team! And he is so damn hot!" she screamed excitedly. She scrolls down and shows me another picture of him and the girl from the party earlier. In the picture, the girl has her hand around Justin's neck, and both are smiling into the camera. They both look really good together.

"This is Anna. She is the captain of the cheer squad. Justin and Anna were dating for about a year. I heard they officially broke up last month; she was apparently cheating on him a lot, and he fought with that guy and got thrown out of a window."

I am at a loss for words. That's why he was hurt the last time I met him. Haley looks at me and my shocked expression and quickly starts speaking again.

"Please be careful, okay? Justin is known for his reputation, you know, and Anna can hold a grudge," she says, looking concerned.

I was just giving a blank look, still not able to comprehend all the information I was given in a span of two minutes. Haley was absolutely right; Anna did hold a grudge, and I was on the receiving end today.

"Okay. I will," I say, giving her a small smile.

"On the upside, he is crazy hot! You can have a lot of fun!" she says excitedly again.

I laugh a little and lay down on my bed. This was not good. I don't do well with being the center of attention, and it seems like Justin was the topic of interest at this school. Maybe I cannot text him back and he won't try to talk to me again. I decide against it and reply to his text. It takes me a long time to go to sleep that night, thinking of all the things that could go wrong with this.