Perfectly Messy (2 page)

“Can you please do that all the time?” I beg with a step forward.

“The kissing? Yes.”

“Well, that and the flexing.”

“For you? I suppose.” He bends down and scoops my bag up over his shoulder as we walk out toward his car.

“So, what’s the plan tonight?”

He hands me the purple flyer I’ve been avoiding for the last two weeks. I don’t even need to open it to know what it says.
October fourth, three-fifteen, girls’ basketball tryouts, south gym. Sign up online.

One week.

“I don’t know, Justin.”

“Just take it.” He places the purple sheet in my palm. “You get distracted every time you see this thing on a wall. Please, keep it. If anything, so I don’t have to steer you through the sea of students every morning.”

“Fine.” I groan, folding the flyer and slipping it into my back pocket. “Better?”

Justin admires my placement of the paper. “I don’t know. Why don’t you bend over a bit more so I can make a further
ass
essment?”

I yank out the flyer and swat him on the chest. “For real?”

“What? I can’t help it around you.” He clicks his key fob. The engine roars to life as he opens my door.

“So, we’re playing ball tonight?” I touch my phone’s screen. “I should probably let my parents know.”

“Nope. I’ve got something completely different planned.”

“Okay? What’s up your sleeve?”

“Don’t worry about it. I called your parents already, even stopped in to get everything you’ll need,” he says, gesturing toward the back seat as he shuts my door. Mom’s old garment bag hangs from a hook. My red pumps lie on the seat.

Oh my God. My stomach plummets. My room’s a mess. I haven’t picked up laundry in a week. There’s got to be underwear on my closet floor. And not just any underwear, period underwear, the cotton rejects that you don’t care if you destroy. Crap. What if he saw my period stains? My stained granny panties!

“You were in my room?” I squeak out as he slides into the driver’s seat. He doesn’t answer immediately. Holy hell. He totally saw my period stains! “Please, tell me you weren’t in my room.”

He shrugs.

“Justin. Seriously. I need to know.” I cover my mouth. This can’t be happening. One month of dating, no matter how comfortable I am with him, is way too early for this sort of exposure.

Justin takes my hand. “Relax, Lucy. Your mom went up there.” He rubs my arm. “The only time I’ve been in your room was the night Marissa cheated with Zach. Stupid guy to go for that. Even then,” he squeezes my palm, “I don’t remember anything except how pretty you looked, even crying.”

“That’s kind of pathetic.”

“Whatever. I took every glimpse of you I could get.”

I shift in my seat a bit, not yet knowing how to handle all of his compliments. They’re never ending and it’s hard to understand why. With another squeeze of my palm, he eases up on me. I love how he knows exactly what I’m thinking.

“So, where are we going?”

“My place.”

My heart jolts. I’ve never been in his house. We’ve driven by it, but his parents were never home and his dad’s staff uses his living room as campaign headquarters. In the last weeks, it’s gotten out of control. Thankfully, Justin’s post-secondary Psych class ends at one fifteen every other day, so he’s home helping out his dad way before the actual school day is over.

“Wait, so like, meeting your parents?”

“Not now. They’re out. Just you and me.”

Alone with Justin in his house? For real? This is his best surprise ever.

“So, I’ll get to see where you eat?”

“Eat, sleep, and shower,” he says as he pulls into his neighborhood development.

My face warms, but I don’t even try to get rid of the tomato shade. Instead I toss him a sideways glance. “Sleep and shower? What exactly do you have in mind, sir?”

Justin playfully shrugs as he pulls into his driveway. Butterflies
ping pong
through my gut. Making out on his bed would be heaven, but seeing his bed will be a new side of Justin. Way more intimate.

Justin pulls around the main garage to a small, non-attached two-car garage in back. The garage door raises and there sits his old rusty painting truck, tarp drawn over it. Dead.

“I can’t get rid of her yet. Still hoping I can get her fixed. Plus, she makes a great storage vehicle for the painting supplies.” I open my door before Justin can, stepping over random gallons of paint that are pushed flush with the walls. Varying sized ladders hang from nearly every wall or ceiling beam.

“Oh really?” I laugh when Justin accidentally knocks the end of a ladder as he squeezes out from the tight fit on his side of the car.

“Hush, you.” He vaults the hood of his car, sweeping me up in his arms with a kiss.

Suddenly, a towel hits us in the face. “Too much PDA, guys!” A head full of light brown hair pops up from inside the truck bed and I scream. I hate how easily I startle.

“Alex!” I squeal. “I’ve missed you!” Our school’s so massive that the few times I’ve crossed him in the hallway isn’t enough compared to the hundreds of hours we spent painting together last summer.

“Dude. Were you hiding in there waiting for us?” Justin tosses up his hands.

Alex tosses a paint roller at Justin. “No. I have a life.” He winks at me while he jumps out of the truck. “Lucy, how are you? I’ve missed you too.” After Justin puts me down, he wraps me in a perfect Alex-hug, the type that always brings a smile no matter how awkward the situation is.

“Why are you here, Alex?” Justin lays into him with an underlying tone that says
leave us alone.
I can’t help but giggle. It’s still amazing to me that Justin wants to be alone with me. Me!

“What? Can’t a guy just show up to haunt his favorite cousin’s garage? Especially on a day where that cousin is bringing home his girlfriend to an empty house. Feels like the perfect time to drop in.”

“Dude.” Justin eyes him while Alex tosses an arm over my shoulder and gives it a squeeze. I love watching them banter like brothers. They’re that type of cousins, real family rather than only a link by blood.

“All right. I get the hint.” Alex says with a laugh. He reaches over the truck bed and pulls out a brush and a can of primer. “I’m finishing up the front window trim on the rambler down the block, remember?”

“That’s right. It chipped in the last storm.”

“Do you also remember that you said you’d pay me double for doing it tonight?”

Justin’s eyes bulge. “Double?” Alex’s face is stone as he nods.

“Oh, Justin. That’s so sweet of you.” I nudge Alex. If Alex is serious, there’s a joke behind it. I’ll never forget that Alex was my first friend when I had to work for Justin’s painting business last summer. I may be dating Justin, but I’ll always stand by Alex in all Justin targeted pranks and jokes.

Justin steps toward Alex. “Double?” he asks again.

“Yup.”

“You sure I said double?”

“Absolutely.”

“All right then.” He pulls Alex in close and throws two stunt punches in his gut. Alex’s response correlates perfectly, crunching over in feigned agony.

“Thanks, boss,” Alex says in a moan.

“I aim to please.” Justin smirks. Alex reaches up, trying to grab Justin’s head and pull it into a headlock. Justin bows out though, slapping Alex on the back with a laugh.

“You around to play ball tomorrow?” Alex asks while they scuffle.

“Can’t. I’ve got two papers to write and a post fundraiser meeting with Dad.” Justin takes a fake punch to the face.

“Next week?”

“Text me, man. We’ll work something out.” Justin wraps his arm around Alex’s neck, catching him in headlock. He gives him a quick noogie before release. Alex rubs his head before taking a seat on the bumper of the truck. Justin grunts. “Maybe you should get going on that rambler’s trim before it rains.”

“I was actually thinking of staying. Did you know that acid rain is a real thing? It’s not worth the risk.”

Justin grabs a cart, tossing in the primer and paint brush. “One. Two…” Justin starts counting. “Three. Four.”

Alex stretches his arm overhead with a fake yawn. “Do you mind if I take a nap on your basement couch? I’m exhausted. I won’t be a bother. Promise.”

“Five. Six. Seven.”

“Or we could play Yahtzee?”

“Eight.” Justin’s voice is stern. “Nine.” He reaches for Alex as he says “TEN.”

Alex bolts from the bumper, grabbing the cart and running from the garage. “Bye Lucy!”

“Bye!” I wave as Alex jogs away. “Justin, what happens when you get to ten?”

He rubs his jaw, making my stomach flip in delight. “I don’t know. He’s never been brave enough to find out.”

“He’s a good kid.”

“Yeah. So far freshman year has been good to him. Hope it continues.”

“Me too,” I say quietly, trying to block the memories of my own bullied freshman year.

Justin wraps his arms around me, kissing my neck. “So?”

“So?”

“Want to see where I live?”

***

I run my finger over the smooth granite countertop as Justin grabs apples from the woven fruit basket sitting on the antique farm table. “It’s gorgeous here,” I say, admiring the rich dark wood of the kitchen.

“My mom loves interior design.”

“It’s like a magazine. Flawless.”

“Yeah, she’s kind of a clean freak. But,” he opens some cabinets along the wall, “she just knows how to hide the mess.” The cabinets are lined with cork, random papers pinned disorderly to the doors. Crumpled paper sticks out from the overfilled drawers. Much better.

“Now, this makes me feel more at home.”

He moves behind me, sweeping away my hair from my ear. “Good, I always want you to feel at home here,” he whispers, then nibbles my neck. Goosebumps run over my skin and my knees nearly give with the touch of his lips. He only stops kissing my neck and shoulders when the phone rings.

“Don’t move,” he says as he takes a step away to grab the phone, one hand still on my hip.

Me, move?
Never
. There’s no other place for me. As he scribbles something down on a Post-It, I check out the gray wooden-framed photos on the nearest wall. There’s one of Justin with his arm wrapped around the shoulder of a redhead with flawless skin, and Justin’s green eyes.

“That’s Tonya, my sister,” Justin says as he gets off the phone.

“She’s beautiful.”

“Ha. You tell her that immediately, and she’ll love you. Trust me.”

“I’d love to meet her someday.”

“Well, now that you mention it…” He nods to the garment bag and my shoes he put to rest on the table. “That’s kind of the surprise.”

“Meeting your sister?” That’d be cool. I could handle that, as long as Justin was there. Honestly, sometimes I think I can handle anything with Justin at my side.

“Actually,” he bites his lower lip. “Don’t hate me, but kind of my entire family.”

My stomach drops through the floor. He immediately steps closer, rubbing my lower back.

“Your parents and sister? Like, tonight?” I choke out.

He nods. “And Grandma…At a campaign fundraiser.”

“You’re kidding me, right?”

“No.”

I reach out for a chair. All in one night? Crap. What’s in the garment bag? I don’t have anything on earth that would fit this occasion. I grab it, unzipping it like a mad woman. A dress with a white lace overlay rests on the hanger, a Nordstrom’s tag still attached.

“Did you buy this?”

He pulls up the chair next to me and takes my hand. “Yes.”

I stare stupidly at the dress. What if it doesn’t fit? I have a hard enough time finding stuff that works on my body. He’s got to be kidding me. If I put this on and it doesn’t fit… What will I say to him?

“You okay?”

“Umm, this is a lot.” Too much. Too risky.

He takes the dress in his hands. “You’re right. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have sprung this on you. My goal was that you wouldn’t worry for days before meeting my family.” He takes out his cell. “Listen, I’ll call them and let them know I was an idiot and that we need to reschedule.”

Yes, reschedule. That way I can go buy a new dress that will fit, practice my greeting, and at least have clean hair. Definitely.

With my hand free from his, I slide the lace overlay of the dress between my fingertips. It’s so beautiful. I’m nuts. Yeah, it’s a majorly dumb move to buy a girl clothing and surprise her with meeting the family, but at least Justin’s trying. Hell, chick flicks are filled with that scene where the girl opens a beautiful box and her dream dress lies nestled in tissue paper. This is totally romantic. If the dress doesn’t fit, we’ll swing by my house, and I’ll wear one from the summer. If I’m dressed too casually, I’ll still survive.

“Don’t cancel.” I reach out and take his phone. “This is amazing. I just needed time to wrap my mind around it.” I squeeze his palm. “I want to meet your family, and the dress… It’s gorgeous.”

“Really? You like it?”

“I love it. But, I can’t guarantee it’ll fit me.”

“Well, let’s find out,” he says as he pulls me up from the chair. His palm rests again on the small of my back as he leads me through the hall to the basement door. “My room’s down here.”

My fingertips tingle. His room? Okay, it’s just where he sleeps. No big deal… Except it is.
Huge.

We pass through a sitting area with a large flat-screen TV and sectional couches, surrounded by blurred French doors. He opens one set, letting me step into his room alone. “I’ll wait out here while you change.”

I nod like an idiot as he closes the door behind me.

Holy crap. I finally take a deep breath, welcomed with the fresh scent that normally clings to Justin’s clothes. A queen-sized bed, made up with a hunter-green comforter, is positioned under the window. I scan the walls for posters of hot naked girls. None. Okay, good. His hamper is slightly overfilled in the corner of the room and random pens and notepads clutter the top of his dresser. I pick up a five-by-seven photo of Justin as a little boy with his brother and sister cooking s’mores around a campfire. His brother’s hair is gone, probably halfway through his leukemia battle. Tonya and Jackson’s arms are wrapped around Justin. He’s beaming.