Call Me A Liar [Book 1] (Justin Bieber Love Story / Fan Fiction)

19

Justin doesn't come after me once I've left his apartment. Not that I really expect him to. In his defense, he can't without raising the eyebrows of Birdie or RJ, who I now understand somehow caught wind of our short-lived romance.

But he does call me late that night when I'm laying in my bed, my bedside table lamp dimly lighting my room with soft yellow. I'm flipping through a pamphlet my mom gave me for Notre Dame's on-campus-living program. Though I'm not sure I want to talk to Justin in this moment, I know for sure I'd rather talk to him than feed into my parents' fantasy of me being a successful college student.

So, I answer.

"Hey." I roll over onto my back, my head resting into the softness of my comforter.

"Hi." His voice sounds nice on the phone. It's soft like it is in person, but this is a little different.

"I just wanted to make sure you were okay," he immediately says. I imagine him on the couch with his head in his hands.

I'm not. "Why wouldn't I be?"

My shortness with him isn't entirely intentional. I'm actually trying really hard to play it cool and be nice, but I'm so overwhelmed with disappointment that it's saturating my every being no matter how hard I try to hide it.

He sighs. "You left pretty quickly and um, I don't know. I think I came off kind of harsh."

I can't help myself from softly laughing. He came off as everything but harsh. "You didn't."

"I didn't want to hurt your feelings. I really like you, Jane," he admits.

Regardless of the tone of this conversation, this makes me feel warm. For a moment, I pretend he didn't essentially reject me just a few hours ago. I pretend that things are easy and simple like they were before, and we're just two people who like each other. It's natural and effortless. It's something I never had the luxury of having before.

"You like me so much that you had to put and end to this?" I try to joke to ease my mind, but realize that it may not come off the way it's intended.

He only sighs on the other end of the line, and I realize he's trying to come up with something to convince both of us that this is okay. That we can bury our feelings and act as if nothing ever happened. That we can go on with our lives knowing that there's intense, physical chemistry between us that likely neither of us have ever shared with anyone else.

But he stays quiet.

"Did RJ convince you to call it quits?" I offer, throwing the stupid pamphlet on the floor.

"How'd you know?" he asks defeatedly.

"I saw him lecturing you after I came in today," I explain. "I figured it had to do with us."

Us. Though short lived and I'm unsure of what it exactly entails, I love the sound of him and I. It's so tempting to know what it could be because I've never experienced someone like him. I've never experienced feelings the way I do for him.

Besides, I'm not confident we'll make it as friends for very long.

"After Saturday, he kind of assumed something was going on," he sounds tired.

I'm sure he's had a long, physically-tolling day from practice. I wish I could take care of him and make him feel better, however he needs it.

"Then again, I think it's pretty obvious we like each other. You don't have to be all that intelligent to figure it out," he tries to laugh it off, but I can tell it upsets him.

I swallow hard. "What did he say, exactly?"

"Pretty much what I said to you, only a lot harsher," he stifles another laugh. "He said I'd be a fucking idiot to get involved with a girl like you."