I've Broken Bones For You

Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Justin opens the door, raising an eyebrow. I haven't spoken to him in so long. I sort of cut myself off from everyone and everything, which meant I didn't say a word to Justin, who has no idea what happened.

You might think that talking to Justin is easy. But Justin isn't that serious of a guy. I mean, he can have serious moments but we've never had serious conversations. I'm not just here to explain myself though. I'm here to see a friend.

For a second, Justin stands there, looking me over. I wonder if he's pissed at me. That's a possibility. Instead though, Justin grins and all my worry melts away.

"Man, I thought you were dead." He announces. I try not to cringe. If more time has passed, I don't think I would have survived. The drinking, the everything. I would have died somehow, someway.

"Nope, I'm still alive." I say, returning his smile. Justin steps aside to let me in, and I gratefully do. It's raining.

I follow him through the small mudroom and into the living room, where a paused video game is waiting. Justin flops onto the couch and I sit down too.

I don't feel uncomfortable here. I have this feeling, a nice feeling, of belonging. In a sense. I just feel like I can hang out with no worries at all and just be.

"So how've you been?" Justin tosses the Xbox controller in the air and catches it, repeating the process. This is the big question. I was nervous about telling Justin because I don't know how he will react. And yet, now that I'm sitting here, I'm finding it really easy.

"Well, my dad kicked me out of his house." I say bluntly.

"That's a dick move." Justin replies.

"I was homeless for a bit." I just keep going, telling him what happened as simple as possible.

"Seriously? Damn, that sucks. I would hate to be homeless."

"I know, it really did suck." I pause before I continue, "I went to a lot of parties and got drunk. I was... Depressed."

"You were depressed?" Justin looks over at me.

"Yeah."

"Are you still depressed?"

"Maybe."

"Maybe?"

"Yeah, maybe."

"Okay."

And this is why I like Justin. You can tell him these things and he'll accept them as how they are. He doesn't judge you, doesn't try to get you to talk too much about it. That's why I probably found it easy to tell him. Justin just knows that it's a tough thing to talk about, and talking about it over and over again is even worse.

"What about your ex-boyfriend?" Justin asks.

"We're good. He's not my ex anymore... I think." I'm not one hundred percent sure if we are dating or not. It was unsaid and I know we're acting like a couple again, but it's hard to say. Are we dating? If I think about it, it seems like we are.

"You think he's not your ex?" Justin does not look convinced. I shrug.

"I don't know. I'm pretty sure we're back together again. It's hard for me to tell."

Justin frowns and then shrugs, "Well, just let it sit." He un-pauses the video game and starts playing right where it left off, and then kicks a controller over to me, "Wanna play?"

"Why not?"

***

After I hang out with Justin for a few hours, I check my phone. Two missed calls from Vic and one text from Matty. I turned off my phone and now they're panicking. Well, Vic might be, I'm not too sure about Matty.