WHITE LIAR

Chapter 18

Chapter 18

All Justin could do was stand there and stare dumbly at the door.  What in the hell just happened?  One minute they were talking, on the verge of calling a truce between each other and then the next, Chloe stood up, jumped down his throat and slammed the door in his face.  Talk about split personalities.

No one had ever slammed the door on Justin before so he wasn't sure exactly what to do.   No one other than Chloe had ever dared to jump down his throat like that either.  What was it about this girl that got to him so much?  It wasn’t necessarily her looks that got to him anymore, it’s not that fine body of hers or those bedroom sexy eyes, it was the girl herself he realized.  It was Chloe, the individual, and somehow she has found a way to burrow her way deep under his skin.  Now, the problem that he was having was that he couldn't seem to get her out.

Heading back up the steps, Justin was ready and more than willing to do battle with her.  He was anxious to start round two and if nothing else, just to scratch this itch that she had given him.  Lifting his hand, he was seconds from banging his fists against the door when an unexpected sound hit him.

She was crying.  And it wasn’t small muffled cries; it was torrential sobs- the type of crying that a woman does when she’s been deeply hurt.

Damn.  Dropping his hand back down to his side, Justin stared at the wooden door.  What was going on?  Why did we always end up like this? You would think that after everything that has happened, they would be able to handle one simple-minded conversation.

But maybe that was the problem.  There was nothing about Chloe or him that was simple.   They were both as convoluted as convolution could get.

Spinning around, he started back for the car.  It was getting late.  He still had homework, he still needed to put the proposal together for his senior project and after the day Justin had,  he really could use a late night run to clear his head.

Chloe was just an issue that he would have to get back to later, and it was an issue that he definitely planned to re-visit.  She was in his head now and there was no getting her out any time soon.  Besides, there was something in her eyes that had caught his attention; something sad, a plea maybe.  But what was it that made her so sad?  That’s what he wanted to know.

She was indeed a puzzle.  A puzzle that Justin planned to figure out, piece by painstaking piece.  She could run, she could hide, but in the end there really was nowhere else that she could go.  And when she realized that, he would be there, he told himself as he opened his car door.

Looking up, Justin glanced back up at her house one last time.  His eyes were focused on the door when a slight movement caught his attention upstairs.  Lifting his gaze, he saw that girl again, watching him from the windows.  When she noticed that he saw her, the curtain fell back in place, shielding her from his view.  There was something familiar about the girl, but he couldn’t quite place it. Of course, he'd seen her around school, but there was something more, something he couldn’t quite put his finger on.

Sighing, he shook his head and slid into the car.  He would give Chloe tonight.  She could close the door on him and try to shut him out, but tomorrow would be a new day.  It wouldn’t be so easy to close him out at school.  Chloe may not know it yet, but she needed him.  He saw that today, and come tomorrow, he would make sure that she saw it too.

**********

“Justin!”  Hearing his name, Justin shut his locker and turned around to see Cathy in her usual tight jeans and form fitting shirt coming towards him.  It was hard not to smile back at her.  A woman like that, with a body worth worshiping, would bring a smile to any hot red blooded males face.