Chapter 5

We still sat on the couch, my legs crisscrossed with my mug wrapped in my hands meeting somewhere in the middle. Justin sat up straight with his right arm wrapped around me in a comforting manner.

"I can't believe I walked out on her last night," I finished. "She's just always been so threatening, and I'm almost scared for myself."

"Don't be." He whispered. "She can't do much."

I took a deep breath and shook my head. We stayed seated with the dim fireplace before us.

"I never wanted you to think I was mad at you." He whispered finally.

"I know." I looked at my lap. "I didn't want you to think I was mad either."

"What about Jake?" He looked at me now. "Who killed him?"

The question hit me deep. "I don't know," I whispered.

He nodded. "I'm sorry."

I just slowly nodded, not wanting to think about it too much.

"So," I said, wanting to get the topic off of myself. "What about you? Have you ever had a girlfriend?"

He glanced at me briefly. "Uh, yeah."

"Oh," I said. I didn't want him to feel like he had to tell me things just because I did. I know what it's like to be pressured into talking about certain stuff and I didn't want him to feel that way. "You don't have to talk about it. I get it."

He took a deep breath. "Nah, it's alright. It was just hard, ya know?"

"The breakup?"

"Yeah. I guess it's never easy though." He twiddled his thumbs.

I nodded.

"I really thought I was going to marry her." He laid his head back on the couch.

I felt a pang in my heart. "I'm sorry," I whispered. "What happened?"

"She just wasn't feeling it I guess." He shrugged.

"That's too bad. I'm sorry," I said, wanting him to know I meant it.

"Me too," he said quietly.

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I woke up to the sound of birds chirping. Sitting straight up, I almost had a panic attack when I realized where I was.

I looked to the left and saw a sleeping Justin next to me. We were still on the couch from last night.

"Shit," I muttered and stood up, trying to find my jacket.

I obviously wasn't very quiet however, because Justin woke up.

"What are you doing?" He rubbed his eyes.

"I need to go," I hurried to find my shoes. "Shit! It's the Friday sale!" I jumped around the room trying to get my left shoe on. "No no no no no," I whined.

"Where are you going?" He stood and stretched now.

"The shop. Shit shit shit," I hissed.

"What's the big deal?" He walked over to me now.

"No one can know about this!" I spun around. "Please."

"Can you just tell me what the hell is going on?" He tried to catch my attention.

"This is a small town, Justin. If people find out I spent the night here, my reputation is ruined. Okay? Please keep this to yourself. I didn't mean to fall asleep-"

"Hey," he grabbed my wrists, silencing me. "It's okay," he laughed a little.

I exhaled. "Thank you."

He nodded, smiling a little. "Now go to work."

"God what time is it?" I hurried towards the door.

"8:48," he sighed.

"Oh my god. I have to go."

"Bye," he said as I shut the door.

I ran as fast as I could towards the shop. My house was just down the block from the shop, but I would end up running right past it.

I'm in the same clothes as last night.

I dashed towards my house and threw on a sweatshirt with jeans. I didn't have time to decide what to wear.

Back to running again, I ran through the back door and tossed my purse to the side. I adjusted my name tag and scurried out front.

"Jess! Where have you been!" Morgan ran her fingers through her hair and marched over to me. "We open in 4 minutes, not to mention it's the busiest day of the year!"

"I'm sorry," I said, out of breath. "I slept in." I went crazy opening boxes and folding things as fast as possible.

"Well Jamie's sick, Amber's out of town, Brooklyn can't be here until 2:30, and Kelsey's not answering her phone." She rolled her eyes.

"You know, you don't have to be in charge of all that. It's kinda my job." I trailed off.

"A job that you obviously don't know how to manage."

"Excuse me?" I stood.

"Our first customer!" She ran for the door.

I stood there, fuming.

Our first customer turned out to be a wave of people. They came rushing in, asking questions and hurrying before more people came.

I went crazy trying to ring things up for people, going as fast as I could. Morgan on the other hand, was greeting people as they walked in.

"Morgan," I called over a group of people.

"What?" She yelled back.

"Can I please get some help at the register?" I frantically put the purchased items in a bag, and told the woman to have a nice day.

Morgan stomped over and tore open a box. She was probably more pissed than I was.

"Are you okay?" I asked in between customers.

"Yep," she huffed, hurrying to put more things on the display tables.

Since our store was a girly store, the crowd we had was mainly teenage girls. Rude, impolite, teenage girls.

It was about 2:15 now and the crowd hadn't lightened up one bit. I was almost sweating from how hard I was working.

"Hey," someone gave me a side hug.

I spun around to find Brooklyn.

"Thank god you're here," I wiped my forehead. "She's going nuts." I referred to Morgan.

"Seriously?" She put on her name tag.

"Seriously." I smiled at the next girl in line and added up her total.

"Hi!" Brooklyn jumped right in. "I couldn't help but notice, purple would definitely be your color. Let me find you something."

That's why I loved her. She knew how to do her job. And didn't complain one bit.

She was gorgeous too. She had straight, blonde hair that went down her back, with light blue eyes. She was tan, and had the perfect smile. I watched as she smiled at everyone she ran into, and helped them with what they needed.

It's kind of crazy how out of all of us, this is my store, my responsibility, and I'm completely in charge. Really, I could fire any one of these girls no problem. Not that I've considered it.

"Jess," Brooklyn called. "Do you have more hangers?"

"Yeah," I called back. "Last room on the right."

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I started walking home at about 10:30. My legs hurt from how much running around I had to do today. I reached my front door, stepped in, and dropped my purse on the floor. Finding my way through the darkness, I found the couch and laid down.

Not even two seconds later, the doorbell rang. I groaned and forced myself to my feet.

"Aye," Justin said when I opened the door. "You look like death."

"I'm tired," I glared at him and walked back inside, him following behind me.

"Well I brought you something," he said smiling.

Even though I was tired, this woke me up.

"What is it?" I said as I started the fireplace.

He made his way over to me, sitting down on the ground in front of the fireplace. He slowly reached over, and I heard him unlatching something. We were both sitting side by side in front of the fire. I looked over to find him slowly pull out a guitar.

"Oh my god," I slapped my hand to my forehead laughing.

"I keep my promises," he said smiling.

I suddenly became nervous considering I've never even picked up a guitar. He'll probably think I'm stupid.

He looked at me for a second, making my stomach flop.

"Why don't you play something first," I said. "Just to, ya know, give me a general idea." I batted my eyelashes playfully.

He laughed. "Alright," he sighed contently.

I folded my hands in my lap and watched him as he slowly put his hands in place.

He started strumming, and as if it didn't sound amazing already, he started singing shortly after.

I stared wide eyed, I was not expecting this.

My heart was pounding, it got more and more intense as the seconds ticked by.

He sang the song "All of me" by John Legend. It was sort of a love song, which made my stomach do flip flops.

The song went on for quite some time. It was almost as if I didn't want it to end.

"I give you all, all, all, all, of me," he sang.

I smiled widely.

"And you give me all, all, all, all, of you, oh," he finished.

We both sat there for a second, not knowing what to say. I opened my mouth to say something, but shut it shortly after. I was speechless.

"That was amazing," I breathed out. "Honestly, I can't believe I didn't know about this sooner."

"Thanks," he muttered, obviously embarrassed.

"Seriously, you shouldn't be shy," I ran my fingers through my hair.

He nodded a little. "Well, your turn."

My eyes got a little wide. "I know I said I wanted to learn, but I'm not so sure-"

"You'll be fine," he reassured me. "Like you said, there's no need to be shy." He gave me a half smile and handed the guitar to me.

I gently laid it in my lap, not wanting to damage it in any way.

"Okay," he began. "First, you'll want to lay your right arm over this part right here," he guided my arm with his.

He slowly scooted over so now he was behind me. He wrapped his arms around me, and put my hands where they were supposed to be.

"Just like that," he whispered.

My palms were sweaty, I felt like I couldn't breath. He grabbed my left hand.

"When you play this chord, put your fingers like this," he put my fingers in the correct place. "And when you strum, make sure to press down really hard on your left hand. Okay?"

I nodded, not being able to speak. I pressed down as hard as I could, and let my fingers skim the strings. To my surprise, the chord sounded clean and pretty.

"Perfect," he smiled.

Every time he spoke I could feel his hot breath on my neck. It was driving me crazy.

He taught me two more chords, then I couldn't take it anymore.

"Thanks for teaching me," I spoke softly.

He paused for a second. "You're welcome."

We both sat there, staring at each other for what felt like eternity.

"You should sleep," he said finally. "You've had a long day."

"Yeah," I said. "Thanks."

He smiled and packed up his guitar. I stood to my feet and yawned a little.

"I'll see you tomorrow?" He picked up the guitar.

I smiled and nodded. He smiled back, and headed for the door.

"I'll see you then," he said softly before shutting the door.

I smiled to myself. Why was I so quiet tonight? It's like I was nervous.

I smiled widely and made my way upstairs. Tonight was perfect.

I couldn't stop smiling even as I went to sleep. It was crazy how he made me feel. Yet, he probably doesn't see it that way.

Maybe, I thought as I fell asleep.

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NOTE:

omg. i loved this chapter, i hope you did too! sorry this was kinda a short chapter, i just thought that was a good way to end it. i have so much more planned. so excited to share it with you guys.

twitter: @avonsshawtyy