"Here we are, JJ. Home sweet home," Toby said as he pulled up in front of Justine's apartment building. He jumped out of the car and opened her door for her, grabbing her case from the back seat. "I'll walk you up," He said, locking the car and slipping his hand into hers. As they reached her apartment, she leaned against the wall next to the door, starting to unlock it.
"Will you come in?" She asked, fiddling nervously with the keys in her hands.
"I can't," Toby sighed, shaking his head. "I've not been home in three days. I have a lot of stuff to sort out," He coughed. "I kinda just... Up and left... I didn't pack a suitcase or anything. I don't even remember if I locked the door,"
"Why not?" She frowned.
"I was in such a hurry to leave," He replied, a faint blush colouring his cheeks. "All I could think was that I had to get to your house and see you to tell you how I felt. I wasn't really thinking straight,"
She smiled at him, wrapping her arms around his neck.
"Well, it looks like it worked out for the best, didn't it?" She breathed, kissing him deeply. He leaned in and kissed her again, his arms grasping her waist. He pulled back and sighed, staring her right in the eye.
"Well, I guess one more night away from home couldn't hurt," He grinned, pulling her inside and dropping her bag at the door. The door slammed loudly behind them, but it went unnoticed, so distracted by each other as they were. Toby picked her up and carried her through to the living room. Their lips touched again and again as they lay on the couch, legs entwined and hearts racing.
All of a sudden, Toby's phone rang. He groaned and sat up, pulling it out of his pocket and looking at the caller ID. He groaned once more and put the phone to his ear.
"What?" He answered, annoyed. "No, I'm busy," He glanced at Justine. "No, I can't right now, Sean. Maybe tomorrow. Listen, I have to go. Bye," He hung up the phone and switched it off, throwing it on the coffee table. He turned back to Justine, but the moment was gone, so they instead lay back on the couch, her head on his chest.
They lay together for a long time in silence, happy just being near each other. Eventually Justine exhaled deeply and Toby realised she was asleep. He contemplated moving her into her bed, but decided against it. He couldn't risk waking her up when she looked so content, so instead held her tightly and fell asleep too.
Justine awoke that morning to the sound of Toby mumbling in his sleep. She lay there quietly for a while, just listening. Most of it was completely unintelligible, just sniffs and garbled sentences, but a few choice words stood out. Over the course of those fifteen minutes, he murmured "Justine" and "JJ" a total of nine times, almost always followed by a small smile twitching the corners of his mouth. She couldn't help but feel ecstatically happy when she heard this, knowing that she was in his dreams and thoughts.
She closed her eyes again, and later found herself being awoken by Toby, on whose chest she was still lying.
"JJ?" He whispered. "Awww, you sleepy?" He kissed her forehead gently and laughed.
"Yes, I am, Tobes," She pouted, yawning loudly. She repositioned herself on the couch so that she was more comfortable, stretching her arms in an attempt to shake off the sleep. Toby sat up too and placed an arm casually around her shoulder. She glanced at his arm then at him, eyebrow raised. He grinned at her, but then his face fell slightly.
"JJ, you remember how we agreed not to tell the audience about us?" He asked, apprehensively.
"Yeah, we said we'd wait until the time was right," She replied, slightly suspicious. "Why, do you want to tell them?" But he shook his head.
"No, no!" He answered. "It just occurred to me though... What are we telling our friends? All the other YouTubers?" Justine thought hard.
"Well, my family already knows since... Well, you know," She giggled. "So maybe we should keep it a strictly family thing right now? Like you could tell your parents and your sister, then we could just leave it at that, because we honestly don't know what our friends might spill on the Internet by accident..."
Toby agreed wholeheartedly, already planning out how he would tell his family that he'd finally succeeded in winning the heart of the girl he'd been chasing for months. No doubt they'd be surprised!
"So that's it? It's our secret?" He whispered, excitedly.
"Our secret," She confirmed, and leaned in to hug him once more.
