Jhondie
"Are you going to put those pictures away and get dressed or what?" I joked from the bathroom while Justin was lying back on the bed, flipping through the pictures we had taken earlier.
"Hmmm…boring wedding or spending the next few hours looking at these," he debated playfully, holding up a rather provocative picture. I was still in shock that I had been so wanton. Can't say that I didn't enjoy it though. Justin knew it and was having so much fun teasing me about the whole thing. If I didn't love him, I would have to kill him.
"How about I promise the wedding won't be boring and you get dressed," I replied. His eyebrows shot up.
"You promised," he said warningly. I smiled sweetly and turned back to the mirror, putting on my makeup. He slipped up behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist. I paused, putting down the eyeliner pencil when he started kissing my neck.
"You're not going to make the wedding 'interesting', remember?" he murmured. Despite earlier, I could feel myself melting against him. That was so not fair when he did stuff like that to me. My hair was up in curlers, leaving my neck totally unprotected as he kissed the side of it, playing with my ear for a moment, and then working on the back of my neck, making me shiver. "If the wedding is boring, then we can have 'interesting' when we get back here," he commented almost casually. From his tone, had he not been pressed against me tightly, I might have not been able to tell that this was affecting him too.
"I think I would much rather it get interesting when we're alone," I said softly, and then giggled. "Interesting in public is liable to get us arrested." He broke off from kissing me and started laughing, his forehead pressed against my shoulder. I laughed with him, and then caught our reflection in the mirror. I was wearing a ratty t-shirt and shorts with my hair in curlers, and just the first part of my makeup done. Justin was in his boxers and an undershirt, his hair still wet and slicked back, neither of us looking our best, but not caring either. For a second I thought about last night, about us being together on a long-term basis. I was so comfortable with him that it hadn't fazed me at all that he was seeing me like this.
"We should probably get dressed," Justin said softly, running his fingers down my arm. "Dad's going to be knocking in a few. He's always ready an hour before he has to be."
I turned around and we kissed gently. "You need to let me go first," I whispered, his beautiful blue eyes drinking me in.
He touched my face, his thumb caressing my cheek. "Not a chance in hell of that happening." He pressed a kiss against my forehead. "But I will let you get dressed…under protest." I couldn't help smiling back at that.
Justin played with his hair for a few minutes, blow-drying it and trying to make it stay where it should. A military-short cut didn't appeal to him, although he kept it neat in the back, but that would be the only thing to control all of his thick, black hair. He finished and put on his slacks just as there was a knock at the door. He shot me an "I told you so" grin as he went to let his dad in and I finished my makeup. I was still thinking way too much about Justin's kisses and promises of what was going to happen later. Zack would have been so pissed if he ever knew that I let my guard down for the sake of sentimentality.
I saw their reflection as Mr. Carter walked in. The vanity to the bathroom faced the front door, and I realized it just a second too late. Stupid small rooms. Mr. Carter stopped dead, looking at me strangely. Justin's eyes widened, and then I realized that my hair was completely up. Oh my God. It was the first time in my life I had ever made a mistake like that.
"Jhondie," he said curiously, "what is that thing on your neck?" For a second I wasn't sure who was going to pass out first, me or Justin. I turned around, trying to smile and he came up to me.
"It's a barcode," I answered. Justin was pale. I had thought about that if Justin and I did ever decide on making our relationship permanent, if I would tell his family or not about my past. This was not the forum that I wanted to do it in. I didn't want to ever tell them really. It was dangerous for people to know. Zack was right about that one, even if I wouldn't ever admit it to him.
"Well turn around and let me see it," he ordered, coming up to me. There wasn't much I could do except run like hell, and that wouldn't help anyways. I turned around, and he whistled low. "Now how did you get that?" I thought for a moment, and then a real smile touched my lips. What the hell, I was in it anyways.
"It's a genetically encoded tracking system the secret government project that built me added to my DNA," I replied with a cavalier little smirk. Justin turned green. "Either that or my friends say that the last time I will ever get totally drunk again I was trying to scan myself in a grocery store so that I would know who I really was, and when it didn't work, I went and got a barcode tattooed on the back of my neck."
Mr. Carter burst into laughter. Justin forced out a laugh, trying to keep from hyperventilating from relief. "You were trying to scan yourself?" Mr. Carter asked.
"That's what I was told," I replied. "I don't really remember much about that night, but Cheryl said that since the scanners said what kind of product was in the boxes, it would tell me the kind of person I really was. All I know is that I woke up the next morning in a lot of pain."
Mr. Carter snickered. "I never thought I would hear a stranger tattoo story than my brother getting a duck inked on his rear end, but I think that just topped it." We all laughed again, a lot more naturally this time on mine and Justin's parts.
I started taking the curlers out of my hair. "It's not exactly something I'm proud of," I replied honestly. "As a matter of fact, even Kayla doesn't know about it. My parents did, but they didn't want her thinking that she could have one since I did." I glanced over at Justin. He was holding up. "You know how the younger siblings are always trying to imitate the older ones."
"This is true," Mr. Carter said reflectively, and then gave me a wink. "Don't worry; she won't hear about it from my lips." He paused for a moment. "Why don't you just have it removed?"
I had no idea what to say. It was a perfectly reasonable question. God knew I wanted it off of me, but I couldn't exactly explain why it was useless. "Because she's secretly a little wimp," Justin spoke up for me. He grinned and walked over to me, and put his arms around my waist. "See," he said to his father, "she's not going to tell you how she was with her friend Cheryl when she got a tattoo removed, and promptly fainted when Cheryl screamed as they started the scraping."
I stomped on his toe. Mr. Carter laughed. "Son, I think I'm going to leave now and let you deal with what you just did. I'll meet you two in the lobby in half an hour." Still snickering, he turned and left.
Both of us were on the floor, sighing with relief the minute the door swung shut. "I didn't even think about it," Justin said. "I don't notice it anymore, why should anyone else," he added with gentle sarcasm.
I smiled. "You turned every color of the rainbow when I told your dad the truth."
"I was just lucky you didn't kick my a$$ when I said you were a wimp just to prove me otherwise." With a fast burst of speed, I was on top of Justin, our noses almost touching, his wrists pinned to the floor.
"Just because I don't kick it doesn't mean I'm not going to get some kind of revenge," I replied.
His eyes twinkled. "Now that sounds interesting."
