Chapter Five
Allie looked over at Justin with a serious face. It almost looked sad, and he suddenly felt the urge to put his arm around her, to tell her everything, how Laurie was simply a distraction from thinking about her. But no, it would be just his luck to have her boyfriend show up and sock him in the face for touching his girlfriend.
Her next words were unexpected.
"Justin, my boyfriend has never put his arm around me. He's never touched me," she looked up at him, and he could have sworn he saw tears building in her eyes. "He doesn't even exist."
Justin wondered if his eyes had gone wide, and he was about to smile and let out a happy shout when she blinked and two small droplets of water leaked from the corners of her eyes.
He frowned and wiped them away with his thumb. "What are you crying about?"
Allie was amazed at how sarcastic Justin was being… tender? Compassionate? He'd even asked her why he was crying, had smudged her tears with his thumbs.
"I lied to you," she sniffed. "I'm so sorry."
His eyes turned teasing; the old Justin was back. "Yeah, why did you lie to me like that?"
And that was when she told him everything. "Because I was angry with you for having a girlfriend, for not even seeing me when I came into church. I was looking forward to seeing you again that I wanted you to go through the pain I did when I walked in and saw you sitting so close to Laurie with your arm around her."
Justin turned serious and looked her in the eye. "You mean you wanted to see me again? I had thought so many times you would go off and find a nice Christian guy and get engaged while you were at college. It happens so much I thought it would surely happen to someone so smart and pretty and cool…"
Justin hadn't planned on being so honest and open that night, hadn't even planned on Allie being there. But as he saw her eyes widen and fill with water again, he knew he couldn't take anymore. "I'll be right back."
He jumped up and went over to the snack bar. As he came back, he watched Kristen and the high school students bowl. One of the seniors was winning and had gotten three strikes in a row. Allie had ducked out of the last game and come to sit down, and he'd seen it as an opportunity to talk to her, to hang out and catch up with her.
"What was that for?" asked a confused-looking Allie as he slid into the booth with her.
"I needed something to drink," Justin replied. That was not the reason at all. He just needed a few minutes to get his thoughts and feelings together. Things had changed drastically in the last few minutes of talking to her.
Allie grinned. "An Icee?" She looked over at him slyly. "You know, I'm done with my pop."
Justin sighed as if it were some huge favor. He scooted the un-sipped blue Icee toward her, and she took the first suck out of the straw.
Allie was sure her lips had turned blue, and her teeth were destined to match them. She leaned back against the booth; glad everything was over and cleared up between them. She could finally enjoy his company again.
She was surprised when Justin scooted his drink back over in front of him and took a sip out of the straw she'd just put her lips on. Something was strangely intimate about that… she didn't know what. An odd shiver passed through her and she watched him as he downed at least a quarter of the drink.
His lips came back blue, too.
"Of all the colors, you chose blue," Allie said dryly. It was somewhat of a question and a statement in one.
Justin nodded. "Blue is the best. One gets sick of cherry. They have cherry everything. Cherry starburst, cherry suckers, probably cherry anything you can think of."
Allie smiled in agreement. "You're right. But we're both going to have dark blue lips by the time we're done with it. People are going to think we're either deathly ill or long past dead."
"We froze to death."
She laughed.
"And who said you were going to have any more of my Icee, anyway?"
Shrugging, she took the drink away from him and raised it to her lips once more. And the second she did she didn't know whether she regretted it or not, for his gaze automatically went to them.
When Allie set down the drink, her eyes still glued to his, she knew there was no avoiding it. His hand was cold from holding the Icee as it came to the side of her face, eventually burying in her hair. She leaned against it, her heart beating rapidly as his face neared hers.
