All Dreams Come to an End: Part III
Dear journal, it is I Cody Martin. Today is my first entry because today is a sad day. Six months ago, Justin disappeared from our lives. Six months since any of us heard from our brother, and still nothing. I've never kept a written journal of my thoughts until now. It was hard accepting the fact that Justin wasn't going to sneak through the window and say 'Look who's back." But somehow I'm getting through it. Somehow, even though my grades have dropped, even though my lack of sleep makes it hard to concentrate through the day, I'm getting through it. Nothing matters to me anymore! I'm glad I learned how shitty life can be when your birthday comes around and you realize that somebody's missing. And worst of all, he's always shared that day with you, just at a different time and a different place. I was hoping this year he'd be able to see what it was like knowing that somebody out there actually cared that he was alive. But the truth is, Justin's brainwashed. In fact, he's too brainwashed to know he's been living in a hellhole! I can only hope the best for Justin now. As much as I miss him, crying about it's not gonna do any good. The way I see it I…
"So how's Justin?" Max whispered. Startled, Cody's elbow slipped from under him and his face came crashing down on the desk. The few kids sitting around him let a few laughs slip out of their mouths, but they couldn't get any louder, it was reading time and the teacher was a control freak.
A stressed Cody replied, "He's fine. Don't worry about it."
"You don't look so good." Max continued, she had noticed both he and Zack had gone through some changes recently. Both were unusually quiet and were keeping their distance from everyone else.
"I'm fine" Cody stated.
"Well, you don't look fine. You're just so moody, and your face is pale. Did you even go to sleep last night?"
"Look, can you just drop it?"
The teacher looked up. "Cody Martin, your grade in this class is already on thin ice, I suggest you finish the assigned reading this time."
Suddenly the bell rang. Class was over. Everybody gathered their books together and ran out of the room like an evacuation drill. The halls were crowded; people were bumping into each other. Cody didn't even notice.
"Hey EMO boy!" Max shouted as she was running to catch up.
"I'm not in the mood to be bothered right now." Cody replied.
"Well, whatever phase you're going through is getting old really fast. You talk circles around everybody and now all the sudden you go all mute. What's the matter with you, why aren't you talking to me?"
"Go away. Aren't you supposed to be Zack's friend?"
"Okay. No need to spaz." Max held both hands up defensively.
She tried to ignore the rudeness since she was more worried than upset.
"I guess I'll see you around then."
Max silently walked beside him wondering what just happened.
Why was Cody being so weird? Why was he being so silent? And most of all, why was he walking out of the hallway and crossing the grassy area out of school boundaries.
"Uh, where are you going, class is this way." Max shouted.
He never replied. As if it seemed like routine, Cody walked away and headed home.
Cody already knew Mom wasn't going to be at the hotel until the evening. She had her own way of dealing with this crazy situation as well, by pretending it wasn't happening. She was trying her best but it was easy to tell that everything was not all right in her world. Today, at least what was left of it was going to be dedicated to forgetting about all the problems of life. Cody boarded the city bus in hopes of getting home to claim sanctuary within the safe walls of the hotel where the only people around could care less about bothering him. But when he arrived, it was going to be the exact opposite. He slid into the hotel unnoticed, but found the door to the suite slightly ajar. "Aww jeez. Mom's home," he sighed.
Usually the thought of ditching would scare him but not today. Cody simply walked inside the suite and closed the door, almost slamming it. Cody looked around and spotted another backpack on the table.
"Zack?"
A toilet flushed and the door opened. Zack came out looking relieved and headed towards the television.
"Zack, what are you doing here?"
"I should ask you the same question." He replied, falling back onto the couch bed.
"You ditched."
"So did you."
"I couldn't concentrate. So I left school." Cody mumbled.
Zack started to laugh. "Clearly you read my mind."
After fishing the remote from between the cushions, Zack put on a smile as he began to flip through channels.
Cody headed towards the room to set his stuff down. As he made himself comfortable on his bed, he stared at the soccer picture of he and Zack. Not too long ago he had placed a picture in that frame to compare faces with a stranger. Now, once again the picture seemed incomplete. Justin, the missing link whom once again, became the missing link.
The heart breaking reality of a dream coming to an end is a sad, sad moment in time. You try hard to remember as much of it as possible, but by the time you get up, it's gone like it was never there in the first place. Life usually has a way of turning itself around, like it has the answers to the problems it created. It could be thought of as a giant script, with rough drafts and everything. You try to clean up the errors, you try erasing what you didn't like… until you find the greatest error, the real mistake. You. You should have never tried to write the ending in the first place! Justin was who he was and that's how it was always supposed to be. It was wrong to think that this could've ended as a happy reunion. Justin could've long forgotten the person he was when he had a family that cared for him and became the kind of monster he was always trained to be. The very thought made Cody even more depressed, but he refused to let it take over him, not today. Today was going to be a day of rest and relaxation, a time to get away from it all. But right as Cody walked out of the room, Carey walked through the front door.
"Mom?" Zack said startled. Like Cody, he wasn't expecting her until long after they were supposed to be home.
"What are you two doing home from school?" Carey asked with a stern voice.
Zack began to stutter looking for an answer but Cody spoke instead.
"What are you doing home from work?"
"I'm the one asking the questions young man."
There was an exchange of silent stares. Cody wasn't in the mood for being questioned and Carey just looked plain tired.
"Where's your dad?" She finally asked.
"At work, I dunno."
"Well when he gets here, we're all going to have a little talk about your attitude, your study habits, and your obedience. I am getting tired of you two coming home whenever you feel like it. This is like the fourteenth time you've done this."
"Whatever…" Cody mumbled.
"I mean it this time! Both of you, there is no excuse for either one of your actions." "Yeah, what about your actions mom?" He fired back.
"Don't get smart with me young man. You tell me one good reason you left school during the middle of the day!"
Zack turned the other way to avoid eye contact; Cody looked his mother right in the eye.
"They started talking about him again."
Carey opened her mouth but she had nothing to say. She tried to play it off.
"Look, this conversation isn't going to go anywhere, so why don't you two go to your room and wait for your father to get back." She started towards the bathroom.
"No!" Cody shouted.
"Everyone wants to know what happened mom, there's no use hiding a secret everybody knows about! You act like I'm being rebellious, well what about you! If you know so much about what I go through every day then you tell me mom. What should we tell them?" Cody asked.
Although Carey's face was turned towards the bathroom door, Cody knew that he hit a sensitive nerve bringing up Justin. Even so, it was the same question on everyone's mind. Carey entered the bathroom without saying anything and shut the door behind her leaving the question unanswered.
Ever since Justin left that night, Kurt stuck around the hotel two rooms away, waiting for him to show up again. There was so much he was ready to apologize for; he didn't even know where to start. The one thing Kurt knew he could do was wait. For six months he's held onto a regular job down the street at a coffee shop, biding his time, waiting for that one tidbit of information more important than anything else that could ever matter, "Justin's come back." He'd imagined it over and over again how it would play out. Zack and Cody would run through the coffee shop yelling at the top of their lungs "Dad, Dad where are you!" Kurt would come running around the corner, the boys would have gigantic smiles spread across their faces, Kurt wouldn't even have to ask what they were so happy about, he'd just look outside and see a taxi cab with Carey leaning against the bumper with her arms folded, a radiant glow to her face, and sitting inside the car a shadowy figure unwilling to come out of the car. At first Kurt would hesitate, but then he would work up the courage to get close to the car and take a peak inside. He would glance over at Carey, she would nudge him along and give him the strength to open the door by telling him " Go ahead Kurt, it's okay." The door would slowly open and once he looked inside he would see his long lost son… Justin. The boy in the seat would be motionless at first and Kurt would just stare for a moment. And then… without warning, Justin would place his hand on the seat as a gesture for Kurt to come sit down. He would be nervous as hell, both of them would be, but they would be forced to look at each other closely as never before, side by side. Somebody would close the door to the taxi, Kurt would look out the window startled, but he would see three smiles lined up outside of the window waving to their dad while the taxi would begin to move away from the coffee shop and down the street. The humming sound of the engine would wash through his eardrums back and forth as he dug his fingernails into his jeans looking deep down inside his soul for the right words to say. Justin would be looking out the window towards the city, realizing how much of his life he'd already missed. Kurt would finally say all the words he had prepared so many times before to his boy on that day.
"Justin, my boy…. My son. I know what you think of me and I know it's my fault for allowing you to grow up the way you have. But I want you to know that, that I am willing to do whatever it takes to make things right. I was young and stupid back then. I know that's no excuse, I know. But I don't want you to believe that I never regretted the decision I made everyday since you left. I'm not a good person. I don't have many things in this life to be proud of. But the truth about being alive is… is, if we have a chance to learn from our mistakes no matter how big, we can always learn from them; especially the biggest ones. Letting you go was the biggest mistake I have ever made. And I've learned something from it, I really have. I know that if you come back that, that even though this is going to take a lot of work, and a lot of patience, a lot of time, a lot of trust, a lot of love… that it will be worth it. All three of you boys mean so much to me; I can't imagine life without each and every one of you guys being a part of it. All three of you have been the greatest achievement in my life."
That was about as far as Kurt imagined his reunion with Justin. There were only two possible scenarios that could happen after Justin heard those words come out of his mouth. Either Justin would embrace his father accepting the offer, giving Kurt a possibility of redemption, or Justin would laugh at his words and spit in his face. But one thing would have to happen first. Justin would have to come back. And until then, Kurt would stay here, in Boston, wiping one counter after another to pay rent in a hotel.
"Hey Kurt, I don't pay you to daydream. Get back to work!"
"Yeah, um… I mean, yes sir, or… boss."
Day after day he would continue this routine. His band members couldn't wait for him any longer. They all agreed that Kurt had lost his mind somewhere and never found it, so they had gone back out on the road with a replacement. Somewhere during all of this unfolding drama, Kurt stopped caring about the music; at one time, it was always the thing that filled the empty gap inside. Music could never go away, music always created a sense of completeness that at one time worked as a soothing comfort, but recently something much more powerful than endless melodies filled the empty place inside Kurt. He remembered that feeling from long ago, like when he was still married. It was the feeling of loving someone and having them love you in return. The world was complete back then. It didn't work out before, and Kurt thought that feeling could never exist again. But when Justin came back into his life, not as a little baby, but as a person with feelings and emotions, Kurt knew that he made a big mistake when he chased him away again. All he wants now, is to return that feeling back again where everything would be all right.
Carey sat in the corner next to the toilet seat with both hands running through her hair. She already knew Cody wasn't the only one being asked about Justin. He disappeared as quickly as he came, and there was no real way to explain how it all happened. Tears began streaming down her arms as well as the front of her shirt. This was quite possibly the worst thing that a mother could go through. Her son was missing and she knew where he was going but didn't know how to get him back. All she could think of was that one conversation they had together on that one night. It stirred her emotions not just because it was their first time talking to each other, it was also because she was able to discover that her son had feelings, real feelings that only a person with a human heart could have. It meant that no matter what they did to him his whole life, they were never able to take away all of his humanity. That's why it just didn't make all the sense in the world for Justin to have left the way he did. Deep in Carey's heart, she knew that Justin had forgiven her for the past. But the real question was, did he forgive Kurt too? The way Justin walked around the hotel and talked to other people, it was so obvious that this was the happiest he had ever been. What kind of person could be that happy if they truly were not at peace with the world and with everyone around them? That one special day, everything seemed like it was going to finally fall into place. It was a day that started 3 o clock in the morning and ended perfectly into the evening. It was a memory that Carey would cherish for the rest of her life.
"Justin, what does the voice inside your head tell you?"
The dark haired child looked towards his mother with both a sense of fear and faith of what he knew to be true.
"The voice warns me of things to come, it's telling me right now… to be very careful of my tracks. It also came to me tonight stronger than ever. It's trying to take over me."
"Have you tried fighting it?"
Justin stared directly into his mother eyes from across the room, and in a whisper he said,
"All of the time."
The floor creaked as Justin made his way back to the kitchen table. He sat back down and picked up a crayon to continue his scribbling but he paused. Instead he pushed the paper aside and folded his hands.
"It's like fighting a war you know you're going to lose… the past is never going to go away. I was never meant to live a normal life."
Justin took a few breaths and placed the crayon onto the table.
" So, I guess the question that keeps me up all night, is how long will I be able to fight until this war claims my soul?"
Carey looked at her son and knew that this inner battle, this demon, has haunted him for a very, very long time. She studied the dark circles around his eyes from the lack of sleep, she noticed the little tremors that both of his hands were making, and she knew from the look on his face, Justin had never dared to tell anybody this secret until this very night.
"I'm destined to fail." He finished.
Then suddenly a small tear ran down Justin's face. Even though Carey could hardly understand what her son was talking about, she knew that it was time for him to erase the bleak vision of his future and see that there really was something more to this life than he previously imagined.
"Listen… Justin."
Carey brought her hand under her sons chin and lifted his face up to meet hers.
"I want you to listen to my words very carefully because you've probably never heard anything like this come from anybody in your entire life and it's time you heard it now. It's time you heard it from somebody that loves you and is willing to love you for always and forever, not because you are some soldier, some weapon of mass destruction, or some kind of evil monster that can be used for some sadistic purpose, but loved because you are a human being with flesh and blood, capable of anything and everything good…"
Carey brought Justin's face closer to hers so that they were looking at each other eye to eye, and with the most sincere, the most honest, and the most refreshing voice, Carey said words more powerful than any commander Justin had ever heard.
"You-are-not-a-failure."
Both of them were completely silent. Justin didn't know how to process what he had just heard. It wasn't an order he had to obey, or a verbal attack. The direct eye contact made him nervous so he tried to turn away. But Carey didn't let his face go. Justin was confused. Carey followed his eyes and looked into them again.
"Look at me Justin. You-are-not-a-failure."
Still confused, Justin replied.
"Um… okay."
He tried to turn his head away again but still, Carey would not let go.
"What?" Justin said frustrated.
"Listen to what I have to say Justin. You-are-NOT-a-failure."
"Okay, okay, I believe you. You made your point. Can you let go of my face?"
Still, Carey would not let go; she would not let Justin escape her eyes.
"You-are-not-a-failure."
And without warning Justin's eyes began to water, a lump grew in his throat; he didn't like that feeling one bit.
"Let go of my face now!" he said.
But Carey wouldn't let him go. She brought herself closer to Justin whose hands defensively balled into fists and rose towards Carey face.
"You-are-not-a-failure."
He had the ability to strangle a full-grown man with his bare hands but on that one night, Justin had no power whatsoever to defend himself against a soft hand clutched under his chin. As Carey reminisced, she could remember her son's expression.
"Stop it!" Justin said. He tried to be demanding that night, but it almost sounded as if he were begging.
"You-are-not-a-failure Justin."
And that was it. Justin broke down and began to cry uncontrollably. It was true; Justin had never heard words like that before. It was an emotionally crippling moment in which he found it difficult to retain composure. After all the hardcore training, he was still a little kid. Carey held onto him tight. She told him that everything would be all right if he was willing to give this life a chance. But it would be a challenge unlike anything he had ever gone through before. He would have to completely reprogram his way of thinking if he were to ever function in society. Carey had told him all of these things, and it seemed like he was responding to those words in a positive way. Time had gone by so quickly that night; it was almost unbelievable that the sun was beginning to come out. As it came to be the next morning, they both left the hotel early that morning and went down to the lobby. It was the normal routine. Estaban was carrying baggage through the hotel, Maddie was opening the candy counter, and there was Mr. Moseby the workaholic desperately trying to find an art-restoring specialist in the yellow pages to bring the Tipton heirloom back to life. And there was Justin, putting the vase back together like assembling something as simple as legos. Carey could see by the people's reaction to Justin that he would have no problem trying to fit in. When the other boys had come running down to the lobby that morning in panic, even they were amazed at Justin. Justin toured the city that day and went to the park like every other kid would do. He got to taste life for the first time and by the look on his face it was so easy to see that he enjoyed every moment of it.
So, as of now, Carey sat in the bathroom thinking about all of these things, she continues to ask herself why. Why did Justin choose to leave the way he did. He could've abandoned that horrible life he used to have for something much greater, why did he go back?
There was a light tapping on the bathroom door. It was Cody trying to make peace. Mom had been in there for an hour so he figured that she was still mad at him.
"Mom?"
Silence followed.
"I'm sorry for what I said. Can you please come out?"
Carey finally opened the door to the bathroom wiping away the tears from her red eyes. She looked at Cody and smiled.
"You are very special to me… I just wanted you to know that."
Cody looked at his mom knowing that she was really torn up from the inside out.
"Mom I'm… I'm sorry, I, I'm just frustrated that's all. I didn't mean to talk back to you."
Carey continued smiling and placed her hand under Cody's chin.
" I want you to promise me one thing."
She looked up towards Zack.
"Both of you. I want you to promise me that, if anything bad ever happened, no matter how angry I might get, no matter how upset your father gets, I don't ever want you to run away, ever. I mean… never ever. There's always a better way. Promise me."
Cody hugged his mom close and buried his face in her shoulder.
"Okay mom, I promise."
Zack walked up to his mom and gave her a hug too.
" I promise too. None of us are ever going to leave you."
For a moment the peace that once dwelled within their household was restored. The unbreakable bond between the three had once again strengthened. Even after all of the drama, in the end, the three individuals surrounding each other managed to come back together in their greatest time of need.
" Everything is going to turn out fine, one way or another." Carey finally said.
Cody lifted his head up.
" But mom, everyone's starting to ask about Justin. What should we tell them?"
" Oh, sweetie…"
Before she could reply, a different voice answered.
"You tell them the truth."
All three of them turned their heads. Immediately they recognized the figure that stood in their doorway. His hair had faded. Dressed in black to avoid cautious eyes, he stood triumphantly as if to announce his victorious return. At first it seemed like an illusion, much like the first time they had ever seen him. The dark haired child that captured the hearts of those he'd encountered numerous amounts of times beforehand stood right there, but he was different. No longer were his eyes cold and tortured, like he had no understanding of life. But now, he had come back with a true understanding of what it meant to be alive, and you could see it in his face because he had that missing sparkle in his eye.
"You tell them that Justin's here at home, with his family."
Zack and Cody were both at a stand still. Cody walked a little closer and squinted his eyes almost disbelievingly.
"You really are real." He said.
Justin let out a smile since he knew at one time those were his words.
"I think this is the first time I've realized that," he said.
Justin looked over towards his mother who seemed only seconds away from losing her mind with uncontrollable emotion.
"I know now that the choices I make in this life are mine… I don't have to be a failure."
Carey ran up to Justin with arms open wide but before she got there, Justin pointed.
"Stop right there."
Carey was confused. So were the boys.
"Please don't take this as rejection. But there is something that you must know if we are going to do this again. Things didn't work out before, not because of what happened that night, but because I realized that none of you really knew everything about me."
Zack smiled, "Justin, there's nothing that you can say or do that would make us think any different of you."
"Yeah, we don't care what happened. You're family." Cody finished.
Justin nodded his head despairingly.
"No… you have to know. You really have to. Before there can be a happy ending, you have to know the whole story. And if you know everything about me and still want this to work, there will be some VERY big changes in all of our lives. If you choose to accept me for what I really am, you can never go back to the way things are right now. It will NEVER be the same ever again.
Meanwhile.
He stared at the broken dishes on the floor. The manager was tapping his foot with arms folded.
"Dammit Kurt, you can't do anything right!"
It was the lunch crowd so it was busy. There was no use pretending. Kurt knew he was a horrible bus boy. There really was only one thing he was ever good at, and that was music. After living life on the road for so long, the ordinary job was quite the obstacle course.
"Look, I said I was sorry."
"You see that's the thing, you're sorry for everything. You're sorry the dishes aren't clean, you're sorry the floor wasn't swept right, you're sorry for this, for that, for everything. Look, Kurt. This is not working out."
"Are you firing me?"
"A zit faced dimwit could do this job. You practically fired yourself."
Kurt undid his dishwashing apron as his boss stormed into the back room. He took a deep breath and found a stool to sit down on. He pulled his hair back and leaned over, placing his elbows on the counter.
"Great… now what."
Kurt was never the type to plan ahead. He wasn't new at being fired. In fact that's how he lost most of his jobs. He knew all the signs were there. He knew that his boss was going to have the talk with him one way or the other. But still, Kurt didn't even think to go hunt for another job. That was probably his greatest weakness. Even though he saw something bad coming, he never got out of the way. He always let it hit straight on where the impact was greatest. Normally when people get fired, they leave immediately to avoid further embarrassment, but not Kurt. He hung around the shop for almost an hour buying cup after cup of ice-blended coffee. He didn't want to go home. Every time he got into his suite two doors away from the boys he would always remember that he was an outsider. He pulled a small photo out of his wallet and looked at it carefully. It was Carey with the boys when they were two. Knowing the relationship his boys had with their mom reminded him of how close he was with Carey at one time. He had tried so hard to erase whatever feelings he had for her by keeping their relationship strictly as a friendship. But these past few months had become difficult. Every time he looked at her, she would look back, and then he would have to turn away as if he were looking somewhere else. She had such a beautiful smile, and her hair shined brighter than it did when they were younger. It was getting harder and harder to even talk to her. Kurt questioned himself why, why did he choose the Tipton hotel as his place of residence. Almost every single paycheck he made went towards the rent of this upscale room where rich people spend one night or two. But to have stayed at that place for six months instead of a cheap apartment a few blocks down said something about him. Kurt was still head over heels in love with Carey. He knew that if it went anywhere it could lead to disaster again, but he wasn't getting out of the way. He knew where the road was going to lead and he knew that the impact would be great, and yet he stayed. He knew he was an idiot, but for some reason Kurt couldn't stop smiling at the picture. He could hear the voices of his kids now. 'Dad, Dad where are you.' He sighed while cherishing the aged picture. Then, Kurt curiously popped his head up. He really could hear voices.
Suddenly, the doors to the café swung wide open. Zack and Cody came running through the coffee shop yelling at the top of their lungs.
"Dad… Dad where are you!"
Kurt hopped out of his stool and came running around the corner.
"Boys?" Both Zack and Cody turned around and ran up to their dad with gigantic smiles.
"What's going on guys?" Both boys turned their heads outside. A taxi had parked on the curb with Carey leaning on the side. Her arms were folded. Kurt's heart skipped a beat. Her face had a radiant glow, and sitting inside the car was a shadowy figure.
"What… Who's in the taxi?"
The boys continued to smile and pointed for him to go out the door.
At first Kurt hesitated. This had to be some sort of illusion. After swallowing hard, Kurt pushed the café doors open and took in the city breeze.
"Carey, what's going on?"
"Get in the taxi and you'll find out."
"But who…"
"Get in the car Kurt."
He wanted to get close and take a peak inside but he was scared. He glanced over at Carey; she nodded her head with a smile.
" Go ahead Kurt, it's okay."
As he grabbed the handle to get inside the car, the door opened up from the inside and sitting there was Justin. Even though Kurt had suspicions that it was Justin, seeing him still brought along quite a lot of shock. The boy moved back across the seat to the other side of the window. Kurt's eyes widened.
"Justin…" he whispered. Before he could say anything else, Justin interrupted.
"Get in the car." He said. It sounded like an order. Kurt did what he was told and he slid onto the leather seat. He didn't know what to say, even that whole speech he had prepared was completely blank in his mind as of this moment.
"Scoot over dad." Zack said as he was nudging himself into the car, Cody followed. Kurt was pulled even closer to Justin. The door closed behind all four of them. Carey got into the passenger side and just as soon as she closed the door, the driver looked at her.
"Where to ma'am."
"I dunno, anywhere but here." She replied.
As the car started moving, an eerie silence took ever. If it weren't for Zack and Cody's huge smiles painted across their faces, Kurt would've been convinced that he was picked up by the mob to be taken off somewhere to be murdered. He looked at Justin who remained silent. Here they were side-by-side, closer to each other than they have ever been and somehow, it was nerve wrecking.
The humming sound of the engine began washing through his eardrums back and forth as Kurt's fingernails dug into his jeans. Justin looked out the window towards the city and watched all the streets pass by. Kurt started to remember the first part of what he was going to say to Justin if he ever he saw him again.
"Justin…" he said nervously.
The boy turned away from the window, Kurt had his attention.
"My boy…"
"Pull into that parking structure and turn the car off." Justin said.
The driver looked quizzically at the boy through the mirror as if to say 'yeah right' but Carey gave him a serious look that convinced him to do what the kid said. As they made their way into the building away from sunlight and into the bottom structure, he found a parking spot and proceeded to bill them for the ride.
"Okay that comes to"
Carey forked over four hundred dollars. The driver was shocked.
"Could you do us a favor and not come back to this vehicle for the next two hours?"
"You got it lady… uh. You're not gonna do anything illegal with this car are you?"
Carey lifted up her right eyebrow.
"Does it really matter?"
He shook his head.
"Not today I guess…"
The driver turned off the car, pocketed the cash and made his way out of the parking lot. Once Justin was sure that they were all alone, he began to speak.
"It's crowded back here."
Cody opened his door and made his way around to the driver's side. Zack scooted over to the window and Kurt moved away some. Justin looked around once more to make sure that nobody was near.
"Did anybody follow us?" he asked.
"Carey replied, "I don't think we were spotted anywhere, I didn't see any limo's."
"Good, we've still got time."
Cody leaned over the front seat. "Do you think he knows you're here?"
"I don't really know… If he doesn't already, he's going to know very soon."
Zack leaned forward and clung onto the back of Carey's seat.
"Hey mom, did you trash your cell phone?"
"Yes, I trashed all of them. I made sure all of the chips were crushed and the outer shells disabled. Kurt, give me your phone!"
"Carey, what's going on?"
"There's no time Kurt, give me your cell phone."
Kurt reached into his pocket and pulled out the tiny device. Carey snatched it away and proceeded to take it apart and throw all the pieces out of the window. Needless to say, Kurt was confused.
"Can anybody tell me what's going on? Justin… Where have you been, are you alright?"
Justin ignored the question. Instead, he told Cody to lock the car doors.
"I already locked them all."
Justin turned towards Kurt.
"I don't have much time left so I'm going to just come out and say it."
Kurt leaned forward. Justin looked into his eyes.
"I'm leaving the past behind me. And I'm not going to go back to it ever again."
Kurt's eyebrows lifted in surprise.
"But, there's something about me that you need to know."
"J-Justin… there's so much I want to say to you right now I don't know where to begin. I know that I haven't always been there for you but, I want you to know that I will do anything to make it right."
"Stop…"
Kurt was paused in mid sentence.
"I didn't come here to bring up the past."
Kurt looked over at Carey and saw that she had a smile over her face. He felt comforted. Justin continued.
"I didn't come here to talk about all the things that went wrong. Many things have gone wrong in my life and that's why I'm leaving the past behind. I know that people aren't perfect and what happened on the night I was born already happened. We can't change the past but we can shape the future. Maybe even together."
As if struck by a snake, Kurt was paralyzed as of what to say and what to do. This was not at all the type of scenario he was expected to go through.
"Listen… there's something I have to ask you. But before you say anything you have to know something about me, and what it will mean based on you decision."
Kurt looked at everyone else around the car. All three looked nervous.
"Did he already ask you guys the question?"
All three of them nodded their heads. Justin took a deep breath.
"Before there can be a happy ending, you have to know the whole story. And if you know everything about me and still want this to work, there will be some VERY big changes in all of our lives. If you choose to accept me for what I really am, you can never go back to the way things are right now. It will NEVER be the same ever again."
Kurt placed his hands under his thighs and prepared for the worst.
"So…what's the question?"
"First, I'll tell you the story."
Stay tuned for the "FINAL CHAPTER" an extremely long finale titled "Triplets Forever."