Disclaimer: I do not own Wizards of Waverly Place.

Author's Note: Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Everybody! Finally, Christmas break is here. I hope everyone's holidays are super duper awesome. So, the last chapter was eventful, to say the least, and I am so glad that a lot of you responded positively to it.

Not much to say this time. Let's read on!

A Familiar Pattern 11

By genielou

Justin stepped out of his shower, unusually careless of his actions as droplets of water fell onto the cold tiles beneath his feet. He dried himself off, rubbed his face with the towel harder than intended, and then slung it over his shoulder with a huge sigh. Wiping the mist from the bathroom mirror, he propped both hands on the sink and took a long, stern look at himself.

He could barely recognize himself. His eyes are sunken, he has lost weight, the color from his face has been mostly pale, and his lips are fairly thinner compared to the full shapes that they were before. For the past few months that he had been back in school, he had dedicated himself solely to his work, and even more to his extra-curricular projects. The point of doing so was not to earn experience in any way. On the contrary, with too much to do at the same time, he had found his work once or twice less than satisfactory. The reason for this is simply, yet complicatedly, because of a particular girl (the 'only' girl) that has ever rejected him in his adult life.

She walked out of the Waverly Substation almost four months ago, and that very moment when she called him out on his insecurities towards her kept replaying in his mind since then. He has since considered the words, "you don't love me, do you?" to forever be his downfall; for whatever came over him that disabled him from running after her, he'll never know.

He shook his head at himself. Justin had thought about those words over and over again since it had happened. At the moment, he knew it was true, but is it true now? It's so easy to say yes, but something inside of him is screaming for him to reevaluate himself. Maybe a different answer will come up if he did so. Unfortunately, his mood since that faithful night has been so unexplainably down.

Presently, he was supposed to meet Zeke for lunch today. Zeke had expressed his newfound interest in attending a four-year university (as opposed to the city college that he was currently in), and Justin couldn't be less excited about it. It had taken him a long while to at least not think about Harper everyday, and now, the man who gets to hold her, kiss her, and whisper sweet nothings into her ear is about to sip a cup of coffee right in front of him. This time, the nostalgia was very unwelcome.

He glanced at the wrist watch that was sitting on the sink counter. He was already running late. With one last look over, he wrapped the towel around his waist, and walked out into his room to get himself ready.

It was a rainy day, with each rain drop seeming like a spoonful. A great addition to Justin's already growing mood. He switched his umbrella from one hand to the other and adjusted his coat. The walk to the local diner where he was supposed to meet Zeke was only a few blocks away, but it felt like miles to him. With each step, a growing spite built up inside of him, and he consequently tried hard to get rid of it.

The door to the diner made a loud ding as he pushed it open. He dropped his umbrella in the tall basket by the door and shook the remaining raindrops from himself before taking his coat off and hanging it on one of the hooks by the door. He skimmed the tiny restaurant for the familiar bulky body that belonged to his former best friend, but found no one close of a resemblance.

Then he heard his name being called out from somewhere near the window booths.

"Justin!" he heard. "Over here."

Justin turned his head towards the direction of the voice and had to squint his eyes to make sure that what he saw was real. There, sitting in a booth style seat by the windows that displayed the pouring rain, was a much smaller Zeke, grinning from ear to ear. He waved excitedly at Justin as he approached his table.

"Hey, man," said the now slimmer Zeke, shaking Justin's hand with both hands. "I'm so glad you came. For a minute there, I thought you weren't gonna make it."

Justin's smiled awkwardly in return. He politely nodded his head in agreement as he took his seat. "Yeah, sorry about that," he replied. "With the rain and all, it takes longer to avoid the flooded areas."

Before they could say more to each other, the waitress came and handed them both a menu. She quickly jotted down their drink orders and hurried away. They continued on in silence as they looked over their meal options. Justin glanced every few seconds at Zeke, obviously still a bit uncomfortable with being in the same room with the man to whom the girl of his discontent belonged to. The unbeknownst Zeke, on the other hand, slightly bobbed his head to a beat in his head as he tried to decide what to eat. Once the waitress returned, she set down two cups of coffee on their table, took their meal orders, and hurried away once more. The two sipped in silence again, with one awkwardly glancing at the other who is sincerely immersed in the warmth of this drink.

After a few more sips, Zeke was the one who broke the silence. "So, Justin," he started. "We didn't really get to hang out that much when you were home. How've you been?"

Justin summarized his college career to him in the next fifteen minutes as they waited for their food. He went on to go into the trials and tribulations of attending a college far away from home, including the challenges of balancing classes while maintaining a personal life and the temptation of reinventing himself in his new environment.

"Reinventing?" asked Zeke. "Why? What was wrong with the old you?"

Justin shrugged both shoulders. "Nothing, really," he answered. "But I thought it'd be nice to not be labeled a 'geek' right off the bat."

Zeke nodded in understanding, then shook his head just as quickly. "I don't think 'geeks' exist in college."

Justin raised an eyebrow at him. "Uh, yeah, they do. Otherwise, there wouldn't be a Science department."

"Yeah, but I just called those people 'the really smart ones.'"

Their meals arrived, and they both busied themselves with adding their usual condiments. Justin attacked the ketchup and pepper while Zeke attacked the salt.

"You know, I kinda figured you did something like that," Zeke started as Justin mixed the pepper into his food. "I mean, look at you, man. You're such a pretty boy now."

Justin snorted. "Yeah?"

"Absolutely," Zeke grinned at him. "Did you even notice how many local honeys were staring at you when you came home? I heard Gigi kept stopping by the Substation too. And she doesn't even like sandwiches."

Justin tried to think back to his time home and couldn't think of a single moment when he noticed Gigi around him. Zeke noticed his frowning.

"She tried talking to you twice, but she said you always seemed distracted," he explained. "She said you were always either talking with your brother or Harper."

Justin nodded in realization. "Right," he said absentmindedly. It was true that he mostly spent his time either unloading his frustration on Max, or pining after Harper.

Harper.

Damn. He was successful in not thinking about her for an entire twenty minutes.

"You didn't seem as approachable as you used to be," said Zeke, breaking Justin's thought. "You're so—so—pretty."

"Yeah," Justin scoffed. "I believe you've expressed that already."

Zeke chuckled. "Yeah, I know. But I mean—you remember the jocks in high school?"

Justin nodded.

"Remember how intimidating they were? How no one outside of their clique really talked to them because they just looked so damn good looking?"

He nodded again.

"I kinda get that feeling from you now."

Justin frowned at him. Looking back to how he has changed himself, he realized that he had indeed become close to the very thing that he hated so much when he was in high school. He quickly glanced at himself and noticed that even at this very moment, he was dressed more promptly than he would have had when he was younger, especially considering that he was only meeting Zeke. The old Justin would have just thrown on a pair of dirty jeans and an old shirt. Now, he was wearing a nice pair of designer slacks and an equally impressive button-up shirt.

He then remembered Zeke's appearance a few months ago. Justin smirked. "And I suppose your looking like the Hulk is simply 'modesty'?"

Zeke pointed both fingers at him. "Touche!" he joked. "But I didn't do that to reinvent myself. I was still the same ol' Zeke," he shrugged his shoulders. "I did that to impress a certain young lady."

Justin nodded as he took a spoonful of potato hash to his mouth. He has heard as much from Max about how Zeke had changed himself to live up to Harper's standards; although he doubted that this would've changed Harper's opinion of him. She just didn't seem like the type of person to be so superficial.

Damn. He thought about her again.

He eyed Zeke again. "And?" he started. "How about now?"

Zeke raised both eyebrows while chewing on his toast. It took a short moment to realize what Justin had meant as his eyes examined Zeke's current, tinier physique. "Nge-oh," he said, with a mouthful. He swallowed his food before continuing. "I've decided that skinny-Zeke is slightly sexier than beefy-Zeke."

Justin eyed him again.

"What, you don't agree?" he joked. "Look at me, man. I am so much more irresistible now than when I was bench-pressing double-zeros."

Justin chuckled as Zeke proceeded to show off his now less-pronounced arms, which used to be the size of his head but, because of the lack of work-outs, was now more tone than muscle fat. He merely shook his head in amusement. "And—Harper?" he asked, though her name came out almost like a statement to himself than a question towards Zeke. "Wasn't she the lady you were trying to impress?"

"I'll never stop being irresistible in her eyes," he joked, planting a kiss on his left bicep. "But—" he added before Justin could say more, "despite my hunkiness, I'm afraid it was still for the best that we become buddies instead of lovey-dovies."

Justin raised his eyebrows. "Buddies?"

"Yup," replied Zeke before taking a sip of his coffee. "We were already kind of rocky during the summer. Ever since she started attending college, she's had no time for me. Which I totally understand, don't get me wrong," he added quickly at Justin's stern look. "But, well, the fire was dying out faster than we could both save it. So, finally, about a month ago, we decided to just let it be and become friends again."

A light feeling took over Justin, the sort of feeling one gets when realizing that the weather outlook was sunny for a weekend vacation. "I see," he was able to say as he nodded his head. "So, um, you two are okay though, right?"

Zeke grinned. "Of course! We've known each other for far too long just to let something like that completely break us apart."

"Right," Justin said absentmindedly as he lifted his cup to his lips.

Zeke watched him curiously, and smiled. "You know, I kinda got the feeling that she already had somebody else on the side."

Justin choked on his coffee. Zeke immediately offered his napkin to him, with a smirk evident in his face.

Justin rushed to his dorm apartment right after wrapping up his meeting with Zeke by showing him around a portion of the campus, unconsciously splashing people on the way with his quick strides. Once inside his residence, he gave out a huge breath as the relief that he had been feeling was finally released.

"Broke up," he said to himself. "They broke up!"

He punched the air with his fist as he continuously cried out, "Yes! Yes!"

A few minutes more and he finally settled down by his desk, frowning with a hand to his head.

"I gotta make this right," he whispered to himself. He stayed like this for a good while. Finally, an idea popped into his head and his eyes widened. Justin grabbed his wand from underneath his bed mattress, held it out and stood at the ready.

"I need my brother Max right now, hoo-ha-hoo-ha-hoo-ha-HA!"

Suddenly, Max appeared in the middle of the room, seeming to have been in mid-stride of some sort of a dance. He quickly stopped with the curve of his hip sticking out to the left and his upper body to the right. His eyebrows rose as he set his eyes on his older brother. Justin just stared at him, concentrating mainly on the revealing spandex that left little to the imagination.

"Uhm," Max started, still stuck on his pose. "I can explain."

Justin nodded slowly. "Yeah, I think you should."

Max lowered his arms and straightened his body. "It was Mom's idea," he started. "She said that it worked for her so maybe I should try it for myself. And," he smoothed his hands over his stomach to reiterate, "you gotta admit: the woman knows what she was talking about."

Justin watched his younger brother jokingly continue his dance routine in the small dormitory apartment. He couldn't deny that the workout must have been working because of Max's slimmer physique; not skinny, but relatively slimmer than when he had seen him during the summer. His limbs seemed like they were longer, his face smaller, and his neck higher. The only part of him that needed to catch up with the rest of his body was his round stomach.

I guess everyone is on a diet back home, he thought to himself.

He chuckled when he recognized various moves that Max was executing. "Zumba?" he asked. The answer was a quick nod and more dancing, now accompanied by humming. Justin became momentarily distracted before finally snapping himself back to the topic at hand; he grabbed a pillow from his bed and threw it at the dancing Max. The pillow hit Max on his butt and fell to the carpeted floor.

"Why didn't you tell me they broke up?" exclaimed Justin.

Max picked up the pillow. "Who broke up?"

"Zeke and Harper!"

"Oh," Max said slowly. "Right, that. I didn't tell you?"

"No, you didn't," Justin answered. He paced the room with both hands on his hips. "I have a chance, Max. I finally have a chance with her."

"Well, yeah, you always did," Max said matter-of-factly, sitting down on Justin's bed with the pillow on his lap. "But you messed up, remember? You told her you didn't love her."

"I didn't say I didn't love her. She just assumed it."

"But you didn't deny it."

Justin stopped pacing, a headache threatened to kick in. "Yeah, I was an idiot. But, another window of opportunity has opened up. I can fix this!"

"Right!" Max cheered, standing up from the bed and letting the pillow fall to the floor. "What's the plan?"

Justin frowned at him. "I—I haven't gotten that far into this yet. Actually. Yeah."

"That's cool, man. Let's brainstorm." Max took out his wand from underneath his spandex leggings (Justin mentally kicked himself for thinking that particular shadow was anything otherwise), waved it, and a black board appeared in the middle of the room, seeming to float in mid-air. A single piece of chalk appeared as well, much more alive than the black board, and floated near the board as if ready to write something.

"Okay," Max started. "Let's think. Think. Let's list what you did right," at this, the chalk wrote Things Did Right. "You hung out with her, and it was totally fun. You guys kept meeting up in the middle of the night, and it was totally hot because both of you were most definitely inappropriately dressed. You with your hairless chest and her with her bare legs…" at this, Justin glared at him.

Justin watched him start pacing within the space in front of the floating black board. The shadows on his form kept playing with his mind. When his uncomfortable level finally reached its peak, he took out his own wand again and pointed them at his brother. With a flash, Max's spandex outfit was replaced by a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt. Max seemed to not notice and just continued.

"Now," Max declared. "On to things that you did wrong." The chalk wrote Things Did Wrong with the word 'wrong' underlined twice for emphasis. Justin winced at this.

"You told her to buzz off before leaving for college. If I remember the story correctly, you inadvertently almost touched her crotch on your first night back." Justin glared at him again when Max winked at him. "You were totally hitting on her while she still had a boyfriend—"

"I wasn't hitting on her. I was just hanging out with her."

Max snorted. "Yeah, buddy. Keep telling yourself that." The chalk kept writing. "You kissed her. Oh yeah, I saw that!" Max pointed a finger at him accusingly when Justin's eyes widened. "And may I add again, she had a boyfriend!"

Justin's face turned red.

"And finally," said Max. "On the night of the karaoke madness. Would you like to fill in the rest for that one?"

Justin exhaled heavily. Even the chalk seemed to be looking at him. "She said that I probably," he rolled his eyes, "didn't know anything about her. I didn't exactly deny it." The scribbling sound of the chalk on the board felt louder than ever. "And, I—well—didn't deny that I didn't love her."

The chalk suddenly stopped, as if its personality is indicating that it was shocked at what it just heard.

"One more, dude," Max said. When Justin frowned at him, Max grabbed the chalk and wrote on the board with his own hand. The words 'Didn't run after her' was written at the very bottom of the list, making it reach the bottom edge of the board.

This made Justin's face feel hotter. While there were only two lines filled in for Things Did Right, the Things Did Wrong portion was precisely full. He shook his head at himself in shame. He crossed the room and sat down on his roommate's bed, glaring at the Things Did Wrong list. He read every phrase on the list; his eyes resting on each of them for at least a good moment. His eyes stopped at 'Didn't know anything about her,' and his mind wandered back to that particular night. He remembered the disappointment in her expression when he didn't deny this, and the growing sadness in her own eyes whenever she asked him a question about herself and he couldn't quite give her a correct answer. Suddenly, he raised his head in realization.

"That's it!" he exclaimed, rising up and walking towards the board. He poked a finger on the very phrase. "Max, this is the answer." He waited for Max to come closer. "If I can prove to her that I know more about her than she thinks, she'll at least forgive me for that."

Max nodded. "Yeah, yeah, you're right. But—do you know a lot about her?"

Justin shook his head.

"Right. And that is why this plan wouldn't work," said Max.

Justin quickly shook his head again. "No, Max. It has to be this one. I just gotta figure out a way to learn everything I can about her."

He paced the room again. Max paced with him, keeping in stride with only a step behind his brother. He stopped when he realized that his clothes have changed.

Justin stopped shortly after. "I've got it!" he exclaimed. "The Memory Vision."

"Eh?" Max made a face at him. "Come again?"

Justin turned to face him. "The Memory Vision. It's a television channel that shows you a moment in your life that you can't quite remember. It's mostly used by the older wizards, like Professor Crumbs who is like, uhm, uh, a hundred something something… something years old…"

Max eyed him strangely. "That's good and all, Justin, but, it's not like you can't remember when her birthday was. It's more like you don't know it at all."

Justin pursed his lips. "Right, but memories are subjective. I only remember what I want to remember. For all I know, there was probably a moment back then when she told me what her favorite type of burrito is and I just wasn't paying attention. If I show her that I know everything about her, that should show her how much I care about her."

Max nodded his head at him. "But, she must have done and said a lot of things around you and you just weren't paying attention. You would have to re-watch your entire life to find out everything about her. That could take forever."

Justin exhaled loudly. "Yeah…" he said slowly. "If I spend a few days out of the week to re-watch my life, it could take me years to watch everything."

His shoulders sagged with defeat.

"Although," he said suddenly. "If I spend every waking moment re-watching my life, it could take only a few months."

Before Max could say more, Justin suddenly yanked the door open and ran out of the apartment. Max ran into the hallway after him. "What are you doing?" he yelled.

"Filing for Medical Leave!" Justin's voice echoed back. Max just frowned at his retreating back.