Chapter 40 – Oh, God... please stop talking.

Lucy's POV

At ten past twelve in the afternoon I stand at the bottom of the steps leading up to Justin's house, half praying that Justin isn't home today. However, the fact that it's a Saturday makes it much more likely that he is as he won't be at school, which is all the more reason why my feet seem to be stuck to the ground right now.

I was woken up this morning at nine by an extremely bouncy Amy who was all but ready to march me over to Justin's house straight away for me to (as she puts it) declare my undying love for him. Luckily I managed to convince her to at least let me get ready first, intentionally making the usual mundane tasks of showering and getting dressed over twice as long as I usually take to put this off for as long as possible. Of course, though, I wasn't able to put it off forever. So here I am.

The only reason I haven't run for the hills already is the fact that, if I do this today, Amy will agree to having coffee with Dean the next time she sees him, which will most likely be at the next Pack meeting we have.

Sighing to myself, I force my feet slowly up the marble steps before coming to another stop in front of the massive mahogany door.

Okay, I've come this far, now all I have to do is ring the doorbell.

Taking one last deep breath, I reach my hand up and press the button in, listening to the chiming echo within the house that follows.

I can do this, I can do this, I can do this-

My mental mantra cuts off when the door swings open to reveal Justin stood in some black sweatpants and a dark grey T-shirt.

I can't do this, I can't do this, I can't-

"Hey," he greets, a somewhat confused smile curving at his lips.

"Hi," I reply, my voice sounding squeaky and surprised.

Queue the mental face palm. Why should I sound surprised to see him? I'm at his house for crying out loud!

"Is... everything okay?" he asks

"Yeah," I say, feeling proud that my voice comes out sounding more normal this time. "Um... I need to talk to you."

After a few seconds of studying me, still clearly confused as to what I'm doing on his doorstep, he seems to realise what it is I want to talk to him about.

"Er, sure, come on in," he says eventually, stepping back and opening the door wider for me to enter before shutting it behind me.

"Where is everyone?" I ask when we walk into the empty living room.

"Mum and dad left a little while ago to go shopping," he explains, sitting down on one side of the sofa whilst I take the other. "And I think Devlin's gone to meet up with Jess."

"Oh, okay," I say, not really sure what other response I could give.

"So... you wanted to talk?" he asks, cutting straight to the chase when he comes to the quick realisation that I'm procrastinating.

"Um, yeah..." I reply before trailing off.

Why is this so hard? It's just Justin. Not to mention the fact that he's made it perfectly clear that he wants to date me. What am I supposed to say to him, though? How the hell am I supposed to word it?

"About...?" he prompts when it becomes clear that I've fallen to another standstill.

"About us," I admit, causing him to smile nervously, obviously unsure of which direction I'm taking this conversation in.

"What about us?" he asks.

"I..." I start before sighing and running a hand through my hair. "Okay," I try again, turning to face him and folding one of my legs underneath me. "So I've been thinking about what you said back at the lake... you know, about giving us another chance."

"And...?" he prompts, unable to fully hide the hope in his voice. "What conclusion have you come to?"

"I haven't forgiven you yet," I tell him, wanting to make that perfectly clear. "It's going to take time for me to trust you again but – but I'm willing to try if you are."

"Really?" he asks, sounding as though he can hardly believe I'm actually agreeing.

"Really," I confirm. "But there's something I think I should tell you."

"Uh oh, this doesn't sound good," he says warily.

"Beck and I kissed yesterday," I admit sheepishly, waiting for the nuclear explosion that is bound to be his reaction.

For a few seconds his expression remains blank as he digests this new piece of information before, eventually, he just sighs.

"I knew that ass had a thing for you," he mutters with a frown, which then causes me to frown.

So... no big nuclear explosion?

"I – I thought you'd be mad," I mumble, still studying him closely.

"Well I've got to admit, I'm not exactly happy," he replies, his frown still in place, "although I'm also confused. When we left you two yesterday you looked like you were about to rip his head off."

"Yeah," I agree. "It was... complicated, I guess. So, you're really not angry? I thought you'd be raging right now, it's no secret you and Beck don't exactly get along."

"No, I'm not angry," he sighs. "I mean, I'm not thrilled either but, I guess I can't complain too much. I'm guessing it even helped you come to a decision about us, right?" I nod in agreement. "Yeah, that's what I thought, so I really can't complain, although if you were to kiss him again I'd most likely break his face. Anyway, it's not like we were even together so you didn't do anything wrong."

"And what about now?" I ask, wanting to completely clear things up to prevent any further confusion between the two of us. "Are we together now?"

"Are you sure you definitely want to be?" he asks.

"Yes," I reply without hesitation.

Smiling, he leans over and places a single soft kiss on my lips.

"Then yes," he murmurs. "Yes we are."

"Okay then," I say with a small grin before leaning in to kiss him again.

At first, that's how the kisses stay: small, sweet and somewhat shy even, which is something I totally didn't expect from Justin. Eventually, though, the predestined bond between us begins to take hold as the kisses become slightly longer and hotter, to the point where I kick my shoes off and Justin carefully pushes me down so I'm lying with my head against the pillow on the arm of the sofa. He moves to hover half over the top of me with his one side still lying to the side of me. There's nothing rushed about the way that we move, though. In fact, Justin's still being extremely tentative with the kiss, almost as if he's testing the waters as to not push me too far too fast, which I can't help but find endearing. My hand moves up to twist into his hair as his moves to rest on my hip and I twist slightly so we're both lying on our side, deepening the kiss as I do so.

This kiss is different than the other ones I've had with Justin, it seems more... real. Not only that, but I also don't have to feel confused whilst kissing him anymore, which means I'm actually able to turn my brain off for a while and just enjoy it.

That is until the sound of someone clearing their throat enters the room, causing us to spring apart and sit up quickly. Looking over, we find both David and Wendy stood in the doorway holding two shopping bags each. My face flames up immediately.

Oh, God, how embarrassing!

I quickly drop my face so that my hair's partly covering my face, wishing for the sofa to just open up and eat me now. Suffocating in a sofa seems like a much better option than facing two extremely smug parents of the guy I was just caught making out with.

"Mum... dad," Justin says in an awkward greeting.

"Hi," David says with a smirk. "We're just going to..." he trails off and holds up the shopping bags slightly before moving into the kitchen to put the shopping away, shortly followed by Wendy.

My hands immediately move up to cover my face, which is no doubt now a brighter red than my hair.

"Jesus Christ..." I mutter after a few seconds, turning to rest the back of my hands against Justin's shoulder as my palms still cover my face, causing him to chuckle slightly. "This is not funny, idiot," I mutter, pulling away and elbowing him in the ribs lightly.

"Ow," he complains even though it was too light to hurt. "Okay, okay, I'm sorry. You're right, it's not funny, but it was pretty damn unfortunate."

"I hate you," I grumble, still completely embarrassed.

"You lie," he accuses with a grin before grabbing my hand and pulling me up off the sofa. "Come on."

"Wait, what? Hell no!" I hiss as he tows me in the direction of the kitchen. "What are you doing?"

"Come on, Luce, would you rather get the awkwardness over with now or at the next Pack meeting?" he asks, giving me a 'you know I'm right so stop complaining' look.

"Kill me now," I sigh right before we both step into the kitchen and find David and Wendy both putting the shopping away.

This was so not part of my plan today.

"Do you need a hand?" Justin offers, motioning to the remaining shopping when they both turn to look at us.

"No, it's okay," Wendy says, apparently unable to hide her smile as she glances at me which causes a second wave of flames to reach my cheeks. "Hey, Lucy."

"Hi," I greet awkwardly, moving to sit on one of the stools.

"Is Devlin still out?" David asks, grabbing the butter out of the bag nearest to him and walking over to put it in the fridge.

"I think so, we haven't heard him come in," Justin replies.

"You didn't hear us come in either," David points out with a raised eyebrow.

Oh, God... please stop talking.

"He said he probably wouldn't be back until four," Justin informs, clearly ignoring his dad's obvious hint.

"Oh, good, so he'll be back for dinner then," Wendy says with a smile, placing the cereal in the cupboard above the microwave. "You're welcome to have dinner with us too, Lucy, if you want," she then adds on and my eyes widen dramatically.

"Oh, um..." I trail off in a small voice. How do I politely decline this offer of an obvious grilling session?

"Mum," Justin says, his voice warning her to back off.

"What?" she asks back innocently. "I'm just asking her to have dinner with us."

"It's okay, Wendy, thanks for the offer but I should probably be getting home soon," I quickly speak up before Justin has a chance to argue further.

"Oh, that's a shame, are you sure?" she asks.

One hundred fucking percent.

"Yeah," I reply with a shy smile.

"Before you go," David says, turning to look at me as I internally cringe. What now? "What happened with Beck yesterday?"

At first I completely freeze up, thinking that he's on about the kiss, before realising that he just means in general.

Well, duh, how the hell could he know about the kiss anyway, idiot?

"He's not with the rogues anymore, he told me he left that life when he was sixteen," I inform them.

"Do you believe him?" Justin asks, sounding slightly sceptical.

"Yes," I reply without hesitation.

"And you think he can still be trusted?" David asks.

"Yes," I repeat.

That's if he'll ever talk to me again...

"Okay then, I guess we'll just have to trust your judgement on this one. You haven't let us down so far," he says with a smile. "I'm going to call a meeting tomorrow so we can figure out the next step. Do you think you could tell Beck? I think he should be there too."

"Um... sure... I can try," I agree reluctantly. It's not like I can put off talking to him forever anyway.

"No way are you going on your own," Justin says with a frown, clearly not liking the idea of me going to Beck's at all... not that I can really blame him, I suppose.

"Well you sure aren't coming with," I argue. I can see right now how that entire situation would go down and it definitely isn't pretty.

"Why the hell not?" he argues back.

"You know why the hell not," I reply, making it clear that I'm not backing down on this.

"Fine," he eventually sighs after staring me down for a few seconds, "but at least take Devlin with you. I trust him enough to be able to keep you safe if anything happens."

I roll my eyes at his protectiveness and give him a sarcastic salute, not quite sure if he means with the rogues or between Beck and I or both.

"Okay," I agree.

"Good, I'll ask him when he gets back."

Glancing over at where David and Wendy stand watching us as they've finished putting the shopping away now, I decide it's time to go when I see their amused smiles.

"Right," I say as I quickly hop off the stool and onto the floor. "Well, now that that's sorted, I should probably get going."

"I'll walk you out," Justin says with a small understanding smile as he catches sight of his parents' identical looks.

We both make a quick exit out of the kitchen and remain quiet until we're right by the front door, not wanting David and Wendy to be able to hear us talking.

"Sorry about my parents," Justin says with a sigh as he opens the door for me.

"It's okay," I say with a quiet laugh. "It's just going to take some getting used to, I guess. Besides, I'm not the one who has to deal with them for the rest of the night."

"Ugh," he groans before placing his hands on my waist and pulling me closer to him. "You sure you don't want to stay for a bit longer? We could watch a film or something, I'll even let you pick Finding Nemo, and it'll be long finished before dinner's ready."

"Ah, tempting..." I say with a grin, wrapping my arms around him in a loose hug and reaching up on my tiptoes to give him a quick kiss. "But not tempting enough. Have fun dealing with your parents."

"You're pure evil," he sighs, letting go as I step away from him.

"Yes I am. I'll call you tonight or something," I say.

"Okay," he sighs dramatically before a small smile curves at his lips. "I'll talk to you later then."

After one last goodbye kiss I turn around and hop down the marble steps, turning around to wave before I start my walk home and he closes the door.

(Hey guys!!! Sorry!!! I know this is a really late update but chapter 40 is FINALLY here!!! I'm not quite sure if I like it or not, it was a pain to write as I struggled to word things right and I think it might show but I tried my best. I know some of you are going to hate me for picking Justin but, in all honesty, I'd never planned on Lucy getting with Beck. In my head they're not really compatible as anything more than friends. Some of you might complain that I'm being really cliche and stuff but I don't really care. Not all cliche's are bad and I don't see the point in changing my entire plan for the story just because some of you don't like it. It is my story to write, after all :) 

The reason this took so long to update isn't just because I struggled to write it, though, it's also because I'd forgotten I had two weeks of compulsory summer school at college. It SUCKED!!! There was absolutely no point in it whatsoever and was a complete waste of everyone's time. On the last day there were literally FOUR of us there so the teachers just let us go early. I've also been hanging out with my friend's quite a bit which cut into my writing time. A group of us went to the beach on Friday and my feet got so sun burnt they looked like I'd pumped Botox into them. It was extremely painful to say the least but they're kind of healed now so I have these really tanned feet but my legs are white still. It looks so weird, haha :')  

ALSO, I did the Race For Life yesterday which was cool :) It was one of my new year resolutions and I'm proud that I've actually completed one in the history of ever. I usually just forget I made them.

Anyways, you guys probably don't want to waste your time hearing about my life so I'll quickly wrap this up because I'm tired and have work tomorrow. Thanks for reading this chapter/story and don't forget to Vote/Comment/Add/Follow if you think it's worth it. There might be quite a few mistakes in this chapter as I've not read through it, I'll make sure to go through once the story is finished and fix any errors. So, yeah, until next time (I'm not sure when that will be but i'll make it as soon as I can, hopefully sometime this week or early next week) byee!!!)

(P.S. Some of that A/N might not make sense, I'm not really sure. I'm seriously in a zombie-tired state right now so sorry if I've just written a confusing ramble haha :) )