Justin

          Multiple tables had been set up outside the sloping back lawn, little candles and festive poppers placed all over the tops, along with other delectable delights. The night air outside was cool and crisp, an occasional breeze blowing through the party guests. I breathed in deep, lung fulls of air, leaning against the back doors with my arms crossed. 

  So far, things had been going pretty well at this party. Sure, I'd been looking forward to hanging out with Nick and the guys, but in all honesty? I'd spent half the time already freaking out about Laila, wondering if she was purposely avoiding me because I hadn't manned up and kissed her, or wondering if Avery was muttering embarrassing stories about me to her as they walked off to where ever they were at the moment. 

  Yeah, you could say that was ridiculous, but I honestly couldn't put my mind at ease and I had no idea why. 

   "There you are, man!"

I glanced over my shoulder in surprise and saw Nick making his way towards me with a huge, devious smirk in place. My guard instantly went up. He definitely had some childish thing that he was bound to pull at least some time tonight.

  "What's up?" I said to Nick, slapping hands with him.

"Oh, nothing..." Nick trailed off, waving an airy hand. "Sorry it took so long to get here. I had to drop Maggie off at one of her annoying cronie's house." 

  I breathed a mental sigh of relief. Good. So Maggie wouldn't be here tonight. That automatically made things ten times easier. 

  "Nice night, isn't it?" Nick said conversationally a few minutes later.

 "It's just extraordinary," I said, trying hard not to sound sarcastic. 

  "Gorgeous," Nick agreed, not really paying attention to me. "Just gorgeous."

"Yeah," I nodded. 

   Where was he going with this? Actually, if I thought about it, I wasn't so sure if I really wanted to know.

  "Say, where's Laila?" Nick asked coyly, glancing over at me.

Ah. Of course. So that was why Nick was really here, bugging me - he wanted to talk about Laila.

  "Beats me, " I said, shrugging nonchalantly. "I think she's off with Avery somewhere." 

"Hm," Nick hummed in thought.

   He drummed his fingers against his crossed arms before he let out a triumphant shout.

"There she is!" he crooned, pointing a finger out at some point in the back yard. 

   I shuffled forward against my better judgement and glanced over at where he was pointing. Sure enough, there was Laila. She was laughing at something that Avery was saying, showing off her straight white teeth as she smiled. Her hair was let down from its usual twist, gently flowing to the middle of her back, and I had to admit that I much preferred it that way. Her hair had felt like strands of silk between my fingers - granted, the one time I'd actually gotten the guts to run my fingers through her hair. 

  "Hey, Justin?" Nick was saying, waving a hand in front of my face.

 I jerked a little in surprise and glanced over at him sheepishly.

  "Yeah," I said, albeit a bit shortly.

"Would you mind if I... uh, went to go talk to her?" Nick continued, making his voice light and airy. 

  I felt like shouting to the world that yeah, I really did mind if he went and talked to her, but that probably wouldn't have been the smartest thing to do. Considering my record hadn't exactly been the best lately, I wanted to start over with a clean slate where Laila was involved.

  "No," I ground out through my teeth. "I don't mind."

   "Really?" Nick pressed.

 "No."

  "You really don't have a problem with me going to talk to Laila?"

 "Not at all."

  "Okay. Well, that's good."

 "Good."

  "Okay, well, I think I'm going to go talk to her now."

"Right."

  "Seriously. I'm gonna go - like, right now."

  "You do that."

Nick gave me a curious, confused look before he walked off, jogging to catch up to Laila and Avery the farther they walked.

 As much as I wanted to pride myself in saying that I was a noble, honest, just young man - that wasn't really the case here. I watched as Nick reached Avery and Laila. They started laughing at something he was saying before he shuffled forward, closer to Laila in particular, and even had th enerve to put an arm around her shoulders.

   I started grinding my teeth together as Nick hugged Laila close to his side, and I could have sworn he tossed a smug smirk in the direction he definitely knew I was standing.

     Okay, so there was really no excuse for what I was going to do next. I'd been known to act irrationally before, and when Laila was involved - not to mention my jealousy, I guessed, too - I pretty much did whatever came to mind first. So without even thinking about what everyone else at the party was going to think, I stalked my way across the sloping back lawn towards the three.

   Before I could reach them, though, I was intercepted by Marshall, Alec, and Jack, to of whom were extremely roudy and hyper, shouting loudly.

  "Hey, man!" Marshall crooned, giving me a ridiculous smile while he waggled his eyebrows. 

"Hi," I said flatly, trying to sidestep the three of them so I could see what was going on with Nick, Avery, and Laila.

  "This is some party, man!" Jack said ecstatically, rocking back on his heels. 

"Tell me about it," I muttered, rolling my eyes. 

  "Good food, too," Alec interjected with a grin. 

   I thought back to that day at Sam's Club and all of its far reaching consequences. It was hard to tell if more good than bad had come out of that day. 

  "Pierre rocks," Marshall said, smirking.

   He noticed that I wasn't paying attention to the three of them in the slightest and glanced over his shoulder towards Nick, Avery, and Laila. He flushed bright red when he caught sight of Avery - and I'll admit that she did look quite pretty tonight - and quickly adverted his eyes, whipping his head back around. 

 I wondered if he was ever going to get the balls to go and talk to her. If he even paid attention, Marshall would've realized that Avery definitely had a thing for him.

  Marshall and Jack started going on this long tangent about how they couldn't wait for the fireworks to start, or how they were so going to pig out on as much food as possible, among other things. Alec and I simply stood back and watched them with bemused expressions.

  Okay, I was tired of waiting around. I was a man on a mission.

"I have something to go do," I said, changing the subject abruptly. "I'll catch up with you guys later, okay?"

  Before Jack, Marshall, or Alec could even say anything else, I marched past them, lengthening my strides until  I caught up to Nick, Avery, and Laila.

   "Excuse me," I said shortly to Nick, shoving him aside, before I spun Laila around, tugged her to me, and kissed her.

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Yay! It finally happened! How many people have been waiting for Laila and Justin to kiss? 'Cause I know I've been anxious to see how you as readers think about this chapter! Sooo....what do you guys think? haha(: 

  Thanks for reading, you guys!! Fans and comments and votes are what help keep me going! (:

Oh and I just had surgery yesterday, so I apologize if there are lots of typos (which there probably are!) D: