Justin

       I was seriously not in the mood to be messing around tonight. I’d been waiting for quite a few months for this summer bash that Nick was throwing, and even when my prospects had been dampened by Dad forcing me to take Laila, I wasn’t going to let anything ruin this night. Not by a long shot.

 “Laila,” I said, putting a hand on the truck to lean down closer to her. “Have you ever actually been to a party before?”

  Laila glared up at me, her chin jutting out. “Are you implying that I don’t have friends, Justin?”

I sighed, running a hand through my hair. “Laila, seriously. Are you scared or something?”

  “No,” she fired back immediately, flushing red. “I am not scared.”

 I arched an eyebrow. I was the one that did the lying and sneaking around. Laila Hayes was most certainly not well practiced in the art of what was supposed to be my forte.

  “Be honest with me, sweetheart. No more playing around,” I found myself saying seriously.

 I wasn’t sure who was more surprised – myself, or Laila.

  Laila let out a small sigh, and pinched the bridge of her nose, squeezing her eyes shut. I waited for answer, hoping she wasn’t about to start having a panic attack or something.

  “Look, I don’t know any of your friends, and I’m just not a really sociable person, and I’m just –“

  “Laila.”

  “– the nerdy type of girl who just totally skips parties, and – “

  “Laila.”

  “– I don’t even know why you bothered to take me to this stupid party, and – “

  “Laila!”

  She stopped babbling, going breathless, and stared up at me with her wide, innocent looking eyes.

 “It’s going to be just fine, all right?” I told her, actually sounding sympathetic for once in my life. “All of my friends have been dying to meet you, anyway.”

  Her face promptly turned a fetching shade of maroon.

 “You told your friends about me?” Laila demanded, her voice high pitched.

  I rolled my eyes. “Believe me, it’s sort of hard not to talk about you, Laila.”

 That caught Laila off guard for a second. She stared at me with a frown slowly forming on her face.

 “Are you being sarcastic?” she finally asked, sounding a bit offended.

  No.

“Totally.”

Laila fell silent, her face expressionless, and my stomach started twisting into knots. This wasn’t the time where I needed to stop someone from having a breakdown in public, because clearly, Laila was seconds away being thrown into one of them.

 “Look at me, Laila,” I said.

She kept her gaze firmly fixed on the ground, completely ignoring me.

  “Laila, look at me.”

I honestly had no idea whatever possessed me to even think about touching Laila, but apparently some part of my subconscious thought that would be the best thing to do in this situation. Without even thinking, I reached out to put two fingers under Laila’s chin, forcing her to look up at me.

 “It’s going to be okay, Laila,” I told her. “You’re going to have fun. And who knows? You may even meet some guy that’s hotter than me.”

  That did the trick. Laila forced out a laugh, a red blush coloring her cheeks. Glancing up at me blankly for a moment, the sort of embarrassed look on her face made me realize that I was still touching her.

 I abruptly dropped my hand and took a step backwards, trying not to seem too much like an uncoordinated idiot. It was probably too late for that, anyways.

 “Ready, sweetheart?” I asked her conspiratorially.

 “Yes,” Laila said quickly, nodding furiously. “Let’s go before I change my mind and kick you in the face for dragging me out here.”

  I scowled, a few choice insults jumping to mind, but I held them back. Laila was already freaking out about this party enough as it was, and the small, infinitesimal part of me that wasn’t a jerk wanted to try and at least be nice to her tonight.

 At least my indignant look managed to get another pretty little smile out of her.

  The second I walked through the front doors of my best friend’s house, all of the high school kids I’d gone to school with since junior high were swarming around, shouting out hellos and asking questions about how my summer was going.

   I wasn’t sure at all about how my popularity status was as high as it was. As much as I liked to pretend otherwise, I really was just another average everyday high school guy who did a lot of things he probably shouldn’t. Maybe it was because I had looks that society apparently deemed attractive. Or maybe it was because I was freakishly tall and everyone thought that I’d beat the crap out of them or something. Whatever the reason was, I found it annoying sometimes, but at other times I thought it was pretty sweet being surrounded by people who definitely admired you.

 “Hey, Justin! Lookin’ good!”

  “Yo, Richards. Staying out of trouble?”

 “Text me sometime, Justin!”

I replied with diplomatic answers, trying to make it seem like I wasn’t about to blow everyone off. The only reason I’d come here in the first place was to hang out with Nick and the guys. Everyone else, I didn’t particularly care for.

 Laila stuck close to my side - but not too close - obviously not wanting to get lost. Just as I was about to try and make a path outside, so at least we wouldn’t be suffocating with all of the crazily dancing high school kids, someone rammed into my side.

 I’d been expecting at some point this evening that I’d run into the man of the hour, Nick Petrolas. I just didn’t think I’d literally be running into my best friend.

  “Mi mejor amigo!” Nick crooned, trying to reach up to mess up my hair.

I rolled my eyes and punched him in the shoulder, knocking him back a few steps. Nick was a great guy and always good for a laugh, but he occasionally got a big head (who doesn’t?) and forgot that I happened to be six inches taller than him. That and I could probably flatten him to the ground without trying.

  “Long time no see, Nick,” I greeted him with a smirk.

“Back at you, man,” Nick said, rolling his eyes. “We just saw each other, like, what, the other day?”

 Under normal circumstances, I would have dragged Nick off and started talking about the enormous amount of things that guys normally talked about…. I guess. But I couldn’t exactly do that now, not with Laila.

  “Nick,” I said, trying to shake off the sudden bout of nerves that had just sprung up. “This is Laila.”

  Laila looked at Nick with a curious expression while he tried to act all cool and casual, like he hadn’t just smacked into me on purpose or anything. I didn’t blame him for trying to shape up his attitude in front of Laila – he could use a few etiquette lessons from her.

  “Hi, Laila,” Nick said, holding out a hand towards her. “I’m Nick.”

 “Hi, Nick,” she said, shaking his hand in return.

  Nick smirked, a devious glint in his honey colored eyes.

   “You’ve definitely been holding out on me, man,” he muttered, jabbing me in the ribs with an elbow. “You weren’t kidding.”

   I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from flushing and whapped Nick upside the head. So much for wishful thinking.

  “Have some class, Nick,” I snapped, irritated.

   Of course, my best friend just blew me off. 

 “God bless you for putting up with this guy,” Nick said in mock formality, grabbing Laila’s hands in his own. “You never know if you’ll come out alive with your sanity with Justin here.”

 Laila laughed, crossing her arms, watching the two of us with a bemused expression, her head tilted to the side. I hated to admit it to even myself, but the way she was standing and the pleasant look on her face just made her appear all the more gorgeous.

  And yeah, you could say that I was definitely aware of the fact that I wasn’t the only one noticing her, either. If it were up to me, I’d make sure no other guys but myself were around her tonight.

  “Are you two always like this?” she asked, sounding pleased.

“Since the third grade,” Nick chirped, punching my shoulder affectionately.

  “He’s more of an idiot, though,” I added, smirking. “He’s just trying to impress you.”

Nick fake gasped, pretending to look offended, and Laila just laughed.

   “I was wondering when you’d show up, Justin.”

   I glanced up at the sound of that horribly familiar voice, and my stomach started twisting into knots. Making her way towards our small group was Nick’s twin sister, Maggie. The girl was wearing a skimpy purple blouse that showed maybe a bit too much cleavage and tanned skin. Her legs were long and slinky, due to the fact that she worked out religiously, and she was wearing a short little jean skirt. Her hair was the same exact color as Nick’s, if not the same texture, except set in perfect blonde curls. Her eyes, although the same honey color as Nick’s too, held a mischievous sheen that her brother’s didn’t. Like she knew what she was out to get and would stop at nothing to get it, if it was something she really wanted.  

  I happened to be one of those things that she really wanted.

That was Margaret Ann Petrolas for you.

  I cracked a grin against my better judgment, trying to put on a happy face.

“Hey, Maggs.”

  “It’s about time you showed up,” Maggie smirked, lacing an arm through mine. “I was beginning to think you were avoiding me.”

  “I could never avoid you,” I said, albeit a bit sarcastically.

 I didn’t think she caught that.

   Out of the corner of my eye, I caught Laila staring at Maggie with a blank look on her face, and she looked considerably paler than she had a minute ago. Nick, on the other hand, just looked like he wanted to puke.

  “Where have you been?” Maggie demanded, her lips twisting down in a pout. “I haven’t talked to you at all lately.”

  “Nah, he’s been too busy entertaining Laila here to talk to you,” Nick interjected, sounding like a jerk.

  I shot a glare over at Nick who just smiled sweetly in return.

 Maggie’s gaze flickered over to Laila, and she looked her up and down, sizing her up for competition like most high school girls always instantly did whenever they were meeting some girl for the first time.

  And they said guys were ridiculous?

Laila, the poor girl, looked like she wanted to be anywhere else but here and was ready to sink through the floor as Maggie took on a confident smirk, as if she didn’t see anything at all in Laila worth getting worried over.

 I found myself irrationally angered by that, and I didn’t know why. It’s not like it should have mattered. Hell would freeze over and disaster would strike before anything happened between Laila Hayes and me.

 “And you are?” Maggie asked snidely, eyeing Laila with a pitying look.

 “Just a friend,” Laila replied nonchalantly, forcing a considerable amount of bravado into her tone. “And you are?”

“I’m Justin’s girlfriend.”

  Before I could even say anything to object, Maggie snaked her fingers around my shirt collar and yanked me down to her level so she could kiss me.

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