I Owe You

Vanessa was, at the least, confused. And at the most, worried. Confused because she didn't know who the people sitting in Justin's living room were, and worried because.. Well, they looked like him, they were most likely related to him. She just prayed to God they weren't his parents. That would be embarrassing.

But, her prayers weren't answered, and she found that out when Justin plastered a fake smile on his face and said, "Mom. Dad. What are you doing here?"

She gulped as he grabbed her hand and started walking towards the hard faced adults in front of them. The woman, who she suspected to be Justin's mother of course, looked her up and down with disgust.

"Well, we live here son." His father joked. Justin mumbled, "Doesn't look that way to me," Under his breath, but only Vanessa could hear it. She bit her lip at the sadness in his facial expression.

"But, you weren't supposed to be back from the movie for like three more weeks.." He reminded them. Now a fake smile crept it's way onto his mother's face.

"We have a few days off.. Oh, and I wanted to see you, of course.." Her eyes floated to Vanessa. "Who is this pretty little thing?"

Vanessa resisted the urge to reply with a sarcastic remark. "Vanessa." She told the woman, who was about three inches shorter than her.

"And how do you know Justin?" She asked coldly. Justin took that as his que to step in.

"She's my girlfriend, mother." Vanessa noticed he didn't hesitate, or even flinch when he called her that. The thought almost made her smile.

Almost.

"I thought you were with Kayley! I always loved her.." Another disgusted look was thrown Vanessa's way.

"I dumped her ages ago. If you guys were around half the time you'd know that."

"If you would agree to be home schooled and just travel with us then we would be around." Vanessa flinched at the hardness of the woman's face. If they had been gone so long, why weren't they hugging their son? Kissing his cheek and saying that they missed him? That's what her parents would have done..

"Would you stop with the home school crap? I have friends and everything here, I'm not leaving just to go with you and dad to film boring ass movies."

And that's when she did it. That's when Justin's mother slapped him. Her face was hard and cold, and his face was growing with anger. Vanessa just then noticed that his father was no where in sight, so he didn't see what happened. Maybe he never sees what his mother does, if she does this a lot. From the expression Vanessa saw on Justin's face, it had happened before. Many times..

She wanted to cry. What kind of mother did that to their only child? She could feel his grip on her hand tightening as he stepped back, pulling her with him. They went straight out the front door and into his car. With him so worked up, she didn't really want to be in a car with him. At a time like this, not that he parents ever hit her, that would be horrible, she would probably want a hug. So she did what came instinctively to her.

She climbed over to the drivers seat and placed herself in his lap, then wrapped her arms around his neck, laying her head on his shoulder. After a few seconds, she felt two arms make their way around her waist. And after another few seconds, she heard sobbing. She then knew why he never wanted to talk about his family. Well, if you wanted to call those things family.

She didn't know how long they sat there, just hugging each other. She didn't really care either. She knew he needed it. Hell, she kind of needed it too.