If I Was Your Boyfriend

‘Justin!’ I squirm in the muscular security guard’s tight grip. ‘Let go of me.’

‘Just stay here.’ He commands as the others rush towards the building. ‘They’re going to get him.’

‘Justin!’ I repeat wiping the stray tears from my face.

Justin comes out of the building without a single scratch on him along with the bodyguards. I finally break free and run to him. He holds me like he thought he never would again. I hide myself in his collarbone keeping him close.

‘I’m okay.’ He whispers to me, ‘I’m right here.’

‘I thought you were still in the room.’ I cry gripping the material of his shirt. ‘I thought that something happened to you all because I sent you back in there for the ring.’

‘You mean this ring?’ he smiles victoriously holding it up in the air.

‘You found it!’ I beam happily taking the ring from him, ‘Are you okay?’

‘Yeah my ears are just ringing like crazy right now but I’m fine. I was in the lobby on my way out when the explosion happened.’

‘I love you.’

‘I love you.’ He takes my hand and helps me into the van, ‘come on – let’s get out of here before anything else insane happens. I think my heart’s taken all it can handle for today.’

The plane with our parents, Danielle, and Garrett was gone to LA now. We were set to take a smaller plane to meet them there. My dad was traveling right now back to the states not knowing what was going on in Arizona. Justin hadn’t heard back from Holbrook yet but he was going to call the moment we landed. I climb onto the plane and Justin slides in by the window.

‘Everything’s going to be okay,’ Justin soothes leaning back in his seat.

‘Stop saying that.’ I retort looking over at him.

‘I just don’t want you getting worked up. It’s all taken care o-…’

‘No it’s not taken care of.’ I cut him off, ‘Will you wake up Justin, Carter is killing off cops and blowing up buildings when he hasn’t been out of jail for a week. He’s knocking anyone down who stands in his way. He isn’t trying to make some point anymore. This isn’t that stupid camera gimmick or hiding out in abandoned warehouses bringing me meals or telling me sob stories about his past. He’s not trying to scare us like when he ran us off the road in Canada. He’s serious. He wants revenge and he isn’t going to stop until he gets it. Someone’s going to get hurt sooner or later. Wait, we’ve both been in the hospital because of something that Carter did. He tried to run you over with a car, do you remember that? Our fans have been going half out their minds now for months because of all of this. There’s too much happening in such a short span of time. Now my little brother and sisters are right in his line of fire.’

‘What makes you think Carter blew up a hotel room when he was on the other side of the world.’

‘This,’ I drop the crumpled piece of paper into his lap, ‘So don’t you dare tell me that everything’s going to be okay when you know it’s not. We were never close to winning this. We never stood a chance against Carter.’ I carefully stand up and go to the empty set of seats in the back of the plane.

Justin’s Point of View

I was a kid who grew up without his father.

Now yours will be too.

- forever yours, Carter.

Somehow this sent me to a rage of fury I never felt before. The fact that he was willing to potentially harm an innocent child with all of this blew what was left of my mind. IF Chrissy was carrying my child Carter was willing to take me out of the equation. He’s so quick and clever when he doesn’t even know that she’s not pregnant. It’s Danielle. Well no one actually knows who’s pregnant because we have yet to make a statement about all of this. That part Chrissy said about the fans was definitely true. I bet that they sit at home thinking the absolute worst after the news reports another break in the story of Carter and Chrissy. I can’t remember the last time I logged onto Twitter to follow someone rather than making a statement. Carter’s walking around under the impression that Chrissy is carrying my child. Maybe we could use this to our advantage. I glance back to Chrissy who sat in the chair in the back of the plane fumbling with her fingers. I could see from here just how much all of this was taking its toll on her. We were supposed to be in Paris on vacation, celebrating her 20th birthday when Carter comes in again and ruins a perfectly good trip. Maybe it was ruined days ago. When I found that pregnancy test and automatically assumed it was here. I went out and planned this huge engagement within a matter of hours for her. She said yes and everything was good for a while until I found out it was Danielle instead of Chrissy. As I stiff out an exasperated laugh I pull out the shiny engagement ring from my pocket. The look on her face when I slid it onto her finger was priceless. It was an impeccable fit too, which surprised me that I managed to put together something incredible in such a short amount of time. I look at the ring in my hands then back at Chrissy again. It didn’t hit me until this very moment that we left that conversation in the hotel room at four in the morning. However Chrissy was drunk so I couldn’t really count that as us talking about it. I needed to know if Chrissy and I were still going through with this or not. I mean I’m not about to take back what I said or the ring.

‘Chrissy I want to talk to you for a second.’ I call on the plane turning in my seat, ‘Chris.’ I repeat causing her to finally look up at me with wet eyes.

‘What?’

‘Are you going to marry me?’ I question holding up the ring in the air, ‘one day?’

‘I’m not following you here.’ She stares at me confused.

‘I know that I proposed under the impression that you were pregnant,’ I start and she sighs looking away from me, ‘but I meant it. Every word. I know that I want to be with you now and forever. I know that there will never be another girl that I look at the way I look at you. I know that I can never make it in life without you right by my side. I also know that you and me are meant for each other. I think we’ve established that time and time again. And I know that we’re young but I feel like we’ve been through enough to age us a lifetime. So will you?’

‘Ask me again when this is all over.’ She merely responds with a tone that I couldn’t recognize.

But that’s exactly what I’ll do.

…

‘We’re here.’ I lightly shake Chrissy’s arm attempting to wake her up.

I step off of the plane to help load up the car that was taking us to the apartment. I know Chrissy would be eager to get to her dad but I’m sure the police have gotten to him now. As I’m loading the car with the flight attendants Chrissy sleepily steps off the plane rubbing her eyes. For someone who just woke up she looked like she was striding off some kind of runway. But better.

‘Gorgeous, isn’t she?’ I smirk at the man closing the trunk.

‘You’re a fortunate man.’ He bows in agreement shaking my hand goodbye.

‘Believe me – I know. Thank you for everything.’

‘My pleasure, sir. Take care.’

‘Thank you.’

Chrissy soundlessly climbs into the back after taking my hand to push herself up. I jump in beside her and close the door shut. She casually stares out the window taking in the familiarity of Los Angeles.

‘Let’s talk.’ I pipe up turning in my seat to look at her, ‘It’s too quiet in here.’

‘Talk about what?’

‘Going to London. To see Nichole walk at the fashion show. The four of us could meet up and go see the sites.’

‘That sounds like fun. I just wish Danielle and Garrett could make it but they’re probably not going to be leaving any time soon.’

‘Yeah Garrett told me that he would be on a strict lockdown as soon as his parents found out.’

‘Both of Danielle’s parents are very stern so I can’t picture how that conversation went.’

‘I told Garret if they needed anything during all of this that he could call me and I’d help them out.’

‘That’s nice of you.’ She smiles genuinely as she relaxes her head on my shoulder, ‘I’m sorry for how I spoke to you on the plane.’

‘Don’t worry about it,’ I wrap an arm around her pulling her close, ‘I get it. This is a lot for anyone to handle so if you need to shout at anyone. Make it me.’

‘I won’t shout at you.’ She laughs shaking her head, ‘I don’t like it.’

‘I do.’ I tilt my head back with laughter, ‘It’s actually really cute to look at. Your eyebrows knit together a little bit and a tiny little vein pops out right on the side of you-…’

‘Stop it.’ She places a hand on my mouth silencing me with a playful grin.

We make it to the apartment and I grab all of our luggage while Chrissy grabs up here presents from her birthday.

‘You really need to open those.’ I gesture to the boxes digging through my pockets for the apartment key.

‘I will, I will.’

‘Mine especially. I felt pretty confident when I was buying i-…’ I start to say when something knocks me over the head and everything goes black.