Chapter Four
“No, man. Verranos’ place got shut down. We can’t party anywhere anymore,” A.J told his older brother over the phone. “And…um...things are…um…”
“Getting weird?” His brother asked.
A.J sighed. There was no getting past his brother about anything serious.
“Yeah, a little bit,” A.J confessed.
“First summer back from college…yup, things are gonna get weirder.”
A.J was puzzled. “What are you talking about?”
“Well, as times change, people change. It’s just what happens, ya know? A.J, listen, go into my old room, my friends and I knew that it was up to us to stick together. Do you remember our first college summer; we rented that lake house in Central Harbor? We treated every day out there like it was a post prom party. Hell of a time. We capped it all off with a massive blow out. Best ever, it was legendary. My advice is to do that. By the end of the summer, you’re gonna see the big picture.”
After they hung up, A.J couldn’t help but wonder just what the big picture was. But he didn’t have time to worry about it just now. He had work to do.
Justin sat on his bed, tossing a baseball around. Here it was, the beginning of summer, and he had nothing to do.
Then, his stepfather came into the room, excitedly.
“She’s on the phone! She’s on the phone!” He yelled, coming into Justin’s room.
“Who?” Justin asked.
“She’s on the phone, it’s long distance!”
Justin rolled his eyes. “Who?” he asked again.
“Ryan! Ryan!”
“What? Ryan?” Justin asked. He couldn’t believe that Ryan still remembered him.
“New York. She’s on the_” He cut himself off as he picked up the phone. “Yes, dear. He’s right here,” he told Ryan.
“Here! Give it here!” Justin replied.
“Now, remember,…”Jerry reminded Ryan.
In NYC, Ryan Starr was in Central Park on a payphone. “Yes, I am sure to go see the Lion King,” she told Jerry.
“Right. And don’t ride the subway after midnight.”
Ryan smiled. “Okay,” she said.
“I know they’ve done wonderful things with that city, but you know for me, it’s still…ahhh.”
Justin couldn’t wait any longer. “JERRY!” he yelled.
Jerry finished rambling and handed Justin the phone. “He’s…a…right here…Hang on.” He left the room and closed the door.
“Hey, Ryan,” Justin said as suavely as he could.
“Justin! How was college?” Ryan asked excitedly.
“College was excellent…Yeah, it was really excellent,” he stammered. He didn’t understand why Ryan always made him so nervous.
“You have not forgotten about me, have you?” Ryan asked.
“No…I. absolutely not…I definitely didn’t.”
Ryan beamed. “Good, because guess what? I’m coming to see you at the end of summer. I hope you are ready for me, ‘cause I have not forgotten about you, either. You sexy boy.”
Justin nearly dropped the phone. Now he was scared to death.
Later that day, Justin, R.J, and Ejay were sitting outside of McKenna’s. It was closed for the day. No one said of much of anything, until Justin broke the silence.
“SHIT!” Justin moaned.
R.J shook his head. “Justin, you can eat hot dogs tomorrow,” he reminded him.
“No, no, R.J. It’s not the hot dogs,” he said, taking a deep breath. “Ryan called me this morning. She’s coming here at the end of the summer and she wants to see me.”
“What? That’s killer,” Ejay said.
“Yeah, that’s a good thing,” R.J added.
“No, not good thing. Not killer. I’ll never be able to do it. Ryan is going to be expecting Falamenion, okay? And all I’m gonna be able to give her is…rump roast.”
Ejay burst out laughing. “Awww! Come on, Justin! You’ve had experience since Ryan.”
“Ahh, yes. You would be referring to the flute fetish band geek that made me her bitch and ditched me after prom…Yeah, that’s great experience.”
“You just gotta find the right woman, Justin. Brings it all together.”
“I had the right woman. She just sells her cottage and takes off to parts unknown. Oh, my romantic life has past its peak! Take me out to the pasture and shoot me,” R.J mused.
“Super start to a super summer, fellas. Welcome home,” Ejay replied.
Suddenly, A.J showed up, out of breath and very excited. “Guys, I got it! Pack your bags!”
“For what?” Ejay asked in confusion.
“We’re moving to the lake,” he announced.
Back at Justin’s house, Ejay, Justin, and A.J were packing the entire luggage into Ejay’s truck. R.J was sitting in the backseat of the truck.
“We’re gonna be the shit! Everybody on the beach is gonna know us!” A.J replied.
“Plenty of opportunity to practice for Ryan,” Justin added.
“Throw a huge party at the end of the summer, cap it all off,” A.J said, putting the last suitcase into the truck.
“Whoa, dude. That’s a great idea. That way, we’ll be able to welcome Tamyra back and we’ll be able to prepare for Ryan’s big arrival,” Ejay said.
“This is it. This is my summer of love,” Justin announced.
“Just thought I’d say good-bye to you animals,” Jerry replied, coming out of the house.
“Hey! Mr. Guarini! How are you, sir?” Ejay greeted.
“Hey!” A.J added while R.J motioned a hello with his hat.
“All packed up, I see?” Jerry asked.
“Yeah, we’re all set, Jerry. Don’t worry, okay? We’ll be fine,” Justin assured his stepfather.
“Come on and give your old man a hug,” Jerry replied.
Justin looked at his friends and then his stepfather. He quickly hugged him and turned around to walk back to the truck, but Jerry grabbed him and gave him a big, loving hug.
After he finished hugging, Justin walked back towards the truck.
“Keep it real, homies!” Jerry said to the guys in the truck.
“You, too, sir! Have a good summer!” Ejay said to him.
“Alright, let’s go!” Justin replied.
“Hey, guys. I’ve been runnin’ these numbers here and I don’t think the four of us can afford this place. Not on summer jobs,” R.J warned.
A.J hesitated a little. “Yeah, well…I kinda thought of that, so I …invited someone else.”
“AWWW, YEAH! The Jimmeister is coming back to Central Harbor! Deck the halls, bye, bye River Falls, wipe my ass and lick my balls and it’s Jim time, baby! WOOOOOO HOOOOOOOO!”
In the front seat, A.J gave Jim and R.J, who were sitting next to each other, a lecture “Jim, if you’re gonna be livin’ with us, you gotta behave yourself. You and R.J just stay out of each other’s way.”
“A.J, Jim’s stench is unavoidable,” R.J complained.
“R.J, fist yourself,” Jim said to R.J
Jim stood up again and began to yell and shout again. “That’s right, baby! We’re here, baby! Woooo Hooooo!”
After about ten minutes of driving through town, the guys finally arrived at the beach house.
“It’s a palace,” Justin remarked while they stared at the house from the outside.
“It’s a temple,” R.J added.
A.J opened the door and walked into the house. “Isn’t this great?” he asked.
“Dude, are you kidding me? Look at this place!” Justin replied.
“Let’s explore this beauty!” Ejay exclaimed.
The guys walked around the house. Justin found his room, Ejay uncovers the pool table and R.J enters his own room.
“This just won’t do,” he mutters to himself, quickly eyeing the interior of his room.
Justin started jumping on his bed, R.J begins re-decorating his room with the Tantra items he bought, and Ejay spent time talking to Tamyra on the phone.
In town the next day, A.J found an advertisement for college students’ summer jobs on the bulletin board. He tore the sign off the wall and called his friends over.
“Guys, check this out. This is it,” he said.
The guys got hired instantly. They were working outside of someone’s house, repainting it. At the moment, they were taking a break. Everyone was eating a snack except R.J, who was meditating.
“Will you idiots tell me what this fucker is doing?” Jim asked. He poked R.J with a Slim Jim, snapping him out of his meditation.
“Don’t touch me while I’m Tantric,” R.J replied.
Jim made a face. “Tantric! What the fuck is Tantric?”
“It’s a Buddhist discipline. You learn to channel your bodies’ energies, your shocker’s. When you do that, you can have sex for hours. Even days.”
“And this stuff’s for real?” Justin asked skeptically.
“It’s been around for centuries. With Tantra, you can make an entire session of sex feel like one giant orgasm, Eventually, you can sustain that feeling by meditating,” R.J explained.
“Maybe you can teach me sometime?” Justin asked.
“Very doubtful,” R.J told him.
“I’m screwed,” Justin replied.
“Come on, J-Man! You can’t possibly be that bad,” Ejay disagreed
“Oh, no.”
“No way!” Ejay said.
“Well, I guess there’s only one person who knows that for sure, huh?”
“Oh, yeah? Where’s she this summer?” Ejay asked.
Justin left the house afterwards. He went to Wood Lake Band Camp to see the girl who had ditched him last year after prom night.
“Hey, are you here for the midsession performance? Guests go in the amphitheater. You can’t be here,” A geeky band camp boy told Justin as he tried to sneak into the camp through the woods.
“Do you know where I could find Kelly Clarkson?” Justin asked the kid.
“Guests bring food, food attracts animals. This one time, a bear came and then the bear had to be destroyed, which means they shot it in the head with a rifle and killed it and it died,” the boy explained.
“Yeah, you must know Kelly,” Justin said.
Justin wandered around the band camp, looking for Kelly. Suddenly, he came across her teaching flute to a pack of girls. Justin hid behind some bushes and watched Kelly with about 55 girls playing along with her.
“That’s a lot of flutes,” he mused.
The bell rang, sounding the end of class. Everyone left the class except Kelly, who was packing up.
Justin stepped out of the bushes. “Hey, Kelly!” he said casually.
“Justin! Holy potatoes! You’re really here?” Kelly said in shock. A band instructor walked by. “Oh, shoot!” Kelly replied, pulling Justin into the bushes. “We’re not supposed to have visitors. ‘Cause this one time, here, this kid had these cookies and_”
“Let me guess. A bear came,” Justin stated knowingly.
Kelly gave Justin a dorky grin. “Cool beans! It’s like, you know all our stories?”
Justin looked confused. “Was that a question?” he asked.
Kelly looked even more confused. “I don’t know…maybe…you wanna answer it anyway?”
Justin decided it was time to stop beating around the bush and explain why he was here.
“Kelly…Ummm…I left you, like, three messages after prom,” he told her.
“Really? You didn’t think I was weird, did you? ‘Cause of the way I acted that night?”
Justin shook his head. “Weird…no. Surprising, yes.”
Kelly smirked. “ I get nasty when I’m horny.”
“That’s kinda why I’m here…ummm…you remember…was I any good…that night?”
Kelly beamed. “Oh, wow…Jezz, how could I forget?” Kelly remembered as a big grin spread across Justin’s face.
“You sucked!” Kelly exclaimed.
The grin disappeared. “You didn’t know what the hell you were doing! But wasn’t it fun even though you were so terrible?”
“I’m sorry, terrible?” Justin choked.
“I’ve had worse,” Kelly added.
Justin looked disappointed. “Oh,” he said.
Kelly looked guilty. “Oh, I’m sorry. I…I…I could give you some pointers, if you want.”
Justin beamed. “Really?”
The bell had rung. “Oh, shoot. Okay, wait here. I’ll meet you here in an hour, okay?”
Justin shrugged. “Okay.”
Just then, Kelly had a brainstorm. “Wait! Cool idea!” she said, dragging Justin along with her.
NEXT