*******
To everyone's surprise, the refrigerator had been fully stocked before the majority of the house's inhabitants even arrived. Margot thought she was in heaven. The selection of food was unbelievable so she decided to cook her specialty; Philly cheese steaks and fries. Since she was a little girl, dancing and cooking were the only two things she felt she truly did well. Her love for dance somehow diminished, but her love for cooking never left her.
"What smells so good?" Justin marveled.
"Steak and fries." Chris responded shortly. All the guys looked around the dining room table at each other and smirked.
"Well, who's cooking? We're all here�"
Lance looked at Justin as if he'd lost his mind. "Who do you think is cooking, man?" Justin just shrugged.
"All right boys, eat up! I don't want to see a scrap left on this tray. Your friend JC here told me about your appetites and I don't want to be disappointed." Margot joked as she set a huge platter of sandwiches and French fries in the middle of the table. Four of the guys smiled widely and dug right in. Justin looked skeptically at the chef. She noticed his stare and arched an eyebrow at him.
"What, do you think I poisoned it or something? Trust me, I wouldn't do that. Especially when all the other guys have been so nice to me. There's no way I could separate your sandwich from the rest."
He glared at her while Margot continued to stare right back. After a few minutes, JC noticed the tension in the room and stopped scarfing down his delicious lunch. He looked between his two friends and gulped, hoping one wouldn't scratch the other's eyes out. Margot broke eye contact with Justin for a second to look down at the remaining cheese steak and few fries still left on the platter. She glanced back up at him and spoke frighteningly calmly.
"Your food is getting cold."
Now all eating had ceased and everyone in the room looked closely at Justin, waiting patiently to see what he would do. He let out a loud breath and pushed his chair back, rising from his seat. He came eye to eye with Margot, and while noticing that she was only a few inches shorter than he, he realized intimidating her with his height was no longer an option. He stared her down for a few more minutes but found himself flustered under her unwavering gaze. Intense green eyes he'd never took notice of before. Intense green eyes that he found himself infuriatingly lost in. He snapped out of his daze, looked down at his room temperature sandwich and picked it up. Margot's eyes followed him carefully as he walked to a nearby trashcan. She drew in a sharp breath and allowed her bottom lip to fall slightly when the cheese steak hit the bottom of the canister. Her irate eyes darted up to meet his disgustingly victorious ones. He smiled cruelly at her before walking out of the room.
"Thanks, but no thanks."
A few seconds later a loud slam echoed grimly through the beach house. No one spoke. The four remaining guys watched Margot keenly, hoping she wouldn't break down and cry. Little did they know, she'd stopped crying over spilt milk years ago. She walked to the tin trashcan and looked down at her edible creation. She'd always prided herself in her knack for cooking. She loved cooking and before this day, she'd never had one complaint over her meals. But that was before this day and she'd been introduced to many firsts in just this span of twenty-four hours.
"That was the first time I've ever seen anyone whine about a free meal. Ah well�" Margot shrugged and walked out of the room. Chris looked around the table at his best friends, excluding the youngest, and apparently, most temperamental.
"What the hell was that?" he wondered out loud. Lance shook his head and Joey followed suit.
"I knew some messed up shit happened between him and Britney but I had no idea it was that bad."
"You mean bad enough for him to completely disrespect a beautiful woman he's just met?" JC asked, very unhappy with the scene he'd just watched.
Joey nodded. "That was totally uncalled for. He needs to apologize now." Chris nodded and rose to go talk to his confused friend. JC put a hand on his shoulder and pushed him back in his seat.
"Let me, I'm the reason she's here in the first place." Chris nodded and relaxed in his chair while JC bounded up the staircase.
*******
Justin heard a faint knock at his door and turned to face it. He knew it wasn't her, but he didn't want to open the door all the same. He waited a few minutes for the person to go away and almost calmed down when he heard footsteps walk down the hall. He listened closely to the faint voices outside his door.
"Hey, are you�ok?"
"Yeah, I'm fine, why wouldn't I be?"
Justin cringed. Margot.
"Because Justin was a serious ass to you."
"JC, I'm fine. Just because your little friend doesn't want to eat my food, doesn't mean I'm going to have a hissy fit. I'm a lot tougher than you give me credit for."
JC sighed. "Yeah, well, ok. I was just going to talk to him and straighten things out. I don't want to spend my entire vacation walking on thin ice for fear that two of my friends are going to rip each others' hair out." All speaking ceased for a few moments and Justin almost thought the conversation was over. Almost.
"You consider me a friend?"
"Well, yeah�"
Justin had to strain his ears, but he thought he heard her sniffle. He felt his features softening considerably but mentally slapped himself while repeating in his mind that she was a woman and all women are trouble.
"Will you excuse me."
"Yeah, but Margot what's-"
Justin heard her run down the hall and close her door behind her softly. JC sighed again before knocking on the door again.
"Justin, let me in." he spoke firmly. He rose from his bed and took a deep breath before opening the door. JC didn't even look at him and barged into the room.
"Hey!"
JC looked up from his seat on the bed and almost bore two holes in Justin's head with his icy blue orbs. Justin found himself fidgeting nervously under his stare and sat down in a nearby chair. After what seemed like an eternity, the silence in the room was broken.
"What do you have to say for yourself?"
Justin looked up quickly and caught JC's eyes in his own again. He immediately shifted his gaze back to the carpeted floor.
"Wha- what do you mean?"
JC rolled his eyes. "You! What is wrong with you today?"
"I just don't like her." he responded tensely.
"You don't like a whole lot of people, but what you just did to her was completely unacceptable. Why are you acting this way? What did she ever do to you?"
"Nothing! I just-"
"Exactly. Nothing. Which is why you need to go and apologize right now." JC interrupted.
"I can't! I mean, I can, but I'm not going to. I don't like her, I don't want her here, and no one is going to change my opinion of her. I don't care how nice she is to all of you, she's not nice to me-"
"And you know why she's not nice to you? Because you're totally vicious to her. Why should she be nice to you when you couldn't care less about her feelings?"
"JC please get out of my room-" Justin asked quietly.
JC started again, much softer this time. "Listen Bounce, I know you and Britney had some problems and you don't really-"
"JC, please get out of my room." He asked, a little firmer.
"Justin, you really need to get over it and-"
"JC GET OUT!" he screamed. JC was taken aback by his friend's outburst. Justin wasn't the calmest person on earth all the time, but he hardly ever showed his anger as freely as he was right now. "I'm sick of all of you telling me what to do! Telling me how to live my life and when to get over things! I'm tired of you trying to be my father JC! I already have a father! Two of them if you wanna get technical and I sure as hell don't need anymore! So I'd greatly appreciate it if you could please leave my room and leave me alone."
JC got up from the bed and strolled to the door. He shook his head slowly to himself and walked out without saying a word. Justin watched the door close softly behind him and he fell down face first on the bed. A long sigh escaped his lips after he mumbled into the blanket to himself,
"Shit."
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