~Althia~

"Do you have any place in mind that you want to go to specifically?" Justin asked me as he pulled out of a parking space

"Not really, you can choose since you asked me to do something" I answered him

"That's right, okay" He responded

It was the Thursday after our last exam and Justin had asked me yesterday after our mechanics exam if I wanted to do something with him. I agreed and he somehow managed to convince Montgomery to let him borrow his Jeep.

"How do you think you did on your last exam?" I asked him after a couple minutes of silence

"I think I did pretty well but yet again I had English and I didn't even finish reading any book that was on the exam" He shrugged

"Justin!" I laughed "How can you say you think you did good but then add that you haven't read any single book that you needed to read?" I asked him

"Hey, I never said that I didn't read them" He said "I said that I didn't finish any of them but I don't think I really needed to since there was no question about the end of any" He added

"I-" I went to start but stopped myself "Well that's good at least" I said instead

"No, what were you gonna say?" Justin looked at me as we stopped at a stop sign

"I was just gonna say that I don't get how people don't finish the books assigned in class" I told him

"It's pretty easy, you just pretend to read in class by using your book to cover yourself playing on your phone and if you need to read at home, you just don't do it" He shrugged in response

"Ugh that's not what I meant" I rolled my eyes

"Here, I'll put it this way... Not everyone reads for fun like you, actually I'm pretty sure you're the only one who even reads any of the assigned books and I'm 100% sure you're the only one who has read the assigned books outside of school for fun" He told me "You're the only one who I can think about that enjoys those lame ass books" He added

"They're not lame" I argued "Animal Farm is such an easy read and Macbeth is so easy too, you just gotta know that the prophecies the witches give Macbeth are all gonna become true and that he eventually loses his mind as his psycho wife pressured him into killing people before she eventually dies too" I told him

"I had to watch all of the Macbeth movies to understand the stupid play and Animal Farm is full of symbolism or however the fuck you call it and I don't get it" Justin contradicted

"Animal Farm is about the Solviet Unit and each pig represents someone, Jus" I said as I turned a bit in my seat to look at him fully

He had a smile plastered on his face as he shook his head

"How does that even work?" He asked

"Because the author, obviously, couldn't write a book and use the name Stalin in it or else he would have gotten killed, so he decided to use animals instead" I started "All of the actions that the animals do represents what really went down in Russia, from turning everyone against Snowball to making an alliance with the neighborhood farms. It all means something" I continued

"See that's the thing, why make up a bunch of characters using fucking animals if it all means something else? The idiot who wrote this book should have just took one for the team and wrote the story the way it was in real life, it's not like nobody knew what he was writing about during the time. This Stalin dude really has to be a fucking idiot to not realize that the book is about him supposedly" Justin told me "Also, you didn't mention Brave New World, what was that about? Because I don't think I even read the first chapter of that book, not after they talked about making people in laboratories" He questioned

I bit my lip to stop myself from laughing

"What?" He glanced over at me

"You see..." I trailed off

Justin looked at me again as we stopped at a red light

Suddenly, he gasped

"You didn't fucking read it!" He exclaimed "And here you are giving me shit because I didn't read the stupid books when you haven't even read all of them either" He added

"I tried" I defended myself

"You're so fake" Justin continued "Giving me a speech about how the books weren't bad and not hard to grasp when you didn't even bother reading one of them" He said

I laughed slightly at how heated he was getting

"It was such a weird fucking book and it was science fiction and I hate that so much, you don't even know" I told him "Plus, I may not have read the book but I looked at the Sparknotes so I still know what happened" I added

"Sparknotes?" Justin questioned

"Oh my god, you don't know what Sparknotes is?" I asked him "You should really just look at notes for the books you don't read because maybe then you'll actually know what's going on in the stories" I added

Justin started to laugh

"Holy shit, Ee-Ah, I'm not a complete idiot you know" He chuckled "I obviously scan the Sparknotes for each book, sometimes" He added

I opened my mouth to say something but Justin slowed down to pull over by the curb

I quickly looked around and realized that we were in the next town over

"How long have we been driving for?" I asked Justin as he turned the engine off

"A little over half an hour, maybe 45 minutes" He answered

"Oh wow" I responded since it didn't even feel like that long and we only talked about one thing

"Just know you're the only one I would talk to about books for that long" Justin said to me before opening his door

I did the same and joined him on the sidewalk where he led me towards a building

"What is this?" I asked him as we walked inside

I looked around and saw a couple of people sitting down as they drank and painted

"You'll see" Justin responded

The lady at the cash greeted us and I let Justin do the talking since I had no clue what was going on

Justin paid and he led me towards a booth in the back

Soon the same lady from the cash came and gave us art supplies as well as a canvas

"It's an art cafe" Justin told me as she left

"No way" I exclaimed as I grabbed my canvas "How did you find this?" I asked him

"A little research can go a long way" He answered, making me smile

We decided to split the oil pencils between us before getting started

I thought about what I wanted to draw and a coffee cup with a croissant came to mind

"Do you want something right now or later?" Justin questioned as I started stenciling my idea

I looked up from the canvas and he gestured to a small menu on the table

My eyes scanned it quickly and they landed on their iced coffees

"I'll take a vanilla iced coffee" I told him "What do you want?" I asked him as I got up

"No no no, you sit down" He shook his head "I'm gonna go get us our drinks and pay for them" He added

"Jus, you paid for us to paint. Let me pay for our drinks" I told him

"No, I asked you to come here so I'm the one that's gonna pay for everything" He argued

I opened my mouth to say something but he continued

"When you ask me to go somewhere with you then you get to pay but for now, it's me" He said

I stuck my tongue out at him and sat back down, knowing that I won't be able to get my way

"Thank you" Justin smiled "Now go back to tracing lines or whatever you're doing" He added

I shook my head and giggled slightly as I watched him walk up to the register.

//

"So how's everything with Zach?" Justin asked me after half an hour of comfortable silence as we both focused on our drawings

"They're going good" I answered honestly "I mean it's still awkward at times but it's starting to feel like how it was before we dated" I continued

"That's good" He nodded

"How about the two of you?" I questioned as I peeked above my canvas to try and see him

"It's going as good as it can go" Justin said "I mean, he makes comments at times but I don't blame him. I would kinda hate the guy who ruined my relationship too" He laughed slightly

"Jus, he doesn't hate you" I shook my head

"Yeah, I guess" He replied "I just realized I never asked you how your exam went today... How did it go?" He changed the subject

"Considering it was Chemistry, I think I did pretty well" I answered "Zachy and I studied so much, but there was still almost half a section that I feel like I did horrible on" I added

"Not almost half a section!" Justin gasped

"Oh shut up" I threw him one of the oil pencils

Justin caught it and threw it back at me, almost hitting my canvas down

"Watch it" I hissed at him playfully

Justin mimicked me as we both laughed before continuing our drawings

//

"Please let me see it" I said to Justin for what felt like the hundredth time since we have gotten back in the car

Before we left, Justin asked to see my drawing and I gladly showed it to him. But when I asked to see his, he refused and held it close to him

"No, maybe some other time" He replied with the same answer he has been giving me

I crossed my arms and sank back into my seat

"What are you doing tomorrow for your day off?" Justin asked me to change the subject

"Jess and Jeffy are coming over and we're literally gonna do nothing but binge watch a series" I answered "Maybe get wine drunk" I added "What about you?" I questioned

"I had nothing planned except for sleeping" He shrugged "Maybe I could stop over at your place for a while?" He glanced at me slightly

"Yeah, of course" I nodded "That is if you think you can handle watching something with the three of us" I laughed slightly and Justin joined me, since we both knew how we all get when we're together watching a series

"I think I'll take my chances" Justin told me "Is anyone else gonna be there?" He asked me

"No, why?" I answered him

"It's nothing, I was just wondering" He said simply as he shrugged

My eyebrows furrowed as I noticed something was off in his tone of voice

"Jus" I looked at him

"It's nothing, Althia, don't worry about it" He shrugged once more as we turned onto my street

"Justin, what is it?" I asked him again, knowing damn well that it wasn't nothing

"It's just, sometimes, I feel like everyone hangs out without me there" He sighed "It's no big deal if you guys do though" He quickly added with yet another shrug

"Jus, you don't have to worry about us being all together somewhere and not inviting you" I started "That never happens, if we're all going to be somewhere, everyone is invited. Always." I continued "The closest we came to having everyone there without you was when Zach and I were together with Jessica and Alex and then Jeff, but Montgomery was never there" I said "You are always invited when we know everyone will be there" I finished as I placed my hand on his upper arm

Justin parked the car in my driveway

"Okay" He simply responded "That was really dumb, I'm sorry" He quickly added

"No, it's not dumb but just don't think that way" I told him "It wouldn't be the same without you" I added

"Thank you Ee-Ah" He replied "And thank you for this fun afternoon" He added with a smile

"How come I've never realized how beautiful his smile is before?" I asked myself

"Hello?" Justin waved his hand in front of my face, snapping me out of my thoughts

"Sorry, sorry what did you say?" I asked him

"I said, don't forget your drawing" He answered as he pointed to the back seats

"Right" I said "Thanks for the day, Jus" I added before opening the passenger door

I got out of the car and opened the back door. As I was grabbing my canvas, I noticed Justin's was on the ground. I quickly picked it up to glance at it. I couldn't stop the giggles that escaped my mouth as I looked at his drawing.

"What's so-" Justin went to ask as he turned around but stopped as he saw me holding his drawing

"Althia!" He exclaimed as he unbuckled his seatbelt and bolted out of the drivers seat

I let out a small scream as I grabbed both canvas' and made a run for my front door

"Althia! Come on! Please!" Justin yelled from behind me

I quickly opened my door, which was luckily unlocked and closed it right behind me as Justin was close on my heels

I pressed all of my body weight against the door as I laughed some more while Justin knocked on the door and tried to open it

"I wanna keep it" I said through the door

"Do you really want to? It's horrible" Justin knocked on the door some more

"Yes, it's amazing" I told him "You can have mine" I added

I could feel him still trying to get the door to open

"Fine" He agreed after a few seconds of him struggling

Without saying anything, I moved away from the door and Justin came flying in before he hit the floor

"What the fuck" He groaned as I crunch down and held my stomach that was hurting from how hard I was laughing

Justin couldn't help but join me in my laughter

Once we had calmed down, I wiped away the tears that had been built in my eyes before helping Justin up to his feet

"Do you really wanna keep it?" He asked as he pointed to his canvas

"Yes please" I answered "Just what exactly is it supposed to be though?" I questioned

"That's it, you're not keeping it" Justin said as he walked over to it

"No" I protested as I placed myself in front of his drawing "I really want it, I just wanna know what it is!" I quickly added

"It's supposed to be you and your canvas with a cup of coffee in front of it" He explained

"Oh okay, yeah, I see it now" I nodded, still not moving from my spot in fear that he would try to take it from me

Justin stared at me for a while

"Jus! Please just let me keep it, you can't stay here and argue with me about it all night" I told him "Montgomery is gonna want his car back" I added, knowing that I had found the loophole

Justin groaned in response as he figured out I was going to keep his drawing

"Fine but I'm taking yours" He finally agreed making me cheer

"Here, take mine" I handed it to him

"I still don't know why you want mine so badly when yours is the pretty one" Justin shook his head

"Mine might be the pretty one but yours is the funny and beautiful one" I replied

"Yeah yeah yeah, keep telling yourself that" He rolled his eyes

"Bye Jus, thanks Jus" I cheesed at him

"Bye, I'll see you tomorrow" He said "What time should I get here and what are we gonna watch?" He asked

"At 10 and I have no clue, it's an argument that'll happen tomorrow between Jeff, Jess and I" I answered

"Alright then" Justin laughed

We said our goodbyes once more before he left and I watched him back out of the driveway through the window. Once he was gone, I went upstairs in my room and decided to place his canvas leaning on my dresser for now as I figured out where I would want to put it up.