Behind the Shadows of Deception-Chapter 2
It had been twenty-four hours since that night, and not that he planned it, but the journal was still in his possession. In fact, it was lying right next to him as he looked up through his glass ceiling into the lonely night. This was a daily routine of his even if the sky was bright, it was just a way for him to focus his energy on something other than his life.
However, now he had something to think about. Like how he was going to get Mya’s journal back to her before she had a nervous breakdown. JC glanced over at his phone resting on the nightstand next to the bed as if it was going to ring. After waiting for what seemed like eternity, he gave up taking the journal into his hands, her scent, one he recognized from last night, lingering on it.
He ran his finger over the front cover, noticing her name engraved in caps. It tempted him to open the book, to perceive her thoughts, share her feelings, and discover more about her. JC touched the edge of the cover, fiddling with the tip.
Then suddenly the phone rung. JC immediately tossed the journal aside, grabbing the phone.
"Hello?" He answered quickly.
"Hey sweetheart." The voice of his loving mother cooed into the telephone.
JC sighed. "Hey mother. How are you?" He murmured casually.
"Mother? Uh oh what’s wrong?" His mother panicked.
"Nothing." JC replied lying, everything was wrong. Absolutely nothing was right.
"Then why do you sound so depressed?" She asked concerned.
"I always sound like that mom." That was indeed true.
"Okay if you say so. So…have you met anyone special lately?"
JC sensed a huge anticipating grin plastered across her face.
"No not really." He lied. However, technically it was only half a lie. Yes he did meet a woman and yes she was special, but not on the level of "special" his mother was referring to. Otherwise, he and Mya would’ve already had their first few dates and then his mother would’ve been pressing him to meet her.
"Oh." She sounded disappointed.
"But I did give a homeless man a hundred dollars." JC replied rather ecstatically making her laugh.
"That’s great son. Look I’ll talk to you soon. I know how busy you boys are."
"Right."
"Bye."
"Bye mom. Love you." JC hung up, placing the phone on the hook.
~*~*~*~
JC slouched down in his seat annoyed and bored. He swung his chair about five degrees from side to side causing a squeak each time. Everyone around the long table turned to look at him.
JC lifted his head, realizing that he had disturbed the meeting.
"Oh I’m sorry. Carry on." He waved his hand towards them.
"No that’s quite alright. We will continue this tomorrow." Johnny insisted.
"You boys go home and rest." He pushed his chair away from the table along with everyone else, exiting the room.
Lance stayed, curious as to what was up with JC. Why all the sudden he was no longer interested in the meeting, which was unusual for him. Lance pulled out a chair sitting across from him.
"Hey C, what’s up man?"
"Nothing much." JC replied simply, fiddling with the armrest.
"Okay well, we’ll be waiting downstairs for you in the cafeteria."
"Alright cool."
Lance left shutting the door behind him. JC spun around in a full circle, creating some sound to add to silence, which surrounded the large room. Then he remembered he had to return the journal, but where to go to return it, was the question. He thought about stopping by Barnes and Noble, but by what chance would she show up there again. Although she said, she went there often.
JC grabbed his bag and placed it into his lap. He retrieved the journal from it and flipped it open to the front cover in hopes of finding a telephone number to call or some way to reach her. Some people put phone numbers inside just in case the item was ever lost.
He skimmed down the cover, when his eyes landed on a seven-digit number. He figured it was the phone number he was looking for and dialed it.
JC waited patiently as the telephone rang four times. He started to think that either she wasn’t going to pick up or this wasn’t her number. Then he heard the telephone click and the noise of a conversation in the background before a female answered.
"Hello?" It sounded like her.
Suddenly JC felt a lump in his throat. He didn’t what to say. What would she think of him calling her?
"Hello? Is anyone there?" She repeated impatiently.
"Yeah…" JC started at least to see if she recognized his voice.
And she did. "JC? Hey what’s up?"
"Nothing." This was his response to everything.
"How did you get my number?"
JC was awaiting that question and it finally came.
"You gave it to me remember?" He lied.
No she didn’t, but she just shrugged instead, "No but if you said I did, then I must have."JC sighed that was such a relief.
"You know I have your number too."
JC couldn’t believe what she just said. Maybe he heard wrong, but couldn’t hide his excitement, "You do? Really?"
"Yeah you gave it to me once."
"Hmm. I don’t remember that." JC thought for a moment attempting to recall the incident in his head but couldn’t. In fact, he didn’t remember even having a real conversation with her until yesterday.
Mya giggled interrupting his thoughts, "Well I guess we both don’t remember how we got each other’s number, huh?"
"Yeah…" JC laughed lightly.
"I was going to call you though."
Having his number was one thing, but actually taking the time to call him, was unbelievable.
"You’re lying." JC didn’t believe it either.
Mya was surprised, "No I’m not. Really, I was going to give you a call. I wanted to know if you wanted to hang out. Talking with you yesterday was refreshing. But if you have something to do then I completely-"
JC quickly interrupted her, "No I’m free. As free as can be."
Mya laughed at how thrilled he was, "Okay we can meet at my place, is that fine with you?"
"Of course." He had no reason to disagree. Mya told him her address and he wrote it down on a slip of paper.
"Alright, see you then." She hung up.
JC grinned and rose from his seat. He grabbed his bag and went downstairs to the cafeteria where the guys were.
"Hey JC what took you so long, do you know how hard it was for me to wait till you got down here so I could eat." Joey groaned.
JC snickered. "Well ya’ll can eat now."
"What about you?" Justin asked.
"I’m going out." JC informed them.
"Oh. You got a little lady friend, eh?" Chris joked.
"You can say that. Alright I got to go, see ya later." JC left and got into his car and tossed the journal on the passenger seat.
He completely forgot about returning her journal to her. It was as if that didn’t matter anymore. Besides she didn’t even ask him about it, maybe she had no idea that it was gone or maybe it was one of the few journal she owned that was of a lesser value than the others.
JC stood before her door. He took a minute to himself before actually knocking. He heard movement inside and then the door swung open.
She smiled, "Hey you’re early, but that’s better than being late right?"
"Right."
JC gazed at her, compelled by her appearance. She wore a sheer blue shirt along with a pair of tight-fitted jeans. Under the see-through shirt was a white tank top, which rose a little above her perfectly toned stomach. The shirt hung loosely off her right shoulder and there were ruffles stitched across the bottom, tapering at the waist and the ends of her sleeves.
"Hold on, let me get my purse and keys."
JC just nodded and continued staring at her intensely. She turned her back to him, grabbing her keys off the small table. He couldn’t suppress the feelings he was having towards her at the moment.
She draped her coat over her arm, "Alright. Let’s go." Mya shut and locked the door.
"Where are we going first of all?" Yet, he didn’t care as long as they were going together.
"Um I don’t know." She laughed.
"Okay then how about we think about it in the car and if something we see interests us then we can stop, deal?"
"Deal. You drive." Mya insisted.
"Okay." JC opened the passenger side door for her and she climbed in.
"Thank you." She gave him a smile that melted his insides.
"Your welcome." JC smiled back. It was at that point that he knew his attraction towards her had amplified. He shut her door before walking to the driver side and hopping in.