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Chapter 2: Making friends

They drove separately using their own vehicles to Gabby’s house. Before entering the house, she checked the road noting the kind of cars parked around her house. When he was sure that nothing is out of the ordinary she entered the house with Justin following closely behind her. She put all the stuff in the living room and when she turned around, she saw Justin looking around.

“What do you think?” she finally asked him when he didn’t speak for a few minutes.

“It’s cute, it suits you. How much did you pay for this?”

“About $367,000, it has a pool and the rooms are fairly big and you should see the size of the kitchen and the view through the glass door is awesome” she said giddily then led him in the kitchen.

“Wow! So you like to cook?” he asked her looking around the space.

“Yea, it’s relaxing. Although I get pretty pissed when I cook a food and it doesn’t taste right”

“When did the furniture store say they’ll deliver your stuff?” he asked while gathering the other packages.

She looked at her watch before answering him. “They said around 6:30-7:00 so it’s in about 3hrs time” she started cleaning the counter space of the kitchen and the entire cupboard area of the kitchen.

“What are you doing?” Justin saw her cleaning all the visible spaces.

“Cleaning” she answered like it was the most natural thing in the world. Before she could continue, his phone rang.

“Talk to me” he said on the device. She rolled her eyes on how he answers his phone but left him to it and got back to her cleaning. After 5 minutes he finished his phone call.

“That was Chris, they were looking for me. I hope you don’t mind there’re on their way over. I hope you don’t mind, Joey wants to meet you and I quote ‘Check out the candidate’” she arched an eyebrow at that. “Candidate?” she laughed. “For what?”

“You know girlfriend candidate” he was watching her reaction closely though he couldn’t clearly see her facial expression because she’s currently scrubbing the work top and her back is facing him.

He noted when her shoulder slumped a little and he couldn’t help but feel a little nervousness considering she hasn’t said anything to him about their topic.

“Aren’t you dating uhm what’s her face? Jessica Biel?” instead of commenting anything to what he said she just countered with another question.

“That was finished for over two months now. So I’m waiting for a new candidate” she stopped what she’s doing for a minute when he heard him say those lines.

“And Joey thinks I may be a candidate for you then?” she turned around to face him this time waiting for his answer at the same time watching him closely.

“Joey thinks every girl I meet is a candidate” he laughed.

“You wouldn’t want to be involved with me, Justin” she told him point blank before turning around and continued what she’s doing.

“Why not? Do you have a boyfriend?” he asked her a little perturbed and confused on what she said. Without being arrogant, most of the woman in America or even the world would want to be his girlfriend.

“Everyone has a secret and I can tell you now, I have so much skeleton in my closet I could have my own grave yard. You don’t need that in your life, it’s chaotic enough”

Before he could say anything else she heard her doorbell rang and Justin said that it might be Chris and Joey so he offered to let them in. She gave him the alarm code to the door and reminds him to activate it when they’re all inside. A few minutes later, she heard laughing coming from her front door and a moment later four guys are entering her kitchen. Before Justin could make the introduction, Joey pushed the other guys on the side so she could stand in front of her with a huge grin on his face. “You must be Joey” 

“One and only” he reached for her hand, turn it over and kissed it.

“Okay that is so cheesy” she laughed at his antics. “Sorry guys I haven’t cooked anything but you could stay for dinner if you guys are free tonight… Hi JC, didn’t see you there” she smiled at him to where he was standing. The guys agreed to wait since they don’t have anything to do tonight. She told the guys that the television and the game consoles are still in the car and they offered to bring it in. After telling them where it could go, they proceeded to take it in the house.

She finished cleaning the kitchen and she placed all the new kitchen equipment in their places in the cupboard. She just placed the baking pans in the under cupboard when she realised that she needs to go grocery shopping or else she won’t have anything to cook. She looked at the clock and she saw that it was already nearing half four in the afternoon. She grabbed her purse and her keys off the counter and asked Justin if there’s a nearest grocery store from her house.

“Yea just outside the village about 5 minutes from here” he informed her. “I’ll go with you”

“No, you don’t have to” she declined.

“It’s cool; Chris and Joey are arguing who get’s to play the games that we bought first. Now they’re calling each other names” soon enough she heard Joey called Chris a lunatic old man and then Chris said something back which she couldn’t here properly over JC’s referee. She shook her head and walk towards the den to talk to the guys.

“Hey guys, Justin and I are going to the grocery store for a bit. Is there anything you need?” she looked at the guy one by for answer.

“Condom” Joey said from where he’s looking over some of the games.

“You’re kidding right?” she was shocked to say the least that he could really ask her to buy that for him.

“I run out, I was gonna to the store later but since you’re going now you’ll be saving me the trip” by this time the guys were laughing from her reaction.

She rolled her eyes at him and gave a little laugh herself. “You are such a guy. Anyway, please don’t forget to activate the alarm code if you leave the house or even you’re inside the house.” She and Justin left the house a few moments later with Justin driving her car. She figured it’s the fastest way to reach the store because if she drive- knowing her- they’ll get lost. They reached the store 5 minutes later and bought not only the ingredients that she’s supposed to use to dinner tonight but she also bought stuff to fill her fridge and her cupboard then she bought Joey’s condom before leaving the store. This took time to decide which one to get and she could not believe she just had a ‘condom conversation’ with Justin Timberlake. Then they went back to the house so she could start cooking dinner.

She decided to cook a lemon chicken with mashed potato and salad. As for dessert she chose to make chocolate fudge since she bought vanilla ice cream from the grocery.

The stuff that she bought earlier today arrived just after half past 6. The guys also helped brought the furniture in and while the foods were cooking she arranged it to their right place so she don’t have to do it later on when she’s alone.

When the food is ready, she called the guys for dinner and they piled around the kitchen and she got a lot of compliment for her cooking. They were impress and thankful because it’s been so long for them since they ate a home cooking meal. They sat around the dining table making idle chitchat here and there.

“So Justin told us you wanted to go to Disney World” JC begun.

“Yea it’s been a dream of mine and now that I’m going to be living here, I’d like to do that first to get it off of my system”

“We’ll go with you on Monday if you want” Chris suggested. “But we have to be early if you want to see everything”

“Can we go on Tuesday or the next time you’re free? I have an appointment on Monday and I don’t know what time I’ll finish” she informed them.

“Tuesday is fine” Justin told her with the other guys nodding their heads in agreement.

“Thank you for doing this. You didn’t have to do it but I appreciate it anyway” she told them seriously.

“Aww” Chris wiped an invisible tear from his cheek but then he ruined the effect by choking. The whole table laughed at his antics and Gabby took her time to observe her new friends. I hope I don’t bring them any problem. But although she thought this, she knows that it would be hard to keep them out of harms way.

After dinner Justin helped her clear the table and wash the dishes letting the other three guys hang out in the den. Justin was still thinking about what she said earlier this afternoon and now that they’re alone again he could ask her about it.

“About what you said earlier about not wanting to get involved with you, are you serious about that?” he asked her straight. She stopped what she’s doing and looked at him. She didn’t think that they’d have this conversation again. “Why would you want to be involved with a girl who would be a poison to you?” she couldn’t give him any straight answer so she’s answering his question with another question

“Poison? I don’t think you could be a poison to me or anyone for that matter”

“You’ll change your mind when you find out everything about me. But for now all I can say is it is a bad idea to get involved with me, romantically” Justin didn’t believe her when she told him this. He has only known her for a small amount of time but if he’ll be honest with himself and close his eyes, he could easily see himself falling head over hills in love with this girl. But she seems to be bent on talking him out of it.

“Listen, you’re a wonderful girl. I’ve known you less than 24hrs and I can’t really see anything wrong with you. Don’t let yourself believe that you can be a poison to anyone”

“That’s sweet Justin but that’s just it. You’ve only known me less than 24hrs that’s why you could say those words right now. When the time comes I’ll tell you everything but for now even though I want to tell you everything if I wanted to… I simply can’t. I’m sorry” she told him apologetically.

“Thank you. Anyway, enough with this serious stuff let’s go join the guys” he started walking towards the den with her following behind him. They saw Chris wrestling Joey over the remote.

“Hey don’t make me separate you too” she joked upon entering the room. She sat on the left side of the big built in day bed across television and Justin immediately sat beside her. JC noticed this but didn’t say anything…for now but he made a note on his mind to talk to him about it later on.

The guys said goodbye 2 hrs later and Justin told her that he’d call her tomorrow and if she’s not busy they might do something some time in the afternoon. When they left, she made some plan on where to put her weapon around the house for easy access in case of emergency but at the same time hidden from other people. Afterwards she browses the yellow pages for a person that could do it and made a note to call the guy tomorrow.