Stone's Dream
Chapter 5

"Please just listen to me!" Justin begged Lindsy, but she closed the curtain on her bunk. He opened the curtain and stuck his head inside. "Look nothing happened between me and Tina. Just let me explain." She ignored him. "I'm sorry. I didn't know my having lunch with her would hurt you so much." She reached behidn her and closed the curtain again.

"Don't make me have to hurt you. Just leave me alone." Justin backed away from the bunk and was confronted by the remaining witches and his two friends sitting in the back lounge, watching TV.

"Well, you have a wonderful track record. You do better with your ex's than you do with your current girlfriend." Amber kept her eyes on the TV, but she was talking to Justin.

"Amber!" Wendy yelled from the other end of the sofa.

"Justin, she's sorry for saying that." Carrie smacked Amber on the back of her head for shaking her head 'no'. Justin shrugged and found a place to sit.

"What's there to be sorry for?"

"That's what you can expect from a savage." Carrie elbowed Amber in the ribs so hard she nearly fell off the end of the sofa. "Ow! What did you do that for? I'm only telling the truth." Amber rubbed her side indignantly.

"Stop it! I need to think of how I can get Lindsy back and prove to her that I didn't do anything."

"Leave it alone. She doesn't care to be passed over for a fake blonde. To Lindsy, it's over." Just glared at Amber. How did she know Tina was really a brunette?

"How did you... Nevermind. Are you saying it's over between us?" Wendy and Carrie were getting fed up with Amber messing with Justin's head, and she knew it.

"What do your instincts tell you?" Justin paced around, trying ot think. Finally, he stopped and smiled. He knew how he and Lindsy would get back together. He went to go take over the front lounge, but he looked back to see the three witches smiling at him.

Justin had planned out so much that he fell asleep. Joey noticed Justin asleep on the couch and an evil thought crossed his mind. He tiptoed to get Carrie's pet snake from the back lounge. He reached into the tank to grab Blue just as Carrie came out of the bathroom. "What are you doing with him, and don't lie to me Joseph. You know how much I hate liars."

"Uh, um, I'm not going to hurt him! I just want to use Little Blue to see if Justin screams like a girl." Lindsy came in from the kitchen with a bowl of dog food in her hands.

"Indi? Indigo, it's dinner time. Come here." Indigo came running around the side of the sofa and skidded to a stop at Lindsy's feet. Lindsy put the bowl down and the dog started munching away. "So, what's going on?"

"How much do you want to bet that Justin screams like a girl?"

"Twenty." She answered immediately. She scrounger around in her pocket and pulled out a cruddy bill. Carrie decided she didn't want to be left out. She reached into her pockets and pulled out twp tens and a five.

"Twenty-five says he doesn't." Joey smiled and took Blue to the front lounge. He made sure Justin was still asleep and carefully lifted up his shirt s the snake could slither on his stomach. He hurried back to the lounge with Amber yelling at him from the kitchen that he was an idiot. The three waited for the moment of truth.

"Uh, Justin. Justin wake up. You've got a..." Wendy's warnings were interrupted by a shrieking scream.

"Wow! He does scream like a girl!" Joey high fived Lindsy and began splitting the money Carrie had lost to them. Carrie cursed under her breath and went to see if her pet was still alive.

They arrived in Michigan with no more incidents. Lindsy decided to work off her anger in the gym. Amber had offered to join her, but Lindsy declined, thinking that she didn't want to kill her friend. So Amber remained with Carrie and Wendy to talk about the odds of her and Justin getting back together. Meanwhile, Justin let himself into Lindsy's room and paced around, waiting for her to come back. He looked at the few knick-knacks she had scatteres around the room, remembering every story she had told about them. She was going to listen to him if it was the last thing he did. His resolve strengthened as he laid eyes upon the first present he had ever given her; a crescent moon pendant with a small piece of jade hanging inside the curve. Lindsy walked into her room to find Justin sitting on the bed with her necklace in his hands. "What are you doing in here?" He looked up, totally surprised. 'It's now or never.' He thought.

"I'm here to talk to you." He stayed where he was, so she would know that he wasn't leaving until he was done.

"I don't want to talk to you. I don't want to hear your excuses."

"Who said I was making excuses? I have nothing to excuse." She took a deep breath to yell for security, but Justin hurriedly got up and covered her mouth, holding her tight so she couldn't escape. "I think you've done enough damage by betting that I could scream like a girl. If you would have remembered correctly, I don't scream like that at all." She glanced up at him, her eyes full of fear. "Yes, Joey and I concocted the whole thing. Just to get you to laugh. I missed your laugh so much it hurt." He gently let go of Lindsy and walked back over to the bed, where he had dropped the necklace. "You know, I always thought that this could only look perfect on you." Lindsy composed herself enough to stand without leaning on the dresser behind her. She was thinking that she was trapped in a room with a madman.

"So is that all you have to say?" Justin shook his head and continued talking.

"I'm sorry I couldn't tell you the truth before. You think Tina is just my ex-girlfriend. Really, she's also one of my best friend. Shoe's only my ex because we decided to try dating. We couldn't make it work. It just felt too weird. We broke up after only three days." Lindsy's jaw dropped. She hadn't expected this. She searched his eyes for the lie, but couldn't find it. "Yeah, only three whole days. When I ran into her again, I made her promise not to tell anyone what we had talked about."

"What... did you talk about?" Justin looked at her and smiled nervously.

"She told me she's engaged to a banker in Atlanta. She's moving there. I talked about you the whole time." Lindsy breath caught in her throat. She couldn't beleive if, but it was true. Tears slid down her face as she walked over to him. She kissed his lightly.

"I am so sorry Justin. I didn't even think..." He held her as she cried harder. He smoother her hair to comfort her.

"I still love you. I never stopped, not even for a moment." He let her go and reached into his pocket,pulling out a little box. He handed it to her. "Open it." She did and fresh tears coursed down her face.

"What is this?"

"Honeybear, will you marry me?"

In another room down the hall, Amber had closed her eyes to concentrate. She had focused on what was happening in Lindsy's room. She had seen everything. Carrie and Wendy watched silently as she began to speak. "Say it. Say it, Lindsy. Tell him yes. Tell him..." All three of them held their breath in anticipation.

"Lindsy ahd taken the ring from the box and was looking at it. She couldn't speak. It was beautiful: an emerald surrounded by white diamonds, set on a carved gold ring. "I... I... I'm sorry. I can't. Not now. Things are too confusing."

Amber let her head hang and shook it slowly. "No." The other two looked sadly at each other.

"I understand, Lindsy, don't cry. I'll ask you again at a better time." He gently placed a hand under her chin and lifted her head to look into her eyes. "I will wait for you." And then he kissed her with the same gentleness.

The week passed quietly. Everyone was at the venue, checking out the place. Wendy had on a headset, making notations to her chief technician of how the sound system was to be set up. Lindsy, Carrie, and Amber hurried along behind her, making faces at her. They hadn't talked about Lindsy refusing Justin's marriage proposal. No one needed to. Suddenly four hatefully familiar guys crossed their paths. The girls stood still to let them pass. Once the way had been cleared again, Amber turned in their direction. The one she knew to be Mike turned around and walked backwards to keep up with his friends. He winked at her and blew a kiss. Her eyes narrowed into slits; anger and disgust etched on her face. Mike laughed and turned back around. The guys turned the corner and vanished from sight. "What was that about?" Carrie asked. Amber said nothing, so she didn't push it any further. Wendy told her technician that she had more pressing matters to attend to and switched off the headset.

"Looks like we're in for another battle. This time Quake's doing the challenging. Maybe he thinks he can do better than Flood."

"Cockroaches! They're cockroaches! They're everywhere and they never die!" Lindsy was furious because she couldn't go hit one of them now. She went and kicked the wall, lightly, so she wouldn't hurt herself like an idiot before the big show.

"Look, let's just go get ready for the concert. If it's a fight they want, they got it." Carrie headed off for the dressing room, Lindsy in tow. Amber and Wendy went backstage to complete the set up for the evening.