Chapter 354: My dad is in jail
"What about it?"
"You should go with your dad. As your date." Lucy said it like it was obvious, like she’d already worked the whole thing out in her head before she’d even sat down.
"Everyone loves Mr. Julian. You show up on his arm looking incredible, and I promise you, by Monday nobody in that corridor even remembers what they said to you today. You’d be the coolest girl in school again in about four seconds."
Justina turned to stare at her. "Are you insane, Lucy? Nobody wants to go to a school dance with their dad."
"I would," Lucy said, and something in her voice went a little flatter, a little more matter-of-fact than usual.
"My dad’s in jail. I’ve got two mums. So no, I’m not going with either of my parents but if I had a dad like yours, trust me, I’d use him."
She shrugged it off before Justina could say anything about it, moving straight past the moment the way Lucy always did when she mentioned her dad, quick and light so nobody had time to feel sorry for her.
"But this could actually be your moment. Show up, remind everyone exactly who you are, and none of what happened back there matters anymore."
"Not my dad," Justina said slowly, turning the idea over despite herself, something shifting behind her eyes now, the crying mostly forgotten.
"But, maybe I need something bigger than that. Like a real date. Someone huge." She sat up a little straighter. "Like Kelvin Cylien."
Lucy’s mouth fell open. "The Kelvin Cylien? The youngest pop star on the planet, currently has three songs in the global top ten, Kelvin Cylien?"
"That one."
"That’s insane." Lucy was already laughing, shaking her head, but there was no doubt in it, no, that would never happen, just the particular kind of delighted disbelief reserved for ideas too audacious to dismiss outright.
"But honestly? If anyone on this entire campus could actually pull that off, it’s you, Justina Amara Vale."
The bell rang somewhere down the corridor above them, distant and insistent.
"Now we’re late for class," Lucy said, grabbing her bag and pulling Justina up by the hand, and the two of them hurried up the stairwell together, Justina’s tears mostly dry now, replaced by something new turning over in her mind something that had, for the moment at least, nothing to do with Nolan at all.
—
Justina waited until dinner to bring it up, mostly because dinner was the one reliable hour she could count on having both parents in the same room at the same time, undistracted, forks down long enough to actually listen.
"There’s a school dance coming up," she started, pushing rice around her plate more than eating it.
"It’s official this time on campus, the whole thing. And everyone’s kind of..." She hesitated, choosing the words carefully, skirting around the corridor entirely.
"Everyone thinks I’m boring. Like I’m not fun, or cool, or whatever. I want to go with someone who’ll make people actually notice me for once." She didn’t say Nolan’s name. She didn’t say anyone’s name.
"Sure, baby, anything you need." Amara reached over and squeezed her daughter’s hand without missing a beat.
"Do you want to go shopping? We could find you something incredible, get your hair done, whatever you,"
"That’s not the point, Mum." Justina pulled her hand back gently, not unkindly, just tired. "It’s not about a dress."
"That’s stupid anyway," Josh cut in from across the table, not even looking up from his plate. "She’s always worried about what some low-class people think of her."
"That’s rich, coming from you," Justina shot back instantly. "At least I have a social life. You can’t even talk to girls."
"Yeah, well, that’s because I spent nine months with your legs wrapped around my neck," Josh said, deadpan, not missing a beat either, and JJ, who’d propped her book open against the water jug and had been half-listening the whole time, snorted so hard she nearly choked on her rice.
"Can I get anything I want too, Mummy?" JJ asked, not looking up from the page, apparently deciding this was the moment to insert herself into the negotiations.
"Josh, stop it," Amara said, though there wasn’t much heat in it.
"There’s nothing wrong with your sister wanting to have friends." She paused, something occurring to her, and turned toward her son with a look that was equal parts curious and teasing. "And you do like girls, right?"
Justina’s head snapped up at that, delighted, already leaning forward with the exact expression of someone who’d just been handed the best possible ammunition. "Oh, I would love to hear this answer."
"Mum. I’m sixteen." Josh said it like the number itself was a complete sentence, a full and sufficient answer to every question that could ever be asked of him, and went back to his food.
"Well, it seems I can hear the two of you all the way upstairs when you get going," Julian said, walking in and settling into his seat beside Amara, clearly having caught the tail end of it from the hallway.
He turned to Justina, his voice softening. "Justina, how about Kelvin? You used to love going to his concerts when you were younger. I believe I can call in that favor."
Justina’s whole face changed, lit up in a way that hadn’t shown itself all day. "Yes, Dad. Thank you so much."
"And Josh." Julian glanced over at his son, mouth twitching with the beginning of a smile he was clearly trying to hold back.
"Talking to girls is pretty simple, you know. But there’s no rush. I took my time too, at your age."
Amara smiled at that, a small, private smile she didn’t explain to anyone at the table, because the truth was Julian’s taking his time had cost the two of them nearly ten years apart, years she didn’t regret exactly, but wouldn’t wish on either of her children if she could help it.
Some things, she’d decided long ago, were better left as history rather than advice.
"And Jade," Julian went on, turning to JJ, who finally looked up from her book at the sound of her name,
"What do you want? I could take you to the bookstore. There’s a science seminar this weekend too, if you’re interested, I could take you to that."