Aftermath

Ch 35!!

Yaritza’s POV

”I’ve missed you so much Justin,” I said into the phone, pulling the covers on the bed straight for the hundredth time.

 

“I have too...” He responded, trailing off into an uneasy silence. I changed into a pair of jeans as I thought of how to say what I needed to.

 

I had only woken up around an hour ago, and the first thing that had popped into my mind was that her funeral was next week. There was so much to be done before then, I had ranted to Harry before we had even gotten out of bed, having a mini panic attack as I realized that we had next to nothing planned out. He had managed to calm me down, and then told me to start forming a list of everyone we want there, while he called the boys and worked out the other details with Alyssa and Lana.

 

The first person I had thought of calling was Justin, who I hadn’t talked to in forever. Okay, no, that’s a lie. The first people that came to mind were Jazz’s parents, but I couldn’t bring myself to dial the number so I had punched in Justin’s number instead, working up my courage for the other call, stalling.

 

Justin and I have been talking for nearly a half hour now, catching up, but completely avoiding talking about Jazz. Instead, he had told me all about how Lana and him had finally worked out their problems and were together now, had been for the past month or so, even though he was keeping it out of the media. When I had asked how that had happened, he had gotten really, really quiet, admitting that Lana and him had kissed when she was still with Andrew. I didn’t really respond to that, remembering how terrible I had felt when I learned that Harry had kissed another girl. I pictured the way Andrew had wound his arms around Lana as we were leaving the hotel in L.A, the way he had let her cry into his shoulder as he just held her, guarding her from the fucking paps who had shown up outside the Four Seasons like the heartless bastards they were.  I knew that Lana and Justin were perfect together and that they loved one another, but it still wasn’t really fair to Andrew. But at least he wasn’t holding it against Lana; the two of them still seemed close, even though they did act slightly awkward around each other.

 

Pressing the phone closer to my ear, I sat down on the window seat, watching the rain hit the pavement down below. This was Jazz’s favorite place to sit, she could curl up for hours here with just her guitar and songbook. I let out a sigh as I thought about her, knowing that I couldn’t keep putting this off for forever.  “Um Justin...,” I said, breaking the silence.  

 

“Yea?”

 

I paused, trying to find the right words. “Are you going to come to Jazz’s funeral?” I asked him, my voice a bit shaky. It was so weird to say that outloud, it made it so much more real. In my head, I could delude myself for a few moments, pretend that nothing was out of the ordinary, that Jazz was just locked up somewhere with her music, or boxing at the gym, or cuddling with Niall--

God, and this is just one person, just one phone call. I don’t know how I’m going to handle planning the rest of this, much less how I’m going to stand being there, watching as they lowered her body-- Justin broke through my thoughts, responding after a long pause,“I didn’t really know her and I’d hate to intrude on you guys.”

 

“It’s okay,” I reassured him, “ Lana really needs you right now and I miss you, you hardly visit since you’re on tour now too.”