Everybody turned to look at the furious Julian who stood at the door looking at three of them with dead anger on his face.
"I called her for some information," Justin replied which was an odd thing to do after what Alysa had said to him.
"Did I ask you?"
"If you are in my room without even a knock for a start, then it is in my place to say anything." Justin shot back with bile.
"I see. He has already poisoned you as well. The last person didn't last a month, let's see how long will you make it."
Justin didn't understand what Julian had said and turned to Kenneth for clarification, but Kenneth focused more on Julian at that particular time.
"Julian, this thing is between us. Don't drag other people in it." Kenneth said.
"If you chose to have them as accomplices, who am I to assume they don't exist? Either way, I want to talk to you." Julian said looking at Justin.
"Say what you want."
"I don't need your permission. I just want to see you sending them off so that we can talk."
"If that's what you want, then you have to bear speaking in front of them." Justin stood his ground.
"I was on my way out," Alysa announced and excused herself, but before she reached the door, Julian spoke to her.
"After I'm finished with him, I need to see you in my room." Without even a nod, she stormed off outside the room leaving the boys inside.
"I guess it doesn't matter if he is here or not. I don't care what you two-" Julian was speaking but Kenneth cut him off.
"I'll be downstairs waiting for you."
"Give me a minute, and I'm all yours for the tour," Justin said to Kenneth as he left the room and then turned to Julian.
"What have you been talking about?" Julian asked Justin.
"It's nothing you need to know about."
"Justin or whatever you are, you are in my territory and a warning to help make your life easier in this place, is to listen to what I'm saying. And since you seem high maintenance, I urge you to stay away from anything concerning me. I don't want any trouble with you and I don't want you to get in my way, especially when Alysa is concerned."
"I know nothing about Alysa. Is she your girlfriend or something?!" Justin had a knack for putting his nose in other people's business.
"Our relationship is none of your business. Just stay away from her."
"I can in a million ways, but I have to tell you something before that. You are not who I thought you were." Justin said with a face showing pure pain and disbelief.
"You don't know me and you can't even think of the kind of person I could ever be."
"I could have if you had been the one whose letters I've been reading while I was in India," Justin said with a blank face but a little hope was portrayed in his words.
"I wrote you no letter. Kenneth is the one who wrote those letters." Julian snapped at Justin.
"He did?! Then why were they named after you? And why would he write to me as another person?" Justin was confused.
"I'm not here to answer your questions. Ask them to Kenneth, and he will tell you everything."
"That's a lot to take in." Justin wasn't believing what he was hearing.
"It's not a dick. Hope you can accommodate them." Justin thought he saw the soft side of him in that hard shell he'd put himself in.
Justin didn't know where the urge came from but he just felt like he needed to care about Julian. He felt like he wanted to help him step out of that awful shell he'd put himself into. And thus, he said to him, "I think I might like you. You're not that bad."
"You know nothing about me. Just shut the fuck up." Julian was starting to get angry again.
"I have been known to be nosy."
"I've said what I came here for. See you in corridors and hallways." With that Julian left Justin's room and stormed down the hallway to the stairs at the end.
Justin then went downstairs where he saw Kenneth pacing in the kitchen with Matron on his side.
"How did it go?!" Kenneth asked as soon as Justin entered the kitchen.
"Surprisingly well, and surprisingly weird."
"That was expected, but I would vote for more drama." Matron said from where she was standing.
"I kind of got it. The truth about the letter thing. Why didn't you tell me that it was you?" Justin asked Kenneth who then started to look down with shame.
"I could have, but uncle Blake said he would tell you everything, that's why. I swear I would have said everything if not for that." Kenneth answered.
"That's fine, but I would have appreciated it if I heard it from you first."
"Sorry!" Kenneth said before he took Justin for the house tour that they had agreed upon during breakfast.
While they were on the second floor, they heard cries from a certain room. The voice stood out pretty clear as Justin had had several encounters with the person who had that voice. It was Alysa's.
Kenneth told him it was Julian's room, and that he shouldn't bother, but Justin was Justin and nobody would ever have made him Kenneth.
"I've never heard from anywhere that a woman can cry let alone being made to cry," Justin said standing at the door.
"What the hell Justin?!" Julian deadpanned after seeing Justin who was at the door, had seen him and Alysa who was on her knees in front of him.
"A piece of advice. Making a girl cry is never wise and no masculinity, it's just dumb and inconsiderate."
With that Justin left Julian's room and went with Kenneth for the rest of their tour.
¶
Later that day when Justin was minding his business in his room, Celine went over to him and told him that their father was calling him.
"Where is he?" Justin asked Celine who was already leaving to go about her business as well.
"His office. And don't ask me where is it cause I'm not in the mood of tour guiding."
He chuckled at what Celine had said and got up to go where he remembered been told where the office was that morning when he was walking the house with Kenneth.
"Come on in." Justin heard when he knocked at Blake's office.
"Thank you, sir. How are you doing today?"
"Pretty fine. Just busy."
"I can see that. I hope you get some time to rest and hang out with your family." Justin said with a smile.
"I hope so. So, how have you been settling?"
"Fine, I guess. Just a lot of misunderstanding."
"How is that?" Justin had managed to get his full attention then.
"Well for starting, Kenneth seems more welcoming than Julian who had been writing me the letters. And then when I sat down with Julian, he said he wrote me no letter. It's all confusing and not likely for me to understand." Justin didn't want to beat around the bush with Blake since he was the only person who would give him answers to every question he had.
"Mmh, yeah. Julian didn't write the letters which were sent to you."
"What?!" Justin faked a shock and Blake bought it.
"He didn't write the letters. Kenneth is the one who wrote them, and I told him not to say a damn thing about those letters."
"How, but why?"
"He wrote them because I told him to. No, I forced him to. And the why brings us to the main reason that you're here for."
Justin never thought that it would be about that when Celine went to call him. But since he was getting the answers to what was bothering him, it was still a win for him.
"I'm here sir. I'm listening."
"When I said here I didn't mean my office. I meant here as in Jacksonville."
Well, that was another blow. He had thought that it was too good for it to be true that a certain senator had invited him over to America to study, but he didn't want to overthink it at that time as he was too desperate of leaving his family to have second thoughts.
"Can I hear a clarification of that?" Justin asked politely for Blake to clarify.
"Five years ago, Baby, my former wife, died of colon cancer. She was everything to Julian and there wouldn't be a time when you would find Julian alone if she was at home. She meant everything to him and she loved him endlessly. Her death broke Julian into pieces.
"A few days after her passing, I noticed changes in Julian's behavior and other things as well. He started to become distant and pushed away everybody that we thought he was going crazy. The way he kept shutting himself from everyone and never let anyone close to him made me take him to a psychologist to seek help for his mental health and I guess that was the biggest mistake I've ever made." Blake had a hurt look plastered on his face.
"I don't think there is anything wrong with that. Trying to get a person back where he should be, is not a mistake, it's insights. And not just insights, the insights of a wise man." Justin torched in his idea about what Blake had said.
"You are seeing it that way and it is more than wonderful. But Julian took it passively and negatively, and from there he picked up a habit that we had never seen in him. A habit that cost him all his relationships but mostly his friendship with Kenneth."
"What?! Julian and Kenneth used to be friends? I didn't see that one coming." Justin admitted that it was very unpredictable how they acted upon each other.
"Nobody would. But believe me when I say that they weren't just friends. They were best friends that defined what friendship and love meant. I don't even know how it all crumbled down. Of all the things that could be messed up, their friendship wasn't a thing I expected." Blake had to admit that their friendship was one that you couldn't imagine.
"If you don't mind, what kind of habit was that?"
"The ugly and dirty personality that he has now is what he had picked up. Fighting all the time, zero respect to people and all the things that accompany and combine with them."
"That's right, but I still don't get the point as to why you made Kenneth write all those letters to me?" Justin had to pull him around if he wanted to get answers quickest.
Blake sighed at that and turned to look at Justin. "Due to that habit, I couldn't take him to therapies anymore as the doctors didn't want to have him as their patient. If the hospital couldn't work out, I thought maybe having a lot of good and positive people at home would help his behavior and bring him back to how he used to be. And that's why I took the page which had the contact information of people who were looking for pen pals and made Kenneth write to them as if he was Julian and see who fitted my criteria. A thing which he didn't like even for a bit."
"So, does me being here mean what I think it is?" Justin didn't want to play dumb any longer as he had got to know what he wanted to know.
"If what you think is you are here for helping get Julian back to the good behavior he used to have and save him from all this ruckus, then you are more than correct."
"Why me?" Justin asked him not even looking away.
"Believe me when I say you're not the first one. We have had others before you but they couldn't keep up with him. They even had a hard time with Celine who I was very delighted when you shut her up during the dinner we had yesterday." Blake said appreciatively.
"How many were they before me?"
"Only two. You are the third and our final hope."
"Sounds like this isn't entirely your idea."
"You do know how to get things out of people. I like how you pick on small details to form your next question." Blake appreciated Justin as he put some papers away. "After the hospital failed us, Scar presented this idea to me and he, himself is a living example of its success as he was brought to my father years ago to provide moral support."
Justin took his time to think of what he wanted to say next but the only thing that he could think of was "Okay, I'll do it."
"Really?!" Blake didn't believe him when he said that.
"I said I'll do it but I have two conditions." He confirmed what he'd said.
"Lay them out."
"I want to see my future in education all laid out and I'll be the one to lead my life," Justin said them as simple as that.
"Just that?! I thought you would say you want money or something?" He was taken aback by the conditions he heard. He expected something more expensive or noble.
"I don't need money. I just need those two."
"You have my word."
Simple as that, they finalized everything and Justin was left alone with his train of thoughts to get going with his gameplay of achieving what had brought him to America.
¶
A month had passed and still, Justin wasn't on good terms with both Julian and Alysa, though it became less toxic as the days moved forward. Kenneth being Kenneth, he used every way possible to make Justin hate Julian but little did he know was, Justin had another intention for both of them.
What Justin had planned for a long time, was to start on that day. He had to play all his cards right and make sure he ends the feud between the two relatives. And what way was a better way to do so rather than taking advantage of the shopping day before he started uni.
He wanted to stay on campus to not be much attached to the family, but since the work he was brought for was nowhere near being accomplished, he had the whole semester to mess around at the Desai palace.
"At 10, Rick will be at the entrance ready for your drive to the mall. You will use the minivan to prevent attention and a drone will be at standby for you." Blake informed.
"Dad! Why is all that?! I can't even meet Banana!" Celine argued with her dad.
"What did you say?" Blake asked Celine to repeat herself.
"I think she said it's too tight that she can't even eat banana," Justin said and started to laugh to make it seem like a joke, and well, Blake bought it.
"That's hilarious dear. But it's for your well-being and -" He snapped his fingers at Justin after he stopped for a bit. "Love."
"You are taking the whole concept of love wrong dad! Rick would be more than enough but then you had to order some drones. Just perfect!" Martin seconded Celine's argument.
"You know I can't leave loose ends to get me in trouble. I have to follow the protocol and I will meet you at 1 for lunch and then that movie at 2 will follow." Blake tried to explain the situation but he just ended up revising the whole timetable for them.
"That was wonderful and so understood. But could you please stop speaking like you are in a meeting with the president? Cause jeez dad, that's a weird way of speaking to your children!" It was Julian's turn to fight with their father.
Well, it was always the children of that house who would argue with their father. They kind of made it part of their daily routine.
"Whatever. I think I'm understood?" Blake crossed the room to go and take his watch.
"How is your baby mama?" Kenneth who was quiet for the most part asked Blake.
"She isn't my baby mama. She is my fiancée."
"We all know that the baby is yours." Martin pitched in.
All colors had drained on Blake's face and he was getting impatient with what his children were up to.
"I'm going now. Later." Blake said with a tingling flushed look that he didn't dare show it but Justin was lucky enough to catch a glimpse of it.
Everybody went to their rooms after that to get prepared but Justin didn't go to his room rather did a U-turn and went back to the kitchen.
"I thought you might be getting ready." Matron startled Alysa who was cleaning the dishes.
"I would have but I think I need to speak to someone first before I do that," Justin said looking at Alysa who glared at him daggers.
"You can go to the garden. The kitchen might be busy." Matron acknowledged them.
"I'm busy. I have no time." Alysa cut in.
"I know you don't but you should make some for what I need to tell you. It's for mutual benefit." Justin persuaded.
"Go and listen to him, Alysa!" Matron said authoritatively.
Alysa without further ado went with Justin to the garden at the back.
"What do you want now?" Alysa said rudely.
"A bit of information about... you and Anna."
"That I can't give you. What you know should be more than enough."
"Then maybe your full name and address of the place you came from?!" He persuaded.
"Alysa and Anna Girlfriend come from Boston Massachusetts where our father used to work as a technical engineer and our mother nowhere to be seen," Alysa replied.
"Go on!" Justin said excitedly but what Alysa did next wasn't expected and out of the ordinary.
"Thanks for wasting my time." She then stood up and started off to the kitchen.
"But I said to go on!"
"And that's exactly what I'm doing." She said continuing inside the house.
"You know I'm trying to help if you wanna know where she is."
Alysa stopped in her tracks and returned to sit with Justin again.
"I don't know if you can do anything about what you're saying, but please, don't mention her to get my attention." Alysa had her feelings hurt over what Justin did.
"I kind of meant it. I have some places that I can touch and see if I can find anything."
"You won't find anything. She'd shut herself from everyone a long time ago. There's nothing you can do." Alysa had given up already.
"I might find something useful or anything. You know, it worth a try."
"She was last seen at her graduation party at a school in Miami. Nobody found her after that."
"What about where she was staying? The school must have had her information." Justin asked Alysa.
"You think we didn't go there! Turned out she had rented the place through a homeless guy who she paid him $5 for that."
"It's most likely to be that way. If I can have her picture, it might be easier to find her than any other way." Justin asked Alysa to make her look at him like a plague.
"I only have a single photo of her. I'm not ready to give it to anyone."
"I just need to look at it."
"You will when I'm confident enough of your trust and ready to share it." She said as she got up and went back inside.
That time around, Justin didn't stop her and he went inside as well. He went direct to his room to get ready as he'd had a handful of Alysa already to try to push her more and so he thought it would be a thing for another day.
¶
"Celine, go and find Banana. He knows we are coming here today." Justin whispered at Celine.
"Justin, what was that for?" Martin asked.
"I was asking her about somebody Stacy."
"What?!" Martin stopped in his tracks and turned to face Justin. He looked around them to see if anyone was paying attention to them, and luckily no one was.
"Why you are asking about Stacy?" Martin inquired.
"I just want to know a bit about her. I heard she knows Banana, Celine's friend."
"Stacy is my girlfriend," Martin said and Justin faked a shock.
"She is?!"
"Yes, she is. And where the hell have you heard of her?"
"It doesn't matter now just fill me in on her!" Justin brushed his question off.
"Why are you so keen about her?"
"Shouldn't I be? I heard that she is as beautiful as paradise."
Martin smirked after hearing that comment. He couldn't keep it together any longer and like that, he pulled Justin to another side and they were them two alone, and Kenneth and Julian were left alone as well. Just as Justin had planned.
He wanted the two of them to be together in public so they could talk about what's happened between them. And since they were in public, they wouldn't dare fight or at least they wouldn't shout at each other.
Smoothly as planned, was how everything went but Justin expected more from them. Like stay apart or something, or glaring daggers but it seemed like they had more to catch up on than what everybody thought. And not to mention, they used to be best friends when they were little.
At some point, they laughed together and it convinced Justin that they were a work in progress. And being not able to hide his excitement, Martin also spared a look at the two and found why Justin was so happy.
"You wasn't planning to know about Stacy because you already knew about her," Martin stated.
With a hurt look, Justin nodded and mouthed 'sorry' at him.
"Nah it's fine. At least you did it for a good cause."
"Thanks but where is Stacy? I haven't seen her since I came here."
"She is coming back today from Mississippi and that's why after 3 I won't be available."
"Can I come with you? To meet her." Justin asked if he could tag along.
"No, you can't. Because you will see her after a week at uni."
"She goes to Jacksonville?!"
"Yep. Where do you think I met her? Or where have you been told I met her?" Martin asked.
"Nowhere. I wasn't just expecting that."
"Then don't expect anything," Martin said firmly and then entered the ice cream shop to return with Celine who had no a single bag in her hands.
Julian and Kenneth who had just finished their checkout came to join them at the front of the shop.
"Celine, where are your things?!" Julian asked confused.
"I didn't find anything interesting." She replied fidgeting with her fingers.
"But I saw a dope baby look in the big display," Julian said to her.
"WHERE?!" Celine asked eyes budging out as if they were about to pop out of their sockets.
"In there at-" He didn't get to finish as Celine set off running to the shop.
Kenneth started to laugh so hard that he had to clench Julian's shirt to keep himself from falling.
"Dude! What's going on? I don't understand a bit." Julian asked eyeing the three boys with him.
"With your new profound friend, let some things pass you," Justin said and brought up an awkward silence.
"We aren't friends Justin," Kenneth said in an insisting manner.
"Yeah, we are not though we used to be best buddies back in the days when my mom and his parents were alive," Julian said with a slight hurt in his voice and face.
"Well until you..." Kenneth was to add more but Justin cut in to save the moment.
"Well, you can be friends again. You looked cute together back there." Justin said.
"Was there a need of stealing my compliment on that?" Martin asked Justin.
"I didn't ... You didn't ... Wha-" Justin was at a loss of words.
"Glad they were a lot of interesting things in there. Thanks, Julz." Celine said flashing Julian a million-dollar smile and made Kenneth start laughing again.
Well, everything went smoothly after. They just strolled the mall as they waited for Blake to be there and shocking enough, he came with his fiancée.
"O! M! G! Dad you didn't!" Celine said to her father who was approaching them.
"Hello kids, how're you doing?" Blake flashed them a smile.
"We great uncle," Kenneth replied smirking at the couple.
"Justin, this is my fiancée, Queen Kapata. Queen, this is the boy I told you about." Blake introduced the two.
"Pleased to meet you Miss Kapata." Justin shook her hand.
"Me too, Justin. I've heard a lot about you."
Justin was surprised to hear that but when he turned to Julian who rolled his eyes, he got a glimpse of what he might be up with. "Thanks."
"So, what was the timetable saying?" Blake asked rick who said it was lunch before the movie.
They had lunch together with Scar and Rick before the movie.
They were to choose one from the list but Celine made all of them watch Titanic as she hadn't seen it. They argued with her but watched it at the end. And it was worth it as they laughed together and got emotional together. Justin even persuaded Rick to watch it with them.
During the ride home, Celine kept calling herself Leonardo Di Caprio's best girl. That was until Justin whisper threatened to tell Banana.
"Justin, can we have a talk in my office? Right now?" Blake asked after he got out of his SUV.
"Oo-okay."
"Don't worry it's about college," Blake assured him and went with him to his office and locked the doors from inside.
"Ooh My God! Ooh My God!" Blake said after locking the doors. He was getting pale by a minute and the tie was kind of choking him so he removed it while pacing back and forth.
"What's wrong Mr. Blake? Is there anything disturbing?"
"Fuck! Shit!"
Yep, he cursed. And Justin was like ooh my holy virginity. He just said fuck.
"Sir!" Justin said making a move towards where Blake was.
"No." He protested. "Just tell me one thing. And be honest about it, will you Justin?"
"I will try."
"I don't need you to try. I want you to BE completely honest about it."
"Okay, okay I will," Justin said in defeat raising his hands.
"Is all this rebellious and acting like a jerk of Julian because he is gay?! He wants Kenneth, right?! Tell me Justin, is it?!"
"What? I don't even understand what you are talking about!"
"I saw them, Justin. Not you please, don't lie to me as well." Blake pleaded with tears starting to stream down.
"I don't know what you are saying and what did you see at first place to make you think like that?" Justin had now panicked.
"During the movie, whenever there was an emotional scene, Julian would squeeze Kenneth's hand like everything will be okay. They were watching it like a couple and after what Celine said, I can't think properly of what the hell was that."
Justin contemplated what was in front of him first before speaking because he also saw that and he took it as a reunion of friends.
"I don't know what made you think of it like that but that's not the thing. They were just having a reunion after years of constant quarrels and bickering. You know they both lost their important person in their lives and it was a double blow at Kenneth. They are now getting on good terms as Julian has realized that he isn't the only person who has lost a parent. And to be honest, he is trying really hard to make it up to Kenneth and everyone for what he had done in the past. He was stressed out and vulnerable. He was a kid who lost his mom at the age of 10 for heaven's sake."
Justin tried to explain it putting in all the emotions he had and make it look like decent and the truth. While the real truth was that, the feud was about Julian being the accused killer of Kenneth's parents and nobody knew of it except Justin, Kenneth, Alysa, and Julian himself.
That's what was making Julian vulnerable. That's what was giving Kenneth more opportunity to screw up Julian and make him feel like shit on each passing day. That's what was eating the insides of Julian. And that's what made the Desai mansion a hell because believe it or not, Blake loved Julian more than any of his children.
And about holding hands during the movie, Justin knew nothing about it. He just assumed what he thought was right.
It was up to Justin then to make everything go back to normal, or at least the way everything used to be. Whether great or worse. Perfect or flawed. But that was the way that made everyone happy.
He couldn't make the dead come back to life and sort it for good but at least he could make it a little less messed up. That he could do.
And that's what he was going to do.