Justin

Justin was pretty involved in the game, so at first he didn't sense that he was being watched. But the feeling that eyes were boring into his skin finally became too much & Justin hit the pause screen button on his controller and got up to investigate. A quick look out the window reveals Alison standing in his yard, looking in at him. Justin heads immediately for the back door, and Alison, knowing she's been seen, meets him on the patio. "What the hell...?" she asks, and Justin raises an eyebrow, "You're skulking around my backyard & you're asking we 'what the hell'?" he responds, growling. "What are you up to, Justin?" Alison demands with an angry frown. Justin gestures at the TV through the window behind him, the static image of his game screen on pause, "I'm in the middle of a gun fight with a bunch of cops," he says, "What are you up to?" Alison sighs, frowns & crosses her arms over her chest. "I talked to Belinda," she says, with a challenge in her voice. "Belinda?" Justin asks, taking a second to remember that Belinda was Alison's girlfriend, back in New York. "What does that have to do with me?" he asks. Alison glares, her eyes & lips slitted tight, "She told me you were in New York. She said you'd gone back to the Collared."

With a brusque wave of his hand, Justin gestures for Alison to come inside. "I haven't been to New York since the last time you saw me there. And there is no 'Collared' for me to go back to. That's ridiculous," he says. Alison sighs, and looks at him with mistrust. "I think it's ridiculous too," she says, "But they've kept it up & they've waited for you. Some of them anyway. And she told me you'd finally come back to them." Alison looks him over like she doesn't know what to believe. "She must be bullshitting you, Alison. You just had dinner with us, and I'm here today: how fast do you think I can go from L.A. to N.Y. and back? I'm not a god, you at least always knew that, whatever your friends were concocting," he says. "Why would she make something like that up?" Alison asks. Justin shrugs, "How would I know? I haven't been to New York, and I'm not happy to learn they're 'keeping it up' whatever the hell that means, but I've only just learned any of this today, from you. There's no way I'd go back, not to that city, not to them, none of it. So Belinda must be lying." Alison's jaw sets hard and she looks like she's going to argue further, but instead she lets out a heavy, defeated sigh. "I guess you're right," she says, without seeming to entirely trust him.

Questions nag at Justin through the day, why would Belinda tell Alison he'd gone back to New York? Why would they expect him to go back? They distract him while he's cleaning, so he actually dropped & broke a glass, bother him during his workout so he can't count his reps, and his only escape finally came while playing with his pictures of Eleanor, where he loses all track of time. Eleanor surprises him when she comes in, touching his shoulder gently as she says his name in a quiet, hesitant voice. It is unusual for him to be up here when she comes home from work: he should be making dinner. Justin turns to her & takes her hands, and tells her about Alison's strange visit, and what Belinda told her. "I don't like it," he wraps it up, wishing that half expressed his revulsion for the whole thing. Eleanor clearly doesn't like it either, he sees it in her face, "Why would she say you'd gone back to them?" she asks him, and there's this look on her face, like Alison's, like she just doesn't believe him. "I have no idea," he answers. Eleanor looks away for a moment, and it's a terrible moment for Justin, because he sees she's deciding whether or not she trusts him. When she turns her eyes to him again, they're watery and her lips tremble as she speaks, "Please don't leave me, ever, please," she says, and falls against his chest, gripping him tightly like he might escape at that moment. "Elle, I couldn't leave you anymore than I could leave myself," he whispers, caressing her hair, surprised at her reaction. "They treated you like a god, they still would after all this time, how can I live up to that?" she asks, looking up at him with a deep furrowed brow. Suddenly, Justin remembers his sister's warning, right before she left, "The last thing Jeanette said to me, was that someday I'd meet my Jane, so I better be careful who was stashed in my attic," Justin recalls it to Eleanor, "I thought she was out of her mind, but she's turned out to be right. I lived my whole life minute by minute, I've never had a goal beyond what I felt like at the time or a thought about how what I was doing then might come back on me in the future. Until I met you, Elle: then I started regretting, things I had done that might put me out of your reach. My past is dead to me, and these people are just ghosts. You have to believe me Eleanor, I'm not worthy of anyone's trust, but I need yours. I'd lie to the whole world, but never to you."