- 6 -

                                    

                                          
Justine threw yet another dress onto her bed and groaned, trudging to her closet once again, in nothing but a corset and a petticoat. Her mother had found out she stopped wearing them. She slipped another dress on and examined herself in the mirror, looking at herself in different angles. Her shoulders slumped down and she slipped it right off, throwing it onto the growing pile of rejected dresses. The pattern repeated until she finally found a dress that she liked. 
Pink had always been her colour. Her golden waves fell nicely over the blush, puffed sleeves and she tied a similar coloured bow in her hair. Justine was never fond of the expectations piled upon her as a woman, but she's always been quite fond of pretty things.
"does someone have a date tonight?" Julia suddenly spoke, leaning onto the doorframe of Justine's bedroom. 
Justine lifted her shoulders to her ears. "kind of?"
Julia gasped, truly surprised. Justine had made a reputation for herself at their school and it wasn't the greatest one. She was a very intimidating girl and sometimes, people couldn't even look at her without being frightened. Her reputation came to be when she punched, and broke, a boy's nose after he tried to touch her. 
She was the only girl of her year who hasn't gotten noticed at school yet. 
"with who?"
"none of your concern." Justine replied coldly and strolled away from her vanity and to her bookshelf.
Julia ran to her and placed her hands on her shoulders before shaking her back and forth. "come on, who?" She begged.
"you don't know him." She her rolled her eyes, lightly pushing her little sister away.
"so how are you going to skip out on dinner with the Thatchers?" 
Justine's eyes went wide. How could she have forgotten that the reason her father wouldn't be in his office was because they had a dinner to go to?! Her parents wanted to meet the boy that Julia was crushing on- mostly her mother, how could she forget? 
"cover for me, I'll be 10 minutes." With that, she ran out of the house to one that was 4 houses down from her's; Bill Hearst's house. Ever since their parents met, the two have grown to become good friends and he easily became somebody she could trust. 
Bill too wasn't fond of the countless expectations placed on him all at the same time. He especially didn't like that his parents had set him up with Justine as he had a crush on another girl. Not that he didn't like Justine, he thought she was a nice girl... in her own way. But to marry her, he didn't want that. Good thing Justine didn't want it either.
Justine and Bill shared a mischievous nature. Defying their parents' rules, sneaking away every once in a while. One time, Bill had caught Justine on the streets which resulted in hearing her miserable attempt to muster up an excuse, to which she ultimately failed. But he promised that he wouldn't tell anybody, and that he would even cover up for her if she needed it. Justine promised the same.
Her run didn't take long. When she got there, she snuck around the house to the back and lightly tapped on his bedroom window, grabbing his attention from the book he had been reading. His face lit up into a smile and he scurried to it before sliding the glass all the way up. 
"'sup?" She greeted, resting her elbows on the windowsill and sticking her head into his room.
Wide eyed, Bill chuckled. "you tell me, what are you doin' here?"