"At least we got good friends giving me great times."

[likefatherlikeson]

Who: Justin Campbell and Amarlie-Rose Satori with anyone else who wants to jump in
What: Overdue Squad Chillout
Where: Casa de Campbell, Upper East Side
When: Weekend Sleepover

It had been way too long since their squad had a decent hangout. There had been the holidays and a bunch of family shit going on - not to mention Justin discovering he had a long-lost biological birth mother out there who loved him - that time just got away and they hadn't had a chance to get together as a group. Those of them that lived at Casa de Campbell decided this weekend was it, and PJs and hot chocolate were a much, considering they were expecting snow. It was the shitty weather that had them deciding a sleepover would be fun. There was plenty of room and it would give them the chance to hang out and have fun, especially with Justin's tour due to kick off in a few weeks where he and a lot of his friends who worked with him would be on the road soon.

Dressed in his fluffy rainbow onesie PJs, Justin grabbed a Krispy Kreme donut and a can of Diet Dr Pepper and leapt over the back of the couch, dropping in the spot right up next to his sister, Amarlie, giving her a mischievous grin. "So - how about them vajayjays?" he asked pointedly, licking some donut glaze off his pinkie finger.

Comments

[innocenteyes]

Amarlie leaned close, listening to Justin fill her in on details she had clearly somehow missed. Eyes narrowed a little in concentration. Then she blinked, connecting all the dots. "Are you... serious? She's always wanted this? Why haven't I heard about it? That's incredible. That's... shit. Do you know how much I would kill to work on something like that? Before I came to New York, I'd never faced anyone with cancer before. It never came close in my family but now I know my biological grandmother died from it. Then Paris. Will. Zeke. Brandon. Paris. Has she talked to him about this? He would love to be involved. Oh fuck! You think she would want me as a partner? Oh my god..." She felt a heat creep into her cheeks, like she was too embarrassed to think she had the skill for something like the dream Layla had. She looked over to Layla - the first girl she had ever had sex with, had sexual interest in - and felt a thrill rush through her. "I wouldn't want to hijack her dream, though."

"Sure it will. I understand that. I felt exactly the same when I came to New York to see Gen... and you. Man, I was shitting myself about meeting you. Remember you thought I was a crazy stalker fan at first? I freaked you the out," she reminded him, giving him a tiny playful poke in the belly. "But I knew Gen existed forever. I knew who she was for years before I decided I wanted to meet her. You didn't know about your birth family, so it's going to feel constructed, I guess is the word I'm looking for. Like someone's just handed you this neatly wrapped family package but no instructions on how to deal with it. Everything you've been through, though, Jus... you've still been the same person the whole time I've known you. Holding onto your identity's important to you. But it probably feels like this could change you. How do you feel about her dating Sam?"

[likefatherlikeson]

"She hasn't spoken to me about her vision in a long time but I know back when she was first thinking about it, she wanted to do it with someone who shared the same passion for it as she did. Lays is a fashionable chick and loves her shopping but she doesn't have the design taken she needs. Her strength is in being a people person and a nurturer. I did promise to invest in it whenever she decided she wanted to roll with it. But she never asked. I thought she might've shelved it until after college but why does she have to if she can find someone to work with her? You should talk to her about it, not me. I'm just the messenger. I have a Stylist who tells me what to wear and when. Fashion's not my gig either, no matter how many people assume I'm an expert. You've seen what I live it away from the spotlight," Justin reminded her, smirking. He snorted and waved his hand. "Are you kidding me right now? No one achieves a dream on their own. It takes a team. If she could do it alone, she would've done it by now. She won't know you're interested unless you tell her."

He raised an eyebrow at her and laughed. "How could I forget that? Girl, you got me at a bad time. I can't remember exactly what bad time it was but it wasn't personal. I'm okay with that part. Uncle Sam deserves someone amazing and I think she is. I can't get caught up in the surrealness of it all or thinking any of it's weird. The whole thing is weird. My life is one big crazy pile of weird. I just wanna find a groove, which is the hard part. There's so much going on. Having time with them all helps but I know it's weird for them too. Of course it is, they spent eighteen years thinking I must be dead. That's got to feel more strange than not knowing anything of the truth at all."

[innocenteyes]

"Why does it always feel like your eyes are drilling into my conscience when we have talks like this? I swear, you can read my freaking mind and that's not fair because I can never figure out exactly what you're thinking when we have D-and-Ms." Amarlie restlessly looped her hair around her finger, trying hard not to stare at Layla. Justin wasn't just pulling this out of his arse to firm up his point. This was far too complex a thing, it was something that Layla really confided in him about, likely ages before Amarlie even met him. She knew Layla had gotten close to Justin way back when he and Will were still together. Amarlie only came onto the scene after he and Will had split up. It felt too good to be true, she was scared to think she could be the person Layla was looking for to partner with. "Fashion's not your gig? Bitch, you're the prince of one of our industry's most dynamic fashion royalty teams. You were a trendy short and there's a hundred different cheap knock-offs on it on eBay within the week. You've got a look that can pull of any style so don't BS me, little bro. This is going to sound so stupid but I'd be scared to design for sick people in case I didn't give them what they hoped for."

She patted his shoulder, watching his face as he spoke. "They probably wondered a lot what you would be like, every time your birthday came and went. What you would look like, all that stuff. I've had an abortion and even if I have no regrets about it and it was the right thing, I wonder what a kid of mine would've been like. Your musical talent comes from them. Was it a mindfuck to learn about that? Hard, too. You must be wishing you could've shared your musical achievements with them. I think that's the part that made me ultimately reach out to Gen and want to meet her and Paris. I couldn't deny the inherited love for fashion. It was too big a part of me to ignore."