Song: Issues by Julia Michaels
'I've got issues, but you got 'em too'

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Selena's POV:

Today, I walked to school, I left early so I didn't run into Justin. I would be lying if I said what my mom told me last night didn't freak me out. She made me think of things in a way I never have before. I have never been in love with someone. I always said I wanted a love like my parents, but I don't even know how to love myself, so how could I ever allow someone else to love me. It was a thought I didn't think could be possible.

I put my bag in the locker and grabbed my books, shutting the door, I jumped back and shrieked at the sudden body behind my door, "Okay, you seriously need to stop scaring me, you are going to give me a heart attack one day!" I slapped Justin's arm.  "I'm sorry, you're just so easily scared! I wasn't even trying to scare you." he bent over, with his hands on his knees, belting out his laughter. I giggled at his laughter and how much joy he was having in this moment.

"Why didn't you wait for me today? I knocked on your door and your mom said you had left already." he furrowed his brows. "I don't know. I feel like I am annoying, aren't you tired of me yet?" I sighed, leaning on his now opened locker door. He paused, his bag in his hand. "What did you just say?" he looked at me in shock. I shrugged. "Why on earth would I be annoyed or tired of you? You are a great person and great company, don't be silly." he placed his hand on my shoulder, he started shaking my body back and forth, causing me to giggle. "What are you doing?" I laughed, "Trying to shake all the negative thoughts out of your head." he kept shaking me.

"You're going to make me throw up, please stop, unless you want me to ruin your pretty new shoes." I chuckled. he instantly stopped shaking me. I pushed my hair out of my face, that had fallen due to the annoying act of Justin shaking me.  "I was thinking..." he trailed off, "Uh oh, that's not a good sign." I said sarcastically, he rolled his eyes, "Ha ha, very funny, but no, seriously. I was thinking, maybe you should come over? We could hang out today after practice." he smiled at me. "You actually want to hang out with me on occasions that don't include school work?" "What is with you today? Of course I want to, We are friends... aren't we?" he looked at me with confusion and hurt swirling around in his caramel orbs and I instantly felt guilty for being so insensitive towards him. "We are, I would love to hang out with you." I smiled at him.

Justin and I barely spoke in Biology, not because he didn't try to, but because every time he did, I told him I just wanted to focus on my work and that he was distracting me. I know, I am being a bitch. But I can't help it. I was feeling vulnerable and the only way I get through that feeling is by being closed off. I might have hurt his feelings by calling him a distraction, but Ill deal with that later. Right now, I have my first cheer practice, and I need to put all my focus on that.

"Hey Selena!" Serena and Nicole walked over, smiles plastered on their perfectly makeup covered faces. "Hi ladies!" I smiled back. "We have your uniform, there is a portable bathroom over there you can change in." Nicole said pointing to the little plastic box of hell behind her. Portables are so disgusting. "Thanks, Ill be back in a couple minutes." I say, grabbing the uniform and walking to the plastic death box. I gagged walking into it, They have them set up for the football games they have every Friday night. Its so that no one can go into the school after hours. They had some troubles in the past with people vandalizing the school during games.

I put on the green and white uniform and walk out. I tie my hair up on the way to the group of girls. "Can you help me put this in my hair?" I asked the girl beside me. "Sure thing." she smiled, her brown eyes complimented by some winged liner. "I'm Melissa." She smiled at me. "Selena. Nice to meet you." I smiled to her. she nodded back to me and we focused our attention back onto the two leaders. "Ladies! You all look so good." Nicole beamed. "We are going to run through the routine we showed you guys for tryouts! That is part of the one we do at the games!" Serena smiled.

After practice, I was exhausted, I'm glad I didn't have to practice after school, although Justin told me they were starting practices early this year for the football team and he wanted me to stay after school today to watch him play. I tried to play it off and just say I would meet up with him after but he was persistent with me staying to watch him.

I had to change into my fitness clothes and do a two mile run. Justin and I ran with each other like always, and I couldn't stop staring at his arms that were flexed as he held them bent. His muscles contracting with his movements. He didn't catch me staring this time. Which I was glad about.

I slowed my running a little bit and Justin noticed, furrowing his brows, slowing his pace down to meet mine. "What's wrong?" He asked. "I just wanted to apologize." I stated. He stopped his running, making me instantly stop as well. "Why?" "Because I've been the biggest bitch to you today and you don't deserve it, and I feel bad." I sighed. I could feel myself getting overly emotional which usually happened when I was going through an internal battle with myself.

Justin brought me in for a hug, "I know your brain is in overdrive, I can practically see the gears turning in your head, I don't know what's got you so down, but I understand and I'm not mad at you for anything. People have off days, you're allowed to, we are human. We can't be nice or feel good about ourselves every day." He spoke so softly, I could hear his heart racing in his chest, the sound of his heart was so soothing.

I looked up to Justin and watched as he wiped his thumb under my eye. He had collected the tears falling down my cheeks that I hadn't realized were there. "We can talk about it later. Let's keep going before we get in shit." He smirked, kissing my cheek.

My cheeks instantly started burning at the feeling of his lips. I nodded my head and darted off in front of him. "Oh I see how it is." He laughed, running slightly faster than me. I smirked at our competitive ways starting to kick in. "You're going to lose!" I yelled as I took off, running passed him again, nudging him on the way by. "Not a chance!"

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I was sitting on the bleachers, wearing Justin's football jacket, it was starting to cool off and I never grabbed one before leaving this morning. The slightly cooler days of September where starting to come in and we were officially saying goodbye to the summer heat.

Justin's jacket was way too big on me, like the t-shirt he lent to me. It's funny how much taller he is than me. He literally towers over me.

Compared to the other guys on the football team Justin wasn't the tallest one there but there was a lot of guys around the same height as him. I watched them run around with their uniforms on, Justin was number six. Which I found out that is his favourite number.

I watched as he caught the ball and started running towards the other end of the field, his legs moving quickly, carrying his body at a fast pace. I giggled as Justin got tackled to the ground and it looked like he dropped like a sack of potatoes, I heard him yell 'fuck' as he stood up and slammed the ball into the grass, which only caused me to giggle more. He was adorable.

When Justin was done practice, he slowly walked towards me, taking his helmet off, and his jersey, leaving the shoulder pads he was wearing to rest on his bare chest. His abs on full display. I blushed at the gorgeous boy coming towards me. How can someone be so stunning? I honestly don't get it.

Not to mention those pants make his ass look amazingly yummy. "Checking me out, babe?" He smirked, licking his lips. I blushed at him calling me 'babe'. I nod my head at him, causing him to raise his brows in shock that I owned up to what I was doing. Why lie? He always knows when I'm lying anyways.

"You look good." I smirked at him. He took a seat beside me on the bleachers and chugged a bottle of water, "Why thank you." He smiled at me. "But you stink, so lets go." I stood from the bleachers pinching my nose while giggling. "Oh I'm sorry, am I supposed to smell like roses after playing football?" He laughed, playfully rolling his eyes at me. "Well duh!" I went along with him.

"We will head out in a sec, I want you to meet the guys. Well, the ones I hang out with anyways." He smiled, getting up and walking with me down the bleachers. We walked over to boys all sitting in grass laughing to themselves.

"Yo! Justin!" One of them yelled. Justin smiled, bringing me closer. "Hey guys, I wanted you to meet someone." He smirked to them. "Fresh meat." One cackled as he stood up, checking me out before walking away. "Fuck off Collin, she's not fresh meat." Justin spat.  "Ignore him man, you know how he is." One said softly.

Confusion ran through my body, what is 'fresh meat'? Why did I get a bad feeling about this Collin guy. "Hey," a voice snapped me out of my thoughts, I looked up to a worried Justin, "don't worry about him, he's just an asshole." Justin said softly as he placed his arm around me shoulders, causing me to blush.

"Selena, these are the guys I hang with, Zack, Cody, Kyle, Shaun, Jake, Rob, Caleb, and Ryan." He said as he pointed to each guy in the little circle, they all gave me a small wave as their name was called. "Hi guys." I shyly waved.

"How tall are you?" Kyle asked, looking me up and down with a raised brow, then checking my size compared to Justin. "Five feet tall." I blushed. "Oh wow, Justin you better protect her, she's just a little one." He chuckled, causing Justin to laugh. "I plan on it." I tug on the back of Justin's shoulder pads trying to indicate that I wanna leave. "You can stay if you want, I can come by later, I just really want to leave." I whispered to him. "No it's okay, we can leave, don't even stress." Justin smiled down to me.

"We are gonna leave, bye guys!" Justin smirked, waving to the guys. "She's actually so adorable." I heard on of the guys say as we walked away, causing me to smile.

Justin and I headed into the school, that was vacant because no one stayed to watch practice after school. I went to my locker and began putting stuff in my bag. Justin took off to a change room to rid himself of his uniform.

I grabbed my text books and put them in my bag, I ran my finger over the picture of Tyler on my locker door, I began to get sad, I'm missing him more than usual. I felt arms snake around my waist and I smiled.

"I'm sorry for what I said outside." I jumped out of the grasp of the arms, those aren't Justin's. Thats not Justin's voice. I turned to see Collin. My stomach instantly churning. Where's Justin? I want Justin.

"Woah babe, don't be so scared." He smirked at me, placing his arms on both sides of me, trapping me against my locker. "You're really pretty." He smiled at me. His smile made me sick. This guy screams bad news. "Thanks." I spat.  "You know, I wish it was me that met you on the first day, not Justin. I want you to be mine, but sadly, around here, we don't touch anyone else's girl." He smirked, licking his lips.

"I'm not Justin's girl." I shot my hand over my mouth instantly regretting saying that. Why did I decide to be honest in this moment. This is the time where it is okay to lie. I mentally cursed myself. I watched as Collins piercing blue eyes lit up. "Well that's good, because I want you, and I'll get you to be mine, one way or another. Free range." He smirked.

"Get the fuck away from her!" Justin spat, storming down the hall. Thank god. "We were just having a chat, weren't we Sarah?" He smirked. "It's Selena, now fuck off before I break every bone in your arm." Justin hissed, he stood in front of me, blocking me from Collin, he stood there rigid and stiff, like he was protecting what was his. "Trying to protect something that isn't yours? You guys aren't official, so she is free range." Collin chuckled, he turned and walked away, Justin instantly relaxed once Collin was out of sight.

"What did he say to you?" He asked, worry spread across his beautiful features. He placed his hand on my cheek, his thumb tracing around my lips. I leaned onto his touch. "Nothing important." I sighed. "This conversation isn't over. We will talk about this." Justin sighed, grabbing my hand. He used his foot to kick shut my locker door, and then grabbed my bag that had fallen to the floor, with his free hand.

"Are you going to tell me what he said now?" Justin said, as he pulled himself up to sit on the kitchen counter. I looked around at his house, it was huge. "You have a nice home." "Don't ignore me." Justin said. He pulled me by my hands so I stood between his legs. "Tell me what he said, please." He begged, his eyes searching mine for answers.

"It's not a big deal Justin." I sighed. "Then tell me, even if it's nothing, I want to know what that asshole said to you." He sighed, playing with my fingers. I watched our hands and smiled at him playing with my hands. He was twirling my rings, pulling them off then pushing them back on, picking at my nails.

I sighed, "He told me that he was upset I was your girl because he wanted me to himself. And then I told him I wasn't your girl, and he got all happy and said that he was happy I wasn't, because he was gonna get me to be his, one way or another, and that it was free range." Justin dropped my hands, "That motherfucker." He hissed under his breath.

He slid off the counter and pulled me in for a hug. "Selena, listen to me. I need you to try your hardest at staying away from him. He is not a good guy. His ass deserves to be behind bars. If I'm ever not around when he comes near you, come find me or one of the guys. Please, please promise me you will do that. This is such a serious thing and I'm not just saying this to be over protective, when it comes to that jerk, any girl should be protected from him." He said sternly, his eyes burning into my own.

I didn't even want to ask any questions, I've never seen Justin so serious before, and I knew that he was right. I knew Collin was bad news and Justin confirming it for me was all the proof I needed. "I promise." I whispered. I leaned my face into his chest.

"He scared me when you were gone. As soon as I saw him, I turned to look for you. He trapped me against the lockers. You are the only person I wanted to come save me. And you did. So thank you." I wrapped my arms tighter around his waist. "I will always try to protect or save you, I don't care how short of time we have known each other, you've become an important person in my life Selena. And I protect the people I care about." He kissed the top of my head.

He cares about me? Justin cares about me? I've never had a guy besides Tyler care about me. I miss Tyler. I pulled away from Justin, he looked down at me with furrowed brows, "what's wro-" he was cut off by the front door opening. "Well, looks like you're going to meet Jenna." He whispered. Why did I suddenly get nervous about meeting his sister?

"Hey Jen, you're beautiful." Justin said, embracing her in a hug, she smiled up at Justin, "Thank you Jay." She kissed him on the cheek. Her eyes fell onto me, turning into an instant glare. She pushed Justin away.

"Who the hell is that?" She spat, pointing at me. Justin turned to face me, a nervous look spread across his face.

Oh boy.

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This story is going to start covering some intense and potentially triggering topics.