Watercolor Road ✔

Chapter 11: The Great Depression

"Julia?" Rory tapped softly on Julia's door. "It's time to get ready for school."

Julia lay on her bed, fully dressed and eyes closed. She had no desire to go to school and see Jacob. Or Will. Or Megan and Jack. Or Eliza.

She just wanted to lie there.

Another knock, louder this time. "Julia," Rory said. "You have to go to school."

Julia remained quiet.

The door opened, and Rory poked his head in, seeing her fully dressed. "There's breakfast on the table. Unless there's something wrong with you, I expect you out here in five minutes."

Julia groaned internally. Rory wouldn't leave her alone until she got up and did as he said. So she did. Putting on as neutral of a face as she could muster, Julia left her room and joined her uncle in the kitchen.

She could tell that Rory knew something was wrong, but she kept silent, eating her cereal and avoiding Rory's gaze.

"So, how did it go last night?" Rory finally broke the silence.

"Fine."

"Are you sure? You seem a bit off today."

"It was fine," Julia repeated, standing up. "I'm done. I'm going to school now."

"Have a good day," Rory said, nodding.

Julia didn't reply, just grabbed her bag and left, shutting the door a little too hard behind her.

Julia took her usual path to school, but as she arrived at the campus she kept walking straight, past the school and into the neighborhood on the other side. She didn't know exactly where she was going, she just knew that she couldn't go to school and she couldn't go home.

After about ten minutes, Julia came across a park with a small field and a playground. She threw her backpack down underneath a tree and sat down, leaning her back against the trunk. A few younger kids played on the playground in the distance, their parents watching them. No one paid Julia any attention.

Julia didn't mean to fall asleep, but when she closed her eyes underneath the shade of the tree, her phone read one o'clock the next time she opened them. She ate her packed lunch and, knowing that if she left for home now she would get back too early, watched the soccer players who now occupied the field. They were older, probably from the local community college.

Despite the fact that Julia was trying to relax, she only got angry.

Soccer reminded her of Jacob and Will. Jacob, she was furious at, but also felt wounded. It was different from the kind of pain that came from her parents. With him, he intentionally hurt her, intentionally betrayed her.

Concerning Will, Julia was angrier with herself than she was at him. Angry that she had let her guard down long enough to tell him about her parents, angry that her guard came down because of the anger, and not because of trust. She dreaded facing him more than Jacob.

Forcing herself to stop staring at the soccer players, Julia picked up her phone and dialed Alicia. She would just be starting lunch back in California right now. Sure enough, for one of the few times since Julia had moved to Texas, Alicia picked up.

"Julia!" Alicia exclaimed from the other end. "It's so good to hear from you! I've been meaning to call for such a long time, just something always seems to come up whenever I mean to. How are you?"