Afterglow

24

She looks around awkwardly. She pulls at the pendent on her necklace. "How was the game?" She asks, forced.

I peak up at her, shrugging. "It was fine."

I know I'm being petty, but after this weekend, I don't know how I feel about Julie. I don't know how to process how I felt, and this entire situation is making me confused. I hate it.

"Look Jace," Juliana says, clearly annoyed at my lack of conversation. "I thought we were good?" She stares at me as I continue to scroll through the same messages I've been scrolling through. Ironically, it's my messages with her. "We're good. Right?" Juliana adds in again. Her voice heightened at the end, something she does when she's nervous.

"Class. I'm handing back your unit four exam." Thank god for Mrs. High. I didn't need to confront her now in class.

Juliana sighs before giving up and turning away from me.

Mrs. High walks up to our lab table and places Juliana's test face down. She flips it over, and her eyes widen.

"Congrats Jace." Mrs. High says, placing my test down. A large A+ written in red ink is placed in the top right corner. "You scored the highest in the class."

Pride fills me because, as much as I hate to admit it, this unit and test was hard, so knowing I scored the highest means I beat Juliana.

I peak over at Juliana, who's staring off into the distance, test flipped back over so I can't see her score.

No happiness. No curiosity on how I did. No confidence. No sass. No... nothing.

Juliana Walker not being competitive after receiving scores back isn't heard of. Especially when I scored the highest in the class. It's honestly unsettling and a little bit... sad?

I look back over at her. She looks... upset, something I haven't experienced before after we received our scores back.

"How did you do?" Fuck me for being nosy.

"Oh, so now you want to talk to me." She breaks from her gaze and glares at me.

I roll my eyes at her. "Just asking because, if you can't see to remember, we are competing for valedictorian. Kind of need to know what I'm working against here."

Lies.

I miss our witty banter. I miss the way her eyes light up when she sees her score. The way she smiles when she's confident because she can't keep a poker face. The way she'll tease me about scoring lower. The way we bicker playfully. Everything. I miss it.

Even if we're competing for valedictorian, Juliana makes it fun, playful, yet competitive still. She challenges me and brings out the best in me. I wouldn't want to compete against anyone else, and this silence she's giving me is unsettling.

She rolls her eyes at me, shoving her test towards me. "If you really want to see, look for yourself."

She shoves the paper towards me.

Hesitantly, I flip it over.

B.

Juliana Annalise Walker got her first B in high school, well, that I know of.