✸ ANYONE ELSE chapter twelve ━━ and you knew what it was
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JULIE SAT WITH her feet in the water, swinging them back and forth while she hummed the melody of a song she heard on the radio that morning. She couldn't remember the name, but the words were stuck in her head.
Her eyes were fixated on the clear pool water in front of her as Steven softly sat down next to her.
He had been watching her for a while, observing as she sat in her own little world. He wanted to approach her, but only now got the nerve to do so.
She looked so at ease and he knew was going to ruin that, so he instantly felt bad as her eyes met his.
"Hi," He announced his present even though she was already looking at him, slipping his feet into the pool next to hers.
"Hi," She smiled at him and the sight made him want to smile as well. It had been a long time since she had smiled at him.
He didn't know what to say next, feeling suffocated by the silence surrounding them, but all his words were gone.
She spoke first. Turning her head to look at him, her face fell a little as she spoke.
"James and I broke up," she told him, "I guess we were better off as friends."
He stared at her for a moment, he already knew that, but it felt nice to hear her say it.
"Okay," He tried not to sound too pleased. "I'm sorry if it was because of me,"
"It wasn't." Her voice sounded strained. She was convincing herself that it wasn't.
"Okay," he took a deep breath, "but I'm still sorry. I shouldn't have said the things I said,"
"You're right. You shouldn't have said those things,"
"I meant them, though," He looked hopefully at her, trying to not go too far. "I should have just found a better moment."
She hummed softly, not meeting his eyes.
"You'll always have me, you know that right?" He tried to move closer towards her without making it too obvious. "No matter what happens, even when you want to never see me again, I'll always be here,"
"I never want to never see you again," She looked up at him, biting her lip nervously. "You're one of my best friends,"
☼ ☼ ☼ ☼
A LOUD NOISE appeared every time a heavy drop of rain landed on the roof of the beach house. It had been raining nonstop the whole day; earlier on the day, a round of thunder had sounded too, but the residents of the house hadn't been able to spot the lightning.
All seven of them had sat around in the living room all day, none of them wanting to move outside in this weather.
Now, they sitting around at the dinner table, not talking, just shovelling down the food Laurel had prepared.
Julie had seated herself beside Steven, returning to her usual seat after a couple of days of sitting as far away from him as possible.
Steven saw that as progress. At least she wasn't mad anymore.
When they went to clean the table, Julie even stayed in the kitchen, drying off the plates he washed and laughing as he told all the jokes he had saved in the back of his mind knowing she would find them funny.
