Everything According to Juliana

Chapter Twenty-Five: A Falling Out

"Hey!" Juliana heard a low, animated voices shout from behind her. She jumped, her heart thumping out of her chest as she turned around, meeting eyes with Jake who walked towards her. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you."

She should have figured Jake would have that kind of energy at seven-thirty in the morning on a Wednesday.

She smiled as she shook her head back and forth. "It's okay. Everyone is always jump scaring me at my locker."

"Guess you can add me to the list then?" He snickered as he fixed his black glasses that slid down his nose. "I wanted to say I'm sorry for Alivia and Parker's date. I wasn't trying to be dramatic—"

"You don't have to explain yourself," she assured him as he let out a sigh of relief. "I know you're recovering from something traumatic. You don't have to apologize for how you handle things. I can't imagine the stress she put you through. I'm so sorry something like that happened. I hope you're feeling better about it now."

He nodded his head with a soft smile on his face. "Yeah, I am," he told her, "but it will always bother me."

"Oh, of course," she told him, sympathizing with his pain, "but things that bring us down only make us stronger."

Jake laughed. "Where did you find that quote? Pinterest?" He joked as she rolled her eyes and smiled. "I actually have to talk to you about something. Well, a few things, actually. Does free period work for you?"

She nodded her head slowly, trying to soak in what he just asked of her. She didn't know what Jake could possibly want to talk to her about. "Yeah, that works."

"We'll keep this between us, okay?" He raised an eyebrow as she furrowed her eyebrows. She wondered what he was talking about. "Don't tell anyone what you're doing during free period."

"Okay," she said, watching as he nodded his head before walking away. He joined Max and Toby who walked down the hallway to their next class.

Juliana gulped. So, now she was keeping more secrets from everyone? She hoped this didn't wind up biting her in the ass.

✰ ✰ ✰ ✰

Free period rolled around slowly as Juliana was in her head the entire day about what Jake wanted to talk to her about. She sat across from him in the library, who tapped his foot anxiously against the floor, wiping his sweaty palms on his jeans. He tried to figure out how he would begin the conversation.

"I... uh..." he stuttered, already off to a rough start. Juliana furrowed her eyebrows, confused about what he was trying to get across, and why he was so nervous. "I have news."

She gulped. Something felt off with him. "What happened?" She questioned as he looked away with a worried expression on his face. She was on the edge of her seat in suspense, waiting for Jake to tell her the latest drama. She felt like she was going to explode if he didn't tell her soon enough.

He looked into Juliana's eyes. He was scared. "It's not about what happened," he said, his voice shaky. "It's about what isn't going to happen."

Juliana was nervous. She hoped it wasn't about the plan. Without the help of Parker's friends, it wasn't going to work out. She hoped Jake wasn't telling her that the boys had backed off. It hadn't been that long of trying, anyway.

Jake leaned over the table, bringing his face closer to hers. "I tend to sugarcoat things so this time I won't," he said as he shook his head in disappointment. "Jordan is a liar," he spat.

Juliana's eyes widened. She wanted to laugh because she didn't understand what he was trying to tell her. He sounded crazy.

"He has bad intentions," Jake explained, this time talking at a normal volume. "He does everything for himself. When he overheard that you were planning to set up Alivia and Parker, he didn't want to help you. He didn't give a shit about the end result. The only thing he cared about was if he got Brittany the end," he let out a long sigh. "The second this bet was over, Juliana, he was never going to talk to you again. Once he gets what he wants, he moves on and does it again."