TO BE FRANK

CHAPTER ELEVEN, three's company

     Unless, of course, he had other reasons.

     His eye peered at her, a burning side-eye of dismay.

     Juliette would love to hear it.

     "That's why you wanted to work with me, no?" The girl tested as their gazes meet, "you wanted a partner with a better work ethic than Vasseur. You knew that I would do most of the project so you wouldn't have to do a damn thing."

     Joseph shakes his head and he feigns a scoff, "no, that's not—never mind."

     He decides against finishing his thought. Using her as an easy out was far from his intentions, though his real intentions were not entirely plausible either. Not wanting her to work with any other male classmate aside from him sounded crazy and unjustifiable even if he tried. Juliette would be even more annoyed with him if he revealed even an inkling of that information.

     Girls came and went in Joseph's life. He just wasn't so sure why he was so possessive over this one—a friend, a neighbor, a mere acquaintance.

     "What is it, then?" Juliette asks, serious and doting.

     The inside of Joseph's cheek catches in between his teeth as he chewed it lightly. If he didn't, he would have said something he would regret.

     "Just know that I'd rather risk my grade working with a girl than be partnered with Vasseur," he excuses himself.

     Juliette rolls her eyes, "again with the anti-girl rhetoric. How many times do our teachers have to announce my grades for you to understand that I've been outscoring you since September?"

     There's a competitive fire written all over her visage, from her peering gaze and teasing smile. Something about Juliette's jabs at him was so compelling, he had not noticed the way his palms perspired and his stomach churned. Nerves. Joseph chuckles, brushing off the tease off like a speck of dirt on his shoulder.

     Juliette did not question him, nor did she acknowledge the fact that they just walked past his home. Perhaps there was already an unspoken agreement between the two of them that they were to start on the presentation, anyway. To get it over with.

     "We're staying downstairs in the shop and only the shop," she announced as they reached the doors of the building, glaring at the boy. "My room is off limits."

     A smirk melts upon his lips when opens the door for her. She tosses him a quick thanks. He's quick to follow behind her, "I wouldn't dream of it, cherie."

     "I'm sure half the guys in our class would pay for a description of what it looks like." Juliette jokes as her grandfather greets the both of them.

     He gives the two a toothy grin as if he was happy the see the sight of the two of them together again.

     "Sounds like a great way to make some easy cash," Joseph comments, following Juliette to one of the work tables near the front of the store, near the stairwell up to their dwelling.

She flashes him a look as she sits down.

"Don't worry," he places himself right across from her. "I'd give you at least ten percent of the earnings."