After Everything

Chapter Four: Photo Drama

By morning, all of the students at West Coral High School had seen the photo of Jake and Lola hugging.

With the first day of school approaching in three days, the photo was the perfect drama to start the new school year with. Everyone would have something to talk about on the first day. Those who loved to gossip were ecstatic there was something worthy of discussing.

Except it wasn't so thrilling when the gossip was about you. Juliana could say she was no stranger to the drama, as she was involved in a fair amount last year - but nothing had ever been similar to this. A photo of her boyfriend with another girl in this arms? It made her want to vomit.

An hour after Juliana saw the photo, it had circled to Jake. (It was actually seventy-two minutes... not that she was counting.) Juliana sent the photo to Cassie, who sent it to Jordan, who sent it to Jake... and it went snowballing from there. More people were seeing the photo, those who were friends with Jake, and those who weren't.

And then it took Juliana forty-five minutes to acknowledge Jake's texts and phone calls attempting to explain the photo. (It was actually fifty-two minutes but again... she wasn't counting.) However, her boyfriend's explanations weren't exactly the best to defend his side of the story. That led to an argument between the two, and they both went to sleep without working things out.

And now that it was eleven in the morning, the two of them still had failed to make things right.

Juliana arrived at work, praying that no one would notice her puffy red eyes and dark circles that not even her makeup would cover up that morning. Those were both thanks to not getting enough sleep the night before, and she had to pay the price of hardly any shut-eye by looking like a zombie.

Alivia and Trevor weren't making her feel any better about herself as she was greeted by their intense stares. They stood behind the bar, their eyes following her every move as she continued to make her way into the restaurant. She shielded her face so they wouldn't be able to see her unattractive eyes up close.

"Who knew Jake had paparazzi following him?" Trevor joked, swiveling back around to the sink to resume scrubbing the dirty dishes. He didn't fail to start early with the snide comments about the photo that the entire school had seen.

Alivia couldn't help but laugh. "Maybe he should post it to Instagram?"

Juliana was in no mood to romanticize the situation, as the photo still hurt her feelings and made her grow suspicious about her boyfriend's whereabouts. "Not funny," she hissed, taking a step in the kitchen to punch into work.

"Sorry, Jul," Alivia playfully frowned before letting out a few giggles. She met her eyes when she walked into the kitchen to retrieve the take-out orders. A sympathetic look then formed on her face. "We're just trying to make light of the situation. I know you must feel pretty upset about it."

She nodded her head in agreement. "Yeah," she said before walking out of the kitchen and towards the front register. "All I want to do is forget about the photo. I just wish this whole thing will blow over soon."

Alivia placed the brown bags packaged with take-out food in front of her as she spoke. "It will. Trust me." A promising smile formed on her face as she gingerly rubbed her friends arm.

"You better not be sad all shift," Trevor said with a wide smile, showing Juliana he was just messing around with her. "Or else I might have to call Cassie to take your place."

Alivia was quick to stick up for her best friend. "Oh, please," she laughed, walking back towards the kitchen to grab more take-out bags. "She doesn't even work here anymore. Don't be mean."

"I'm not being mean," he retorted, continuing to scrub the dishes. "Like you said... I'm lightening the mood."

She walked out of the kitchen with two more bags. "That's not exactly what I said," she sassed, yet again placing the bags in front of Juliana. She then snapped her fingers at Trevor. "Let's go. You're cleaning too slow."