"You wrecked me completely, Juliet. You ruined me for any other reality where you don't exist."
Juliet Everly
A scatterbrained physics student, she sees the world through rose-colored glasses. But there's a twist- she only believes in love as long...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"I have no idea why she gives me that look as if I have personally offended her. We don't even talk much. But she just can't be nice for once, and she also looks at me like I came from the jungle or something. I mean, I also think her face looks like Pythagoras's failed experiment, but hey, look at me. I'm not making it obvious, am I?" Juliet says, laughing at her own comment and earning a bunch of chuckles from around her.
Aira, Maddie, and Maddie's younger sister, Bridget, are sprawled around her on the couches, eavesdropping on her conversation while having a feast on the snacks Maddie's mother gave them. Juliet has stolen the fries from there beforehand and isn't letting anyone touch them.
"You shouldn't talk about someone's looks like that, Julie. It's not good." Russell replies on the phone, making her scrunch her nose in protest.
"But Baba, why aren't you saying anything about how she tried to insult me? She tried to say I got more marks only because I had managed to write both of the two questions while she only wrote one? Like yeah, the professor was feeling a little too generous that day and gave you 15 in a 10-mark question, right? Sure, totally believable." Juliet complains, dipping her fry into the sauce. "She's a son of a biscuit, and I'll not be taking questions at this time," she giggles and can literally imagine her Baba sighing in defeat.
"You're not gonna change," Russell says with an exasperated sigh. "By the way, did you have lunch? I'm sure you got thin from eating all those restaurant food."
"I had a sandwich and an iced coffee. And no, Baba, I'm not hungry," she answers, knowing what's gonna be his next question.
"What do you wanna eat? I'll make all your favorite dishes after you come home this time."
"I want falafel, kebab, mansaf, baklava, kunafa, and...and I miss biryani so much. I want koshary too. Aira tries to make it sometimes, but it tastes like glue and dirt," Juliet complains, hearing Russell chuckle from the other end.
Aira's face turns to a grimace next to her-not loving the insult of her enthusiastic cooking attempts.
"And I don't like those people in class at all. Some of the girls are such bullies. And the drama everywhere—let me tell you the interesting stuff. There's this guy, very ugly, just saying, and there are two girls who both want him, and previously they were fighting. But then they saw him be friendly to another girl, so now the archenemies joined hands to badmouth her together. And it's all in the same class. Imagine the drama. The whole class is a circus, I'm telling you-"
"And you're like those National Geographic narrators making commentary on the go." His laughter echoes through the phone, bringing a smile to her face.
"Yes! I'm the reporter."
Aira tries to take a fry from Juliet's plate, but she swats her hands away at the speed of light, turning her back to Aira and shielding the fries protectively. Aira rolls her eyes and puts a bunch of caramel popcorn into her mouth from the shared snack platter.
