Everything According to Juliana

Chapter Thirty-Nine: The Monday After

Luke drove down the highway on the way to school that Monday morning, sitting beside Cassie who had been awfully quiet since stepping into the car. He periodically turned to look at her, watching as she scrolled through social media on her phone. He wondered why she was being so quiet and not her usual talkative self.

He finally spoke after eight minutes of no talking. He wasn't able to take the silence any longer. "Are you feeling better? Friday night was pretty rough for you."

Even though Friday was a blur, she did vividly remember spending hours over the toilet throwing up the rosé she drank as Luke held her hair back.

"I'm feeling a lot better," she answered her boyfriend, turning off her phone before lightly tossing it onto her lap. "I'll never drink that much again. That was not a good idea."

Luke nodded his head in agreement, taking a right into the school parking lot. "Yeah," he chuckled, wrapping around the parking lot until he found his assigned spot. "Maybe next time you won't throw yourself all over Jordan."

Cassie tightly sealed her lips together as she already was angry with her boyfriend after only being with him for ten minutes. She just wanted everything to stop and for things to go back to normal for her and Luke... but she knew nothing was ever normal between them.

"Oh, here we go again..." she said in response to his indirect insult, rolling her eyes as he pulled into his spot.

"No, don't do that," he said as he put the car in park, his eyes on her as she looked out the front window. "I wasn't born yesterday, Cassie. You want to be with him. It's so fucking obvious. Can't you just admit it? Admit it to me before it becomes the truth and you're the one who comes out of this looking dumb."

"I don't want to be with him," she answered, breathing nervously as she proceeded to open the car door. She didn't want to talk about that anymore. Luke was quick to grab her hand, stopping her from doing so. His touch was forceful. "What the fuck?"

"We aren't done talking about this," he told her, looking deep into her blue eyes. "I don't think you realize that we've had this conversation multiple times and you think I'm the issue. I'm not the issue, you're the issue. You're the reason we have problems. You're the reason we can't fix what you mess up. You flirt with him, he flirts with you, you tell me you want to kiss him and that you wished you had sex with him, you throw yourself all over him at a party... the fact you do that makes me wonder if you really love me and puts me in an uncomfortable position as your boyfriend."

"I'm allowed to talk to other guys at this school other than Trevor, you know?" She sassed, shaking her head in disbelief. "You're right, Luke. We have this conversation all the time and it kills me because we always say the same thing. We constantly talk in circles about the same thing over and over again. I've already mentioned that," she reached into the back seat, grabbing her book bag. "If you think I'm the issue here, you have a problem. You're the one who started an entire fight between you, him, and my brother on a boat dock."

"Because I had to!" He shouted, raising his hands on defense. "Because I love you, Cassie!"

"You don't! You don't love me!" She shouted back at him, the tears slipping down from her cheeks. "If you really loved me then you wouldn't be so violent and hate me for being friends with a guy you don't like. You wouldn't start fights left and right or make me feel like shit for talking to who I want."

Luke was silent, nodding his head slowly as she waited for him to speak. She was scared of what he was going to say in return. She was scared he was going to hit her again. "When you say you're friends with him, it makes me laugh. You're not friends with Jordan Evans. You never will be," he said, shaking his head. She had no idea what to make of his response. "I can't be with someone who is flirtatious with another guy because I swear to god, Cassie, if the roles were switched you'd be giving me shit for it too." He said as she looked away from him. "It's either me or him, Cassie. Me or Jordan. Who's it going to be?"