Juliana

15. Anytime, Juliana

 I lifted my hand towards the doorbell then back down again. I was nervous. What if Juliana just opened the door, saw me, and then slammed it in my face?

Nah. Jules wouldn't do that... She wasn't like me. She was actually nice. I reassured myself and yet again raised my arm to ring the doorbell.

You got this, Robbie. I gave myself another boost of an encouragement before ringing the doorbell.

"Hello there!"

I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. I wasn't prepared for whoever this person was answering the door; I was ready for Juliana to open up that door.

And now it was official. I would never make a plan for anything again because every time I did, nobody else kept to it.

"Buddy... yoohoo..." She waved her hand in front of my face, "you there?"

"Yeah." I cleared my throat. "I came to see Juliana."

"Ahhh." She grinned. "You're that Robbie boy aren't you?"

"Yes ma'am." I swallowed the lump that had formed in my throat and clutched onto the box of Gobstoppers and bouquet of yellow roses. "That's me."

"Well, let me tell you something, son! Juliana was right about those dimples of yours! You're adorable!"

"Thanks..." I felt my face redden.

"Juliana!" The woman turned around and shouted over her shoulder. "You got a cutie on the front porch here wanting to see ya!"

The door suddenly shut in my face.

"Well, this is going well so far..." I mumbled quietly to myself and studied the porch.

Hopefully Juliana would come out soon, forgive me for being a jerk to her, and then everything would be cool again between the two of us. A few minutes later, the door opened up again.

"Robbie?" Juliana stepped out onto the front porch and shut the door behind her. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm sorry, Juliana. I just realized how much of a jerk I've been to you here recently, and I wanna fix it."

"You do?"

"Yeah. You've become one of my best friends and not having you around feels weird." I paused for a second "I got you these, you know... to help make you forgiving me way easier." I handed her the box of Gobstoppers. "And these are also for you...." I held out the bouquet of yellow roses. "only if you want them of course. I wouldn't wanna weird you out or anything like that..."

She took the flowers from my hand and smiled. "Not weird at all. In fact, I think it's very sweet."

"Good because I paid about fifteen bucks for 'em. If you didn't want them, I figured I could just give them to my Mama."

She laughed a little. "You're still the same Robbie."

I smiled, confidently. "So whatdya say... we friends and lab buds again?"

"I'd like that."

I reached out and hugged her. We just stood there in each other's arms for a few seconds. It wasn't a long, inappropriate hug, but it also wasn't the average joe hug either. It was somewhere in the middle.

"Robbie... you know you can let me go now, right?"

"Right!" We awkwardly pulled away from each other.