Everything According to Juliana

Chapter Sixty-One: High Spirits

Brittany walked down the empty school hallway, her large cheerleading portrait in hand. Toby walked beside her, helping her hold the portrait in her small arms.

He pointed to the noticeably empty space on the wall. "Oh, here," he said, stomping in his tracks as she followed after him. "This is where you belong."

She laughed, stepping forward. She hovered the portrait over the wall, balancing out the picture. When she thought it looked straight enough, Toby taped the ends of the picture to the wall.

When he was done, he stepped back, beaming at the now full wall of portraits. "The wall looks better when the prettiest girl is on there."

"Stop," she blushed, playfully rolling her eyes at him.

"It's true," he said, studying the portrait in front of him. "Look at you," he told her as she made eye contact with her portrait. "Big blue eyes, pretty smile, big white teeth, cute nose... this is a good picture. You look great."

Brittany was so happy with the overwhelming amount of love from her best friend and boyfriend. She had never felt so good about herself, her body, and her life all because of how genuine Toby's compliments were.

And when he told her she was beautiful, she believed him.

She wrapped her arms around him with a big smile on her face. "Thank you so much," she said, squeezing him tighter as he hugged her back, "for all the compliments and making me feel special. I've never been this happy with someone, or with myself before. You're the best."

"You're welcome," he said, still holding her close to him. "One day you'll see what I see and know that my compliments are reminders of the truth."

"I do more and more every day," she told him as he smiled. "And I wouldn't have been able to do that without you."

"I'm glad it was me,"

"I wouldn't have wanted it to be anyone else," she confessed.

✰ ✰ ✰ ✰

Cassie was standing in her driveway when Jordan pulled up in his black Jeep Wrangler.

"Hey," she greeted when he exited his car.

"Hey," he said back, smiling when he saw her. Her light blonde hair was up in a messy bun that still looked slightly damp from swimming earlier.

"How was the drive here?" She questioned as he walked towards her. "No tire explosions, right?"

He chuckled, shaking his head. "Thankfully not,"

"So, I actually want to talk to you about something," Cassie said, immediately making him nervous. "I left my phone inside so... uh... we're going to have to walk through my house to talk outside."

Jordan was confused about why she was so apprehensive to walk inside her house. He didn't understand until she opened the front door and was greeted by the sound of her family arguing.

All of them were sitting at the dining room table with magazines and books scattered everywhere, as they fought over a certain type of flower. Cassie walked past them unfazed, grabbing her phone on the kitchen counter before guiding Jordan outside and into her beautiful backyard.

"My sister is planning her wedding," she informed him as she closed the sliding glass door behind them. "It's not going well. She needs everything to be perfect. I'm surprised her fiancé hasn't called off the wedding, to be honest."