woman like me - j.f✔️

III

"You're really good a drawing, you know that?" She admired his sketch on the page ahead of him. They were observing random objects around the room and drawing them to the best of their abilities; Love chose to draw the window overlooking a tree, and Justin drew the Love's hand as it lay on the desk.

"I enjoy drawing sometimes." He mumbled, placing the pencil down and glancing at the clock. As he hadn't yet learnt the school time schedule, he was helpless. Love realised what he was trying to calculate, stepping in to help him.

"The next break is in thirty minutes." She announced. "Why did you move to Willow Creek?" Was the question too forward? Was it too soon?

"A lot of reasons." He kept the answer as vague as possible. "How long have you and Rowan been dating?" The session had turned into a question firing, both answering with whatever vague response.

She had to think back to sophomore year, and the amounts of names and horrible comments. But nonetheless, she responded. "Just over a year now."

"You guys must be doing great." Justin betted, a hint of disappointment in his voice. Any relationship he had, had ended badly. With the few girls at Liberty everything had gone wrong. He assumed all of his relationships would be like that.

"Most of the time." Love answered quietly. Justin's comment had created tension, but Love tried to work past it. "We argue every so often, but what couple doesn't?" And there it was. After a while, you become suspicious of the perfect people. There's some character flaw in everyone, and Justin found Love's. She created excuses for everything. She can't find a way to cope with a situation, so instead, she covers it with possibilities. What she might feel is normal for a couple, could be a red flag.

"Yeah," Justin added. "I know the feeling." She skipped past his response, not wanting to make him feel uncomfortable or make the situation any more tense. "Are the arguments all about the same thing?" She nodded, recalling almost every fight they'd had.

"Rowan has always been the confident one in our relationship, she didn't care what comments people made, or how they viewed her. But I did. I cared a lot, because I was new to relationships, especially with a female." She explained. Justin had loosened the tension by just listening to her. "And everything began to change. The more comfortable I got with my relationship, the happier I was. I was connecting with more people and making friends. And I guess Rowan didn't like that. She wanted me all to herself."

"Shit." Justin muttered. "So am I a threat to her?" He questioned, sitting up in his chair. Love just shook her head.

"Boys don't scare her in the slightest. She feels that because I'm now comfortable with my sexuality, I'm going to experiment with more girls. But I wouldn't." She replied to him. Normally this conversation stayed in her head, but now Justin was listening and wanted her to open up. It was all so new to her. "Nearing the end of last year, and especially this year, the nasty comments stopped. And they'd been replaced with looks of pity and sympathy after what happened."

"If you're so unhappy, why are you still with her?" He asked. If only he asked himself that same question months earlier, maybe he'd still be at Liberty. Or worse. He pushed the thought to the back of his head and listened for her response.

"I'm not unhappy. We had a fantastic winter break together, but when we argue, I hit rock bottom." She had avoided Justin's eyes now. Love wasn't the bubbly, cheerful teen she was this morning. "I have to walk on eggshells around her though, anything could trigger an argument." The bell rang, Love rising to her feet and retrieving her bag from the floor beside her.

"I have Algebra." She stated. "Shall I walk you to your next class?" Justin nodded, pulling his schedule from his pocket to find his next class. His eyebrows furrowed as his eyes scanned the sheet, locating his next class.

"Business law with Mr Kodak." He spoke. Love had left the room with him and followed the signs above the doorways, taking him to the Business block. Each door had the class and the teacher on the front of them, so they're easy to find. Once they reached Mr Kodak's door, they turned to each other. "I think I can find the cafeteria." He laughed.

"See you at lunch." She smiled and waved as she disappeared to the floor below, heading to the Math block. Rowan was also in this class with her, which is how their friendship began to be so airtight. She met Rowan by the door, who was scrolling through her phone.

"You're like ten minutes late, where were you?" She questioned, entering the class and finding their usual seats. The desks were in tables, and they sat beside each other.

"I was with Justin." Love remarked. Ms Robbie cared less about this class than the students did, hence she was always later than the class. She heard Rowan scoff as she slammed her text book onto the table, earning a few freakish looks.

"I thought you were a tour guide, not a first day buddy." She gibed, turning her nose up. Love thought she'd jinxed herself, after her conversation with Justin, she was doomed to fight with Rowan.

"What's the issue? I thought boys didn't intimidate you." Love challenged, placing her stationery neatly onto the table.

"Because you're never around boys. But now you are." Love almost laughed at what she was hearing, she couldn't believe the audacious remarks coming from her girlfriend.

"Whatever." Love mumbled before placing her arm up and resting her head on her hand, hoping in doing so, she couldn't hear any of Rowan's harsh words.