5
Leave. Me. The. Hell. Alone.
Juliette groans and lifts her head off the bed, scowling at Max’s singing that woke her up.
“JULIE GET UP FOR SCHOOL-IE!”
“SHUT THE HELL UP, MAX!”
“DADDY, SHE SAID A BAD WORD!”
“FUCK YOU, MAX!”
“DADDY, SHE SAID ANOTHER BAD WORD!”
She groans again, fed up with the fighting. School today. Joy. Julie climbs out of bed and stretches, walking zombie-like over to her bathroom. After taking a quick shower and brushing her teeth, she get’s dressed. She throws on some black skinny jeans with a tank top, a red light plaid jacket over it. A red checkered beanie covers her soft curls, and she makes her way down for breakfast.
“You need a ride to school?” Max asks when Julie comes downstairs.
“Yeah, thanks.” She nods, sitting down for some cereal.
A smirk pops onto his face. “Never said I was going to give you one.” She flips him the finger, which makes him laugh. “I’m kidding.”
“You two better hurry, school starts in twenty minutes.” Her father pipes in, taking a long sip of coffee, hiding his smirk.
Both of their eyes widen. “Shit!” They start rushing around as Eddie watches amused, sipping his coffee with the same hidden smirk. Ahh, gotta love my kids.
“Bye dad!”
“See you later old man.”
The kids say goodbye, and before he has a chance to answer them back, the door slams shut.
Both of them hop onto Max’s black motorcycle and it roars to life, heading in the direction of their school, Wolf Creek High School.
By the time they get there, they only have ten minutes to spare. They jump off the motorcycle, and Juliette hands back the helmet. “Thanks for the ride.”
“No problem.” He answers, giving his sister a wicked smile. He wraps an arm around her shoulders. “Let’s go find your friends, shall we?” He doesn’t wait for an answer, just starts strolling into the school.
They indeed found them; Astrid and Noah, sitting on the usual lunch table. They head over there, sitting down next to the two lovebirds.
“Howdy!” Max grins, sitting down next to his baby sister.
Noah nods to Max. “This your boyfriend?”
“Ew, gross!” The two exclaim at the same time, Max making gagging noises.
“That’s my brother, Noah.”
Noah does a double take. “What? I mean, you do look alike, but I’ve never seen him around…”
“That’s because I keep a low profile.” Max winks with a mischievous smile.
“And that’s my brother for you.” Juliette sighs, keeping her smile in.
Astrid looks over at Noah. “Where’s Romeo?”
“Probably making out with some slut. He’s a free man now. Lucky bastard.” Noah answers, adding the last part silently.
Astrid slaps him upside the head for that one. “You know you love me. What do you mean he’s a free man?”
“He broke up with Kassidy. Because of…well…you know…” Both glance over to Juliette who put her lady bug ear buds in.
“What?” She asks, her eyes darting from Astrid to Noah. “Why did he break up with Kassidy?”
“No reason.” The both chorus.
“No reason my ass, of course there’s a reason he broke up with her! Why? It’s because of me right? Because he-” Her throat closes up, refusing her to utter the words ‘kissed me’. She’s never said that aloud, and she’s surely not saying it now. Besides, it sounds terribly awkward and…just not right.
Astrid scoots over near Juliette, taking her in a hug. Noah and Max start talking about the football game that happened this weekend, totally in their own world. Astrid knows that Juliette might act like nothing bothers her, but on the inside, she’s sensitive. “Honey, calm down. It’s not because of you. Trust me.” She soothes, rubbing her back as her sisterly best friend holds her tears in. I swear I’m going to kill Romeo one of these days. Acting so foolish.
Julie pulls out of the hug, smiling slightly. “Thanks, Astrid. You’re the bestest friend in the whole world, and I’m not just saying that because I don’t mean it. I do mean it.”
Astrid grins. “Love you too, sister from another mister.” The bell then rings, the bell that twists Julie’s stomach in knots.
“Astrid, I’m not okay. I have art class with him.” She doesn’t need to say his name, they both know who him is.
Astrid smiles. “You’ll be okay.”
“No I will not!” Julie whisper shouts, not wanting to grab attention. “You, as my best friend, are suppose to hide in the bathroom stalls with me until class is over as we talk about cute guys so I don‘t have to face him! Not just say ‘you’ll be okay’!”
“Love ya, babe.” She winks, pats her back, then disappears into the crowd.
I take it back. She’s not the bestest friend in the whole wide world.
Julie takes a deep breath as she walks to her art class, chanting over and over in her head again, I can do this.
But when she gets there, all she sees is Mr. Swan, hunched over his computer, typing his day away.
Confused, she sits in her normal seat and pulls out her sketch book. Maybe he didn’t come today. Or maybe he’s busy, like Noah said… Whatever the case, Julie sighs again, relief flooding into her veins. Yeah, she has other classes with him, but she’s not alone with him.
The scent of coffee hits her nose, making her look up. Her eyes bulge out of their sockets, her jaw hit’s the floor, and she literally falls out of her seat.
Romeo Ross is standing there, with a huge smug smirk on his face. He’s in a, seriously, there’s no other way to explain it, ‘mac and cheese’ colored v-neck. He wears regular black jeans, not skinny jeans, and tan worker boots. His brown hair, is not brown anymore, but blonde. Completely and utterly blonde. It’s not combed up like it normally would be, but parted to the side, creating the effect of him having a bang. His eyes, are not brown any more. They’re blue. Blue as the ocean. On top of his nose lays thick black rimmed glasses, the kinds kids would wear to act like hot nerds.
And what creeps her out the most, is that is everything she likes in a guy; well at least some of the qualities. Straight on the bulls eye. Like he knew exactly what she wants. She prefers blonde haired and blue eyed guys, normal jeans, the ‘hot nerdy’ look, worker boots, the color of ‘mac and cheese’, and the scent of coffee. She’s never, not a day in her life, seen Romeo Ross wear normal jeans. Always skinny jeans. He’s always worn his old crappy converse instead of worker boots. Hell, no kid in their school has ever worn worker boots.
“Miss me, babe?” Were his first words to the girl on the floor, gobsmacked, looking up at him.
“Wha-what did you, ah, um, d-do with your, ah, um,-”
“Appearance?” He offers, clearly seeing Juliette can’t speak sentences yet.
Jules jumps from her seat on the floor, her eyes never leaving his, as her cheeks blush. What the hell is going on? “Um, yeah.”
She then notices that even Mr. Swan stopped what he was doing to gawk at Romeo, eyes wide and jaw dropped. He quickly resumes his position, as if what is before him doesn’t exist.
Romeo smirks. “I needed a change. Something fresh, you know?”
No. No I don’t know. “Yeah, totally.” Stop staring at him! You look like an idiot!
Romeo, hearing her thoughts,holds in his laughter. She seemed so shocked…well, if this is the way to win her over, then so be it.
“Well, we don’t have to work on the project if you don’t want. We can just, um, work on separate things for this class.” She mumbles, her eyes at the ground instead of Romeo’s new blue contacts.
Romeo sighs, sitting on the desk next to Jules’s. “Jules, you can’t keep avoiding me forever. I know the kiss was a mistake,” He swallows a lump in his throat, “but can we can still be friends, right?”
Slowly, her eyes come up to meet his. “Friends?”
It kills me to say this, “Yeah. Friends.”
A small smile dips onto her lips. “Sure.”
“Great.” A smile of his own appears. “Let’s start on the project.”
Julie pulls out the materials from her bag, spreading them out before her. She takes out the piece of paper that has the two wolves on it, and spreads it across the two desks. “I, um, added some details on the wolves. I didn’t think you would mind…”
He looks down as a smile comes onto his face. The wolves look even more realistic, like a photograph of real wolves. “No, it’s great. Looks like a real picture of wolves.”
They silently continue on the project, Romeo itching to hear more of her thoughts. But all he hears is the song she’s singing in her head by Taylor Swift, You Belong With Me.
Jules finishes off her wolf, adding the minor details. “There! All done.”
Romeo adds the last touches to his wolf, then steps back to admire their work. “It looks fantastic.” Jules puts the materials away, only leaving out the project. She hands him a pencil, and they both write their names in the bottom right hand corner. She rolls the paper back up again, and neatly sets it in the bin labeled ‘student work’.
She sits back in her seat and crosses her legs. “I’m bored.”
Romeo laughs. “Me too.”
Just then, the door opens, revealing a blonde haired boy. Juliette practically jumps up from her seat. “Dustin!”
He grins and swipes at his bangs. “Hey, Juliette.” He looks over to the very angry Romeo, and then his eyes scan the whole room. “This a small class…”
She smiles. “I know. I didn’t think having two people for a class was allowed. What are you doing here?”
He holds up the necklace around his neck, showing his ID badge. “I’m with student aide. Had to drop off Mr. Swan’s mail.” He waves two pieces of paper in the air, then throws them onto Mr. Swan’s desk. He ignores the letters though, just continues typing. Dustin sits on top of Juliette’s desk, and looks over to Romeo with a smile. “I’m Dustin.”
“Romeo.” He gets out through his gritted teeth, forcing a smile.
Dustin looks back at Juliette. “So, I was wondering if you wanted to meet me at the lake tomorrow? After school?”
Her eyes light up. “Yeah, sure!”
“Cool. I’ll see you tomorrow then.” He nods towards Romeo. “Bye.” He then leaves the two alone-err, make that three.
Jules turns around to face Romeo, a dreamy smile on her face. But when she’s sees his face, her smile falters. “What’s wrong?”
Oh, you know, just watched how my mate accepted going on a date with someone other than me, no biggie. “Nothing.” He forces out, trying not to yell at her for agreeing to go on a date. Does she even know it’s a date? All he wants to do is have her in his arms, and say with smugness to Dustin, ‘ha-ha.’ But it’s the other way around, even if Dustin isn’t shoving it in his face.
In Juliette’s mind, she’s doing all she can do to not start dancing in happiness. She knows now that Dustin does like her, and she likes him. Relief washes over her, except for that tiny part in her heart that knows she’s going to have to tell him she kissed Romeo. Well, he kissed her.
“Do you need a ride home?” Romeo asks, snapping them both out of their daydreams. He’ll try every single way to spend time with her humanly possible.
“Umm, I usually take the bus-”
“Then it’s settled, I’ll be your ride home.” He grins genuinely, looking forward to that.
“Okay.”
What am I going to wear tomorrow? Should I curl my hair? Will he pick me up? Does he care what I wear? Should I call him tonight? Or maybe text him? It’s a school night, how long will we be out? How should I come off as? Casual? Fancy?
Now Romeo wishes he couldn’t hear her thoughts. She should be asking those things for me, not Dustin. He sighs and runs a hand through his hair. Maybe I’ll get drunk tonight. Yeah, that’s it. I’ll get drunk. It’s settled then.
The school bell rings, signaling it’s time to go to whatever the next class is. Before Juliette knows it, it’s time to go home, and she’s walking to the bus in a blur, thinking about Dustin. She’s so caught up with him that she almost forgot Romeo is giving her a ride home.
Scurrying over to wear the student’s cars are parked, she easily finds Romeo’s white truck with mud sputtered all over it. He’s leaning on the side of it casually, talking to some of the football players.
Oh, God, I hate those spoiled football players. She whirls around, all for taking the bus home.
“Hey, Jules, over here!”
She halts to a stop, closing her eyes and breathing out her nose. Really? Why couldn’t you just stay there and talk with your idiot jocks? She whirls back around, angrily stomping over there. Compared to the muscular, tall and toned players, she’s an ant.
There’s five of them over there, including Romeo. She adjusts the strap on her bag when she gets over there, the four players smirking knowingly. “I’ll be in this truck.” She then walks to the other side and climbs in, locking her door and plugging in her ear buds.
“Who’s the girl, Romeo?”
“Yeah, Romeo. I thought you already found your ‘no connection’ mate.”
“Over Kass that quick? You dog. Literally!”
“Kass will be so pissed.”
He ignores his friends laughter and climbs into his truck, glancing at Jules’s small body. “You okay?”
“Peachy.” Is her one word reply as she scrolls down her ipod, eyes never leaving the stupid electronic. The music blasts through his ears as he listens along.
Everybody, everybody wants to love
Everybody, everybody wants be to loved
Oh oh oh
Oh oh oh
Everybody, everybody wants to love
Everybody, everybody wants be to loved
Oh oh oh
Oh oh oh
“What are you listening to?” He asks, swinging an arm over the steering wheel as the other one hangs out the window, the car pulling out of the parking lot.
“Everybody by Ingrid Michaelson.” She murmurs, her eyes not glancing up at him. Dammit, can’t she focus her attention on me for a change?
“So, uh, are you really going to the lake with Dustin?” He asks, his fingers on the steering wheel fidgeting nervously.
A dreamy smile spills onto her face, much to Romeo’s dismay. “Of course I am! Why wouldn’t I go?”
Because your mine, his mind says in a whisper, and his heart hurts for not being able to tell her. “Jules, I have to tell you something.” He swerves the car over onto the side of the deserted, long road.
She seems slightly surprised at the action, but doesn’t question it. “Yeah, what is it?”
“I’m a we-” He stops short, seeing her curious sparkling grey eyes gazing at him. Her lips are parted slightly, probably still in wonder of what he’s about to say. Her dirty blonde hair pools out of her hat and after a long day at school, is slightly messed up. She seems so innocent right now, and he wishes he could take a picture to keep forever.
You can’t just put all this weight onto her shoulders. Plus, she’ll never believe you. She’s still a teenager, and so are you.
He coughs into his hand, “I mean, I’m, uh, wearing contacts, in case you were wondering.”
Jules blinks, not expecting that at all. “You pulled the truck over,” She starts slowly, as if scolding a child, “to tell me you were contacts?”
“Yes…”
Her eyes are back on the damn electronic, scrolling down to another song. “You truly are an idiot, Ross. Start the damn truck before I start walking back home.”
For some reason, this comment makes him smile. “So you’re back to calling me Ross now, huh? Or is that only when you’re mad at me?”
“Both. Now start the damn truck.”
A full grin comes onto his face. “What if I don’t want to?”
“Then I will.” Her eyes are back on his mischievous ones, suspiciously watching him.
“No you won’t. You probably don’t know how to drive.” He slumps in his seat, knowing this will get her angrier. He already knows that she learned how to drive when she was 15, because he’s open to access of her mind 24/7, whether she likes it or not.
“For your information,” She hisses, but sounds more like a cute cat, “I learned how to drive when I was 15. My dad taught me. Now you can either start the truck, or I will either kick you out or I will walk. Your choice.”
He pretends to think for a moment, and that’s when she adjusts her back and opens her door, ready to leave. “Stop, stop! Okay, okay, you win. I’ll drive.” He chortles as she slams her door shut. He turns the key into ignition, but it doesn’t start. He tries again, but it doesn’t work. “Oh come on you damn truck! Start!” He pounds on the steering wheel, trying again.
“What’s wrong?”
He sighs and gives up, realizing the truck isn’t going anywhere. “My damn truck won’t start.”
There go my plans of getting drunk.