Page 35 of Just A Date

“Well, give it your best shot. I’ve already tried and failed. Your turn.” She shoves me through a door, and I blink in the dimness before realizing I’m in Juliet’s room.

There is no evidence of life except the small bump in her bedsheets.

Oh boy.

I hesitate before walking further into the room. What if she doesn’t want me to see her like this? But now that I have, I can’twalk away. I want to know what’s wrong. I want to ensure she’ll be okay.

Does she have a headache? She told me she sometimes gets migraines if she doesn’t get enough sleep. I shouldn’t have kept her out so late.

“Juliet?” I whisper, in case she’s asleep.

She pulls the covers off her head. “Michael? What are you doing here?”

She sounds upset, but I step closer anyway. “I came to check on you.”

“Why? What did Karli tell you?”

My forehead scrunches. “Huh? I was worried about your foot.”

“My… foot?” She sticks her leg out of the blanket and stares at her foot as if she forgot she had it. “It’s fine.”

I rockback on my heels. What now? Is it too insensitive to ask what’s wrong? I asked Lennox that one time, and she punched me. But Lennox was raised with three older brothers, so she’s far from normal.

“I broke up with my parents,” Juliet says, her voice cracking.

I blink, taken aback by her statement, but then remember the things she’s told me. I can’t imagine what it must feel like to be pulled in different directions by people who are supposed to put you first.

“Good for you,” I say simply.

“You’re right. Good for me,” she says, but she doesn’t sound happy about it.

“Should we celebrate?” I ask.

“Celebrate me breaking up with my parents?” Her voice drips with disdain.

Well, when she says it like that, it sounds kind of… heartless.

She swings her legs over the side of her bed and stands. She flips on her bedside lamp, and I’m momentarily blinded.

“Sure, Michael, let’s go celebrate,” Juliet says, holding the C out like a snake hissing.

She brushes past me, knocking me with her shoulder on the way out.

Well now I’m not sure I want to go anywhere with her.

***

Juliet rocks at pool. She’s notgood, or above average. She’s awesome. I’ve tried every trick shot and tactic on her, and I’ve only beaten her once, by default. I don’t know if she’s extremely talented or if she’s being driven by pure rage. She’s spoken a total of sixteen words since we got here, each of them clipped and guarded.

This isn’t the same girl who flung herself off a cliff last night. This one is haunted and hurting, and it kills me inside.

Juliet lines up the cue and sinks the eight ball, effectively beating me for the sixth time. In a row. She smiles, probably for the first time tonight. My dignity is long gone, but it was worth itjust to see that.

“Where did you learn to play?”

She chalks up her stick. “When my parents weren’t busy fighting, my dad taught me.”

“When did they split?” I ask, worried I’ll probe too much and scare herback into her shell, but wanting to know everything that made her the woman she is today.

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