Destined for Disaster ✔️

Chapter 36

Austin found Julie standing in the back of the library, bent over a table covered in all kinds of documents. She looked up when she heard the door open and smiled at him. He felt sick.

"Hey," he said. "What are you doing?"

"Preparing the festival. Ellis keeps me busy. What about you?" She had averted her gaze back to the table, moving around sheets of paper. Perhaps if she had looked, she would have seen the guilt on his face. Perhaps that's why she didn't look.

"I need to tell you something."

She did glance up then, her busy hands laying down their labour for the moment. "You smell like her," she said. There was no judgment in her voice, and that only made him feel worse.

"Nothing happened," he said. "It was just a kiss. Nothing more." He stepped closer to her but she stepped back, raising a hand.

"Tell me what happened."

His brow creased. "It really meant nothing."

She only looked at him, and perhaps for the first time ever, he had no clue what she was thinking.

"We were in the school –"

"Why?"

He blinked. "What?"

"Why were you in the school?"

"She was following one of Camden's classes again."

"And you?"

His frown deepened. "Well, I guess I... I guess I was just checking in on her."

Her eyes flitted back down to the table, and his heart contracted. "Alright," she said, lifting her gaze back to him. "Then what?"

"Everyone else left and we talked." He sighed and cast his eyes down. He couldn't bear to watch the disillusionment creep into her eyes. Or perhaps he couldn't bear to see that she wasn't surprised at all. "I don't know how it happened, or who started it, but it happened."

It remained so silent his pounding heart seemed deafening. He lifted his face. Her hands were still holding a sheet of paper, her nails making tiny wrinkles – her too tight grip the only indication that his confession got to her at all. Her pale eyes bore into his. They were such a contrast to Ryleigh's charcoal gaze. Julie was many things, but not intimidating. But then she didn't mean to intimidate, merely to study.

"She pushed me away," Austin said. "We argued. We both said things we probably shouldn't have. And then I came straight here."

"What did you say?"

He shook his head. "I don't even rightly recall. It went so fast. But I guess she said I cared about her more than I said I did – knew I did – and that that wasn't fair to you. And I denied it, because I don't – I don't care about her. Not like that. It's just the mate bond. And then she said some things about us that weren't true."

"Things like what?"

"Really, Julie –"

"Things like what, Austin?"

Julie was never this demanding. He didn't know her like this. But then he didn't know himself like this either. "That we're only together out of convenience and that we'll fall apart the moment it gets hard," he said. "She doesn't know what she's talking about." He reached for her again, but she pulled back.

She lowered herself down on her chair, staring pensively down at her lap. Austin stood quietly in front of her. He imagined standing in front of a tribunal, awaiting judgment.