𝐎𝐍 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐆𝐄 - 𝐡𝐬𝐦𝐭𝐦𝐭𝐬 (𝐢𝐢) | ✔

twenty

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twenty: crazy weekend
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     Juliette and Ricky hadn't talked all weekend. The girl had spent her days locked in her bedroom, afraid of facing her boyfriend once again, because she knew what that may mean. Instead, she had resorted to drawing and painting, even daring to upload a picture of one of her creations to her instagram. It was an innocent drawing of a buildng, nothing that could be misinterpreted in any way.

     She had completely refrained from listening to those that asked for more singing videos, knowing that it would only make matters worse. In fact, she had even asked Carlos to please take down her video, feeling sick to her stomach everytime someone congratulated her or heard her song playing.

     Her sisters had stayed with her for some time, camping in her bedroom and making her laugh non-stop after Juliette had broken down and told them what had happened, and they had actually threatened to walk to Ricky's new apartment and burn all his, and I quote, "stupidly soft sweatshirts". Nini, Kourtney and E.J. had visited her as well, the latter bringing a huge bowl of fruit and chocolate with him and making sure that Juliette tasted all the fruits he had spent so much time cutting. 

     The redhead dreaded Monday morning. Not that she usually liked them but she just did not want to walk into the bomb shelter and have to pretend that everything was fine. She did not feel like acting. So she skipped rehearsal that day, telling Miss Jenn that she did not feel good and that she did not want to slow the process. Her part was small enough to let her skip the day. Miss Jenn, of course, understood the girl, her mind going back to the private conversation they  had had just some days ago. 

     Instead, Juliette walked through the crowded hallways, stopping at the different booths they had set up for career day, even if she was not interested at all. She just wanted to keep her mind busy without having to run into any of her drama club friends and hear them asking about what was going on with Ricky.

     Lost in her thoughts, she bumped into a body. As she raised her sight to apologize to whomever it was, she found Alexandra's dark eyes looking directly at her. Juliette lowered her head again, embarrassed at her prominent undereye bags, but spoke nevertheless.

     "I'm sorry, I didn't see you."

     "Yeah, no shit. I don't blame you, you look like you haven't slept in a week," she took a step closer, scanning her face and taking in every detail, "is everything okay?"

     "Don't worry."

     "Look, we are not friends anymore but we used to be. And you look horrible. Do you have problems at home or something?" she continued, this time really sounding concerned. "Isn't Ricky here to help you?"

     "I knew where this conversation was going," she sighed. "Honestly, Alex, just leave Ricky alone. If you like him as well you can go and tell him, I'm sure that..."

     "I meant it in a good way, Juliette. I am worried about you. Gosh, have you looked at yourself? I can see you becoming smaller and smaller by the day, you walk the hallways like a ghost when you used to be an annoyingly cute ray of sunshine."

     "Let's just say that Ricky and I are not having the best time, I don't want to talk about it," she admitted, praying for the conversation to be over soon. Her eyes travelled to her worn-off Converse, avoiding Alex's gaze.

     "Look, I... I know I said a lot of horrible things but... if you ever find yourself with no one to talk to, call me, okay?"

     And with that, Alexandra left Juliette's side and mixed herself with the crowd, leaving the redhead in the middle of a sea of students trying to look for the best opportunities at getting a job. She didn't want to be there anymore so she just walked to her locker, running into Ashlyn on her way. The taller girl informed her that the Menkie's had just stop their rehearsals for a week and that they were all, especially Miss Jenn and Carlos, freaking out.

     "By the way, Ricky was looking for you," she told her, making the girl sigh unconsciously. Before she could even regret her expression, Ashlyn caught that something was not right. "Is everything okay?"

      "Yeah, sure," she put on a fake smile on her face, hoping for Ahslyn to believe her and drop the topic, "we just haven't talked much this weekend. I'll go find him."

     "Well, you can talk to him now, he's right there," the girl spun Juliette around and put her face to face with Ricky, leaving a kiss on her cheek and walking away.

     "You're not returning my texts."

     "Oh, I just... I haven't checked my phone much," she excused herself. "Lisa and Ava decided to camp in my room and you know how they are..."

     "Crazy weekend, huh? Because of your drawing pictures...?" he inquired, trying to get the girl to talk. "You took down the song."

     "Yeah. I just... I did this drawing and I felt super proud of it so I just decided to post it and people started asking for more and more," she let out a soft smile. "I realized that my voice had cracked in the middle of the song and asked Carlos to take it down. I'd rather focus on what I am good at."

     "I'm just gonna ask," he interrupted, the hallway now completely empty, "did you do that because of what I said about the song and pretending? Is this... you not pretending anymore?"

     Juliette stopped looking for whatever it was she was trying to find inside her locker and connected eyes with Ricky, feeling intimidated before his taller frame. 

     "Ricky I..., no offense but... I didn't do this because of you... I'm just... I'm being my own person," she lied straigt to her boyfriend's face, not even flinching. It took her a couple of seconds to realize that and to feel unsure as to what she had done. She used to have a difficult time lying but it seemed that pretending to be okay had become a habit of hers lately. "Drawing is what best represents me and what I am. You know that."

     "I didn't..."

      "I didn't want you to feel... I don't know, that I was constantly in your back. Singing and songwriting is more your thing," she let out, remembering the argument they had had in that very hallway not too long ago. "I thought you... would be happy. There are a lot of people saying that I am quite good at what I do. There is this girl, she commented that she wanted me to make her a drawing so she could get it tattooed."

     "Wow," he exclaimed, truly impressed. "Look, Juliette, I am..."

     "Jul!" Kourtney arrived running with Nini, "you have to come look at this, I swear!"

     And with that, they took the redhead with them, only allowing her to throw an apologetic look towards Ricky, who stood in the middle of the hallways, hands on the straps of his backpack and unsure of what to do next.