𝐎𝐍 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐆𝐄 - 𝐡𝐬𝐦𝐭𝐦𝐭𝐬 (𝐢𝐢) | ✔

twenty-one

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twenty-one: the right thing
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     Once the school day was over, Kourtney basically begged her and Nini to go with her to the pizza shop, so she would not have to face Howie alone. Apparently, the picture-perfect boyfriend had turned out to be none other than North High's incredibly talented beast, and he had not informed Kourtney about it. Not even after she had vented to him about the competition they had going on and how stressed she was.

     Juliette was not sure about the plan, feeling that Kourtney and Howie needed some privacy to sort their problems out, but she could not say no to the promise of a free coffee, so the three girls walked towards the restaurant. The taller two tried their hardest to make Juliette laugh, also noticing her poor state. And they managed to just by telling her the story of when they stole all of Gina's apparel last year because they thought she had been the one to steal Nini's phone.

     It did not take them long to get to the pizza place and Kourtney, wiping her sweaty hands in her jeans, walked to the back of the establishment to talk to Howie while Nini and Juliette waited there, purely for emotional support in case she needed it.

     However, their plans were interrupted by a well-known curly-haired boy walking through the door and looking directly at the redhead. 

     "Thought you were helping with the crew," Juliette told him, surprised at seeing him there.

     "Yeah," he chuckled, "turns out I can't paint, or hammer. Which shouldn't surprise me since my career aptitude test revealed that I have no profitable skills."

     "I should..." Nini excused herself, going to sit at a table.

     "Ricky, that's not true." Juliette's face softened at the hearing of said statement, making her look directly at the boy's eyes. "You have tons of skills and talents. Don't listen to a stupid paper."

     "I'm not... I'm not here to talk about the test. I'm here to, like, try and fix whatever's going on between us," he whispered, as well, taking a step closer to the girl, "I mean, like, obviously we both wanna make this work, right? We're doing everything we can. That's why you joined the musical..."

      "Ricky, stop," the girl interrupted him, "I love you but I did not join the musical for you. And this is not the first time—"

     "But when I asked you and you said it at the party..."

     "I already had it decided, since the minute we finished HSM."

     "So you're saying that you joined in spite of me?"

     "No, of course not. Where is this coming from?," she clarified, her voice already trembling upon hearing Ricky raising his tone, even if they were still close to each other.

     "So being honest is a problem now. Look, where are we?"

     "I don't know but remember that you told me not even two weeks ago how you wanted me off your back because I did everything you did just to be close to you," she replied, tired of the conversation already. She could tell how they were not going to reach an agreement, not when both of them were raising their tones so they could win each other.

     "What's going on with you? Honestly, it's kind of freaking me out," he replied, making the girl look at him not even believing what he had just had the audacity to say. "First, you wait till the last second to tell me you're joining the musical with us..."

     "And then you almost drop it after literally begging me to audition!"

     "And then you wrote that song instead of telling me how you feel!" he spat, making Juliette flinch a bit. By that time, everyone in the pizza place was already looking at them, not wanting to blink in case they missed out the argument.