The Dating Game

Chapter Twenty-Four

Juliet

The day had passed by so well and it made me happy, but then on the walk back home, the clouds had darkened and I deemed that a sign of foreshadowing how this day would end... contradictory to how it began.

Optimistically I wanted to pass it off as a paranoid state of mind, but even if I was endeavouring to convince myself of that, there was that other paranoid feeling in the back of my mind proving I was wrong.

I'd been very at peace with the world throughout the day, despite having a check-up to go to. As per usual, Dad accompanied me. Check-ups became a regular when it was just Dad and I. He always got too paranoid that I'd leave him too and I wouldn't want that so I always agree to go to them with him. It gives him peace of mind so anything to make him happy, I'll do it. His happiness is something I care more about than my own.

But when I did get home, Dad was waiting for me in the lounge as soon as I stepped into the house. Muriel was planting again in the garden, despite the gloomy sky outside. The garden shed door was cranked open slightly, too so I had to firmly push that to close it. It's had that problem for a few years now and Muriel doesn't have the strength to close it properly.

"Sport, can you come into the lounge please?"

Slipping my ballet pumps off and dropping my backpack down next to them, I ambled slowly into the lounge. Dad was sat on the sofa, leaning forwards so his elbows rested on his thighs. He held his chin in his hands. His eyes were firmly transfixed on the disarray arrangement of papers and what seemed to be applications on the coffee table. Oh no, I mused.

I gulped down air that my strained lungs were beginning to crave for. "College applications," I breathed. "Dad, we've spoken about this."

Dad turned to me slowly. "Juliet, I just want you to keep your options open. We got good news at the doctors today and college would be the next good thing in your life." Whenever he used my actual name, it made my heart melt with guilt because I knew this was crushing him.

Silently I sat next to Dad on the sofa and he handed me a bunch of papers entailing information about other colleges. There was even a piece for the local college which was West Chance College - the follow-up from West Chance High which most students found themselves going to unless they had a higher ambition for their life.

"I looked at West Chance College, but they don't have the best Music department. There's the University of North Texas for the performing arts or the Manhattan School of Music... there's so many, sport. Will you promise me I allow you to go upstairs, you'll study the papers?" Dad had such pleading eyes that it was hard for me to decline.

In haste, I relinquished. "Yes, Dad," I mumbled.

With a conquest smile, Dad handed me the papers in one shuffle and gesticulated for me to go upstairs. He said he'd next call me down for dinner - which was pork chops - and we'd discuss it further then and perhaps see about working on the applications to send off. Staggering to bend down to assemble my shoes and bag, it was a struggle to haul all of the assets up to my room. I dumped them all on my bed and began moving them, starting with my shoes and bag.

First things first, I retrieved my phone from my bag to begin the conversing with Justin via technology we are becoming tethered to for each other. I had already notified Michelle and Beth of what would happen at the Christmas Fair and they both agreed to come with me for support at the beginning until perhaps, they'd slip off with Ryan and Chaz so Justin and I could be alone.

I could say it a million times, but it would never sink in. This just all seemed so surreal; how could Justin be enthralled by a girl like me? I was a curse ridden with emotional guilt masquerading as the quiet girl in the corner. Actually, I dress myself up as something else commonly. My knitted jumpers and Coke lid necklace are the only discernible possessions about me.