The Dating Game

Chapter Fifty-One

Juliet

"You need to go to school, sport," Dad whined softly. "It's not good for you being cooped up in here all of the time. You need to go home, too. Invite Justin round so you're not on your own."

"But, Dad, I don't want to go home. I want to stay with you."

"Juliet, I don't ask much of you, but I am telling you today that after school, you're going to go straight home with Justin and you're not going to visit me, alright? I'll call you later on tonight."

So with the conversation not being at all opportune for me to interject and argue such a spectacular reason to why I should stay with Dad, it consequentially resulted in me slumping my way to school and hauling me body across the sidewalk. A polite nurse had offered to call a taxi for me but I declined. "The walk will do me some good," I said.

By the time I got to school, I was still rather early. Beth was on the bench with her Starbucks coffee and bacon bap. When she saw me, she held her hand in front of her mouth and mumbled an incoherent sentence before repeating it in a more comprehensible way – meaning she swallowed the mixture of bread and bacon in her mouth. She said, "How's Ian holding up?"

"He's getting better," I replied. "He's on the mend. Just a few more weeks before they'll begin physiotherapy."

"I bet being cooped up in that room is driving him mad, right?" She lowered her hand and took another chomp out of the bacon bap.

"Yeah, but Jazmyn – Justin's sister – has been giving him books to read and he's finding them quite interesting... especially the paranormal nonsense he's reading."

I took a seat next to her on the bench. "I have Music first," I said, changing the topic. "We get our results back from the mocks we did. I know I did awful in the written exam where we had to evaluate our performance."

"You were with Justin, right?"

There was a pang of guilt and happiness and other emotions concocted together that were just sprang upon me abruptly. "Yeah," I mumbled, "yeah, I was."

Truth be told, I had been abandoning Justin ever since Dad had been in the hospital. It was inadvertent, but I couldn't help it. I didn't want to leave Dad alone in the room whilst Justin and I took a leisurely walk around the gardens which Dad was incompetent of doing as of yet. It didn't seem fair to focus on myself when I needed to focus on my dad who was lying in the hospital after being in a fatal car crash.

At least his manager at the council had been sympathetic and given him paid leave whilst he got better. All of his fellow employees had given their condolences and sent a card and a little present to him each to get better. Some had even sent more books and magazines for him. Dad was definitely occupied, that's to say the least.

Sitting on the bench, I perceived Justin at the gates with Jazmyn by his side. Most girls were looking at him as he strutted on by, but his eyes remained on the school doors to the corridor. Just as the proximity was heightening, Justin's eyes darted in my direction and his gaze connected with mine for a good few minutes until he submerged himself in the corridor.

"Why didn't he come over here?" queried Beth. "Has something happened?"

"No," I replied, "no, it's nothing."

She finished her bacon bap and Starbucks coffee before we went into the corridors. We got to our lockers and crossed through the corridors to our form room. Michelle was waiting patiently in our typical seats for us. She greeted us as soon as we got in and asked the same question Beth did about my dad.

The wait between then and Math class was exhaustive. Waiting outside in the corridor for Mrs Walker to get to the room, Justin stood by my side and greeted me half-heartedly. My chest and stomach deflated at his grudging pleasantries. We were let inside of the room moments later and we sat down on the seats in the semi-circle. Neither of us said a word. Then Mrs Walker began her declaration at the front of the class when everyone was sat down and hushed.