The Dating Game

Chapter Fifty-Three

Justin

Juliet: I want to do more on the bucket list. I don't know how long I'm going to be able to do some of these things for

That was Juliet's text this morning.

Honestly, it was a Monday morning and we had school in only a few hours. And considering of how fatigued I was having only just hauled my body out of bed due to waking up abruptly thanks for the ringing of my phone to indicate I had received a text, I was pretty groggy for the morning when typically, I can be quite a good morning person. It was so alarming, actually, that I had to scope for the bucket list to consult it to see where we were at.

1) Meet Justin's parents (perhaps not his dad if he's not around)
2) Pass my exams
3) Go skinny dipping with Justin
4) Go in a hot air balloon
5) Make Dad happy
6) Make a difference at school rather than being known for my surname
7) Make this relationship with Justin worth it
8) Stay with Justin for the night
9) Lose my virginity
10) Get Justin to make it up to his friends

Justin: I have something planned already but I'm not going to tell you about it

That was my reply afterwards because I had already began planning the stages of the charity work which comes under number six of the bucket list because otherwise, it's not going to work properly.

Throughout the day at school, having stuffed the bucket list back into my drawer at home, Juliet seemed not to restless on querying me about the thing I had planned to whatever it was. Even Michelle and Beth, having been informed of the bucket list, seemed enthralled to know what I had planned, so when Juliet had to go to the girls' toilets, they leaned in close on the vivid green triangle table and prompted my declaration.

"I'm planning some charity event," I told them, "but please don't tell Juliet. I have a few things sorted already, but I can't tell you what they are just yet. It's going to involve everyone, I'm making sure of that, too. We've only done three things out of the ten on the bucket list."

"Which three have you done?"

"Hot air balloon, the relationship being worth it, and meeting my parents," I answered, attempting to remember the three things we'd done together."

Michelle looked a little dejected as she said, "I wish this wasn't happening to her. I can't imagine what her dad will do. He'll be left with no one, having lost three females in his family."

"He'll need us," I replied instantly. "To be there with him."

"Who'll need us?"

Turning around, Juliet was standing there behind me. She sat down on the chair next to me, making us a lot more compact against the two table legs on the points of the triangular table. Neither one of us answered her and just dismissed the conversation.

Having lost Ryan, Chaz and the others, I've gotten a lot closer to Michelle and Beth, definitely. It's also made me realise just how close they are to Juliet. She needs friends like them and not ones that give you an ultimatum for you to choose between your girlfriend and your friends. Both Michelle and Beth were not than accepting and supporting of our relationship. In fact, they frequently made me feel like a friend to them.

After school, Ian had invited me back to Juliet's house for dinner and to catch up on homework. Obliging, I had presumed that it would just be like any other day. Instead he seemed rather distressed about something and as he was dishing up our dinner, his hands were trembling slightly.

"Would you like me to help you, Ian?" I asked from the dinner table, feeling rather helpless just sitting by Juliet at the table.

"Oh, no, it's fine, Justin," he said, nearly inadvertently knocking over a plate that was precariously suspended over the edge of the counter.

"Go help him," urged Juliet, pressing her hand lightly against my own on my lap.

Abiding by Juliet's instruction, I got up and crossed over to the kitchen where Ian was evidently struggling with handling everything and maintained his stabilisation stood up. His knees were trembling because he hadn't been utilising his crutches recently due to feeling like he didn't need them. The doctor's, admittedly, had advised him not to use them when he feels confident enough to walk, but not like this.

"Here," I muttered, taking the plates from Ian, "I'll take these for you."

"Seriously, Justin," he began, cheeks intensifying in the flaming magenta colour region, "I don't need help; I'm fully competent."

"I would like to help you, Ian," I said, trying to keep my cool.

"No, Justin, just sit down, I can do this!" he hollered. His cheeks were becoming more crimson by the minute and he was actually beginning to pant slightly. The fact that he was clutching burning hot trays didn't give me any ease at mind, either because the proximity between us was alarming.

Having formerly been about to take the plates off of the counter so Ian had a little bit more room to manoeuvre around. Instead, he was holding the burning trays and standing alarmingly close to me to which I could feel the heat radiating off the trays and onto my skin, feeling like the heat was so relentless that it was singeing the hairs off my arms.

"I'm sorry," I said, "I'll go sit down."

"No, no," said Ian, regretful. "I would really appreciate your help," he added, placing the burning tray on top of the stove.

"You need to take it slowly, Dad."

"I just want to make you two happy and to prove I can still do some things without verifying the fact that I need crutches. So, I'm guess I'm trying to say, can you help me dish up, please?"

"I would love to help."

"Thank you, Justin."

Smiling politely to show my gratitude, I assisted Ian with dishing up all of the food for us three before getting the drinks, too. Ian had actually publicised that a glass of wine now "would take the stress away," so I poured one for him as he sat down at the table opposite Juliet.

"You don't need to prove you can still do things," announced Juliet, "we know you can."

"I just want to make you happy, sport," he said, holding up his knife and fork. "I don't want you to be embarrassed about stuff that exceeds my capability because I'm not fully recovered yet or upset you that if you want to do something and I can't."

"You do make me happy, Dad," she said, taking a sip of her lemonade.

Ian smiled over from the opposite side of the table and held out his hand. Juliet put her glass of lemonade down as Ian replied with, "You make me happy, too, sport."

And just something so simple resulted in another thing being crossed off the bucket list. We were making excelling progress with it.

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Author's Note:

Lmao, I wish Wattpad had the feature for crossed out words - it would make this so much easier lol. But four out of ten have been completed so we're almost halfway! How do you guys feel about that? And do you think the other six things will be crossed off?

Thank you :) x