Push to the Limit (the sixth book in the Glee series)

Chapter 98: Promise Part 4

As soon as her song was over, Amity rushed off the stage, feeling completely nauseous, and hurried past all her friends outside. Julie watched the worry in Alex's eyes and said, "It's ok to go be a friend. I can tell you want to."

"I do," he admitted. "You sure you don't mind?"

"I can survive five minutes without you," she assured him. "Go."

He gave her kiss a cheek and hurried after Amity, so Julie decide to fill the void that had been left with the next best thing: food.

After a short walk towards the snack table, she reminded herself to stay away from the punch John had tampered with and instead walked right up to the chocolate fountain. Upon immediate inspection, however, she was disappointed to find that the area underneath it was a mess, with chunks from all the different food types scattered through the chocolate.

"Luke..." she muttered, rolling her eyes. When she turned towards the snacks to get a cupcake, she nearly bumped into Ryder. 

"Oh, sorry," he said quickly, moving around her. 

"It's alright," she said, grabbing her cupcake. She had every intention to get out of that corner as soon as possible but this was probably going to be her only chance to talk to him. "So, uh," she said. "I'm sure by now you've heard."

"Oh yeah," he nodded, his eyes on the punch bowl as he poured himself a cup.

"I thought I'd maybe see if..." she said, not really sure what it was she wanted to say. "We're good. Right?"

"Sure," he said. "Why wouldn't we be?"

"Because I said yes to Alex and not to you," she responded, regretting even saying it the moment it had been said. All she did was make things more awkward.

Ryder turned to her finally and said, "Julie, it's ok. Honestly. I get it. You and Alex are... Right for each other. As dangerous a combination as it may be. Congratulations. I'm really happy for you."

"Thank you," she said. She was going to say more but he didn't let her, walking away before giving her the chance to add more. Not that she really knew what she would add.

Julie was going to return to her table with her cupcake, but Ryder, Jake, Kitty, and Bree were all hanging out there while their dates danced. Instead, she decided to leave the room, heading across the hall to check on her daughters.

Meanwhile, Isaac had managed to get his friends and Jeremy's friends a little closer together. Sarah and Cleo had gone to the bathroom so it was just him, Kayli, Jeremy and Riley. It wasn't so bad that way.

While the girls danced, he pulled Jeremy aside and said, "Hey, just for the record... All that stuff I say is just joking around. You know that right?"

"I figured," Jeremy responded. "But thanks for the clarification."

"I promise I'm not that weird and creepy 100 percent of the time," added Isaac. "It's closer to 72." This made Jeremy laugh, giving Isaac the indication that he was making progress. "And so we're really clear... I just wanna be friends. I don't know many people here but I'm a big fan of Kayli's and she seems to be one of your best friends."

"She is," Jeremy nodded. "Sort of." He watched Kayli dancing with Riley and Lyric and laughed. "Yeah, those are my friends now..." To Isaac, he said, "You should've just started with an offer of friendship instead of making jokes all the time. I'm always open to having more friends."

He stretched his arm out and Isaac took his hand, shaking it quickly and saying, "Fantastic. And now that we're officially friends maybe you can slide my demo over to your boss at Blackbird."