The Dating Game

Chapter Sixty-Five

Juliet

Ploughing through the exams, it was just days before the last one.

Throughout this month, Dad had been making sure I haven't been squandering away every single day, all day doing nothing but revision and therefore, incessantly stressing over the exams. He checked in my room periodically and if he found my hair in disarray or my eyes wide, he'd say, "Come downstairs and take a break."

Usually there was no room for a dispute or my justification to why I should progress on with the revision so I would just follow him downstairs into the lounge.

Truthfully, the main reason why I was stressing as much as I was for the exams was because number two on my bucket list was to pass my exams. Out of ten things, I had completed seven, and I just had three left. Number ten on the list would probably take an exceptional amount of effort and work, but I would be damned if it didn't happen. I was this close. It couldn't all just go to waste now.

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

And the students at school were too overwhelmed with the exams to even care about insulting me or ridiculing me for my surname. So for that month, it had been rather peaceful – well, although the insults had diminished, the exams were definitely the opposite of making everything peaceful.

"How's the charity work going?" asked Michelle as we strolled leisurely to our lockers. First up was my locker.

"It's going good," I replied, nodding my head. "But I don't know. I want to do more than just a floral display. I want to do something else, too."

"Does Justin know?"

"He can probably tell I'm thinking it," I replied. "It just doesn't seem enough to actually cross it off my list. I've done seven things, and I have three left. This is one of the three final things to do."

"What are the other two?"

"To pass my exams, and for Justin to make it up to his friends." We approached my locker now as Michelle leaned against the adjacent one.

Michelle sighed as I entered the combination to my locker, turning the silver lock. She said, "You know, with the way things have been going, I don't think he'll be friends with them. It's been a good few months and they've made no interactions."

"But it makes me feel so bad that I'm the cause of it," I said to her, turning my head as I exchanged some books. "If it hadn't have been for me, he would still be friends with them."

"You know what I think?" Michelle said after a fleeting pause.

After exchanging my books, I slammed my locker shut and we began the excursion to her locker. "What do you think?" I asked, sidestepping a freshman who was scurrying out of class and in the direction of the toilets. He had a rather distressed expression on his face. And he had to just be five foot.

"I think that Justin's been helping you. I mean, you seem so much more alive with him, Juliet. If I were you, I would be thanking he left his friends for you. Without him, you'd still be hiding in this shell and barely uttering a string of syllables. He brought out the best in you and we love it. If anything, he's keeping you healthier than you ever could be. I'm sure it wouldn't have been healthy to keep everything bottled up."