vexatious (infuriating sequel)

chapter eighty-four

"me? you have no idea who colby even is! you're ridiculous for trusting him!" tara spits back at me, but i wont back down. i won't let her talk to me like this anymore. i stopped letting anyone talk to me this way when she broke my heart in the hall outside. "just because he didn't want you doesn't mean he doesn't want me!"

colbys hand is tight around my wrist, pulling me back from where i am. before i get the chance to get in tara's face and yell at her more, he succeeds in pulling me away and against his chest. "stop," he whispers.

"you told them i said yes?" i question him and he gives me a sympathetic look. what the hell is going on with these people? do they ever get tired of doing this?

"she's right, tara you should just stop." julia standing up for me is sweet, but i know tara better than to think she won't fire back ten times harder. you have to beat her to it, as i've learned. "you're totally playing jake, you have no room to talk about stopping."

"i'm not playing him!" her voice is loud, louder than i expected from her. colby is still holding me tightly against him, and i can't ignore how good it feels to be so close to him. even in the heat of the moment, when everyone is arguing, he continues to leave me swimming in my thoughts.

"then why won't you leave him! you clearly don't love him!"

"you don't know anything! you have no idea what you're talking about! this has nothing to do with you!" julia defends herself and i watch as the night unravels. this is stupid, this is all so stupid. "so why do you continue to string him along? i know he said he loved you, and i know you didn't say it back. so why do you keep hurting him when you clearly don't-"

"i do love him!"

the room falls silent, and i can see jake's eyes widen from his stance behind devyn. julia stumbles backwards, and i grab her arm gently, leading her to my side. devyn laughs dramatically and excuses herself from the crowd that has formed, and the only sound that i can hear is breathing. julia just screamed that she loves jake for the first time. in the middle of new years, with a giant crowd surrounding her.

"fuck..." julia swears to herself. i give her my best it'll-be-okay look as i watch jake process what she said. there isn't a pair of eyes in this apartment that isn't glued on the four of us. this is the worst way the night could've gone, and julia was right to have a bad feeling about it.

tara's face is priceless, and she appears even more shocked than jake does. she was just proven wrong, and now she looks like an idiot for saying all of those things. part of me wants to feel bad for her, because i know hearing that julia loves jake must've hurt. she probably felt victorious when she found out julia didn't say it back. now she must be so disappointed.

i watch as julia runs into sams empty bedroom, and jake wastes no time following her and slamming the door behind him. i hope they finally have the conversation, even if it's under these circumstances. i hope tara didn't get the best of them like she did with me. i hope they can still be happy after this, even if it didn't happen in an ideal situation. i hope they can just confess their love for each other and move forward. i'm tired of tara getting in the way of things like this. it seems like she operates solely on pain and anger, and i'm so sick of watching it happen. she turned into a different person when we stopped talking, and it's so obvious how miserable she is. i hope she can get some help, because i can't do it anymore.

"you should leave." sams voice catches me off guard, and for a second i think that he's talking to me. when he turns to tara, i am pleasantly surprised to see that he's kicking her out once more.

"seriously? you're doing this again?" i have to hold back the giggle that rises when i remember that this isn't the first time he's had to kick her out. she is always doing this stuff.