Chapter 6- Julia

Chapter 6

Julia

It didn’t register to me until the next day that I was single again. I woke up, immediately noticing the pain in my right fist. It took me a good 30 seconds to remember what happened the night before. Riley cheating on me. Seeing him in the middle of performing oral sex on someone who wasn’t me. We hadn’t had sex yet, but we had done stuff. I hated that I still had that vision in my mind. I felt guilty about the other girl though, she didn’t know about me, why would she? It wasn’t like Riley would say “oh I have a girlfriend, but she won’t fuck me. Do you want to do it?” I shook the images out of my mind. I was newly single, Riley could go and fuck everyone on the planet for all I cared. I was done with him. I could no longer trust him.

Emmy had been a god send. She found some clean underwear and pajamas in my drawer and lay them on the bed for me. I got changed and removed my make-up. She even put the shower on for me and got all my favorite beauty products ready. I hadn’t even cried. I had a feeling he was cheating, so all I felt was relief. Ok, I did feel sad, but not enough to cry over. Maybe later when I had time to think about it, but it was still to raw for me to feel anything other than anger.

When I came out of my room, Emmy was gone. She had set the tv up to play ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ and left a bar of ‘Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups’ on the coffee table. I sat down, silently thanking the God’s for whoever sent Emmy my way and settled in to watch my favorite movie. It was about 20 minutes into the movie when Emmy returned, carrying a pint of Ben & Jerry’s, a bottle of wine and a big bag of chips. I swear she is a legend. She grabbed two spoons, two wine glasses and a large bowl for the chips and came to join me on the sofa. “he’s a dick honey.” She said, wrapping her arm around my shoulders and pulling me down for a one-armed hug. “Yeah he is.” I agreed. “It’s his loss.” “Yup.” I just hoped I was coming across more confidently than I actually felt.

The next day, I woke up with a sugar hangover. I felt rough. I crawled out of bed and managed to drag myself into the living room. Emmy was frying bacon and had a pot of coffee on the go. “God bless you.” I cried as I flopped down on the sofa face down. Emmy chuckled. “come on, breakfast is ready, there is coffee in the pot, and you desperately need a shower because you stink!” She laughed as I chucked a pillow in her direction. “Ok, here you are” she said, bringing my sandwich over. I have to go; my class starts in 30 minutes. Love you!” she called, already out the door. Damn, I forgot about class. I called the office and left a message that I was taking a sick day. I only had two classes on, and I was still in front from the extra reading I did at Christmas. I grabbed my toiletries and walked down to the bathroom. Most dorms had communal showers for everyone, but ours didn’t. We had the option to pay a little bit more money for our own bathroom in our room, my mom had demanded that my dad paid for it. She didn’t want me catching foot fungus, which made me laugh at the memory.

After my shower, I got dressed and decided I wanted to go and talk to Ryan. I wanted a coffee anyway so it would be the perfect opportunity to talk to him. I wasn’t ready for a relationship; I certainly wasn’t going to see him to tell him that we broke up. I just wanted to talk to him and apologize for yesterday. I couldn’t believe that was only yesterday. Felt like our argument happened weeks ago.

I quickly dressed and threw my wet hair into a loose braid. My hair was short so a lot of it fell out and was resting on my shoulders by the time I got to the coffee shop. I opened the door and Ryan lifted his head up. It was odd how he was always here. He never seemed to be in class. I would have to ask him about that, I didn’t even know what classes he had. “Hey.” I said. “Can we talk?” Ryan said nothing, just continued to stare, mentally debating whether he should talk to me or not. Eventually he replied. “Sure, I have a break in 10 minutes. Wait for me?” He asked. “Sure.” I nodded and walked to an empty table.

He came over carrying two cups ten minutes later. “Latte” he nodded towards my cup. “Thanks.” I smiled. We sat in awkward silence for a minute before Ryan spoke. “So, what’s up?” He asked. “I’m sorry about yesterday. I didn’t realize what it meant until you stormed out.” He blushed. “Yeah sorry for the temper tantrum. I just lost my shit.” He smiled. He really was gorgeous, easily the most gorgeous man I had ever seen. “I understand, it was my fault, don’t you dare apologize.” He smiled again, wider this time. “So, you and Riley broke up?” he asked. “how did you know?” I asked, taken aback. “Seriously? You didn’t see the video?” He pulled his phone out of his pocket as he scrolled through Facebook looking for the video. “Here.” He passed it to me. It was Riley, lying on the bed, he had just pulled his boxers back up. I was screaming at him, God, I sounded like a banshee. Then there was the slap. Then Emmy walked in, and then I punched him. “That was a great punch, my brothers would be proud if they saw it.” I stated. He laughed, “yeah it was baby, remind me not to piss you off again anyway.” Then I realized that James probably had seen it, same as my parents. Somebody had tagged me in it. 47k shares. Holy crap, it had gone viral. I passed the phone back. “That was some right hook you got there.” He laughed. I sniggered. “I was so angry; I don’t even remember hitting him. I’m glad I did though, he deserved it.” “Fuck yeah he did.” He agreed. We talked for five more minutes before he had to go back to work. “Can we be friends?” I asked him. “Of course, Julia.” He leant down and kissed my cheek as he headed back to work. I knew I was in trouble when I could still feel the remnants of his touch on my skin hours later. I needed to be so careful with this man. He had the power to crush me if I let him.

***Authors note***

Ryan seems infatuated with Julia… Do you think they should be together?

Let me know!

Xoxo