Chapter 5 – Between Two Worlds

The next morning, the school hallway buzzed with chatter, the kind that always made me feel like I’d walked into a TV show already in progress. I found Julie at her locker, stacking her books with a little too much force. Her lips pressed into a line before she turned and saw me.

“Hey,” I said softly.

She hesitated, then exhaled. “Hey.” Her tone wasn’t as icy as yesterday, but it wasn’t warm either.

I fiddled with my notebook. “About yesterday… I didn’t mean to ditch you. I just—”

“I know.” She closed her locker and slung her bag over her shoulder. “I was being stupid.”

I blinked. “Stupid?”

She gave a weak laugh, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear. “Yeah. I was just… jealous, I guess. I thought you weren’t gonna sit with me anymore. It was dumb.”

The apology threw me off. Julie wasn’t the type to admit when she felt insecure — usually, she acted like she didn’t care about anything.

I smiled, a little relieved. “It’s okay. I probably should’ve said something too. Yesterday was just… weird.”

“Yeah,” she said, smiling a bit wider now. “We’re good?”

“Of course.”

The bell rang, and as we started toward class together, I caught her watching me. She smiled when I met her eyes, but something about it felt tight, like she was smiling through a thought she didn’t want to share.

⸻

By lunch, the air had shifted back to normal. Or close to it. Julie and I sat near the cafeteria window, unpacking our food. She was telling me about her chemistry teacher’s meltdown over someone microwaving fish in class — her impersonation was spot-on, and I laughed so hard my drink almost came out my nose.

That’s when I heard Connor’s voice from behind me.

“Hey, Emma!”

I turned around, and there he was with Ethan and Liam trailing behind, trays in hand. Ethan’s grin was easy, confident — the kind that carried a room without trying.

“You two sitting here?” Ethan asked.

“Yeah,” I said, glancing at Julie.

“Oh, come on,” Ethan continued, sliding his tray onto our table before I could answer. “We’re not sitting over there with the wrestling guys again. They’re arguing about protein powder.”

Connor rolled his eyes but followed Ethan’s lead. Julie gave a polite smile, though I caught the small sigh she tried to hide behind her straw.

Ethan leaned on the table. “So, Emma. We’re hanging out after school — just movies, snacks, nothing serious. You in?”

I froze for a second, aware that Julie was right beside me.

“Um—”

“You should come,” Connor added, nudging Ethan. “We’ll be at Ethan’s place. It’s close to school.”

Ethan grinned. “Yeah, bring whoever you want. The more the merrier.”

Julie’s eyes flicked to mine, her smile steady but distant.

“That sounds fun,” I said finally. “Julie, you want to come?”

Her eyebrows lifted slightly. “Sure. Why not?”

“Cool,” Ethan said, already distracted by his fries. “We’ll be there around four. Don’t be late or Liam will eat all the pizza.”

Liam looked up, mid-bite. “I make no promises.”

The conversation shifted to teachers, football practice, and who had the worst locker location in the school. Julie laughed along — a little too loudly sometimes, as if to prove something.

But even while we talked, I could feel the invisible string stretching between old and new, tight and fragile, like one wrong word might snap it.

⸻

After school, I texted my dad that I’d be home late and followed Julie to the parking lot. She was quiet, walking beside me.

“You okay?” I asked.

She smiled, small and practiced. “Yeah. Just tired.”

We got to Ethan’s house — a wide, modern place with a basketball hoop over the garage and music drifting faintly from the open windows. Chelsea and Liam were already there when we arrived, sitting on the porch steps with sodas in hand.

“Hey!” Chelsea waved. “Come in! Ethan’s raiding the kitchen.”

Inside, the smell of pizza filled the air, and laughter echoed from the living room. Connor handed me a slice before I could even drop my bag.

“Hungry?” he asked.

“Always,” I said, smiling.

Ethan turned up the music and everyone settled in — Chelsea and Julie on one end of the couch, Liam sprawled on the rug, Connor sitting beside me. It was comfortable, surprisingly easy. They joked about old middle school fights, teachers who’d yelled at them for dumb things, and that one time Ethan accidentally called a sub “Mom.”

Julie laughed, genuinely this time, her earlier stiffness softening as Chelsea complimented her shoes.

As the evening went on, though, I noticed little things — the way Julie’s gaze lingered when Connor asked if I wanted another drink, the faint sigh when I said yes, or how she picked at her bracelet when Chelsea offered to show me photos from their last beach trip.

Ethan was telling a story about his younger brother getting in trouble for painting the dog green, and everyone was cracking up. I tried to join in, but my attention kept drifting. The room buzzed with warmth and noise, yet a quiet unease sat behind it all — the feeling that I was balancing on a line between two worlds, and one of them was starting to slip away.

Later, when the night wound down and everyone started gathering their stuff, Connor offered to walk me out. The porch light glowed golden in the fading dusk.

“You looked kind of quiet in there,” he said.

I shrugged. “Just tired. It’s been a long day.”

He nodded slowly, his hands in his pockets. “You sure that’s it?”

I looked up at him — at the way his expression softened, like he actually noticed things most people didn’t. “Yeah. I think so.”

He smiled, but his eyes said he didn’t quite believe me.

When I got to Julie’s car, she was already waiting, arms crossed, expression unreadable.

“Ready?” she asked.

“Yeah,” I said softly, climbing in.

As she started the car, the music from Ethan’s house faded behind us. For a moment, neither of us spoke.

Then Julie said, “They’re nice.”

“Yeah,” I said, watching the lights blur past the window. “They are.”

She smiled again — that same polite smile from this morning.

And that’s when I realized: she still was not OK with me being friends with them, but I did not know why