Chapter Two
Juliet
I stand there, dumbfounded. My brain is screaming at me to chuck my apple core right into his face and run. My legs are stone. I stare at the face that caused me so much pain.
“Juliet?” Mark says as if he’s unsure now whether it’s me or my twin.
I narrow my gaze. “Leave me alone.” I somehow break the frozen spell I was momentarily under and charge past him. He follows me.
“Please. We need to talk.”
The heck we do. I’ve heard enough. The lies he texted. The bullshit voice messages he left. Yep. None of them can erase that image from my mind. None of them can fix my shattered heart. If he knew what was good for him, he’d quit trying to apologize to me. He’d stop inching closer to my Wrangler.
I whip around before I open my door and yell, “I don’t need to talk to you!”
“Come on, Juliet. It was an honest mistake.”
Honest mistake? Does he expect me to believe he tripped and landed on Selena’s lips? I launch my half-eaten apple. It hits him in his crotch. He groans and bends forward. “Juliet,” he sighs.
I slide into my Wrangler and leave him hunched over in my yard.
I pull around the large fountain in my best friend’s driveway.
Addy and I have been friends since kindergarten. We bonded over our terrible names in Addy’s case hers is way worse than mine. Her full name is Adaline Bea Frost. Terrible, right? Her parents had a fight which grandmother they were naming her after. Hence why I will never name my children after anyone no matter what my future husband or boyfriend might say. When we were little, mean kids used to call Addy, Frosty Queen. Or worse Chills. Yeah, we go to school with unoriginal imbeciles. Because of her name, Adaline refuses to get her license until she can change it.
She rushes out of the house wearing leggings, a plaid skirt and a sweater. I eye her up with an elevated brow. “Wow, you’re wearing skirts now?”
“What? Don’t start. You’ll sound like my mom. Just drive.”
“What brought this on?” I ask.
She flips down my passenger side mirror and glosses her lips. “I think the questions to ask here is what is going on with your hair? I have an extra hair tie in my bag if you want it.”
“No thanks.” I pull out of her drive. “I’m trying to make sure all the boys are dying to go out with me.
She giggles. “All righty. Well, this is something my cousin bought me for Christmas. I figured it wouldn’t hurt to try something new.”
“It looks nice.”
“Maybe it will help me score a date to the Valentine’s Day dance.”
Ugh. Now, she sounds exactly like one of my mom’s clients.
“You look angry. I know you said you didn’t want to go to any more dances. And this one is especially stupid. You’ve hated Valentine’s Day ever since third grade.”
Who wouldn’t? I got two cards. We were all supposed to get equal amounts of cards and candies and I got two. Mine went to Rachel Little. Even our teacher Mrs. Brewer didn’t give me a card. I got one from Jared Black and the other from Adaline. Chase was in another classroom, so I got his later. All right technically three, that’s not much better. After that, I had a bad taste for Valentine’s Day.
“Mark tortured me most of break with his constant crap and then had the nerve to show up at my door this morning.”
I glance over at her and catch her slight frown. “I’m sorry. I wish I was here during break,” she says.
I shrug as we roll up to a stoplight. “It’s all good. I threw my apple at him.”
“He deserves more than a silly apple tossed at him. More like a whole stack of books and bowling balls toppling on his head.”
I smile. The image of books and bowling balls cascading down on Mark’s head like in a cartoon pops in my head.
“Yay. You stopped having a frowny face. Mind if we listen to music?”
“Knock yourself out.”
“Awesome.” She flips on the radio, and some damn love song blasts through my speakers. Just like that, my good mood vanishes.
Adaline grips my arm, yanks me off the path I was following, and hisses, “S.O.B coming your way.”
It snaps my attention as I make eye contact with Mark. Didn’t I make my point clear?
“Juliet, I need to talk to you.”
“No asshole! I warned you to leave her alone. Go make out with your new sophomore girlfriend,” Addy snarls.
“Stay out of this, Adaline! This is between me and Juliet,” Mark grumbles.
A crowd is forming around us. Much like at the dance. I’m regretting my decision to return to school today. “Mark, there is really nothing to say. It’s over,” I say in what sounds no more than a whisper. I can’t stand it. Why is my voice all weak now?
“Babe, I swear I didn’t kiss Selena. She attacked me and …” Before he can finish Tyler Richardson wraps Mark in a bear hug and pulls him away, sparing me from more embarrassment.
“Thanks, Love,” my sister says to her boyfriend Tyler as she helps Addy guide me in a different direction.
Layla whirls me around and asks, “You okay? I can call the school and pretend to be Mom, say you’re sick or something.”
“No. He’s not going to keep me from school,” I say. Although being anywhere else but here sounds wonderful.
Addy drapes an arm over my shoulder. “Don’t worry Layla, Chase and I got her back.” I’m not a delicate flower, I can handle myself just fine.
Layla catches my gaze briefly. “It’s going to be okay. It hurts like hell for a while, but it subsides. Don’t pay attention to whatever the others say either. Keep your head down and just do you. Okay?”
I love my sister, but I just want to tell her to back off. In fact, I want everyone to back off. Treat me like I’m not here. People won’t notice me. Everything will go back to how it was before I dated that moron named Mark. “I got it. Go on and find your man,” I say.
Layla doesn’t buy into my tough girl act and shakes her head. “I’m serious. If it gets too much text me.”
“I didn’t bring my phone.” I don’t tell her that I didn’t bring my phone on purpose.
Addy saves me from further frowning coming from my sister. “I’ll text you if she decides to leave early.”
Layla smiles at her. “All right. I’ll see you in homeroom. Don’t forget we have a Junior Elite meeting today,” she says to both of us.
Yeah, I really don’t care about going to the meeting. They’re going to discuss ideas for raising more money for our trip to Italy, as well as decoration ideas for the Valentine’s Day Dance.
I nod and follow Adaline down the hall in the opposite direction of my sister.
As we’re shuffling past the other crowds of students filling the hallways, a hand clamps down on my shoulder. I jerk to my left and Chase gives me a puzzled stare. “You okay there, Valentine?”
“I thought you were someone else.”
Adaline glances back at us. “We’re going to be late for homeroom.”
“Adaline, you need to calm down. We will get to homeroom with plenty of time to spare. You two better have the same lunch as me,” Chase states.
“How many times do I have to tell you not to call me Adaline?” she pretends to sneer at him, but I know she likes it.
Chase shrugs. “It’s your name and I love your name. Get over it.”
That earns him an eye roll. We’re almost to our designated homerooms when someone giggles, “Wow, I didn’t think her wardrobe could get any worse. Brush her hair much?”
I glance down at myself than over at the person who made the comment. A thin, redhead bombshell with stylish shoes and designer everything looks me up and down. Her stingy remarks don’t stop either, “No wonder why Mark ditched her. What the hell did he even see in that anyway?”
Chase pulls me into a protective brotherly type hug basically shielding me from everyone’s view. He walks us a little further then guides me into my homeroom. “As soon as the bell rings for first period wait for me outside this room. I’ll walk you to your classes.”
“I’d rather you invented a machine to erase my memory,” I suggest.
He smiles. “There is the Valentine I know so well, I thought I lost you for a second. Don’t worry about Mark. He’s not worth it and I’m pretty sure there is a slew of people lining up to kick his ass for hurting you. Adaline being one, I’m the next, then your sister, Tyler, and a few more.”
“Thanks, Chase. You’re the greatest friend in the world.” I hug him tightly.
“I know. I gotta go. The bell is about to ring.”
He slips out of my embrace and runs down to his class which is at the other end of the hallway.
My homeroom teacher Mr. Dinkens picks up a stack of yellow papers from his desk and calls out names. “Audrey Unis?”
She goes up to the class and grabs her schedule. “Juliet Valentine?”
I take mine and return to my seat. There aren’t many people in my homeroom because one it goes by last names starting with U and ending in Z. Apparently, the bout of last names in this school starts with a B, S, or R.
I glance over my schedule as the rest of the names are being called. Layla smacks my arm. “Hey, can you … um …” she hands me her schedule. My sister suffers from dyslexia, so reading is not her strong suit.
I read off her classes, “Broadcast Journalism, Art, Spanish two, Choir, Lunch, Computers, American History.”
“Thanks.” I hand it back to her and I feel her studying me. “What happened?”
“Nothing.”
“Bull. I know you. Twin intuition, what’s up?”
I continue to look at my schedule. “Just people being themselves. Nothing new.”
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.”
She sighs like she’s at her wits end with me. Oh well.
I read my schedule and groan. First period is Chemistry Two. Not that I don’t love Chemistry, I do, but not first thing in the morning.
The bell rings and everyone seems to make a beeline for the door. I take my time. Which is a first. Usually, I care about being late, but today, I don’t give a crap if I’m late to all my classes. As long as I don’t have to encounter any more snide comments about my recent relationship and its monumental failure.