The Literary Misadventures of Juniper Rosewood

28- It Doesn't Do to Dwell

When Circe and I sat down at the lunch table next to my friends, amidst cries of vague where-were-you's and we-thought-you-had-gotten-losts, the only indicator of my fragile emotions were the slight puffy red circles around my eyes, which to my utter delight, my friends promptly decided to ignore. Preston had a much more interesting and wholesome story to tell anyway.

"He told me he liked me on the Ferris wheel. Apparently, he was too nervous to speak to me before the party, despite having liked me for a while. Can you believe that? Abraham Janeke likes me. He's basically a Greek god, and he likes me." Ingrid swooned, Rashid and Emma chuckled. Circe pretended to vomit again and Etta pretended to hold her hair back as she did so. Circe's cheeks were bright red after that, for some reason. My phone chimed loudly in my pocket, but I ignored it, turning my attention back to Preston.

"Did you ever find out why your cousins were glaring at you?" I asked since his story seemed to be over.

"Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you," Preston began "My cousin Jun is in the year below us. She has a massive crush on Abraham, and so when they found out from my mother, who apparently cannot keep her mouth shut, that I was seeing him, I immediately lost all of their favour. I had to make Jun swear that she wouldn't out him since he gave me express permission to tell you guys and my mum if I wanted to, but nobody else is allowed to know. Evidently, my mum doesn't know the meaning of secrecy."

"Why can't you tell your dad?" Etta asked. Preston frowned, a sharp line creasing his forehead.

"He and my mum divorced a couple of months after I came out. He's not as cool with it as she is. I still have to see him sometimes, and he just pretends that it never happened. He always asks me if I have a girlfriend yet."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Etta said.

"It's okay. I came out when I was twelve so I'm pretty much over it," Preston said. My phone chimed in my pocket, but I ignored it.

When lunch ended, and Preston had run out of stories, Circe and I headed to music. She had her arm wrapped around my shoulder as though she thought I was about to drift off into an alternate dimension of waking dreams. To be fair to her, I was. She knew me all too well. Unfortunately for her, Mr Basil had decided to be disastrously late for our music class, and I had to turn and face the door as Dalton sauntered uncaringly down the corridor with Abraham and a handsome Indian boy I assumed was Dhanuk in tow. He didn't even look in my direction, which Circe thought was incredibly rude and I could tell she wanted to go and beat him up. I didn't let her though, and not a short moment later, Mr Basil turned up with his glasses askew and a boiling mug of tea that was filled so high it was sloshing over the sides of the mug and dribbling down onto Mr Basil's poor, burned hands. He fumbled with the keys in his pocket and unlocked the classroom before Circe could do any lasting damage beyond another death glare.

"I swear I'll get him next time," She said.

"You won't if you know what's good for you," I said.

"Good job I have no sense of self-preservation," Circe said, winking playfully at me. I rolled my eyes.

The whispers of my classmates still hadn't stopped, and I could feel Circe glaring at them beside me, although that did little to dissuade them of whatever they were convinced of. Until one of the girls in my music class decided to actually come up to me, an awkward but inquisitive expression on her face, and ask me outright what everybody else had evidently been wondering all weekend.

"Is it true that you're going out with Dalton James?" She asked. My heart twinged a little, but I managed to conceal my emotions with a scoff.

"I'd never date an egotistical jerk like him," I said. I wanted so desperately for that to be true, and I hated myself for how much my heart ached when I replayed his conversation with J.B in my head.