𝐀𝐧𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐇𝐞𝐫 | ✎

xi.

BAM!!

I hear a loud thud coming from the upper section of the library, like someone has fallen and had taken the entire bookshelf with them. Curious, and a little bit worried for the person who might've fallen and had gotten him or herself injured I jog up to where I last heard the noise, just to be greeted by the sight of a groaning Jules leaning her back against the wall whilst rubbing her sore body, books laid scattered on the floor like glass from a broken bottle. How she got herself in this position, my mind can't fathom.

"Jules, are you okay?" I grab both her hands lifting her back on her feet as she stumbles back a little bit, her glasses slipping lower on the bridge of her nose. " How did this happen?" She looks at me through her lashes giving me a sheepish smile. "You know what? I don't even want to know."

I walk past her and start picking up the fallen books on the floor and arranging it back on the shelf.

"You don't really have to help me, you know that, right?" Juliette says as she begins to pick up the books that have fallen right by her feet, adjusting her glasses in the process. "I know, I should let you suffer alone after all, you did it to me." I got up and dumped the books that were in my hands on a nearby cart resting one of my hands on my hip and the other on the cart.

She gave me a perplexed look and then suddenly a look of realization washed over her face making her lips move in an 'o' "You're talking about the assignment I gave you, right? I completely forgot about that, thanks for reminding me."

I simply rolled my eyes at her and went over to the bookshelf to continue stacking it up.

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"Doesn't it look so cute? I made it in art class, we were doing pottery today and Ms. Hadley said we could make anything we wanted, so I made a little tray with a tiny frog in it and painted it," Axel said. "Do you think Marilyn will like it? I hope so, I made it just for her . . . no one else."

"Don't worry man you know how Marilyn is, even if you brought her a literal stick, she'll still love it because all she cares about is that you brought her something," I comforted him.

"And that you cared enough for her to bring her something," Knox added.

"True . . . true," I spoke in between bites of my hamburger.

We were sitting down at a bench, near the field, eating lunch while Axel raved on and on about his new relationship with Marilyn. For context, Marilyn has been best friends with Axel since diapers, they were always close, some say that they were inseparable, and I'd agree with them. There was no day that you won't see Axel without Marilyn by his side, and if you do, then it's a rare sighting. But unfortunately for them Marilyn moved to another state since her dad got a better job opportunity, but if you think long distance will break these two's relationship then you'll be damned. Axel and Marilyn are on the phone with each other at any given break either of them have and when Marilyn comes back to town for the weekends, they spend every waking moment together vice versa. Sometimes, I feel a bit irritated about the way Axel's relationship is going but I just brush it off as jealousy since my past relationships were no walk in the park.

"I just don't get it," Knox says as he slaps his water bottle ridiculously hard on the table. "What am I doing wrong?"

I raised a questioning brow at him as if to tell him that he should elaborate further.

"Every single time that I try to be nice to Juliette, she just brushes me off like I'm not even there and it's starting to get annoying."

"No offense or anything but what is your deal with Juliette? Like dude there's literally two of her if this one doesn't like you go to the other one. It's simple really you just have to learn to accept rejection at its finest," Axel says.

"I don't like Natalia she's too fake an-"

"And you now think Juliette's the 'real one'?" Axel interrupts Knox from finishing his sentence.

"No, it's just that I love how she is I mean she's one of the smartest girls in school, she's always reading one book or the other giving no attention to her surroundings, wears these cute acrylic glasses that complement her eyes so much and in debate she can shut down anyone the second she opens her mouth, if I know anything that's a future lawyer in the making if I've ever seen one."

"Did you know her favorite colour is blue? No, well I knew. Did you know that she hates olives? Did you know that in 5th grade she used to have this tiny stuffed dinosaur that she took everywhere with her? No? . . . well, I knew."

"It's giving . . . stalker. It's giving . . . obsessive. It's giving . . . no wonder she doesn't like you when you literally know all these facts about her that absolutely no one else knows," Axel paused. " No wonder she doesn't like you If I were her, I'd send you a restraining order I mean God forbid she knows what you think about when you're alone by yourself." Knox quickly dished his friend a hard knock on the head, but I can't help wondering if all these facts he claims to know about Juliette are true. No doubt they are this is Knox we're talking about I won't be shocked If he knew the exact hospital, she was born in.

"Hey guys, can I sit here?" Amelie our head girl askes, we nod our heads in agreement as I shift to the other side to make room for her.

Why didn't I just ask her instead of Juliette to be my tutor? She is one of the smartest girls in school. Second to Juliette of course. Maybe I just wanted the best. The little voice in my head says as I quietly listen to it it's kind of got a point.

I watch as our little group slowly evolves into a tourist attraction with jocks of different sports and cheerleaders come to join the popular table as you'll call it.

Behind the crowd I could see someone smile a familiar smile, slowly as they walk on by their face comes to range as I identify the person to be Natalia walking with one of her friends in their Iconic blue and white Brickwood High cheerleading costumes. I could feel the smile that was creeping up on my lips slowly fade away.

Weird.

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. . . it has been a hot minute since i last uploaded.

but i'm back now and yeah . . .

hope you enjoyed this chapter and have an amazing rest of your day/night!

kisses