Is it Casual now?

Chapter 7 - Juliana's perspective

Trying to fall asleep after Malia and I's emotional conversation was one of the hardest things I've ever done. As usual, she went to bed first and I stayed up reading my book for a while. By the time I had turned my small lamp off and laid down, my mind was still whirring with thoughts. I stared up at the blank ceiling, blinking in the darkness. Me personally, I love romance. I love being in love and seeing others in love. Seeing Malia be so sad and give up on the girl who she'd fallen for made my heart ache, she, of all people, deserved to be happy. Another thought that was costing me a great deal of sleep was the fact that I was going to be able to see Dan at the Halloween party! Originally, we met when I'd gone to hang out with Matt at his brother's place and Dan was there too, watching the football on TV with Sam. Call me crazy but from the first moment I laid eyes on him, I just knew that he was the one for me. Perhaps it was the way he smiled at me, said my name, or how looking into his eyes was like gazing into two crystal blue pools of water. Christ, I could go on about him forever! Anyways, what I'm trying to say is that since I am getting to spend time with my crush at the party, I feel sorry for Malia not being able to do the same with hers, life is so unfair. To be honest, I'm not sure if I totally buy what Matt told us about Kylie, I love him to bits but he's known for over exaggerating things so I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case here too. It was clear that Malia still liked her, I could tell she was trying so hard not to but I also knew that even after hearing Matt's story, her heart still laid with Kylie, for now at least. However, it was only a matter of time until she'd fully give up on her and force herself to move on. I couldn't let that happen. 

The next day, me and Matt were walking around campus together, Malia unfortunately wasn't with us, she told us that she needed to study and stay in the room. Sounded more like an excuse to wallow in her sorrows to me, but I didn't question it.

"Matt." I said, keeping my eyes glued to our feet as we walked in sync out of the main building.

"Yeah?" he asked, also staring at the ground.

"I think your story about Kylie upset Malia."

He sighed, "She needed to hear it. It's the truth."

He wasn't making this any easier for me. I replied "Yeah I know, but still..."

Matt stopped walking to look at me, "Jules, what did you want me to do? Lie? Lie and let her get hurt?"

"She is hurt Matt, she's hurt because now she feels obliged to let Kylie go." I said with desperation in my voice. 

"Good. Kylie's not worth her time anyway!" responded Matt bluntly.

 "No, you're not listening. If Malia was going to get her heart broken, it would've been better to let her do it her own way, by getting to know Kylie for herself. At least that way she would've had some closure. Right now she just feels torn. Torn between what you told her and what her heart wants." I didn't intend for that to come out so long winded but I couldn't stop my words, I felt too passionately about this situation and helping Malia. 

My friend was stunned, he took a minute for my words to sink in and replied sounding slightly irritated "Well then what do you want me to do? I can't just travel back in time and erase everything that I said, can I?"

"No." I replied. We kept walking in tense silence for a few second. However, that was when a genius idea suddenly sprung into my head! "Although!" I piped up enthusiastically, making Matt look at me in confusion, "You could show her that you were wrong about Kylie!"

He countered back, "Um what? But I'm not she literally-"

I cut in "Ditched you and became a bit rebelious, yeah you mentioned. But that was six years ago! Do you not realise how much someone can change in that amount of time!?"