Diamond Names (ON HOLD//EDITING)

Nine

She could barely think, let alone speak. So it was him she had seen in the hallway! Several different emotions flew through her head at once. She was happy to see him, but at the same time, she felt guilty, and still a bit hurt.

"I know you're probably surprised to see me," Tyler began slowly.

"I-I-" Julia stammered.

He shook his head. "No, it's fine; I understand. I know regardless of our relationship, I should have told you I started attending school here. I'm sorry I didn't say something sooner."

Julia was at a loss for words, and she hated it. She thought she had gotten over him.

In the few minutes they had been talking, Tyler hadn't taken his eyes off of her. "Julia?" he asked. "Did you hear me?"

"I-I have to go," Julia choked out. She brushed past him and walked out the open door, trying to stay calm.

She knew that she was going to cry. Judging by the growing lump in her throat, Julia guessed it would be sooner rather than later. She took several deep breaths, trying to calm herself down. He could run after her any second, and the last thing she wanted him to see was tears streaming down her face. No, she would wait at least until she was back in her own dorm room.

"Julia!"

Julia whirled around at the mention of her name. Miles and Eva had both left Tyler's room, and were running after her at full speed. She turned and sprinted out the door. She didn't want to talk to them.

Thank God my dorm is so close by, Julia thought to herself. In no time she had run back to her room, slammed the door behind her, and practically jumped on top of her bed, dissolving into a mess of sobs. She felt so weak. It had taken her so long to forget him; then she stands in front of him for less than two minutes and runs away crying. It didn't make any sense.

A loud pounding on the door made Julia burrow even further under her blankets. "Hey Castle!" Eva yelled.

"Go away," Julia sniffled. Hopefully she could hear her. Then they could go back to their meeting and leave her out of it. Out of everything.

Eva pounded on the door again. "You know this is my dorm too, right?" she snapped.

Julia groaned. "Fine."

The door swung open almost immediately, and the two guests ran into the bed room, panting. "Do you mind telling us what the hell that was all about?" Miles panted.

"It's none of your business," Julia mumbled, her voice muffled underneath all of her blankets.

Eva sighed. "Castle-"

"Don't call me that." Julia felt beads of sweat starting to form on her forehead, but she wouldn't lift her head out from under the blankets. Hopefully they would get the message.

"Julia, you are being an unnecessary drama queen right now, and you know it," Eva said, as calmly as she could. The room was silent for a few minutes.

Julia sighed as she peeked the top of her head out. "What." It came out as more of a statement than a question.

"What is going on with you and Tyler?" Miles asked. He used the same calm tone as Eva. It was as if he knew he was treading on thin ice.

"Went," Julia corrected him. "What went on with Tyler." She slid back underneath her blankets.

"Oh no, you don't." In a flash, Miles and Eva had both climbed up to the top bunk and pulled all of the blankets off of Julia's head. They stared at her in shock. "Look at you, you're a mess."

Julia felt her cheeks go red as she tried to wipe off her smudged eyeliner. "Can you two just leave me alone?" she choked out.

"Without hearing all this gossip?" Miles asked incredulously. Both Eva and Julia glared at him. He raised his hands up in defeat. "Look, Julia, we don't want to push you into telling us anything if you don't want to, but clearly something happened - or is happening, I don't know - with Tyler."

"Why do you care so much anyway?" Julia retorted. "So you can go back to his room and tell him? Did he send you here?" Tears brimmed in her eyes again.

"No, Miles is right." Eva climbed up onto the bed and pulled one of the blankets over her lap.

Julia sniffled again and pulled her crazy hair over to one side. "Tyler used to...no, he lives right down the corner from me," she began, sighing. "We went to the same middle school, and we...kind of had a thing."

"No way."

"Shut up."

Julia laughed softly, slightly embarrassed at Miles and Eva's reaction. "Yeah, he and I started dating over the summer of our 8th grade year, but he was more focused on other things, so we...well, we broke up." She took a deep breath. "After we called it off, I went to Olympia for my freshman year, and he came here, I guess, but he didn't tell me. As far as I was concerned, he might as well have been wiped off the face of the earth."

The room grew deadly silent as Julia stopped talking. Eva and Miles stared at her, eager to hear more.

Julia just shrugged. "That's really it; I don't know what else you guys want me to hear."

"Wow..." Miles breathed. "Tyler Wayland is your ex-boyfriend."

"Don't wear it out," Julia joked half-heartedly.

"Is that why you didn't want to be part of the project?" Eva asked.

"No," Julia replied. "Like I said, I had absolutely no idea he was even here. I mean, I thought I had seen him on my first day, but I had just ignored it."

Yet another awkward silence filled the room.

"So...do you still want us to leave?" Miles asked softly.

Julia realized that, after talking, she felt a lot calmer. But still, there was a tiny piece of guilt eating away in the back of her mind.

She knew that she shouldn't feel guilty, either. Tyler didn't deserve it, either. He probably could tell she felt this way. Knowing him, he most likely enjoyed knowing the fact that he still held power over her. Hopefully he wouldn't try to abuse it...

"Don't worry about it." Miles climbed off the ladder and started walking toward the kitchen, and Eva followed suit.

Julia laughed when she realized that Miles had read her mind yet again. Today she didn't mind.

Author's Note:

Broke 1000 words again. I'm not really sure why I see that as such of an accomplishment.

This chapter definitely gave me a lot of trouble - when I write drafts on the computer, you can see how long it will take you to finish whatever chapter you're reading, and I'd get SO MAD because no matter how much I wrote, the toggle at the top of the page always said "a few seconds left", and all my other chapters are longer than 2 minutes! I need to stop.

So this chapter is kind of all over the place, with a lot of emotions. I tried to end it on a good note, but we do get a pretty good glimpse inside Julia's head. And talk about a plot twist!

I'm leaving for Florida pretty soon, so sorry if I don't publish the next chapter for a while. I'm sure I'll be writing while I'm there, though. :)

Song: When We Were Young by Adele