The Dating Game

Chapter Sixty-Three

Justin

"I think X equals eight," announced Beth, holding her pencil between her lips after the declaration.

"I got five," replied Michelle, equally as quizzical and perplexed.

"Oh, I got twelve," interjected Juliet.

All three girls stared at me as I stared down at my own equations on my sheet. This was a revision session we frequently did together at one another's houses, but today we were doing it during our lunch hour and the free period we had afterwards because we didn't have to turn up to most classes now.

Whenever we did it at one another's houses, if Ian wasn't in, we'd all gallivant and rendezvous at Juliet's house because she wouldn't be able to get a lift anywhere and walking was categorically out of the question. Sometimes she could barely walk to school without panting and being crimson in the face when she arrived.

"Five," I clarified, staring at my answer.

"Yes!" Michelle cheered, fist bumping the air.

Both Beth and Juliet groaned.

Ever since Juliet was discharged from the hospital little over a week ago, both Ian and I had been keeping an extra eye on her. As well as Michelle and Beth, of course, but they managed to accomplish this duty with exceptional discretely as she never fathomed out them. With alarming frequency, she incessantly sussed both Ian and I out.

After a little more while of trial and error through the algebra equations we had been given for revision – being granted the indulgence of not having to turn up to lessons if we did this revision outside of class – when we were all tired of seeing X on our page and deciphering what the number could possibly be, we all took a break.

The lunch hall had been kept open throughout the day now for those who wanted to revise in groups. This was a blessing because it meant we didn't have to be silent in the library. But it also meant a lot of people congregated here even though they weren't revising, but teachers regularly patrolled the room so if they weren't revising – and had gotten countless warnings – they were sent out to somewhere else.

Naturally, with the weather bettering every day as spring was coming to an end and summer was approaching, we were also endowed with the privilege of sitting outside on the fields – where PE lessons were not occurring – and revising. Sometimes we did this when it got a bit too rowdy inside of the lunch hall.

"Can we see the charity work?" Juliet asked abruptly.

Michelle and Beth were packing up their things when Beth said, "We'll come, too."

Juliet was just sitting back in her chair to the purple square table we were situated at. Her hand had reached up to mechanically play with the Coke lid draped around her necklace. Candidly, it was barely perceptible whenever she did this now because I was just so used to it now that I'd known for since the beginning of the year (properly, but otherwise throughout high school) and I was aware of the story behind it. Even now when she was beginning to wear knitted jumpers less because of the weather getting warmer, her material bracelets that encased her wrists were barely registered in my mind. I just knew they were there and I never seemed to dwell on it.

Maybe it was because the story of the material bracelets and the Coke lid was so pessimistic and awful that I was ceaselessly attempting to block it out... because I didn't want to remember about her heart condition twenty-four/seven and have a pang in my chest consistently. Perhaps I had involuntarily added a filter block in my mind to block out those specific things and the thoughts that inevitably flew into my head and clouded everything else.