Juliana

24. Bird watching? Yeah right.

*3 Days Later*

I cut the ignition to my truck and grabbed my backpack out of the backseat. My last normal season of being a Star Christian High Bear was coming to an end. One final practice and game stood between the end of the season and me.

"Robbie! You're home!" Kylie dashed in between the front door and me.

"Uh." I gulped. "Kylie... why are you at my house...?"

"Well... I haven't heard from you in one-hundred sixty eight hours, thirty seven minutes, and fifty six seconds. You haven't answered my phone calls, texts, Facebook messages, video chat requests, or mailed me back any of my handwritten letters. Not even to mention the fact that I walked by your house yesterday, saw you were home in your room, and watched you ignore my call. I saw you push the ignore button!"

"Woah... hold on a second. Slow down. Lemme get this straight... you actually looked in my house?!?!"

"Well, see," She huffed and looked like she was totally guilty. "I was out... um... uh... bird watching... yeah... I was bird watching and saw a totally rare bird in your backyard. Your living room window from your front yard has a straight shot to a window that faces into your backyard."

"Well..." I put my backpack down on the porch and stuck my hands in my pocket. "First of all, if I was in my room, how do you see me hit the ignore button, which I admit to doing more than once, from looking in my living room window... Not even to mention, I dated you for six months and then a little more. You don't bird watch Crazed Creepy Lunatic Woman. You were stalking me." I said, spotting Aaron walking out of his front door across the street. I motioned for him to come over and save me, but he just turned around and walked right back into his house. Asshole.

"I was not! Only crazy people do that.... Psh.. I was totally bird watching. It's a new hobby I've taken up since our last breakup."

"Yeah... sure." I crossed my arms. "So you can totally stalk me like the creepy person that you are and then have an excuse when I catch you doing it. Right?"

"No... that's not it at all. By the way, Robbie... who is this blonde girl that keeps coming over to your house and you keep going to her house and you won her a stuffed giraffe and you bought her funnel cake... and she went to your game... and you guys went out for pizza after and then you left to go see someone at the hospital... and you guys went tailgating to the Alabama game."

"Where does this end?! You are creepy. You are insane. You are crazy. And I broke up with you for a friggin' reason. Get out of my life, and leave Juliana and I alone."

"I am not!"

"Yes. Yes you are. How else would you know every single move I've made?"

"Oh, just some tracking devices and security footage. Not as hard to install as you would think. Juliana is the blonde I have seen you with, I presume?"

"I'm not confirming that because you are crazy enough to go... to go... to go do something to her... and she... she... she means a lot to me."

"Relax, my wittle Wobbie." Kylie reached up and stroked my cheek. I wacked her hand away faster than she could put it on my face though. "I was on my way to pay her a visit. You know just to give her some tips on dating you and stuff like that." I could feel my fists tensing up. "The only reason I came by here is because you've been ignoring me and that new profile picture of yours..." She glared and tapped her foot. "I don't like it one bit. Take it down."

"Hell no. It's my Facebook; I can have whatever picture up there I want. Sorry to burst your bubble, Kylie, but you seriously do not control my every move anymore. I ain't your puppet."

"Oh, Robbie... Robbie... Robbie..." She shook her head. "That might just have been the dumbest thing you have ever said."

"Hey!" Juliana said walking up the path that led to my front porch. "Who's this, Robbie?" She brushed some of her hair behind her shoulder.

"Uh." I stepped in between Juliana and Kylie. "This is... Kylie, my ex."

"Oh, hi!" Juliana stepped in front of me and held out her hand. I guessed she wanted Kylie to shake it. "I'm Juliana... Robbie's current girlfriend."

Ugh, Jules... You shouldn't have said that. You just put a target on your back...

"How 'bout we go inside now, Jules? Mom's cooking dinner." I grabbed her hand and led her in the house, shutting Kylie out. I locked the door behind me.

"What was all that about?" Juliana looked confused.

"Uh. Yeah... Kylie's pretty much insane, and now, you just pretty much made yourself a walking target for her."

"Oh come on, Robbie." She placed her hand on her hip. "That's silly."

"No. No, it's not. If I told you about some of the things she's done, you wouldn't sleep. Just let me know if weird things start happening, okay?"

Juliana looked terrified now. "...Yeah. Of course."

"Good. I'm working on getting a restraining order in place because her just creeping on me has happened one time too many."

"Robbie... she can't be that bad. I mean, she just may be in denial with herself because she did lose such a great guy." She got on her tip-toes and gave me a quick peck on the cheek before walking towards the kitchen.

Juliana had come over so we could work on homework together. Knowing Juliana, she'd finish way before me, and then she'd offer to help Mom cook.

After what felt like a billion hours of me concentrating, I flung my pencil down on the kitchen table and leaned back in the chair. "I quit."

Juliana looked up from whatever she was doing. She was sitting on the other side of the wood table. "Whatcha working on?"

"This stupid calculus." I groaned.

She smiled a little bit. "Let me see it." She motioned for me to give it to her.

I slid the binder down to her. "Be my freaking guest. I hate that class."

Juliana grabbed it, and she started looking at it. "Oh, you know how to do this Robbie... Come here." I got up and walked over to her and hovered. "It's just a logarithm. See? It's what we've been working on the past few weeks."

Yes, my girlfriend was tutoring me in calculus, but I didn't care. She knew what she was doing. She got a freaking perfect score of five when she took the AP Calculus exam last year.

"But it's like a billion steps." I whined.

"Suck it up and do the work, Lazy."

I groaned. "But you like this stuff...."

"Robbie.... Go do your work." She stuck her tongue out at me and playfully shoved me away.

"You do want to enjoy Thanksgiving in a couple days, right?"

"Yeah."

"Then do your work..."

***

            After Juliana left, I went up to my room and pouted some more about stupid calculus, and its stupid logarithms. I was a football player. Why the hell did I need to do dumb calculus?