The Rockstar's Juliet

Dustin's Pain

Juliet stirred, rolling to her side and facing Zachary's firm back. Yesterday had been intense for her boyfriend, things were said which involved her and she didn't like any of it. Dustin let Zachary know he wasn't happy about their relationship and they challenged each other from there on. She was made the price without her consent. She figured Zachary only said those things to encourage Dustin, to make him try and improve himself. She hoped that was his intention.
Not wanting to wake Zachary, she quietly left the bed and got ready for her day. Once dressed she left the room and headed to the restaurant, needing to be around other people to feel human. She took a seat at the table in the back and ordered herself some pancakes and a cup of Earl Grey tea. She was having a quiet moment to herself when the last person on earth she wanted to talk to took a seat across her.

"Jules."

She placed her cup down and met his gaze, "Asshole."

Dustin's eyes widened at her greeting, "Ouch."

She wasn't impressed though, "You think you don't deserve that? Do you need me to repeat what you told Zachary yesterday?" When he didn't respond she snorted, "She's only fucking you because she can't have me." She said in a whiny high pitched voice to get her point across.

He held up his hands in defense trying to defuse the situation, she wasn't getting less angry though. He was supposed to be her friend, at least he gave her that feeling when they talked over the phone and shared breakfast and dinner before. Now she just felt betrayed. She wouldn't deny it, there had been some feelings involved. But like Zachary told him, he was fading from her heart because of his behavior.

"Still not going to comment on that?"

"I didn't mean it like that." It came out weak, he didn't believe his own words.

She titled her head to the side, narrowing her eyes on him, "You didn't mean it like that?" She repeated, his words sounding empty and making her see him as a spineless man, "You said it and it sounded to me like you meant it." She reached for her fork, clenching her hand around it tightly to express her anger, otherwise she'd smack him in a public place, "I asked you so many times if you had a problem with my relationship. You kept saying it was fine, but you're not fine with it. Why would you make things difficult for us now? Zachary and I found a way to make this work and now you decide to ruin it? Why? I just want to know why."

She kept her voice low, yet she wanted to scream at him. She wanted to scream her feelings, letting everyone know what kind of man Dustin was. She couldn't though. It would ruin his image, more so than it was already got ruined by his behavior recently. Her screaming things to him wouldn't hurt him alone though, it would also hurt the others, she wasn't ready to ruin their chances. They were nice people, they didn't deserve it. So she kept her emotions on a tight leash, making sure it wouldn't alert anyone.

"I don't know why either." He told her, he sounded confused and unsure, "It didn't bother me at first."

She could understand what he meant, but they needed to discuss it. She figured it would be the only way to clear the air between them and maybe help Dustin to get his thoughts straight.

"Then it got more serious and it started to bother you?" She asked.

He didn't react at first, he looked far away, probably thinking it through. Then he trailed his eyes back to her and gave her a firm nod.

"You're right. I might have thought it would have been some meet-ups and you two losing interest in each other. But the opposite happened. You actually started to look interested in Zachary."

"You must have known I would have gotten to know Zachary, the kind of person he actually is."

Dustin inhaled deeply, she could see his chest rising and falling quickly. He let out a long, exhausted sigh and rubbed a hand over his face. He reached for the menu and focused his attention to that, probably needing a distraction to break the tension between them.