The Heartbreaker [DISCONTINUED] || S.M.

Chapter 20 || "Putty In His Hands"

We spend the next two hours working on the presentation. I suspect that if Marley didn't have another class to go to in thirty minutes, she'd want to continue to working as long as humanly possible. Once we finish up, I head back to the dorms and immediately make a beeline for the bathroom. I take a shower, washing my hair and body as I thoroughly enjoy the feeling of my hair becoming clean again

As I step out of the shower, I wrap the towel right around me. I thought about changing back into the clothes I wore to class, but ultimately decided against it. As I put on my slides, I head out of the stall. Turning the corner, I make eye contact with Julia as she stands at the sink, washing her hands. I freeze momentarily, but as she turns off the sink, I begin to move towards the door.

Just as I reach for the handle and begin to step out into the hallway, I hear her call out, "Helaina."

Against my better judgement, I pretend not to hear her and keep walking. The door shuts behind me and I pick up the pace, but when the door opens again, I know it's going to be Julia.

"Don't ignore me!" she shouts. My whole body tenses up and I slow down, turning around.

"What is it?" I ask.

"Why would you tell Caleb?" she yells, stalking over to me. She looks pissed.

"What are you talking about?"

"You know exactly what I'm talking about!" Julia screams.

"I didn't tell him anything!" I yell back. "All that happened was I showed up at the frat house and he opened the door, and when he asked why I smelled like coffee, I told him to ask you!"

"Well why would you do that!"

"I didn't realize it was illegal for me to talk to him!"

"You made him suspicious! I don't need him around me asking so many questions!"

"Then maybe you shouldn't throw shit on your best friend!" I suggest. "Maybe you shouldn't keep giant secrets from your boyfriend that affects his future as much as it affects yours!"

"It doesn't affect him half as much as it does to me!" she yells, her voice cracking half-way through. Her bottom lip begins to tremble and she blinks rapidly as she pushes back tears.

"Julia, I-" I begin, but she shakes her head and cuts me off.

"No, just forget it. I don't know why I thought you would ever sympathize with me." she says, heading back down the hallway and going into her room. The door slams behind her.

"This is such bullshit." I mumble under my breath, hurrying down to the end of the hallway so that I can get inside my room. I love Julia with everything inside me, but holy shit- could she be any more stubborn?

Once inside, I lock the door and drop my towel. I toss my things onto my bed and dump my sweats and t-shirt into my hamper. Sure, I only wore them to class and the library, but the fact that they were sitting in the public bathroom is reason enough for me to want to wash them. I open my closet and dig around until I pull out a pair of high waisted jeans, a long sweater-cardigan, and a cropped tank top. I quickly change into the new clothes, and just as I poop down on my bed, my phone vibrates and lights up with a new notification.

S: You busy?

I roll my eyes. I thought I made it pretty clear that I wanted to take things slow between us- whatever we are.

H: define busy

S: Do you have class?

H: no