Returning Red

#45: Naked Truths.

secrets have a lot of layers

Isabella

I was never knocked out from the inside, but somehow Julie had managed to do it. 

All my senses, listen to my mind which is currently screaming 'HOLY SHIT' at her face, but I can't put it into words. So I inscrutably stare at her green eyes replaying the two words that left her mouth on a loop in my head. 

"I'm gay. I do not like men," she tells it in slow, separate words, stretching each syllable so it sinks through the fabricated layers of my brain. "I am dating Chloe," my eyes widen more as if they hadn't stretched enough. She grips my hand tightly again, trying to hint me to take a breath. "For almost 1 year now." She says finally completing her statement. 

My hands don't drop down as soon as she retrieves them. They go straight to my head and I continue to stare at the messed-up assumptions that I'd nested in my head for the last three weeks. It takes a few more seconds for both Austin and Jason to burst out laughing so loudly, that it makes me flush red. 

I am taken back to the incident in the bistro when I told her to keep her hands off him. I'd seen them similarly concede their laughter. Embarrassment rushes to my whole face when the words I threatened her with resurface in my memory. 

"Why didn't you just tell me?" I whisper to her because that's the first thought my embarrassed mind could think of to defend myself. 

"I thought you knew," she shrugged. She gestured to Jason and Austin, "I assumed they already told you. This is also why I thought it was a bad idea to involve me the other night with the truth or dare game. I guessed you'd see right through it." 

Of course, they didn't tell me. They wouldn't have had a hearty laugh like this if they had. I'm looking like a fool and they've succeeded in keeping something from me that was right in front of my eyes for the last three years. I see Jacob mirroring an expression like mine, which tells me he was unaware of it either. 

 I dare to look at Austin and Jason, both with a shooting glare. Jason lifts his hands in surrender, "Liam Davis." He tells me that I don't have to know more. Who else other than Liam Davis could come up with something so awkward?

My eyes fall back to Julie looking compromising. The things I told her, the merciless thoughts I had towards her, even a few minutes back while she danced with him, ugh--I hide my face behind my palms because my face is feeling hot and red. 

"Julie," I mutter behind my palms. "Forgive me, please. I didn't know and," I pull my hand down to glower at Austin. "None of them told me." 

Julie burst into fits of laughter as she crossed her arms across her chest. "No problem, Bella. Just don't throw more shade at me now." 

My lips fold and I nod at her. Anything I say is going to make things more awkward than it already is. She takes a few steps back, but then she turns around as if she remembered something that she wanted to tell me. 

"I spoke to my dad recently," She tells me with a placid face. "Noah says hi," her smile widens and I nod back. It wasn't a secret that I'd taken over for paying for Noah O'Connel's hospital charges over the years. Julie knew that as well. The news was, that Noah was doing a lot better than before and if anything, I was happy for them. "Also, you look hot as fuck today. If I was single, I'd have asked you out already." 

This makes me gasp. I see Jacob and Jason both turning away from us as they hide their face. Austin steps in closer to me and I feel his hands on my lower back. 

Everything in him resonates with irritation and I'm still frozen amidst my gasp. "Yeah, alright, thank you, Julie. You may leave." 

Julie chuckles as she nods at Austin. "You're a lucky man, Austin Cooper."