SATURDAY SECRETS // GBD-au

CHAPTER 19

Ethan POV

It's been two months since the charity event and Grayson is still heartbroken. I've tried to comfort him but he's pushing me away. His grades are dropping and he's constantly fighting with mom and dad. Julia and Nate are still together, I have no idea if it's genuine or not. It's just a big mess. I tried to stay away from girls, but Hannah and I have found support in each other. We've been officially together now for a week.

After my lunch with Hannah, I walk by the more fancy cafe in town and see Julia sitting by the window by herself. As I was considering to go inside, she notices me and gives me a faint smile. I wave and go in.

"Hey loner," I greet her and sit across from her.

"Hey E," she says and closes her laptop.

"How are you?" I ask, after ordering a coffee.

"I'm good," she says with a fake smile. "You?"

"Don't lie to me," I say with a frown. "I can see you're not happy right now."

"Well," she says. "Nate stood me up this morning and I kinda wanted to go outside so I came here to study."

"That sucks," I say. "How is the whole relationship going?"

"Well, Nate is basically doing what he wants, and who he wants," she sighs and takes a sip of her iced latte. I stay silent, to let her continue.

"And you know, I don't," she continues after a minute or so. "I don't know, things were going really great a week after the charity and then he stopped being nice."

"I'm sorry," I say. "That really sucks."

"Yeah, pretty much," she says, looking me in the eyes with a sad gaze.

"But congratulations," she smiles, making me frown why. "Well, with your relationship with Hannah of course!"

"Oh, yeah," I chuckle. "Thank you, things have been great with her."

"How's Grayson?" She blurts out. I sigh and fiddle with my fingers.

"Not good," I confess. "He's been acting out ever since."

She looks down, biting her lip. I see her swallowing tears away.

"I don't know what to tell you, Jules," I say after a moment. "He's torn. He's been drinking, partying, doing random girls. His grades are dropping, fighting constantly with our parents."

She looks at me and a tear slips her eye but she quickly wipes it away.

"I'm sorry," she whispers. "It's all my fault."

"No don't say that," I say shocked. I grab her hand to comfort her.

"No it is," she says. "It's my stupid dad who has to say things like that but I made it worse, E." She looks at me with so much guilt in her eyes, making me pull my hand back.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, after the charity we had sex one more time but then things with Nate actually got better and I felt what I used to feel for him. We got into this fight at a party when we were both drunk. He was about to have sex with someone else, which made me jealous and we were just screaming at each other."

I frown, I need to process this for a second.

"I said things I shouldn't have said," she continues, staring out the window. "Things like 'you meant nothing to me', just to assure myself that I was over him. I let my father talk to him again, I told him that he was still bugging me and he met with him somewhere and that's all I know but it can't be good."