vexatious (infuriating sequel)

chapter sixty-one

"no!" i try desperately to stop this from escalating. i am too late, though, and julia is sitting back down in a matter of seconds, staring at me with her eyes suggestive and her eyebrows furrowed. seriously, colby?

"what the fuck?" i whisper at the stupid boy as i try not to pay attention to everyone's eyes on me.

"no, what the fuck to you, andro," julia calls at me from the other side of jake. i watch as the poor boy leans back, clearly wanting to part in this. i noticed a smirk cover his face at colbys comment, and i pray that nobody else did. his inability to be serious would not come in handy right now.

"what?" i ask, my voice helpless. colby lets out a sadistic chuckle from behind me.

"is this what you wanted?" i turn to the boy with hurtful intentions. he is ridiculous for doing this. now everyone has gotten the wrong idea, including julia and jake, who have somehow been oblivious to colby's aggression towards my and jakes friendship.

"you know, i expected this from tara, but not you."

my hands begin to shake uncontrollably. what the hell?

"excuse me?" tara spits out from the other side of the table. "well, it's true!" julia defends her comment. i bury my face in my hands before finally getting the courage to say something more, interrupting tara and julia's awkward stare down.

"he's just mad! i don't want to have sex with jake!" i express aggressively. how could he have yelled that in the middle of dinner? over fucking pasta?

"sure," colby scowls from beside me and i stand from my seat.

"this is stupid! keep your relationship problems private and don't start making shit about me!" tara yells out. i was worried about her saying something like this, but i didn't know it would be an indirect result of colbys loud mouth.

"none of this is about you!" i defend, gesturing for the girl to sit back in her seat. she is being dramatic and eating up any tension like an anger-fueled bitch. i don't have the energy to do this right now.

"can i talk to you?" i turn to julia with eyes full of hope. i watch intensely as she nods, hesitation clear in her decision.

"let's go," i say, removing myself from the group and stepping away. i don't look back, and just pray that julia is following me because i would be mortified if she wasn't.

"look," i turn to her once we are outside of the front doors of the stupid restaurant.

"it's not like that," i begin, only to be cut off by her raising her hand.

"you literally told me to go for jake. how could you do this?" she asks, not letting me explain the misunderstanding. god damn you, colby. turning people against me and leaving me to fend for myself when you know they won't listen.

"what is going on?" jake appears behind the girl and her eyes are full of anger. i don't even blame her, though. i would be just as mad if i overheard that, but none of them know the context and i can't let them keep thinking that they do.

"you," julia turns to the boy and narrows her eyes on him. i want to yell and demand her to listen to my explanation, but i am frozen in place as she gives jake the dirtiest look i could ever imagine.

"you had me fooled!" she exclaims and i place my hand on her shoulder, just trying to stop this before it completely ruins us all.

"julia! colby is just jealous! it's not like that!" i yell, louder than my voice has been in a while. she turns to me silently and focuses her eyes on mine. i feel like i could collapse from the contact on its own, let alone the intentions behind it. she is angry, and i don't know how to defuse this.