Writing's Second Taste

Chapter Thirty-Four: Justin

When I got into class, I never expected Vance to still take the seat next to mine. Obviously, Adam would have already told him about what happened so I imagined that he would prefer some distance between us.

But when he sat down and silently slid a heart-shaped chocolate on top of my notebook, my emotional self just wanted to bawl right there and then, "A little birdy told me something and I think you need a little bit of cheering up just as he does as well."

"How is he?" I dared to ask quietly.

"Hating life and everything about love," he chuckled, too lighthearted for my liking. Hold on, I thought that he wanted to cheer me up – couldn't he sugarcoat just a little bit?

"Well, he has all the right people there to comfort him," I scoffed, half dejected and half bitter, "You and Heart included."

He then paused for a moment when I practically spat that out. And if my eyes dared to deceive me, I swore that I could see ghost of a smile gracing his lips.

"He hasn't told her, you know," he informed in a concealed smug tone, "Seems like you're wrong about one thing."

I huffed and turned away from him, instead focusing on rewriting my notes because whatever mind games he was thinking of, I was not in the mood to play with him.

Yet I still cared that he told me that Adam had yet to tell Heart about how I somewhat took his heart, threw it to the ground, and stomped on it like a bitch. I could almost imagine the fury that would shoot my way once he does.

She was fiercely protective of him so might as well say my prayers now and hope that she doesn't kill me on sight.

Meanwhile, I couldn't even tell my best friend because I was afraid she might actually do what she had promised – to fly here. I have to remember that Gracie was as spontaneous as I was so if she said that she would travel across the Atlantic Ocean for me then I had no doubt in mind that she would.

I want to go home.

A full week later and it was still like that. I've yet to remember the last time I had a full meal, aside from the small snacks Meg and Julia forced me to eat because they were worried about me. Not only that, I was losing sleep over this.

There were times when I would just stare at the closed curtains of the windows, imagining what it would be like to run out again like that morning when I've finally decided. Of course, I was tempted to but I don't think my body would hold up a random jog at dusk, no matter how much the weather reports kept telling that warmth would finally squeeze itself soon into this horrible, cold, bleak, weather.

On a particular day when I was just busy attempting to finish my report, I almost screamed when a video request popped up.

Justin.

Instead of answering immediately, I scrambled around for my phone to turn on the front camera to at least see if I was decent.

Spoiler alert, I wasn't.

My hair was a bird's nest on top of my head, my eyes were bloodshot with dark circles under them, and my skin was incredibly sallow.

I pulled out my hair tie and attempted to comb my hair using my fingers, trying to fluff up some life into it, but sadly, it fell limp.

Well, this was as good as it was going to get.

I accepted the call and while it loaded, I slapped my cheeks to bring back some color to my face. Of course, he caught me while I was doing it but that was the least of my worries.

I just knew that there would be questions that I had to answer.

He saw just how down in the dumps I was. To my surprise, instead of asking, he simply stood up and got back with a mug in his hands and he instructed me to go down and get myself a hot beverage as well.