Meant To Be

Chapter 6

"From what we know, Riley seems to have feelings for you, Julia."

Julia stopped walking. Her heartbeat quickened as she turned to look at her friends.

"What?"

Isla rolled her eyes. "Are you really that oblivious? Its literally so obvious, Jules. I can't believe you didn't notice."

"B-but, t-there's no w-way...." Julia stuttered. Her mind raced as it tried to think of every possible excuse for him not to like her. Even though they were really close with each other and their relationship could probably be mistaken as romance, it was pretty clear to Julia that he was in love with someone else.

It was about two weeks ago, when the election for the student leaders were being held. When Alicia Demelo was pronounced as the Year 10 student leader, Riley had cheered for her, louder than anyone else had. And at one point, she saw them looking at each other and smiling.

Julia could feel the jealousy rushing through her body as she remembered that time. She sighed. What could she do? She had no right to tell him not to like Alicia. And to be perfectly honest, she thought that Alicia was actually pretty nice. No wonder why she was elected as student leader. At the end of the day, all she wanted was for Riley to be happy, either if it was with her or with someone else.

Damien glanced at Isla and gave her a worried look. "I don't think we should've said that." He whispered to Isla.

Isla went up to Julia and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Are you okay, Jules? I'm sorry if it upset you. I didn't really mean it. I was just joking."

Julia plastered on a fake smile. "I'm alright. It just surprised me a bit." It was a lie.

Damien breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness. I thought you were mad at us."

Julia laughed. They continued to walk towards their next class. When they arrived, they saw Riley already inside the classroom. He walked out to them.

"What took you guys so long?"

Damien took a quick glance at Julia. "We...... I had to go to the toilet real quick and they were kindly waiting for me.... unlike you."

Unfortunately, Riley caught him glancing at Julia and he frowned. 'I wonder what happened?'

Isla diverted his attention to something else. "Ewww. There's a bug on my bag! Someone help!"

Damien chuckled at her cowardice. He thought it was cute. He took a piece of paper from his book. He carefully scooped the bug onto the paper and placed it on the ground, then stood back up again. He dusted his hands and said, "All done."

"You sure you don't need that worksheet?" Isla asked and pointed with her foot at the paper with the bug.

Damien shook his head. "It's only a glossary full of random words. I'm sure we don't need it anymore."

Isla just shrugged and continued to take her things out. Julia was doing the same. She hadn't said a word since they arrived at the classroom. When she saw Riley, she didn't feel like talking anymore. Julia made sure she kept a straight face. She didn't want to display any sort of emotion.

Riley didn't notice he was staring at her till she turned around and looked at him. He tried to read her face but it was just...... blank. He wondered if he did something wrong. Julia looked away and went to enter the classroom. Damien and Isla followed in behind her. Riley lingered outside as he racked through his brain, trying to remember if he had upset her in any way.

As he was deep in his thoughts, someone called to him. "Hi Riley!"

Riley turned to see Alicia walking towards him with a mountain high pile of books in her arms. He ran to her and quickly helped her with the load.