The Billionaire's Authentic Daughter ▶️

6 2 | J U L I A

"I'm so jealous of you right now," Jade said as I got off the phone with Mrs. Quinn. "If only I could sing well enough for Braxton to adopt me and get me someone to give me professional training."

I laughed. "He didn't adopt me. And you don't need to get jealous. You're good in some other field of which I wouldn't know anything about."

"Actually I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life so being an engineer seemed like a safe option and hence my poor life choice. I already regret it," she said. "So your attempt at making me feel good about myself has failed. So how did the call go? Did she agree?"

"She wanted to know if I could cover the weekend shifts to make up for the classes from Mr. Bennett and I said yes so yay, I'm to cover the mornings on both days," I said unenthusiastically.

"Hey, don't complain. Books are hella expensive. We get to read them for free when Mrs. Quinn isn't around! That's like the only reason I wanted a job here," she laughed.

I joined her. "Good for you. I'm not much into reading books so no that's not exciting enough for me."

"Oh well, everyone has different hobbies. So what do you do when you're not busy living, breathing, eating and excreting music?"

I narrowed my eyes at her in mock anger. "Are you implying my music is shit?"

Jade gasped. "What, no! Actually I haven't even listened to you sing yet so I don't really know but I'm sure you're great!"

I bumped my shoulder with hers, letting her know I was just messing with her. "Well, to answer your question, I enjoy gardening."

"Gardening? That's cool."

"Yeah, in fact you should see the garden I'd grown back home-"

I cut myself off. Home? That place was no longer home but there grew the plants and flowers I'd taken the time and effort to grow in an attempt to find a different outlet which didn't include my body and something sharp.

I wasn't even sure if the plants were cared for. Everyone probably stopped looking after it when I left. Dan and Harper were never into gardening and the parents never spared a glance that way which was fine by me so long as they didn't have a problem with it.

"Really?" Jade's voice broke through my thoughts. She was unaware that I had stopped mid sentence to stare off into space for ten seconds straight. "Then you must've also done some gardening at Braxton's! What did you plant at his house?"

"Uh...nothing, if you didn't count my butt which has been planted there these past months," I said, attempting to steer the conversation in another direction. I didn't want to think about my poor dying plants. Jade chuckled.

"Speaking of hobbies I love to do yoga, go camping with my friends and most of all, my favourite, chasing after Jade for one damn chance!" Jude said, appearing out of nowhere and startling us. He had a habit of eavesdropping and lingering around us, I had noticed. Then he cringed. "Did I sound a little too desperate?"

I nodded. "A little more than usual."

Jade rolled her eyes. "Yes, you're starting to creep me out."

Jude sighed and backed up. "Sorry, I'll leave you guys to it. Don't mind what I said. And don't think about it!"

Jude said he couldn't stay in the library for long as he had a project and when he left, I turned to Jade.

"Jade, why don't you give him a chance? I think you might be good together," I said.

Jade seemed to think over it but then she shook her head. "I've always seen him as my friend. And besides I don't think he's serious about me. He's always so straightforward. It makes me think he's just joking," she shrugged. "And I'm still not over my girl friend whom I wanted as my girlfriend."