Chapter 24
June
“They won’t make out, will they?” chuckled a guy, looking at me from the other side of the room.
“It won’t hurt if I throw this at your face, will it?”
I mimicked the gesture of throwing an entire tequila bottle at him, forcing him to quit teasing me.
“Chill, one minute more, I’ll check if they’re still alive.” Taylor shut everyone up as she got up, while I glanced at James, looking for a sign. He was leaning on the windowsill to smoke. He was staring at something out the window like he was avoiding my gaze.
I wasn’t jealous of Ari, but I knew perfectly well how Will felt about her. That was the problem.
Taylor on the other hand looked down at me. “Unfortunately, you couldn’t go in there with him. You would’ve seen fireworks.”
I couldn’t understand why she had such a grudge against me. We barely knew each other. Maybe it was because I took her Juliet role? She could have it. I’d been to more parties than rehearsals.
“Give it here.”
To my surprise, James came closer to her and literally ripped the phone out of her hands.
“What the fuck are you doing, Jamie?” she asked, with a hint of worry. And when he lifted a corner of his mouth into a crooked smile, I sensed that his intentions were anything but good.
“I’m picking out a photo.”
“James!” Taylor reproached him.
I saw her frown before trying to grab the phone from him.
I didn’t know what was happening at that particular moment, but then how could I take someone seriously who was still holding a cookie between his teeth while he raised his arm to prevent her from grabbing the phone?
“Would your dad prefer a close-up of me or a photo of both of us? Or maybe a video . . .”
Taylor’s face turned completely purple.
“Sent.”
“James don’t even think about it! It’s a crime! Try it—”
“How’s it a crime if it’s my photo?”
“But . . .”
“It’s me. But I’m naked and in your bed. Do you think your daddy will be bothered?”
Taylor’s light-blue eyes widened in sheer terror.
“What?!”
“Oh, it looks like he saw it. He’s already calling you.”
Her jaw dropped when James gave her the phone, while I covered my forehead with my hand. But it was too late because I’d seen the photo too.
“You wanna ruin my life!”
“We’re even, sweetheart,” he whispered sarcastically in her ear before leaving the room.
Taylor was still shaken up when she went to open the closet where Ari and William were.
I didn’t have the courage to look up, but I heard one sentence loud and clear.
“You don’t know how to keep your clothes on, do you?”
There was a bit of murmuring in the background. I saw Amelia shoot me a look from afar.
“All right, I’d say the game’s over,” announced a bored Jackson while Taylor was dealing with her dad.
“June?”
I heard a voice calling me from far away, but all I had to do was look in Will’s and Ari’s eyes to catch a glimpse of the guilty looks on their faces. I heard a strange ringing in my ears. I couldn’t even focus on what people were saying around me anymore.
I wasn’t going to stay here for a second longer.
I stood up and bolted out of Poppy’s room. Footsteps followed me down the stairs, but I didn’t turn around.
“June!”
Will was following me. And if his reaction was predictable, I wouldn’t have expected Ari’s reaction as she called my name at the top of her lungs.
“June! Wait!”
They must’ve both felt guilty.
“No, I gotta tell her.”
William’s voice got lost in the chatter of the living room, and when I finally got to the street, I took a deep breath of fresh air.
I gotta go home now, I told myself. It wasn’t Will and Ari who’d made me feel this way. Nor was it Taylor or Tiffany. It was just the fear that I’d burst into tears and break down in front of everyone.
I took one last breath, then put the jacket hood over my head and continued down the sidewalk. Without realizing it, I walked past James, who was sitting on the roadside smoking with a girl.
“June, listen.” Will. Again.
“I don’t want to hear it,” I spat without thinking.
“June!”
I heard Ari’s voice again. It made me literally lose it.
“I said I don’t want to hear it!” I exclaimed, this time more firmly.
“Oh no, but I do,” James said.
“Shut up, this doesn’t concern you!” Ari scowled at him.
“When it comes to getting it on with someone who’s not your boyfriend, it always concerns you, doesn’t it?” he prodded her.
“Sorry, June, you just moved here, and you don’t know—”
William? Did William have the balls to still talk and make useless excuses?
“It was just a kiss.”
“I don’t want to hear it. You made out? I’m happy for you. Congratulations. I’m out.”
I crossed my arms and glared at them. William was a little disheveled while Ari always looked immaculate. They really were a perfect couple.
“What’s going on?” asked Amelia, running out the door. She didn’t look at me or William. All her attention was on Ari.
“Look, I’m trying to change,” Ari said, lowering her eyes to the ground.
The lane in front of Poppy’s house was barely lit, but I definitely noticed the way Amelia was glaring at her friend.
“And here I thought Taylor was joking. But it always gets the best of you.” She told Ari off.
“I’m not perfect, but this doesn’t change the fact that you’re my best friend and—” Ari wavered for a moment, so Amelia got up in her face.
“And what? You just broke up with Brian and now you’re hooking up with Will, congratulations! Do you want a cookie? Maybe from June? You disgust me.” Amelia curled her upper lip in disgust.
“Easy, okay?” ordered Will. Great, and now you’re defending them. I’d had enough. I turned around. I just wanted to remove myself from this scene. It had nothing to do with me anymore.
“Hey, June, why don’t we go somewhere to talk alone?” William grazed my shoulder. The contact was enough to make me twitch.
“There’s nothing to say.”
I avoided his gaze, but I soon realized that the most enraged person right now was Amelia, who kept fighting with Ari.
“June’s there, why don’t you apologize to her? Why the fuck are you explaining yourself to me?” she yelled at her friend, whose eyes were welling with tears.
Will and I turned to look at them while James kept his gaze lowered.
Ari was shaking, and it was obvious that that she was about to burst and let everything out. She couldn’t hold it in anymore. She was about to tell Amelia.
“Yes, I cheated on your brother, and I’m sorry.”
Amelia raised both her arms incredulously.
“I knew it! It was when you went to the beach last summer and met that moron skateboarding? Is that what you’re telling me?”
It was getting so loud that Poppy’s neighbors were participating in the discussion.
“James.” Ari pulled him into the conversation, and it didn’t take Amelia long to put the pieces together.
“Are you telling me that that time at Tiff’s wasn’t the only time?”
“I’m sorry, Amelia. Really,” continued Ari, now on the verge of tears.
“You promised me. I lied to my brother because of you. I thought it was a one-night thing. I wonder why I surround myself with shitty people!” yelled Amelia, looking at James.
“Explain what the fuck I did to you? I banged your best friend, so what? Do you want to have an issue with me because of that?” he asked.
“You fuck everyone! You know that’s not why I have an issue with you,” breathed Amelia, teary-eyed. But as soon as James stood up to get in front of her, a silence fell that made all the other fights seem like nothing.
“What the fuck do you want from me?” he demanded.
“For you to leave me alone. Me, Brian, my friends, my family.”
“Your family? Really?”
“Guys.”
Blaze’s soothing voice cut through the tense atmosphere. But nobody paid attention to him.
“Brian doesn’t deserve it,” affirmed Amelia. But James didn’t seem remotely affected by her words.
“No, of course not. Brian is the best brother in the world, and I’m the cause of your problems, right?”
“Grow up, James. The world doesn’t revolve around you!” she said.
“Of course not, it revolves around the princess and that dick who doesn’t have the balls to come and thank me.”
“All right, I’d say that’s enough for tonight.”
Jackson put his giant figure between the two of them while Blaze put his arm around Amelia to take her away.
“How about we go home?” Blaze said.
“Brian and I didn’t ask you anything!”
I heard Amelia’s voice crack when she turned to James one more time. He closed his eyes and then let out a heavy sigh. He seemed like he was holding something back, but I couldn’t tell what it was.
“Just like nobody asked you to attack the principal! If you guys wanna hurt people and then hide behind your fake heroism, that’s fine! But I’m sick of it. And maybe June should keep her distance from people like you. You guys are toxic!”
Amelia’s words rang in the now silent air. Nobody was talking.
“June.”
“Yes?”
I looked Amelia in her emerald eyes, and I understood what she was about to ask me.
“Tell me something, did you know about Ari and James?”
“No, I mean, I found out by accident.”
“Did you know about it?” she asked rigidly.
I nodded with my head bowed.
“I can’t believe it.”
“Yeah, but I don’t have anything to do with it. I didn’t tell you because—”
“You know what? Maybe you do belong with them,” she declared. She wiped away her tears to turn around and leave with Blaze. I looked at Ari, then William. Both were silent.
I don’t know why, but all the jealousy I’d felt toward them seemed to completely disappear.
Will wasn’t the problem. I was.
I lost control in situations like that. I felt lost. And come to think about it, if William made out with Ari so easily, he must’ve not been that into me either.
“June?”
“No, Will, I don’t want to talk. Respect my decision. I just wanna go home.”
“Listen.” Will grabbed my arm before I could walk away.
“Will, she just told you she doesn’t want to talk,” said James, raising his voice slightly.
William bowed his head, until his friend stood in front of him.
“You’ve done enough tonight, Will,” he quietly ordered.
“James, I didn’t mean to insult your mom before, but—”