Just Julian by Markus Harwood-Jones

Author:Markus Harwood-Jones
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lorimer
Published: 2018-01-28T16:00:00+00:00

11

Honesty

Angie was out. Maybe she was at work or maybe at one of her political meetings. At that moment, it didn’t really matter to Julian.

“Thank the Goddess,” he said to the empty house. He went upstairs to his paints.

The canvas stayed blank. Julian came at it from different angles. He tried every colour in his collection. He even put on some music for inspiration. But all of it did nothing but make him more anxious. Falling on his bed in frustration, Julian stared up at the ceiling.

He felt like he’d been the one punched in the face — or stabbed in the back. Nothing was ever going to get better, not after this.

“Maybe I should just give up on Romeo,” he said. At this point, why not? He was probably never going to see Romeo again anyway. Julian pulled out his cell phone and saw he’d missed a few texts.

The first was from Paris, confirming their Friday plans. He shrugged. Might as well go out with her, he figured. It must just be fate.

The next was from Lyla, asking if he was all right. Julian hesitated, not sure what to say. She was probably still with Ty, Harvey, and Guy. They were probably all talking about him. How he was such an awful human being. How foolish he was for thinking he could ever trust a guy like Romeo.

No, he couldn’t talk to Lyla about this. But he had to talk to someone. Julian moved to the second best option. He fired off a text to Sami — who called right away rather than texting back.

“Well?” Sami began.

Julian didn’t respond.

“Have you talked to him yet?” asked Sami.

“Who?” Julian asked in return.

“Romeo, of course!”

Julian was silent again.

“I’m coming over,” Sami announced, ending the call abruptly.

Julian barely had a moment to think before the doorbell rang. “How did they get here so soon?” Julian wondered aloud.

Getting up from his bed, Julian made his way to the window. He saw a car parked outside. His instincts told him it was Romeo’s.

“Well I’m not gonna let him in,” Julian said to himself, crossing his arms. “He can sit out there all night for all I care.”

After a minute or two, Julian was biting his nails furiously. He glimpsed Romeo heading back to his car. Romeo rooted around for a while before coming back to the house and knocking even louder. Julian let out a sigh. Unable to help himself, he cautiously made his way downstairs.

Romeo didn’t look good. He was shaking and sweating. He was running his hands through his hair and making it stick up at odd angles.

“I heard what happened,” Julian said, his voice flat. He was shocked at his own tone. It was steady and direct, serious. Soon Romeo was little more than a puddle. Tears rolled down his cheeks and a dribble of snot peeked out of his nose.

Romeo mumbled an apology, looking positively pitiful. Julian resisted the urge to wrap him into a hug. Guilty tears were not going to fix anything.

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