“So… what’s up?” Charleigh asks, concern etched in her expression. She lifts one leg up onto the cushion and twists to get closer to Julianna. “You said you wanted to do this girls’ night ASAP, but that was a week ago.”
“I know.” She shocks us when she jumps out of her seat between us. She paces the space between the couch and the large, wooden coffee table as the three of us exchange glances.
“I’ve never seen you like this, Jules,” I say quietly. “What’s going on?”
It’s true. I’ve never seen her like this. It’s worse than the night of the auction. She seemed off then, but it doesn’t seem as if she’s gotten better since. If anything, she looks more stressed and unlike herself.
She comes to an abrupt stop, anxiously wringing her hands in front of her. The tips of her fingers turn white, contrasting against her black nail polish. Her chest freezes as she inhales. “I need to tell you guys something.”
Her eyes well with tears, and I’m officially freaked the fuck out. Apparently, so are Charleigh and London. We all sit forward, inching closer to the edge of the couch. I set my drink down on the end table beside me, afraid I’m going to spill it along with Julianna’s confession.
With tear-lined eyes, she closes them and inhales anotherdeep breath through her nostrils. When she opens her eyes again, she starts hyperventilating as she blurts out, “I fucked up. I submitted the anonymous article.” She slams her hands to her chest. “It was me.”
“What?” Charleigh’s jaw drops.
Then London’s.
Then mine.
The blood drains from my face before I’m snapping it shut, swallowing the weight of her confession. Silence fills the room, suffocating and all consuming.
“Why didn’t you tell us sooner?” London eventually asks.
“I wanted to…” Julianna’s pacing a few feet between the table and the couch, her glazed eyes frantic as she explains, “But I didn’t know how.”
“I don’t understand,” Charleigh cuts in. “What do you mean you were the one who wrote the article?”
“Remember how I told you Rome and I have been playing these pranks on one another?”
“Yeah…”
“Well…” Julianna tips her head to the side, then presses her hand to her forehead. “We’d been falling into this pattern of tit for tat. He was pissed about the erectile dysfunction newsletter I’d signed him up for, so he got back at me by breaking into my office at work and littering it with a million pieces of notebook paper. Like, tiny, little, cut up pieces of paper everywhere. They covered every single surface. And I don’t know… it got to me. I just saw red and…”
She waves her hands in the air in front of her as if she’s running through the entire memory in her head again. A tear slips from her glassy eye as she stares blankly into the distance.
“How did you know it was him with the paper scraps?” Charleigh asks.
“The security cameras caught him.” She closes her eyes. “He was wearing a mask, but I knew it was him. I just, I knew it was him. He must have paid the security guard to allow him access that late at night. I wouldn’t put it past him to do some shit like that.”
Julianna’s story leaves all of us confused. I’ve never seen her this worked up.
“I mean”—London shrugs, scrunching her nose—“leaving tiny scraps of paper all over your office doesn’t sound terrible. More annoying if anything.”
“You don’t understand.” Another tear slips from Jules’s eye, then she looks up, shattered. It’s the only way I can describe the way she looks. Her bottom lip wobbles and her eyes are full of tears. The mask she constantly wears has completely disappeared. I’ve never seen Julianna this raw before.
“I wassoangry with Rome,” she grinds out.
“About scraps of paper?” Charleigh asks, eyebrows raised.
“Yes.” Julianna’s bottom lips quivers, pinning Charleigh with a look. “I was so angry that I didn’t even think when I submitted the article to Holt’s magazine.”
“So, is the story of his sex parties even true?” London asks.
“No,” she admits meekly.
“Does Holt know?” I finally ask.
I’ve been silent up until now, overcome with emotion from my best friend’s confession. But I also can’t help thinking of Holt. He’s been consumed by this lawsuit, and I’ve seen the weight of it he’s been carrying around with him. My heart breaks for them both.
