“You wish.”
I notice that no one is behind Adam. I bite my tongue and ponder on whether or not I should bring up what's happening in a fewweeks and his thoughts on it. Every year I ask him and every year he declines.
“Before you go …” I gesture for him to lean in and he does. “Do you want to come with me to visit dad's grave?”
He shakes his head. “No, you shouldn't even be going.”
“But—”
“Please, drop it.” He cuts me off, agitated and I do just that. He practically sprints out of the restaurant after that.
Adam isn’t like me—I run away from practically every problem presented to me—he faces everything head on, except dealing with my father's passing or even visiting his grave.
I try not to press too much, but frankly, I only visit his grave out of moral decency more than anything else, so I can’t really blame Adam.
He’s really the best big brother a girl could ask for. He has everyone scared shitless, letting them know that he would skin them alive if they tried to mess with me in any way.
He wasn't overprotective in an unbearable way though. Thankfully, he has no idea about mine and Juliette’s tumultuous relationship or how cruel she’s been to me over the years—and I’d like to keep it that way.
He wouldn’t be able to do much to her anyway, her family is too powerful for that. Not to mention Adam had quite a reputation after being in jail, plus everyone's preconceived notions about him that he was a drug dealer or a pimp. But really, he's harmless, unless you mess with someone he cares about, which pretty much only consists of me and his fiancée, Olivia.
I also got roped into these rumours; everyone started labelling me as a misfit, so I just decided to actually be one. I fought and vandalized and did foolish shit, but nothing that would get me suspended, just enough to scare people from messing with me. It did work, because no one did. Well, besides—
“Look what we have here …”
Ah. Speak of the devil.
Juliette is in front of me, still in her school uniform just like me. She had two girls behind her; one redhead and the other, a brunette.
She often had girls with her when she came here to harass me, which she did often. Clearly, she has nothing better to do seeing as she comes here frequently.
I sigh. “What can I get you ladies today?”
“My usual.” Juliette smirks at me as she clinks her nails on the desk, her minions are completely silent behind her.
“What's your usual?” I feign innocence, peering up at her through my eyelashes.
She clenches her jaw in response, staring deep into my eyes with her stunning blue ones. “You know what my usual is.”
“Is that so?”
One order of vegetable dumplings, three egg rolls, one chicken ramen with extra chicken, and no bean sprouts.
“You little—”
“Hey, hurry up.” A voice snaps us out of our little match. I hadn't even realized a line had formed behind Juliette and her little minions; I was too entranced with our argument to notice.
“Do you even know who I am?” Juliette questions, offended and staring down the boy behind her, who I immediately recognise.
Uh. Oh.
“Just give us a minute, Lucas,” I say gently towards him and he nods in response. He is always a pleasant boy and a regular. He’s around my age too, so we often make conversation.
I know I have to diffuse this situation or Juliette will make it a gigantic deal and then turn his life into hell. She has done that quite a lot.
I turn back to Juliette and she's now staring at me, her eyes narrowing as she looks back and forth between me and Lucas.
“I'll put your order in. You can sit and wait.” I wave my hand in her face dismissively and she completely ignores me.
