**Chapter Five**
It was the last day of the week for my English class and I feel like I got some good work done. The professor seemed like he loved my ideas. Given the feedback, he left on my draft. Some things needed to be cleaned up, but overall, I did well. It made me more confident about future classes to come. That was the least of my problems.
At the end of class, everybody dispersed out into the hallway, going on their merry way. However, I had the pleasure of being stopped by none other than Juliana. That same smile she always had on her face was prominent again. You can clearly tell it was fake. Especially with the way she looked at me. Like I was her number one enemy. Little did she know, I was a bit intimated by her. Even envious that she had the one thing I couldn’t. Drew.
That didn’t matter because even though she had Drew, she didn’t want me to get the wrong ideas. Juliana was never afraid to go up to girls that Drew may have been talking to. Even if they were just friends like we were. More like distant friends, but you get the picture. He was talking to me and she didn’t like it. Could I blame her, though?
Her smile never left as she questioned me. “Anna, do you have a minute to talk?” She asked me.
I crossed my arms, not seeing the issue. “Yeah, what’s up?” I tried to be cheerful.
She didn’t want to come off as baffling, but it was hard not to, given the circumstances. “What exactly is your relationship with Drew?” I should have seen this coming.
It made me nervous even though nothing was going on. “Um, I’m not sure what you mean,” I say. “I guess since I’m friends with his sister, he just talks to me.”
Her face lit up for a split second. “Oh, your friends with his sister? That’s how he knows you.” She sounded astounded to hear that.
She obviously was worried about my relationship with Drew, and it was understandable. However, there wasn’t much going on other than trying to go skate around. I doubt I was even on Drew’s radar, let alone in his thoughts. I’m positive Julie had nothing to worry about.
It looked like she knew, but wanted to be sure, anyway. Drew was talking to me a lot more than he usually did before. His behavior to even me was strange, but again we’ve found a common interest. That had to be the reason he was invested in me more than he ever was. For Julie’s sake, that’s as far as it goes.
She seemed to relax a bit more once I told her about the situation. This time, I could see a genuine smile on her face. If that was all it took to get her to look at me normally, I would have done that a long time ago.
“Ok, well, I’m sorry for bothering you,” she says. “I guess I got a little in my head.”
I gave her a tight-lipped smile. “Yeah, I get it,” I reassured her.
Before we could talk more, Drew showed himself to us, looking a little furiously at Juliana. Not in a bad way, just annoyed that he was waiting for her. It was nice to see them not arguing for once. Like they had a great relationship that I could never come in between. Not that I was trying to, anyway.
“Julie, I was waiting for you. Why didn’t you tell me you weren’t coming right away?” He questioned before they shared a small kiss.
I looked away, wanting to puke at the sight. It was cute, but not something my eyes wanted to see. I would kill to see how it felt to kiss Drew’s lips. His beautiful pink lips. I could never experience that, and here they were doing it in front of me. Juliana knew what she was doing, but Drew hadn’t noticed me standing there until after the fact.
Once he locked eyes on me, his demeanor changed. It was like he didn’t want me to see it either, but I did, anyway. His eyes filled with surprise, seeing that Julie and I were talking. I’m sure his mind wonders what we could have possibly said to each other. It wasn’t anything like he was thinking, though. We were actually ok.
Before we could say anything, Cam, my savior, walked over. His arm draped around me as I was supposed to be meeting up with him as well. Julie stopping me was so out of the blue that I didn’t have time to warn him before we got to talking. Still, if looks could kill, Cam would be dead with the way Drew always stared at him.
Cam assessed the situation and realized he may have interrupted something. “Oh, I didn’t know you were talking to them. I wouldn’t have come over,” he said.
I smile. “No, it’s fine. I should have texted before leaving you standing there,” I admit.
Juliana’s eyes brightened. “Who is this? Are you guys a thing?” She queried, too eagerly.
Cam and I both laughed at her absurd question. We were simply friends and nothing more. We can’t be a thing when we just met some odd days ago. Whoever moves that fast into a relationship would be nuts! Besides, I’m not Cam’s type. We were too different to consider even starting a relationship. Couldn’t a guy and a girl just be friends?
I shake my head. “We are strictly just friends,” I remind her. “I’m still trying to get a feel for this place that dating isn’t on my radar at the moment.” Unless it was Drew.
“And we literally just met. I don’t jump into relationships quickly,” Cam added.
Juliana shrugged. “That’s too bad. You guys look comfortable together,” she smiled.
“Yeah, too comfortable,” Drew said under his breath.
We all caught that as we looked at him, perplexed. I ignored it for the time being, but it was weird that he would say something like that. Even Drew realized it as his cheeks flushed a little. I thought it was adorable how rosy his cheeks got. It’s the first time I’ve seen something like this out of Drew. What could that possibly mean?
Noticing all eyes on him, he quickly gathered himself, telling Juliana it was time to go. Once again, he would not look at me before he walked away. I’m not sure what was up with that. It was becoming a pattern whenever I was with Cam. The way he looked at him told me something was up.
I wasn’t the only one who noticed, as Cam couldn’t help himself but laugh. Drew wasn’t being very discreet, like he thought. Though I figured it was more in a friendly manner.
In my head, Drew saw me as a sister since I hung out with his young sister all the time. His anger had to come from being protective the way he would with Dillon. Cam saw it as something more than that, though.
We walked outside as Cam continued to laugh to himself. I wasn’t understanding what was funny. The whole encounter was awkward aside from Juliana being nice like I expected her to be.
“Are we sure Drew isn’t into you?” Cam wondered.
I looked at him like he was crazy. “What? No, he’s very much into Juliana. Trust me, I saw,” I say, thinking about them kissing in front of me.
Cam didn’t believe that. “Anna, the guy clearly doesn’t like how close we’ve gotten,” he points out. “Did you see how he was looking at me?”
That still meant nothing. “You forget he’s watched me grow. I’m positive he just wants to make sure I don’t get hurt,” I argue.
He rolled his eyes. “Whatever helps you sleep at night, Anna,” he said. “Just remember this conversation when I’m later proved right.”
I nudged him, ignoring what he was saying. There was no way he was right about anything. Drew felt nothing in that way about me. Not when he had a perfectly fine relationship with Juliana. Maybe I was just in denial about it.
I didn’t want to get my hopes up for no reason. He was someone I’ve liked for so long. As much as it was my fantasy to be with him. I had to prepare for disappointment. Right now, the stars didn’t align for us. That was okay, though. There wasn’t anything I expected of Drew, and vice versa. We were simply going to the skate park, and that was it.
Juliana had nothing to worry about. At least, I hope there was nothing for her to worry about. Drew was very unpredictable.