Beautiful Mistakes

"Come on. You know I need the money for tuition. I could’ve never made this kind of money where I worked before."

"No, but at least I got to see my own girlfriend once in a while," he replied, getting up off the couch with an undisguised look of irritation on his face.

"Where are you going?" she asked.

"Out," he said. "I'm sure you need to study anyway, so go ahead, study away."

She was sure she meant to argue, but she found herself just sitting there watching him as he slammed the door behind him.

She briefly toyed with the idea of following him, bringing him back…

Then she looked over at her enormous textbook, begging for her attention.

The textbook won. She figured Jack would go out and pout, but he would get over it. In the meantime, she had some studying to do.

---

At three in the morning Jack fell into bed beside her, reeking of alcohol and Victoria’s Secret perfume. He reached over and pulled her closer, muttering, "I'm sorry, baby," in an almost unintelligible voice.

Julie felt disgusted, but she let him wrap his arms around her and slur a little more. He tried to nudge her knees, which were firmly closed, then he tried to take her hand and push it down to the front of the jeans he was still wearing. She yanked her hand out of his grasp with her eyes still closed, refusing to budge. Within two minutes, he gave up and fell asleep.

Julie heard his cell phone vibrate on the end table by the bed, so she carefully reached across him, careful not to wake him, and picked it up.

It said he had one new text message.

She knew logically that she shouldn’t invade his privacy by getting into his phone without his knowledge, but she’d also known Jack long enough to know how he was. Caution winning out over her conscience, she opened up his inbox to read the message. It was from Arianna: "Really? Are u just saying that?"

Julie narrowed her eyes and went back into his sent messages, but he must have been wise enough to delete whatever he sent her, because the only texts in there were to his brother, his sister, Jacob and Julie.

She seriously considered just deleting the message, but instead she dropped his phone into the floor and rolled back over, attempting to go back to sleep.

Attempting not to wonder what he might have said to get that response.

---

It was Monday before she knew it, and Julie was sitting in her humanities class when her cell phone started to vibrate, the words "Emma Cell" flashing across the caller ID.

Normally she wouldn’t answer, but if Emma was calling, it might be urgent. Hoping the professor didn't notice, she answered in a whisper. "Hello?"

"This is Emma," she said, wasting no time. "I was just calling to inform you that I’ll need you little early today."

"I'm in class, I can't…"

"Of course you can. I have an appointment at 2:15; I will need to leave by 1:45."

"I'll try to get there as soon as I can," Julie whispered.

The professor looked up, so Julie quickly put the phone down, pretending to be jotting down notes. When the professor looked away, she picked the phone back up in time to hear, "Do you understand, Judy?"

She didn't bother to correct her. "I'll try to get there early. I have to go."

Without saying goodbye, Emma hung up.

Julie tried to sit through the rest of her class, but she was paying more attention to the clock than her professor.

After cutting out of class a few minutes early, Julie arrived at the Turner apartment at 1:50. Emma didn't even thank her. Julie was met at the door, and literally as Julie walked in, Emma walked out, leaving Anna sitting in the middle of the floor, chewing on a Mega Blok.

Once she was gone Julie sighed, letting her messenger bag fall to the floor. "I'm sure she really is a lovely woman… when she's asleep," she muttered to herself, although she seriously questioned the truth of that statement.