"That was, uh..." she started.
"Nice?" he asked.
Brooke smiled, "Yeah."
"Brooke, I care about you a lot. If you don't feel that way too, you don't have to say anything. But if you do, please tell me." he said looking hopeful.
"I care about you more than anyone else in my life." she said with a huge smile.
Brian beamed and kissed Brooke again, before eating lunch. That night, Brooke didn't mention anything to Julia or Gabby about her and Brian.
The next day, Nick told Julia he would pick her up after class, since Devon was working. After child psychology class, Julia and the girl who had been sitting next to her all week, named Emily, got called down by the professor.
They both headed down to the teacher's podium and he put two tests in front of him. Julia recognized it was the huge test they had taken earlier in the week, that counted as big part of her grade.
"Ladies, do you find it peculiar that two people who happened to be sitting next to each other, have the exact same essay and question answers?" he said looking disapprovingly.
"What?!" Julia cried out.
She knew she had studied nonstop for this test and Emily must have copied her.
"Miss Anderson, please keep your outbursts under control. I don't want to bicker over who copied who. But I thought you should know, you cannot make it up and you both get a zero. And believe me, this will affect your grade hugely." he said with a cruel smile.
Emily hadn't said a word the entire time. The got out into the hall and Julia began to walk away briskly.
"Julia-" Emily called down the hall.
Julia spun around to look Emily in the eye.
"How dare you take advantage of me like that! My grade is going to suffer because your brain is too small to learn how to study!" Julia said hatefully.
She felt a little bad for being mean, because she never was, but this girl deserved it. She turned away and walked outside throwing her bag in Nick's car. She got in and slammed the door shut.
"Damn it!" Julia yelled out of frustration.
"What'd you get a 95 on a test?" Nick laughed.
Since Nick had met Julia, she did nothing but perfect in every class.
"Just shut up Nick. I'm not in the mood for it." she said running her fingers through her hair.
Nick was about to apologize, when Julia's cell phone rang.
"Hello?"
"It's Devon. I just called your room, where are you?"
"Riding home." she said.
"With who?" he demanded.
"Nick."
"Every time I talk to you, your with that guy!" Devon yelled.
Nick could hear what Devon was saying, he was yelling so loud at Julia.
"Your working! How else am I supposed to get home?" she protested.
"Gabriella! But no, you'd much rather be with him. I wouldn't be surprised it you were messing around with him behind my back. You know what? I wish I never said I love you. Because I don't." Devon shouted then hung up.
Julia felt sick and she just wanted to cry. Even worse, she knew Nick had heard every word Devon said. She just stared blankly in front of her as the tears started to well up in her eyes. She tried to blink them back. Nick looked over at her, not sure what to said, then back at the road.
"Julia, I-" Nick said, but the minute he said her name she buried her face in her hands and started crying.
Nick pulled over to the side of the road, and turned off the car.
"Julia, I'm so sorry." Nick said.
She looked up with tears running down her face.
"For what? You didn't do anything wrong. Today just sucks." she said through sobs.
"I doubt he meant it, once you get home and talk to him, maybe everything will be okay. What else happened today?" he asked.
"This girl, Emily, copied my entire test. So the professor is giving us a zero. Its going to ruin my grade. And now my boyfriend tells me he doesn't love me. Why do I put up with it? He is always so jealous. Why do I have to deal with this?" Julia cried.
Nick pulled her into a warm hug and Julia couldn't help but feel safe and protected as he held on to her tightly.
After a few minutes, she stopped crying.
"Today can only get better." Nick assured her.
Julia wiped her face and looked over at him.
"I don't know, maybe I could manage to get arrested or something."
