Isn't it cute how I never know how long my stuff is going to end up? "No One Belongs Here More Than You" was supposed to be 24 chapters, and what happened? Well, I think we all know what happened.

And so this continues...

"When I say you sucked my brain out
the English translation
is I am in love with you,
and it is no fun."

- Ani DiFranco, Dilate

For some reason Jack looks better than she'd remembered him, and she's not sure if that's good for her or bad for her, but at least he looks not so upset, not as stressed as the last time she'd seen him. Whenever that was. May something. But he also looks kind of flustered. Well, good.

The last stragglers of the meeting are hovering, and she's leaning against the desk and he's right up against the door. They each take a step back so the others can leave, and Juliet notices Gemma give her a curious glance before her eyes darken and she disappears down the hall.

"How have you been?" he finally says. Right. Sure. She should have thought of that question. It;s a pretty damn obvious thing to ask.

"Fine," she says automatically, but it's also too quiet and he leans forward slightly as if to hear her better. "And you?"

"Uh... Good." There's a little too much emphasis on the second word, and Jack flushes slightly. "I tried to, ah, call you. Got the wrong number."

An imaginary ocean closes over Juliet's head, fills in her ears, and she flashes back to that hungover morning outside her dorm, trying to remember the phone number of her dad's condo. Jack had tried to call. (Jack had tried to call, Jack had tried to call, Jack had tried to call.) "I'm sorry," she says softly, embarrassed and trying to mask her obvious relief. "I... I must have written down the wrong number."

"I thought maybe you didn't want me to call you," he admits. "You never tried to call me."

Juliet trains her eyes on that potted plant over in the corner again, for just a moment. "I'm... I'm sorry. When I didn't hear from you, I -" She cuts herself off before it sounds like she was desperately waiting for his call or anything lame like that. She shrugs and licks her lips. They're so dry. She needs to find some Chapstick. Maybe there's some in her backpack. Oh no, wait, that was the old one.

"How's, uh, how's the semester going for you?"

"Fine. Busy. Orgo is..." - Jack nods understandingly. " - Well, it's a lot," she finishes lamely.

"Yeah. I remember. That was... That was pretty much the worst."

They nod in agreement, watching each other politely, and it's so quiet Juliet can practically hear the hands of the clock ticking on the wall. Awesome.

"Well," she finally says, hesitating. "I'm sorry I gave you the wrong number."

Jack nods, swallowing heavily. "I, uh... I met someone."

"Oh," she says too quickly, and she can tell the instant that single note has left her lips how hard she'd subconsciously tried to infuse that word with approval and acceptance. "That's great."

"I just, I met her over the Fourth of July and it just, it just sort of went from there." Jack twists where he stands, without moving his feet from where they're anchored.

"No, that's great, I'm really..." She's really what, exactly? She's really standing here in an uncomfortable skirt, digging her toes into her shoes, listening to the rattling of an unreliable state-school-issued air conditioner?

"She's, uh," Jack presses his fingertips to his temple. "She's, her name's Harper, she's a psychology student. She's great."

"I'm happy for you, Jack," Juliet manages, and it almost sounds believable.

"We could, you know. That doesn't mean we couldn't be friends."

Juliet remembers kissing him under his navy blue sheets, digging her knees into his rib cage, the feel of his mouth on her inner thigh. Remembers, too, that stupid overly tan lifeguard on the floor of her dad's condo. Oh, hell, it's not like she's been making the best decisions lately, anyway. She nods, not quite meeting his eyes.

Jack shifts from one foot to another. "No, really, I mean... What are you doing right now?" He says it like he's trying to take over, like he's issuing a challenge. Or a command.

"Now?" She's stalling for time.

"Yeah."

"I'm... I have a genetics lab in - " she leans backward slightly, glances at the clock, calculates to the next hour - "eight minutes." Not true not true not true.

"Guess our timing is off," he says, and the slight smile on his face dies off when the words sink in for both of them.

"I've got to go," she tells him politely, but firmly. She gathers up her things without looking at him again.

She sleeps. She studies. She drinks. She begs Gemma's forgiveness.

She studies. She eats. She doesn't eat. She sleeps.

She leaves messages on Rachel's phone. Rachel is following Phish this fall, a housemate finally tells Juliet.

She takes midterms. She drinks. She sleeps.

She studies. She studies. She studies. She never cries. About anything.

It's awesome.

Gemma drops out of the pre-med track a week into November. At that month's meeting, Juliet feels untethered; she stays close to her annoying mentor and that's pretty much it. Except Jack is waiting for her when she walks out of the building.

"Hey," he says with a little toss of his head.

Juliet stops walking entirely. Her lungs hurt all of a sudden. "H-ii." It comes out weak. It comes out as two syllables. Are you stalking me?

"My mentee dropped out of the program."

"I know." You don't know anything.

"You have lab today?"

She doesn't feel like lying. She shakes her head.

"Stopped talking?"

"No." Stopped dating that girl with the funny name? "I just don't have much to say right now."

"To me or to anyone?"

"Just... in general." She bites the inside of her lip. Is this going to go on like this forever? Some perpetual motion machine of neither of them saying anything real?

"How are you, Juliet?" he says softly, too softly, like he actually fucking cares or something, and it feels a little bit like he's lifting her heart softly with a sharp instrument, dissecting her like he's wondering what's underneath there and instead finding just a hollow space. "About your mom? Have you been going to that group thing?"

Grief counseling? "I don't... I don't need that. I'm just, really busy, and..."

"Harper said that kind of thing can be really helpful."

It all happens at once, this steady crunching beneath her ribs, shattering whatever she thought was there. She advances on him until she's practically in his face, jamming a pointing finger at him and where is this even coming from? - but she knows somehow it's right and she's going to just let herself do this. "I don't want you talking about me to her! I don't see why this is any of your concern, Jack! What are you even doing here? Go mind your own goddamn business and stay out of mine!"

Jack moves his head away from her in surprise, without actually moving his body away from her. He blinks several times. "Juliet, I..." he stammers.

Great, so you know my name. Juliet clenches her jaw so tightly she thinks she hears the bones pop. She's shaking with anger, that he could even think to know her, and when Jack's hands are on her upper arms suddenly, she thinks she's so furious she could punch him in the face. "What," she bites out, and somehow it's not at all a question. "What, Jack. What."

"I'm not seeing Harper anymore," he finally says, and it's almost like a whine, or a plea, she's not really sure, and her whole face hurts from not crying.

Why not? She closes her eyes, feels her face screwing up like a mewling little kitten, the blood is pounding under her skin and why should she be so drawn to him, still, after all these months? And why can't she just let him go? It's like something keeps pulling them together and pushing them apart. She lets herself ask it. "Why not?"

"Because I wanted to come here and see you today."

She opens her eyes and looks at him, and it strikes her then exactly how readable Jack's face is to her, more readable than any stack of books back in her room. Again and again it's like she knows him, his strengths and his weaknesses, wants to forgive him and wants to fucking hit him at the same time, somehow. For once he doesn't blink too many times, and his eyes are almost green in this light.

"My father's in rehab," is what he says next, dropping his hands, and that's definitely not the followup she'd been expecting, but. But what?

"That's good," she says, approvingly, her heart hammering, and she's trying to pretend that it's not. But her voice is a little too shaky and, and and what? She's really thirsty. She has to read Chapter 16 in her physics text tonight.

Jack nods a couple of times, still looking at her. "What would you say if I asked you if we could start over?"

She's out of yellow highlighters so she'll have to use the green one, even though that's darker and it makes it harder to reread when she's studying late at night. "I don't know," she finally says, tilting her head, watching him. "Maybe you should try asking." She's trying to fake the cockiness, and her voice is still shaking a little, but maybe... maybe not as much.

"I'd like to take you out this weekend, on a proper date. You don't get to see the inside of my apartment after."

She feels a tiny smile spring to her face, and it relaxes all the muscles in her cheeks, and maybe her sinuses don't hurt as much as they did a minute or so ago. "And then what?"

"And then maybe, I'll try to kiss you goodnight."

Juliet presses her lips together. Trying to look, what? Not too happy? "And then what?"

"We'll figure it out."

"And how are we going to do that?"

He pauses, and then he leans forward and laces his fingers through hers. "Together."