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"Hey, you ready to go home?" Brian asked as he arrived at his girlfriend's locker, his bag slung over his shoulder. Sighing and rolling her eyes into her locker, Julia shoved things into her book bag before slamming the door shut. She barely nodded her head before heading down the hall without Brian, leaving him to catch up. Julia about cringed when he took her hand, and he looked at her curiously.

"Are you alright?"

Sighing, having been asked that more times than necessary throughout the entire day, Julia nodded curtly. "I'm fine. Just having a bad day," she snapped, and she didn't catch the wounded look on Brian's face before he let his grip on her hand loosen, letting go completely. He stuffed his hands into his pockets and continued to walk in silence beside Julia. If she was having a bad day, he hoped Natalie came to school the next day in a better mood, because he didn't want to deal with the attitude she had.

She was being rude to him and her best friends, acting stand-offish and snippy, and if Brian didn't know any better he would think she was a different person entirely. And he didn't want to deal with it.

Stepping out into the bright sunlight of the afternoon, Julia started to head to the left end of the parking lot, Brian to the right, and when he noticed she had left him, Brian stopped.

"...Natalie, the car is this way," he said, and Julia stopped, looking at him over her shoulder.

"Oh, right...," she muttered, following him to the other end of the parking lot before getting into the old black Camaro. Once they were both seated inside, Brian sighed deeply, leaning back into the hot leather while Julia waited for him to start the car.

"Did I do something wrong yesterday, or today...or something?" he asked pointedly, looking into the confused face of his girlfriend.

"...What are you talking about?" Julia asked, sighing in exasperation.

"I'm talking about you," Brian nearly shouted, his voice rising. "You have been acting so fucking weird today! You won't barely talk to me, or look at me, and God forbid I touch you. What did I do?"

"I never said you did anything," Julia shot back, and Brian clenched his jaw, feeling his aggravation toward her attitude increasing.

"Well, something must have happened for you to act like such a bitch," he snapped, not even looking at her.

"Excuse me?! Did you seriously just call me a bitch?" Julia asked, eyes growing wide.

"I did, because that's what you are right now. That what you've been all day: a bitch. You were fine yesterday. Is it that time of the month and you're just taking it out on everyone else?" Brian asked, his voice still raised. He was fired up, but somewhere a voice in the back of his head told him he'd feel guilty about this later.

"You wouldn't understand, Brian. Just...take me home," Julia said, crossing her arms and staring out the windshield. She wondered for a moment if this was what Brian and Natalie's relationship was really like behind closed doors. And if it was, Julie knew exactly how it felt.

Sighing deeply, Brian quickly started the car, peeling out of the parking lot and beginning the silent journey to Natalie's house. He didn't even bother to say goodbye when she got out and headed up to the house, but as soon as he saw her retreating back, the guilt hit.

Slamming the front door shut, Julia's scowl stayed glued to her face.

"Oooh, someone's got PMS," Scott, Natalie's obnoxious eleven year old brother, teased from the couch.

"Shut up," Julia spat back with venom. Scott had never heard that tone from her, and his eyes widened, causing him to swallow any other remarks he had.

"Hi honey, how was school?" Natalie's mother asked brightly as she came in from the kitchen, but as soon as she saw the dark look on her daughter's face, she felt concerned. "Is everything alright?"

"School was horrible, and yes, I'm fine," Julia said, softening at the look on Mrs. Raine's face. There was something that held her back from being rude to her - perhaps the fact that she always remembered Natalie's parents as being extremely nice to her when she and Natalie were friends years ago.

"I'm sorry, sweetie," Mrs. Raine said with a sympathetic smile. "How about you just...go up to your room and relax until dinner, and if you want to talk about it later, we can," she suggested, and Julia had planned on doing that anyway. If she were in her own house she would have gone up to the bathroom and soaked in the Jacuzzi until she felt better about herself.

Nodding, Julia was mildly surprised when Mrs. Raine leaned in and hugged her, smoothing her hair with one hand in a comforting manner. She wasn't used to such affection from family, and she missed it. Her parents used to be like that with her, but somewhere along the line, they fell more in love with their work than with their only child.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Closing the door and dropping her back on the floor carelessly, Natalie kicked her shoes off. "Momma, I'm home!" she called out, but the eerily empty silence that greeted her threw her back into reality. She wasn't home, her mother wasn't working on her home-cooked meals in the kitchen, her father wasn't sitting in traffic on his way home from work, Scott wasn't being annoying, and she wasn't Natalie Raine. She was Julia Stuart, daughter of the owner of a local car dealership, and a paralegal. She was surprised she even remembered what Julia's parents did for a living, it had been so long since they were friends.

Sighing, Natalie walked aimlessly around the first floor of the house, trying to think of what she should do for the rest of the night, or until the parents came home. She had really planned on coming home and having her own mother to talk to, to make her feel better after such a horrible day.

Stomach growling, sounding like it planned on eating her alive, Natalie remembered how hungry she had been at lunch, and still hadn't gotten to eat anything. Searching through the cupboards and the fridge, she found a frozen pizza in the freezer and quickly prepared it for herself, munching on a bag of Doritos she'd found on her search while she waited. Once the pie was finished, Natalie cut it into slices and took the whole thing up with her to Julia's room, knowing she could eat the entire thing with how hungry she was feeling, she routed through the fridge once more and grabbed the entire carton of orange juice and took that up as well.

Once she was in Julia's room, she searched through the extensive DVD collection Julia had in her bedroom, picking out The Princess Diaries, laughing to herself that Julia owned it. Not many people knew that The Princess Diaries was also a guilty pleasure movie of Natalie's as well. She'd even gotten Brian to watch it with her once. Settling back on the bed once the movie started, Natalie smiled longingly at the memory of Brian and how lame he thought the movie was - and still, he watched it with her.

Biting into the first slice of extra cheese pizza, Natalie glanced over at the phone. She wanted to call Brian so badly, just to hear his voice again. But he had caller ID, and would know that it wasn't his girlfriend calling. She was already spooked enough about the whole situation, she didn't need Brian to freak out because Julia Stuart was calling him, claiming to be his girlfriend.

So Natalie dealt with it, sitting alone in Julia's luxurious bedroom, with nothing but an endless supply of food and DVDs to keep her company.