What do you think so far? :)

Also, she will be wearing only that dress. Please don't pay attention to the shoes and other things.

Knock knock.

I walk up to the front door with tears streaming down my face and my heart shattered into a million pieces. I open it to reveal my brother, who immediately wraps me in a huge bear hug. I break down again, the pieces of my broken heart each shattering into a million more.

"I'm so sorry, Jul," he says softly into my hair.

Snuggling closer towards my brother, I let out another sob. "J-Jak... w-why did he do this? Was... was I not good enough?"

Jak grabs my shoulders, pushes me away from him, and looks down and shakes his head, giving me a bittersweet smile. "I don't know, Jul, but he's a jerk. He doesn't know what he's missing. You are beautiful, smart, and overall amazing."

"Thanks, Jak," I respond, doing my best to give him a little smile back.

"I'm so sorry, Jul. Also, you know that I can tell when your smiles are real or not, right?" He lets out a small laugh.

"Oh..." I answer, with a genuine smile this time.

Giving me one last hug, he says goodnight to me and walks upstairs to get ready for bed.

As I stare at him disappearing up the stairs, I realize that I'm so lucky to have him as my brother and I don't know how I would live without him.

Another tear drops down my face and I walk upstairs, putting on a brave face for my family as well as myself. As I lie in my bed, contemplating on everything that's happened today, I hear the now-annoying, repetitive buzzes of text notifications. After a long time of just lying there, I give in and check my phone.

Cam: Goodnight :)

Casey: Goodnight, my friends

Me: night

Since my usual goodnight text is a bit more than just night, two texts from each of them arrive, both saying Are you okay?

I hesitate for a bit, but as I start typing, the tears start falling once again.

Me: Asher has always been an awesome boyfriend. At first, it was as simple as he loved me, I loved him, and we made each other happy. Recently, he started becoming more distant, and I didn't understand. He came over earlier tonight, but had to leave early. Turns out he was with Jessica, and he cheated on me...

As I ramble on about our relationship and how he cheated on me, I feel the tears flowing harder and harder with every word I type.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next morning, I hear a yell from downstairs.

"Juliet! Time for school!"

I grunt into my soaked pillow.

"Juliet, come on! You're going to be late!" my mom yells, stomping up the stairs and into my room.

"JULIET!!" she shrieks, yanking off my warm covers, which are the only things protecting me from the outside world.

"Yes, mom?" I mutter.

She rolls her eyes, trying to hide a small smile. "You need to get ready for school. NOW."

"But-"

Buzz. Buzz.

Perking up, I glance at my lit-up phone.

Boyfriend <3: happy anniversary! your the love of my life. I love you <3

-Love, Asher

"Aww! He's so sweet," my mom gushes, peeking over my shoulder.

"More like scum," I mumble, with tears stinging at my eyes.

"What was that?" she asks.

"Oh, nothing..." I lie, wiping my eyes and giving her my best fake smile.

"Okay. Well... come downstairs for breakfast when you're ready. I'm making the annual 'first-day-of-school breakfast'!" She slowly walks backwards out of the room, doing jazz-hands.

When she is completely gone, I look down at my messages again. With tears threatening to fall once again, I toss my phone on the dresser.

"What should I wear today...?" I ask myself.

I start going through my dresser, folding the clothes up neatly after I inspect each one. Not finding anything worthy of being worn on my first day, I move on to my closet. After searching through it, I finally find something.

"Oh, maybe this... it's cute!"

It might also help me feel better.

I take the beautiful outfit out of my closet, and run my hand down the front. It's a fashionable dress with a light brown belt in between a beige top and flowy, herbaceous bottom.

After staring at it for a bit, I realize I'm going to be late and hurriedly put it on. I sprint downstairs, passing all the wonderful family photos that have been taken over the years and put up on the stairwell wall. Most of the pictures have just me, my mom, and Jakson. My dad appears in a few of them, but his appearance in them stopped after his death due to a car crash.

Running into the kitchen, I see my mom making eggs and bacon. We have it every year on the first day of school, because we all love it. As I pass her, I notice her bittersweet expression and give her a hug. This breakfast had also been Dad's favorite, and always reminds us of him.

"Smells good, Mom," I say.

"Thanks, honey. Ready for school?" she asks as she flips bacon off of the pan.

"Not really, but it'll be okay. I'm excited to see my friends," I answer, setting three plates, three forks, three napkins, and three cups of chocolate milk on the table.

"Why don't you go get your brother and tell him it's time to eat?" she says just as I watch my brother run down the stairs.

"I think he heard the word 'eat' and ran," I laugh.

"Woo-hoo! 'First-day-of-school breakfast' is my favorite! I'm so hyped!" my brother exclaims.

The three of us sit down at the table and happily gobble down the food. When we finish, our mom gives us each a big hug saying, "You better start on your way now! Have a good day!"

I grab my turquoise backpack and my phone with a mint-and-pink case, while Jakson grabs his red backpack and his phone with a red case. He also grabs his blue lanyard with his keys from the counter.

Outside sits his red Chevy Malibu. Jakson has never been prouder of anything in his life. He'd seen a bright red Chevy Malibu when he was younger, and it has ever since been his dream car. In order to get it, he worked constantly, saved up, and eventually could use all his hard-earned money to buy one. I know he really loves it.

We hop in, and he speeds off toward the school.

"Jul?" he suddenly asks after a while of comfortable silence.

"Yeah, Jakson?"

"Are you okay?" He briefly looks over at me while the traffic light is red.

"I... uh... don't know," I mumble, looking down at my lap. I'm just now realizing that tears had been silently dripping down my face while I was lost in my thoughts.

"I'm sorry. He's a jerk. I promise you there's someone out there who will love you more than anything in the world. Someone who won't do what he did. We aren't all jerks," he says, chuckling a little.

I join in, knowing that last part is true. I'm lucky enough to have one of the good ones as my brother.

The rest of the drive goes by really quickly, and in no time, we're pulling into the parking lot of the school.

"Well... have a good day at school, Jak."

"You too, Jul. And if Asher is mean in any way, let me know. I'll show him wuz gud," he jokingly growls, cracking his knuckles.

"Okay, weirdo," I laugh, looking out the window towards the school. I get out of the car, waving goodbye to my brother.

Only after walking into school do I realize that entering the building was a huge mistake I would soon regret.