Chapter 0405


    Back in my room, I immediately set Julian to work on his assigned task: teaching Elva more magic


    tricks. This time he had a pack of ying cards and started to show Elva how to shuffle them. Elva’s


    tiny hands could hardly wrap around the deck. When she tried to shuffle like he showed her, it made a


    big mess.


    Elva looked at the mess nervously at first, then her wide eyes found Julian’s. She probably expected


    him to yell at her.


    Instead, he justughed. “We’ll work on that.”


    Seeing his bright smile andugh, Elva immediately mimicked it, until they both were a giggling mess in


    a sea of cards.


    I couldn’t help but feel warmth watching them. It was nice to see so many people I care about making


    each other happy.


    I wondered if some of my hostility was rted to the changes in Julian. He was usually so confident


    and charismatic, but put him in the room with Bridget, he shifted into a shy schoolboy. It was pretty


    rming..


    To see him shift back just as easily gave me a sense of relief.


    Elva and Julian yed with the cards for a while. Julian correctly guessed Elva’s chosen card every


    time. Elva made a mess of the deck every time she tried to cut it. It was chaos and fun, and when it


    was over, I felt a little sad that it had ended


    so soon.


    Julian left Elva for a moment. She was busying trying to flip the cards between her fingers like Julian


    could do, but of course, her small fingers struggled to grip the cards, let alone turn them.


    Julian came to join me instead. I was sitting at a small table with a cup of coffee, not doing much of


    anything. Julian took the open seat beside me.


    “Something’s bothering you,” he said.


    I hated how transparent I’was, that everyone who cared about me could see straight through me as if I


    was made of ss.


    Still, I thought Bridget might be too sensitive a subject. Julian would likely only deny he acted differently


    around her. Or worse, he would m up and stop talking to me altogether. Julian’s feelings for Bridget


    ran deeply, in ways I didn’t truly understand since I didn’t know the full story.


    Property belongs to N?vel(D)r/ama.Org.


    But, with aundry list of things that were bothering me, it wasn’t difficult to


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    +15 BONUS


    simply jump to the next thing.


    “I’m nervous about the uing event,” I said.


    “The stage y?”


    I nodded. “I’m not sure I would make a convincing actress.” I was very bad at hiding my true thoughts,


    for instance. Or my true emotions.


    “Oh, it’s not that hard,” Julian said. “The only thing you have to do is not care a tiny bit about what


    anyone else thinks.”


    Iughed. “You make that sound so easy.”


    “Isn’t it?” Julian grinned.


    I groaned good-naturedly. “No!”


    “Here,e here, I’ll show you.”.


    Julian stood from his chair and I stood too. He walked closer to me.


    “We don’t have the script yet, but consider this. A man, much like me,es walking into your life with


    no right to be there, and you want to tell me off. How would you do it?”


    I rolled my eyes.


    “There!” he said, pointing. “That’s perfect.”


    “I’m rolling my eyes at you, Julian, not at the character you are trying to y.”


    “Same difference,” he said.


    “No it’s not!” Iughed.


    “It is if you imagine I’m the one doing it.”


    “You are ridiculous,” I said. “This is never going to work.”


    “Humor me.”


    Julian continued his lesson for a while yet, though as we spent more timeughing than we did any


    actual training, while Julian shot off totally useless phrases like, “Be the person you need to be,” and,


    “Acting is like dancing.”


    Whatever that meant.