Entwined

nine

"I'll be coming back probably by tomorrow, my flower. Be ready to sing for me, okay?"

"Okay, mother." And with a wave, Juliette watched as Susan disappeared into her room, the sound of the closet doors opening and her footsteps fading away.

Once she was completely sure that Susan was downstairs, she rushed back to her room, opening the closet door, finding Mitchell hiding behind her pajama pants. "I told you, Aaron's phone is off. We aren't calling him again, Piper."

"Oh come on, he might've turned it on by now, right?"

"Piper, even on tours, he doesn't turn on his phone. What makes you think he'll turn it on now?"

"I dunno, maybe psychic vibes or something!" She cried, lunging towards him and attempting at stealing away his phone. "I just want to introduce myself! Well, again!"

"How do you put up with this?" Mitchell asked, crawling out of the closet and hiding under her hair. "She's crazy!"

"I'm not that crazy, I'm just really hyper right now!" Piper said as an excuse, crawling out after him, brushing herself off. "You're just being a total-"

"Hey, keep it clean, will ya? I'm not gonna have you two year olds fighting about calling Adrian-"

"It's Aaron!"

"Whatever the hell his name is! You're just being really immature, and I'm lucky that the two of you weren't loud."

"That's what she said," interjected Mitchell.

"Oh shut it, you wrinkled prune."

"Ha, you're a prune!"

Mitchell gasped, upset by her comment. "Excuse you, if I was a prune, I'd be a beautiful prune! And you, whatever your name is, you'd be... A... A.... A potato!"

"Potatoes are glorious!" She argued back, stomping her foot. "French fries are made from potatoes, chips are made from potatoes, everyone loves me! Prunes on the other hand, well, I'd throw you out in the trash if I found you in my pantry!"

"You're a rotten potato," Mitchell countered back towards her, poking his head from behind a much shorter Juliette. "And I wouldn't eat you."

"I wouldn't eat you either!"

"No one is a potato, and no one is a prune, let's just all be quiet, figure out a plan, and... Agh!"

Piper and Mitchell both looked at Juliette, brows raised. "You were the one who called him a prune first, Jules," Piper said.

"Please, look at me? How could you even think of calling me a prune?" And Mitchell pulled a pose, trying to look like a male model, looking off into the distance. "I'm beautiful."

"I've seen stuff in port-a-potties that are more beautiful than you."

"Wow, rude."

"You two are idiots," Juliette said, giving up and leaving the room. "Call me back when you two grow up."

----------

After about an hour of overhearing Piper and Mitchell loudly arguing in the next room, they finally fell silent, bringing Juliette out of the kitchen and back into her room.

There she found an awfully giggly Piper sitting on the floor, twirling her hair as she talked on the phone. "How's recording been going for you?"

Tearing her confused eyes off of her best friend, she looked at Mitchell, expecting an answer. "Care to explain what happened?"

"She bit my arm and wouldn't stop until I called Aaron," he explained nonchalantly, rubbing his arm. "They really hit it off."

"Amazing."

----------

Hours later, after Piper had to go, it was just Mitchell and Juliette, both playing a game of Scrabble on the floor of her bedroom.

"Moghsh isn't a a word, Mitchell."

"Neither is cumbersome!"

"Yes it is, what are you talking about?" She asked, grey eyes meeting his green ones from across the scrabble board. "It....."

Wow.

"It is....." She trailed off, eyes not leaving his for a few more seconds. "I read it in a bunch of books."

"Oh, okay."

She felt her cheeks warming up as she still felt his gaze on her, and it was now that she so desperately hoped he'd look elsewhere.

For the first time that day, the fact that she was with a boy dawned upon her, and she couldn't help but feel flustered. It was her first interaction with another male, well, from what she remembered, anyway.

"Why are you so good at this?" Mitchell asked quietly, brows furrowed as he tried coming up with actual words.

"I play it with my mom a lot."

"Ah."

They both stayed quiet, Juliette only hearing the sound of his light breathing and him moving the letter tiles around, occasionally muttering a curse under his breath.

She couldn't help but let a soft giggle escape her lips, which brought Mitchell to look up with confusion. "What's so funny?" He asked, bewildered.

"You- Never mind, it's silly."

"Tell me," he said sitting up straighter, viewing her with curious eyes. "Did I do something?"

"It's just.... You're so frustrated by the game, it's-"

"Cute?" He finished for her, a smirk on his face.

Flustered, she shook her head quickly, face pink with embarrassment. "No, I meant... Funny."

"Sure you did, sweetheart."