Borrowed Time

Chapter Eleven

They should've vetted people better when selecting a squad this year... that would probably make the entire process of cheerleading practice a lot less painful and a lot less upsetting... Plus, Juliette could do without getting dropped constantly, it was starting to hurt her back. This time, her backspot was nowhere near where she needed to be, and when she slipped out of her base's grip, she instead smacked her entire body against the turf, which made her feel like she was going to throw up. She rolled onto her stomach, glaring up at the three bewildered, nervous faces and shook her head. Fucking amateurs.

"Again, if you can't fucking do your job, maybe you're in the wrong sport! Stop putting people at risk for injury because you don't want to comply with what you're meant to do." Juliette snapped. Above her, Ingrid cleared her throat and gave her a look, holding out her hand. She rolled her eyes and took it, letting herself get hauled to her feet as Ingrid steadied her with a hand on her waist.

"Juliette... Take it easy." She mumbled, glancing behind her. Fair, they all probably already felt pretty bad for letting her fall, but it wasn't an excuse. They should know how to do this shit, she'd learned it quickly and she'd been on the squad as a freshman... these were juniors, they had no excuse anymore. Ingrid moved her hand from her waist and placed it on her upper back in an attempt to be comforting, but it made Juliette wince because she'd managed to press right on her bruise. She slapped Ingrid's hand down and glared at her, walking over to the bench to get her water... Thank god most of practice was over, they just had to stretch... She couldn't handle more blunt force trauma today.

"Don't touch me. You didn't just get dropped on your ass a half a dozen times because people can't learn how to do their positions even though we've been doing this for weeks." Juliette reminded her, and Ingrid rolled her eyes, giving her a look. What was so bad about what she'd said? It was true.

"Alright..." Juliette dug around in her bag, grabbing her water and her inhaler as she glared at the ground. The tightness in her chest was only partially her annoyance... part of it was her asthma... Medically, most of it was probably her asthma. But it was more dramatic to think of it the other way around.

"Stupid fucking position. Don't even wanna be here." Juliette grumbled, and Ingrid sighed, settling down on the turf so she could rest her head against the bench, looking up at Juliette expectantly. It took everything in her power not to shove Ingrid's face away from her... Maybe she was maturing.

"Okay, what the hell crawled up your ass? You've been in a shit mood all day." She said, and Juliette rolled her eyes. It wasn't Ingrid's fault that she was feeling like this, it was entirely her own self moving on from a mourning state to a frustrated state about her own life and her sexuality, but being asked what was wrong all the time wasn't helping anything either.

"You did. And then you fucking died up there meddling in my business." Juliette responded, and Ingrid grimaced, shaking her head as she crossed her arms across her chest. She looked across the field as she responded.

"That's... That's gross, Juliette." Ingrid sighed, and Juliette shrugged. It was meant to be a little gross, normally an ick factor was enough to make Ingrid fuck off. But instead, she rested her hand on Juliette's knee for a moment, squeezing it... as if letting her know that she was there and not going anywhere, which wasn't something she wanted to know right now.

"Well, it's honest. Leave me alone, Ingrid." For a moment, the other girl was silent with her hand falling from Juliette's knee. But Juliette knew this kind of silence, it was the kind that was almost always followed with a question that only sounded like the person asking it half-cared about what was going on with her... and half didn't.