Borrowed Time

Chapter Sixteen

Oddly, Juliette was looking forward to cheerleading practice for the first time in years... Mostly because today was when she was gonna start enacting her plan of complete and utter emotional annihilation of Ingrid... She'd been too tired to start earlier, but she'd forced a good night's sleep so she could start to exact her idea of revenge... Hell, she'd even come to practice early, something she swore she'd never do.

"Are my eyes deceiving me or are you actually here on time today, Smith?" Ingrid asked, nudging her with her foot. Juliette clenched her jaw, trying not to roll her eyes. Normally, she'd probably just say something back, use the same kind of humor... but she wanted to beat the shit out of her.

"What are you talking about? I'm never late." That was true, she just also chose to never be early... or there for the entire time. Ingrid shrugged at her, giving her a look, one that seemed to try to force affection. That's all she ever did, force her fucking self on everyone around her. The 'charisma' that Juliette used to envy now just felt like a terrible mask covering something evil beneath her surface.

"Yeah, but you normally run off to do one thing or another, I don't know." She said, and Juliette felt a smirk spread across her face when she took in Ingrid's features. Her bruises were fading, but the split on her lip had reopened... and her nose was still swollen. No doubt she'd have a nose job right after the season was over, but she was happy to see her in such a shitty light right now.

"How did you say you got that black eye? I'm still muddy on the story, I just wanna be sure that you're not concussed before you practice today." She said, and Ingrid's eyes widened, she looked panicked for a moment.

"I just... Uh..." Had she seriously already forgotten the flimsy lie she'd fed Juliette on Monday? It wasn't even that hard to remember, she'd said she was in a fucking car accident.

"You can't even remember? That's a bad sign. Or were you lying last time?" Juliette asked, doing her best to use a faux-concerned voice when she spoke, placing a hand on her arm. Ingrid let out a near-nervous laugh, shaking her hand off as she took a step away. Good. Her discomfort was what Juliette had been striving for.

"No, I remember. I crashed my car, I was lucky to walk away with just a black eye, honestly it could've killed me." Ingrid said, giving a look that was full of false fear. Coward. But also... She wasn't wrong, Penny, Tegan and Emma could've probably killed her if they'd wanted to, Lord knows they had enough anger pent up to do it easily.

"I'm sure they could've." She muttered, and Ingrid looked at her, sort of alarmed. Oh, good, she'd caught the slight slip of the tongue, something that could clue her in that Juliette knew more than she was letting on... and something she could use to gaslight her into thinking she was fucking losing it, even a little bit.

"Huh?" She asked, and Juliette gave her an innocent sort of look. Play up the church girl vibe.

"Hm?"

"You just said 'they could've'." Ingrid said, putting air quotes around the last part. Juliette raised an eyebrow, shaking her head. Make it convincing, don't smile. She always smirked when she lied, that was why she didn't do it very often.

"Oh, did I? I think I said 'it'." She said, and Ingrid furrowed her brows, clearly a bit confused.

"No, you definitely said they." Juliette rolled her eyes, scoffing as she shook her head, giving Ingrid the best look of confused annoyance that she could muster before walking a bit ahead, toward where the rest of the squad was half heartedly stretching.

"Seriously, Ingrid... You should get a concussion test, you must be hearing things. That doesn't even make any sense..." She sighed, and Ingrid furrowed her brows, gripping her arm to pull her back. Good. From the strength in the grip, Ingrid was already getting annoyed... She'd probably fold sooner than Juliette thought.