Borrowed Time

Chapter Eighteen

Coming back home felt bittersweet... Yes, Juliette was honestly happy to be able to sleep in her own bed for a moment, to have access to her entire closet and maybe help out more at church again. But it also meant that she was probably going to spiral again, maybe fall back into the self-hatred that she'd been feeling a bit further from recently... She'd warned Esme that she might drift or seem distant, that it wasn't her fault and Esme had insisted that she wasn't going anywhere. But, if Juliette went back to how miserable she had been, she wouldn't blame Esme if she ran far away. That was part of why she hadn't allowed Esme to drive her here, Esme wouldn't leave even if she told her to, hell, she'd probably sleep in her van in the street to make sure that Juliette had a getaway vehicle, but she could convince Micheal and Shelby to go. She needed to do this alone, she needed them to be gone so she didn't have to think about it, so she could maybe fix the bridge her father had broken between them. But it was getting harder for Micheal and Shelby to leave her each time, so they'd been parked outside of her house for half an hour, and Juliette was finally getting Micheal to a point where he would leave her there. Almost.

"Are you sure you're ready to do this?" Micheal asked, and Juliette nodded. She had to be ready, she couldn't beat around the bush forever, eventually she'd have to face the music and come back home, why not do it now? She was in a slightly better place, she could probably handle anything Samantha threw at her... There was quite literally no time like the present.

"Yeah... Yeah, I'm sure. It's been a week; things have probably cooled down enough that I can have a genuine conversation with my dad. Plus, I think Samantha has bible study at the church tonight, so there's a good chance that she won't even be home tonight, and we can talk one on one." She said, but Micheal still seemed uneasy. That was fair, she'd been burned about a million times by doing this exact thing, but she still needed to try. She didn't want to lose the one parent she had left; it would break her heart.

"I don't like the idea of just leaving... what if it goes poorly?" He asked, and Juliette sighed, looking over to Micheal from the backseat. She understood why he was so scared, he hated leaving her behind, he was always scared she'd get hurt again... and he was normally right, but she didn't want him to worry right now. She could handle this.

"Look... You can wait around the corner and if I run out, you can intercept me. But, if after 30 minutes I'm still inside you can head home." Juliette said, and Micheal didn't look like he was entirely comfortable with that. He cleared his throat and glanced over at Shelby, who gave him a small nod and reached over to rub his back. Ew. Get a fucking room. 

"What if-." Juliette sighed, shaking her head. They could go through hypotheticals all night, but she knew that her father could sometimes go to bed early, and she wasn't sure how tired he was tonight... Though 7:30 was still pretty early... She wanted to have this entire conversation in one night, because otherwise she'd just lose her nerve and let everything go back to the way that it was.

"Listen. I've got this, my dad and I have been through a lot and I bet we can work this out." Honestly, she wasn't sure that was true, but it was a nice thought. During one of her last conversations with her mom, she'd promised that she'd do her best to be nice to her dad, that she'd be there for him if he was there for her... but that was the caveat, wasn't it? He wasn't treating her well, he wasn't there for her anymore, that meant that she hadn't been the one to break her end of the bargain... but she still felt obligated to talk to him and work this out. Micheal sighed, grimacing at her in the rearview mirror.

"It's not your dad I'm worried about." He said, and Shelby nodded beside him, giving her an almost nervous sort of smile. Yeah, they all had the same thought, she knew that... Obviously they all knew Samantha was the problem.