Borrowed Time

Chapter Nineteen

Micheal's parents installing surround sound in their basement was probably the best thing to happen in their house since they'd installed the hot tub in third grade, somehow the first Avengers movie was more interesting in surround sound... Or maybe that was just because Scarlett Johanson looked really fucking good in a bodysuit, either way, she was happy... Aside from Shelby still being mad at her for not telling her first about coming out to her father.

"Shelby, can you pass me the popcorn?" Juliette asked, holding out her hand with a smile. Shelby didn't even look at her as she pressed the bowl into her hand before crossing her arms across her chest again. God, this felt like such a strange thing to be holding a grudge over, but Juliette had once not spoken to her for three days for getting new shoes and not telling her, so she didn't have a leg to stand on.

"Hm." She grunted, and Juliette raised an eyebrow. Somehow being entirely silent was less rude than the grunt, now she was gonna say something about it because what the actual fuck, were they five?

"Seriously?" Shelby raised an eyebrow, giving her a look. Oh my god she was gonna slap the shit out of her if this kept going on, what the hell? It felt like a weird hill to die on.

"What?" What? What? How about 'this grudge is fucking stupid what the hell are you doing?' Was that good enough? It was, but it was probably a little too aggressive, so Juliette chose to tone it down a little bit, to make it seem like she was sad and not just annoyed.

"Are you going to give me the cold shoulder all night? I already said I was sorry, and also this feels like a weird thing to be punishing me for." This statement, unfortunately, did not sway Shelby to let the grudge go, even though it should've. She leaned away entirely from Juliette and straightened up, like she was about to say something incredibly important and not just defend her very strange ability to ice people out.

"You told your father and the only person who knew that you were telling your father was Esme, I think I get to be a little bit upset over being that far out of the loop on my own best friend's journey." She said, and Juliette threw up her hands and sighed. None of last night had gone to her nonexistent plan, she hadn't purposely kept Shelby out of the loop. If she'd been planning to tell him, she would've been the first person to know.

"I wasn't planning on coming out last night, it was spur of the moment!" She protested, and beside Shelby, Micheal sighed and placed a hand around her waist, pulling her back down to lean into him. Gross... But she'd allow it because it seemed like Micheal might have her back on this. He'd fucking better.

"Shelby, I think you might have to let this one go-." Shelby cut him off with a glare and he gave Juliette a look that read 'Well, I've done all I can do.' Coward.

"When I came out, the first person I called was Juliette, and I thought I'd be the first person she'd call." That was true, she had been the first person to know with Shelby, and Shelby would've been the first person to know but she'd fucking sat up in her bed all night with a bucket willing herself not to throw up this time and texting Shelby just hadn't hit the top of her list. Nothing about it was personal.

"She meant to, but she was too busy feeling like she was going to throw up because it was a big emotional moment in her life." Juliette said, and Shelby was quiet for a moment. Good. Now she could be introspective and maybe see that she was being a whiny little baby for no fucking reason.

"..." She sighed and leaned away from Micheal, taking Juliette's hand in hers and squeezing it. "I'm not actually mad, you know. Frustrated? Yeah, but I know it's ridiculous to be upset at you. How'd he take it?" She asked, and Micheal cleared his throat beside them and paused the movie, giving them both a look. Juliette gave him her best apologetic look before turning back to Shelby. They never made it through a movie without a long conversation interrupting, why should tonight be any different.