Borrowed Time

Chapter Thirty One

"How did Micheal even get this invite? I don't understand how this keeps happening for him." Juliette sighed, glaring at Aaron Nelson's front door with contempt. She didn't want to go in there, the last time she'd been here was in eighth grade when she was brutally mocked for not wanting to play spin the bottle because she 'wanted to wait until marriage to kiss a boy'... God, if that little fucking brat could see her now...

"I think it's because he's on the football team now, people respect him more because they think he has something to offer of social merit." Shelby explained, finishing up her eyeliner in the mirror as she spoke. Juliette sighed, sliding down in her seat as she grumbled.

"He had things to offer of social merit before, no one ever paid attention then." She preferred it that way, honestly... Then they didn't have to play the stupid social game that everyone had to play, they could just exist as they were in each other's homes and that was it... Plus she'd much rather be at Esme's tonight, she had the house to herself... not a rare occurrence, but one she liked taking advantage of.

"Yeah, because he was still a nerd so they didn't see the point. Now that he's not, they all think it's time to spend some time on him." Shelby said, giving her a look. Micheal was still a nerd, these people were just single minded idiots who sometimes subscribed a little too deeply to the melodramatic teen titles that they loved so much... In Juliette's opinion, this year had made her realize how stupid all this shit was... Would it really matter in a couple of months if she was popular or not? Probably not.

"Hm..." They sat there for a beat longer as Shelby continued checking on herself in the mirror... Juliette didn't know why she bothered, Shelby was always the hottest girl whenever she walked into a room... Unless that room contained Esme and her friends then it was a hard tie, but considering the fact that none of them would be here tonight, her statement stood to be true.

"How are you and Esme doing?" She asked, and Juliette looked at her, startled. Had she just read her mind and saw that she was thinking about Esme? If so, that was uncanny... and she needed to work on hiding her thoughts... All of them, her brain was a sacred, private and sometimes depraved place for her.

"Me and Esme?" She asked, and Shelby chuckled, nodding as she leaned back in her seat with a sigh, drumming her hands on her steering wheel.

"Mhm. I feel like you never talk to me about it, and I wanna be in the loop... If that's okay with you, obviously." Oh. She was trying to stall going inside too... Awesome, she was all for that.

"Yeah, of course." What to say... What to say... She should share something good. "We're really good... She's started opening up to me about a lot of things and we're... moving along." She said carefully, and Shelby's smile turned into a sort of smirk as she arched an eyebrow... Oh, great... That expression, which didn't make Juliette wanna jump into oncoming traffic at all.

"Moving along?" She asked, and Juliette sighed. She'd have to give up some details... not all the details, but just something sweet to throw Shelby off of her scent.

"Okay, we haven't really done anything... But we did fall asleep shirtless the other night after watching Men in Black." Shelby let out a chuckle and shook her head, giving her a faux-shocked look... Dickhead.

"How scandalous." She sighed, and Juliette rolled her eyes, shoving her arm lightly. It'd been the most intimate thing she'd ever done in her life and she wanted to do it again and again... She wanted to fall asleep like that every night, with Esme's body enveloping hers, the quiet thump of her heartbeat in her ear... It'd been perfect.

"Shut up..." She drummed her fingers on the dashboard as she thought of how to convey how doing that had made her feel. "It was really nice, her skin is really soft and warm and I slept better than I have in a long time..." This softened Shelby's joking expression... Good. She was hoping it would, Shelby knew how much she panicked at night.