Borrowed Time

Chapter Forty One

Was it too soon to say that when Esme wasn't in a place with her, Juliette felt the world was a little colder? Harsher? Because that was how it felt to walk through the school while knowing that Esme was curled up in bed with a stomach bug... She missed her. Was that codependent? No. No, she could live without her, she was fine, she wasn't forcing herself to check in all the time, she just missed her. Her smile made her day better, the way she smelt calmed her down. And she liked holding Esme's hand in Chemistry class, it made Ms. O'Brian's grating voice a little more tolerable.

She felt like she was walking through a fucking fog as she trailed just behind Shelby down one of the hallways... Shelby. Whose boyfriend was here today. Lucky fucking bitch... Obviously she'd be sad if Micheal was sick but she was still a little wrongfully jealous. During her mental moment of lamentation, Shelby slid an arm through hers and cleared her throat. Oh. They were in stride now, okay.

"You look exhausted, babe." She let out a bitter sort of chuckle and shook her head. What a fucking observation, surprised you're not a goddamn fortune teller... Okay, that was a bit of a severe reaction, she should probably just respond with something kinder, Shelby was clearly stating that from a place of concern.

"I am. Today is wearing me out, I don't know why." Juliette sighed, leaning her head against Shelby's shoulder as they walked. She chuckled, wrapping an arm around her to give her a quick squeeze before pulling away... Which sucked, because if she'd kept her arm there they would be walking at the perfect cadence for Juliette to rest her head, but now she was moving around too much and it wouldn't work as well.

"Is it because Esme's out with a cold today?" No. Maybe. Shut the fuck up... She knew that her ability to enjoy school shouldn't be based on if Esme was there or not, but she certainly made chemistry a lot more interesting, and today she'd had to endure Bryce making several propositions about hooking up with both of them, the highlight of which being when he offered to film them... His hand had been sitting on her desk and she may have stabbed the back of it with her pencil which almost landed her in detention.... But she weaseled her way out of it by ratting on him for the shit he'd been saying. It'd been satisfying to see him finally have to get repercussions for his actions.

Also she didn't have a cold, she was genuinely sick. Her fever had been 101.5 when Juliette had left and she couldn't keep anything down... Honestly, it was probably food poisoning, but she was so worried about Juliette getting what she had that she'd made her sleep on the couch last night. It was sweet that she cared but God, Juliette just wanted to hold her and make her feel better.

"It's way more than a cold, I think she caught something." She explained, looking up into Shelby's face. She was met with a look, one that she didn't exactly adore... One that said 'could you think of another reason why she might be run down'. Of course she could.

"Or the stress of seeing her girlfriend's head get smashed in is finally getting to her." Yeah. She knew that... She'd tried to warn Esme that playing nurse for her and taking care of her was going to come back and bite her in the ass, but she didn't listen... and now look at her. Curled up in bed with a bucket. It was either stress, the stomach flu, or food poisoning, but no one else was sick so it was probably either the first one or the last one... either way, Juliette already blamed herself, she didn't need Shelby's help with that.

For whatever reason, hearing Shelby voice the very concern she had in her head hit Juliette hard. Like, she felt like she'd been kicked in the stomach. Maybe it was because Shelby was rarely ever wrong, but it made her pull away and wrap her arms around herself. I'm a bad girlfriend, I knew that already, you don't have to remind me... She wasn't going to say exactly that, but it was what she was feeling at that moment.