Borrowed Time

Chapter Fifty Four

Sometimes Juliette forgot how terrifying men could truly be... But she was remembering right now after a particularly horrifying event in Chemistry... One of the boys she hardly knew had come up to her and Esme and offered to 'teach them the correct way to act', and when they'd turned him down, he'd gotten... Violent. Talking about how he had access to guns, how he knew where Juliette lived, how he could walk in and just do whatever he wanted.

It'd been horrifying because Juliette had realized just how right he was... Her address was well known, she wasn't safe in her own home anymore... Esme'd tried to handle it, but he'd grabbed her arm, he'd said so many things, things that Juliette didn't want to remember... They made her skin crawl just thinking about them... Juliette had never seen full and true terror on Esme's eyes until that moment, it was like she was stuck in a memory, one that she'd never shared... That was arguably the worst part.

Had he been handled? Yes. And by someone who'd never done anything that wasn't scummy in his life... He'd said it quietly enough that the teacher couldn't hear, had grabbed Esme covertly so that no one would notice... but one person did. Bryce had grabbed the guy and hauled him away, maybe because he was the closest... After he came back from the office he asked if they were okay... It was a weird moment of humanity, one that didn't fix anything.

They'd decided to skip their second class, and Shelby and Micheal had skipped with them once they explained... Juliette had had to physically stop Micheal from running out to find the kid who'd said it, but he'd calmed down a bit...

She just never wanted to think about it again, she didn't want to remember how unsafe she truly was in her own town... How the place she once called home was starting to feel like a prison, a punishment for a crime that she didn't remember committing. But now that she was laying in Esme's arms in the abandoned janitor's closet, it was a little better... She felt safer in her arms than she did anywhere else in the world. She curled into her side, tucking her face against her chest.

"Honey..." What? Was it clear that she was still thinking about it? Maybe it was, Shelby was gripping her hand still, looking at her with a worried expression, and Micheal just looked more pissed than he had before...

He hated when any of them got hurt, she knew that... but it wasn't his fight, he shouldn't have to be dragged into it, not right now. If he got in a fight it could ruin his chances of going to CalTech, she didn't want to be the reason for that.

"What?" She asked, and Esme's look was just pure concern as she brushed some hair out of her face... She knew this was part of how Esme compartmentalized now that she was working on not using intimacy as a coping mechanism... But still. She didn't need to be so worried, she should be worried about herself... Taking care of herself... She'd arguably had it worse.

"Are you tired? I'm sorry if you slept poorly." No, that wasn't the problem... She was just trying to ignore the way that her stomach was still turning at the thought of what had happened not twenty minutes ago... But she didn't want Esme to have to think about it again, so she just shook her head.

"No, I slept great, I always do when I'm in your arms... Just comfortable." Juliette mumbled, giving her a smile. She loved the way that Esme's expression softened from concern into love within a millisecond... It was a small change, just a relaxation of her eyebrows and the turning up of the corners of her lips, but it made Juliette's heart melt nonetheless... She wanted to leave kisses across every inch of her face... But she wasn't about to do that at school, she still valued her life... They were already pushing the lines with holding hands and resting on each other, it was opening them up to a lot of... Comments. Mostly disgusting, a few terrifying... and Juliette knew that it was going to only get worse before it got better.