Borrowed Time

Chapter Fifty Six

Juliette was almost 100% certain that she was going to throw up on the field tonight... Her grandparents meshing with her friends, the people she'd chosen to love sounded like putting mentos into coke just to feel something... Sure, it would be explosive, but it wouldn't be very good.

Also, she'd had to trek through the school because she'd left her windbreaker in her locker and it was actually cold tonight... and the school was creepy as fuck at night, and that wasn't helping with the feelings of sickness... She kept thinking that she was hearing footsteps, but she was sure it was her brain fucking with her, unless someone had decided to walk through the school to find a less busy bathroom.

Was it possible? Yeah. Probable? No.

"Should you already be on the field, superstar?" Juliette jumped, nearly closing her hand in her locker before she yanked it back at the last moment, turning around to see Carly standing behind her. She let out a breath of relief and gripped her chest... Not a haunted school hallway, just a friend without proper situational awareness.

She sighed and gave her a look, laying her windbreaker over her arm as she fell into step beside Carly.

"Jesus Carly, you scared the shit out of me." At least Carly had the common decency to look sorry as she took a few steps in front of Juliette, walking backwards so she could look at her.

It made Juliette anxious when people did that... How did they not trip when they couldn't see where they were going? It'd make Juliette nearly have a panic attack, she still looked at her feet when she walked down stairs to make sure that she didn't slip and fall down them... It'd happened once in second grade and the texture of her foot slipping on a stair at school was enough to stick with her forever... She'd hated it.

"Sorry, my mom wanted me to grab something she left in her office." She held up a large purse with a smile, raising an eyebrow as she gestured to it. "Her entire purse. It's a miracle her keys weren't in there, you know?" Yeah, it really was... Who didn't keep their keys in their purse? Wasn't that the entire point of carrying a giant purse? It sounded right...

"Mhm." Carly stopped walking entirely again, placing her hand on Juliette's shoulder as she looked her in the face, like she was trying to decipher her expression... She thought the expression was clear, she was feeling very overwhelmed.

"What's going on? You look like you're gonna be sick..." Well, that was pretty fair considering she felt like she was going to be sick... Her stomach had been flipping all day as she thought of all the terribly condescending and bigoted things that her grandma was going to say to the woman she loved.

"Esme's meeting my grandparents today." She said, and Carly furrowed her brows, swinging her mom's purse back and forth as she stood in front of her.

It was fair that she looked so conflicted... To some people, that would be exciting, but Juliette was too stuck in her head, she was thinking too hard about all the things that her grandmother could say that would make her want to dive off the nearest building.

"Oh. Is that good...?" She asked, and Juliette shrugged. Well, it was better than she'd expected... Part of her had thought that the moment she mentioned being gay and having a girlfriend that she was going to be disowned, so her grandfather wanting to meet her was a good thing.

But her biggest worry, the one that was making her feel sick, was the worry of what her grandmother might do... She was a loose cannon in such a unique way, one that Juliette could not figure out, no matter how hard she tried.

"My grandpa's excited." That was vague, she knew that from the way that Carly sighed and nodded. She was getting to it, but she needed to figure out what she was going to say, how she was going to explain it so that she actually could.