Borrowed Time

Chapter Fifty Eight

Juliette had offered to help Carly take apart old unused set pieces today for three reasons; one, she wanted someone to hang out with, and church wasn't over until after theater was over so she wasn't needed there yet, two, she didn't want to be around her grandmother, who'd taken to blaming her 'violent outburst' and her queerness on a lack of female role models and she was sick of it, and three... She needed to convince Carly to help out with directing for the Christmas play, it was the only way it wouldn't be a fucking disaster.

But she was proving to be very difficult to convince, which Juliette had expected but she still didn't like... Sometimes she missed the days where people would just help with things because she batted her eyes in the right way... But it was good to learn to accept rejection. She knew that.

Was she going to accept it? No. Of course not.

"I'm sorry, you want my help with what?" Carly asked, letting out a disbelieving laugh as she held out her hand for a couple more screws. Juliette hopped off the counter and reached into the bin gingerly, dropping them into her outstretched palm.

She needed Carly's help with this, she was the only one in this town who had a background in this kind of stuff who wasn't old and conservative... Plus she was fun, it'd be nice to throw her into the mix, she was pretty sure that she would mesh really well with Becky, they seemed like they could be friends.

"Directing the church Christmas play... Please." She said, and Carly chuckled, shaking her head as she gave her an amused look, reaching out to place a hand on her shoulder as she spoke... This seemed like a dramatic way to turn her down, but Juliette would hear her out.

They were in the drama department, after all... It'd be a little weird to not allow her the dramatics required to give a convincing argument as to why she didn't want to help her very deserving friends with something that sounded objectively awful.

"I'm sorry Jules, you know I love you, but ... No way in hell." Ugh... That was fair, but she was still going to push it. She reached out, squeezing Carly's hand with an expression that she was hoping was pleading and not just her... Grimacing. She seemed to do that a lot when she tried to convince people of things... Sometimes if she thought too long about her expressions she forgot how she was supposed to do them like a person.

It was a problem, and she was assuming it was happening right now from the concerned way that Carly was looking at her before she dropped her hand and squatted back down to remove a couple more screws to drop into the bucket.... Fair.

"Come on! Becky and Shelby are helping too, but aside from Romeo and Juliet Freshman year, none of us have acting experience... Or directing." That got Carly's attention. She turned back around, sitting down on the floor as she looked up at her.

Good. She'd hit an interest. That'd been the goal.

"Which one of you was in Romeo and Juliet?" She asked, and Juliette shrugged... Freshman year, Shelby was intent on being as well-rounded as humanly possible, so she'd tried out for the fall play and by some miracle she landed the lead role, and she'd been over the moon.

Unfortunately, it didn't last long before parents were writing petitions to have her removed from the role and threatening to pull funding if she wasn't... She quit of her own accord because she was sick of hearing it, and Juliette was still upset about it to this goddamn day because Shelby would've been a thousand times better than the girl who'd ended up doing it, some senior with a god complex.

"Shelby. She got Juliet, it was a whole thing..." How did she sum this up in a way that wasn't going to be a long conversation? She always got a little angry and overstimulated when she talked about that, her skin got too hot and felt too tight... Nothing made her more angry than people who treated Shelby like shit. "People made a whole scene about it and she ended up leaving the role and the understudy stepped in." This made Carly wrinkle her nose as she shook her head, looking disappointed... Good, she should be. That was arguably a disappointing thing to hear.