Borrowed Time

Chapter Fifty Nine

It was really nice that Gianna had chosen to extend an olive branch between herself and Juliette's grandmother, but in her opinion, Gianna wasn't the one who should've had to do it... But she knew why she had. It was partially Juliette's fault, at least that was what she thought... Maybe she was trying to make sure that she didn't pin the reason that Juliette was fighting on her or on Esme... If she even tried to, Juliette would intervene, but still. She knew the worry was there, even if it wasn't stated.

They'd decided on dinner at the trailer, a home base advantage, and Juliette felt like she was going to throw up as they shopped for groceries... She didn't want to put either of them in a place that was uncomfortable, they deserved better than that, and it'd be her fault if she let people like that into their house, but Gianna was not easily swayed when she set her mind to something.

"If you two aren't comfortable with this then we really don't have to do it... I know how awful my grandma has been towards both of you and the last thing I'd want to do is put you in harm's way." She said, her voice sort of cracking with nerves as she spoke. That earned her a low chuckle from Gianna, who straightened up from where she was looking at produce. Her expression betrayed no nerves, which was terrifying... Juliette felt like she was going to die at any given moment, were neither of them feeling like that? Was it just her?

"Kid, I've held a shotgun in a man's face before. I can handle a dinner... I want to smooth things over with your grandparents... Can't have her putting the sins of the mother on my kid." Okay, so she had a point there... But Juliette still thought it might not be the smartest, her grandmother would find any small thing to pick apart on a person and just dig into it, she'd already done it to Esme once, she didn't want to see it happen again.

Beside her, Esme let out a sigh and Juliette glanced over to see her looking almost pained as she rested her head in her hand for a moment, rubbing at one of her temples. Juliette brought their linked hands to her lips, pressing a gentle kiss to the back of one. I'm so sorry... God, she felt terrible about the stress this was probably putting on either one of them.

"Mom-." Gianna waved her off, nudging her slightly.

"It's a saying." Esme nodded, yawning... Had she slept poorly the night before? Juliette had noticed her nodding off in Chem class this morning, but she thought it might pass. What was she worried about to a point that it was keeping her up at night?

She wanted to know, she wanted to help lighten the load... It was only fair, Esme did it for her constantly, she wanted to be able to provide emotional support for her as well.

"Right..." She had one more thing she wanted to confirm with Gianna as she followed her down the aisle, Esme trailing a bit behind her, their fingers still locked.

"Are you sure you want to host?" Juliette asked, and Gianna raised an eyebrow, looking slightly amused as she leaned back on one foot, as if she was waiting for Juliette to explain herself, but she hadn't meant anything by it, only that her grandmother was an asshole sometimes. They were too good to have to put up with that bullshit.

"Is there something wrong with our home?" Her eyes widened as she shook her head, her heart sinking at the idea that either of them could think that.

Esme must've noticed how uneasy that statement made her, because she squeezed her hand, gesturing for her to take a deep breath, as if a reminder that her mother was probably joking...

Right. She'd needed that.

"No! God, no... I love your home more than mine, that's for sure. I just know that she's so judgemental-." Gianna gave her a look, one that silenced her instantly, not from fear just from the feeling that she should listen to what she had to say. She had a commanding sort of presence, one that Juliette could easily tune into and understand, which wasn't always the case.