Borrowed Time

Chapter Ninety Six

Micheal's parents booking them a giant hotel room and giving them permission to order as much room service as they wanted so that they could relax was not something that Juliette had expected, she'd expected something small, something comfortable... But this was great, it was going to make the first night of just staying in and relaxing all the more fun... Plus, her father was always cheap when it came to hotel rooms, so she wasn't exactly expecting other families to do more.

No matter how many times she went on vacations with Micheal's family she was always surprised, even though it was their normal... The beds alone were a huge fucking perk, they didn't feel like sleeping on lumpy concrete and the sheets weren't too scratchy.

"Your parents are my favorite people sometimes, do you know that?" Juliette asked, and Micheal laughed, setting down his and Shelby's bags on their bed as he walked over to where Juliette was sitting with hers at her feet. This bed was comfortable, and they may have been sitting on a plane, but that didn't mean that she wanted to stand up and do anything else right now. She was too comfortable for that.

"I mean, I could guess that, but can I ask why you're saying that this time?" He asked, and Juliette sighed, gesturing around her. Was it not clear? This was one of the nicest rooms she'd ever been in in her life, for sure one of the nicest that she'd slept in... Ingrid and Emma's houses were both nicer, but at least it made the top 3.

"Are you kidding? Look at this hotel room!" She said, and Micheal glanced around, shrugging as he organized the things in his bag, like his surroundings weren't impressive to him at all. She knew that he saw things like this a lot, that his parents worked hard for their money so that they could do nice things like this sometimes... But she didn't understand how he could be desensitized.

"Yeah, it's pretty nice." Juliette snorted in disbelief at this unenthused tone. Pretty nice? God, this was heaven.

"Pretty nice? This is an amazing vacation." She said, and she saw a smile playing on his lips... Good, at least he was showing some emotion about this, that was all that she wanted from him. Just a little bit of emotion so that she could know that he knew how lucky he was to have all of this.

"They booked us a better room after what happened to you... They want this to be a relaxing time for all of us." Micheal said and Juliette looked over at him, furrowing her brows... Why were his parents thinking about her happiness while booking the hotel room? She was happy to sleep in a cardboard box if that was what they were able to provide.

"Are they worried about me?" She asked, hearing Shelby sigh as she dropped down beside her, wrapping an arm tight around her shoulders as she gave them a squeeze... Well, that meant that she probably worried a lot of people, which was never her intent. It wasn't her fault that all of this strangely traumatizing shit kept happening, it felt like whoever was controlling her life was just dragging her through the fucking ringer for some reason.

Maybe they had their own shit going on, who knew... Maybe god had been outsourcing his torture to someone far more cruel... Not even Satan, someone worse.

"Honey. We're all worried about you, it kind of comes with the territory, you know?" Shelby reminded her, and Juliette sighed, resting her head against her chest as Shelby laid back on the bed, extending her other arm so that Micheal could lay down with them. It was nice, it reminded her of how they'd spent the summer, for a moment it felt like nothing had changed, like it was still just the three of them, and not Juliette feeling like she was tagging along like a child with her parents.

It wasn't their fault that she thought that... It just kind of came with the territory.

"I'm fine." She insisted, and Shelby smacked the back of her head before she went back to running her hand through Juliette's hair. Rude, what a shocking way to say that you don't agree with something being said... Just unexpected violence.