Borrowed Time

Chapter 119

Honestly, there was no way that anyone could've predicted that Juliette would've gotten in multiple fights by January of her senior year... But here she was. And she'd won them all, so she was doing pretty good...

Her lungs were burning from the laps she'd had to run at practice for fighting, but it was worth it, especially with Shelby in sight. Home. Get to go home. She tapped her on the shoulder and Shelby smiled at her... and then settled into a look of concern... Why?

"Jesus, you look half dead... You alright?" Shelby asked, seeming concerned as she opened the door for Juliette, letting her walk through. She sighed and nodded, shivering as she pulled her hoodie over her shoulders... Too cold to be without it, too hot to wear it comfortably... Normally she'd deal with the slightly pleasant burn of the freezing air, but she decided that she didn't want Shelby to worry about her being too cold... Suffer for your friends.

"I'm fine, practice was just really fucking hard today." She said, and Shelby furrowed her brows, like that didn't quite track, and normally it really didn't, cheerleading practice had only been super hard the past three days, but that was enough to make Juliette want to absolutely end it all just so she didn't have to suffer again, that seemed like the right call, right?

"Why?" Because she hates us... That wasn't fair... But she felt like it was fucking true.

"Because Coach Klyne has started a rule that if there's any unsavory behavior, you have to run a lap... And I have not been the best at filtering my language lately." She said, distinctly leaving out the part where she'd had to be torn off of Tori for the shit that she'd been saying about Becky...

That'd be something special for later.

"She considers swearing to be unsavory?" Shelby asked, and Juliette shrugged... She was pretty sure that the swearing wasn't the biggest problem that Coach Klyne had had with her behavior today, but it was part of it.

"Not as much as other things... But it's on the list." Juliette sighed, and Shelby chuckled, shaking her head... Well, at least one of them found this amusing, right?

"Damn... What brought that on?" She asked, and Juliette shrugged... She could go into detail about where the idea emerged from, but she was pretty sure she knew what Shelby meant by what she was saying.

She wanted to know why Juliette had gotten into trouble... And she did have a damn good reason this time.

"Someone calling me a dyke and me getting in a fight with someone in the locker room when they called Becky a fag." Juliette said, watching the way that Shelby's face dropped from amused to concerned before settling on anger. Valid.

"Someone called Becky a fag? What the hell is wrong with them?" Shelby asked, sounding as upset as Juliette felt when it happened... But she still felt the need to provide some comedic relief, she didn't need Shelby to be super worked up over something that she'd handled herself, right?

"Well, they aren't factually incorrect-." Shelby sighed and gave her a look... Yeah, okay, fair enough... She was trying to insert some comedy, but sometimes her genius wasn't properly appreciated, which was to be expected... Some people lacked good senses of humor...

Not Shelby... But it was still a good point to make.

"No, but they are rude as hell, Becky's the sweetest person ever, she doesn't deserve to deal with this stuff... Is she alright?" She asked as they crawled into the car, starting it quickly... Good, because it actually was cold inside the car, something about it just made Juliette shiver more as she rubbed her hands together.