Borrowed Time

Chapter 128

Trying to take care of everyone but herself was finally starting to take its toll on Juliette and her ability to walk around and exist in the world as a regular human being... She was pretty sure that she had never been this tired in her entire life, it was starting to wear her down a lot more than she thought it would... Maybe she was out of practice.

The bleariness of her eyes made them burn, the dryness in her throat and cracked feeling of her lips made her skin crawl... and she felt like her bones weighed a billion pounds in her body. She'd tossed and turned last night even with Esme there to comfort her... She just wanted to make everything okay again, and she wasn't sure how to do that.

Also, sleepy eyes make it very difficult to navigate down a busy hallway, that was something that Juliette was realizing as she tried to weave her way through to get to where Shelby, Micheal and hopefully Esme were standing so that they could all walk together to... Fuck, what did she even have next?

Eh, it'd come to her... Or she'd miss it, one of the two... it didn't really matter to her right now, she was just gonna sleep through it anyway.

"Juliette." She jumped at the sound of a voice behind her, gripping her chest as she leaned against the locker well... That was another thing, she was jumpier on no sleep, she felt more panicked and less safe and it wasn't something that she really wanted to have to deal with for a long time, she was really liking how it had felt to be self sufficient and not scared all the fucking time.

"What?" She turned around and sighed, fighting the urge to roll her eyes... Ingrid... The fear was quickly replaced with annoyance... She hated the look in her eyes, she hated when Ingrid seemed like she was gonna say something genuine... It confused her. "Oh. Ingrid. Hey." She said flatly, and Ingrid mirrored her body language and leaned against the lockers... Stop. Ew.

"Hi." She said, and for a moment, neither of them spoke... It felt like Ingrid was waiting for her to say something, but that wouldn't make any sense... Ingrid had stopped her in the busy ass hallway, not the other way around, right?

She had to be the one to speak.

"What do you want?" She asked, knowing that her tone came out harsher than she'd intended for it to... But she couldn't really find it in herself to give a shit about that, she didn't care that Ingrid flinched away or looked hurt before sighing and giving her a glare that she was sure was supposed to cover up the emotional response.

I wouldn't be a dick to you if you weren't one to the rest of the fucking population, I hope you know that.

"Okay, that hostility is not needed." Ingrid sighed, making Juliette roll her eyes as she tried her best to not immediately slam her head against the door of the locker in frustration... It would make her feel better but she didn't want the janitors to have to clean up her blood, that didn't really seem very fair to them, did it?

You've gotta say what's on your mind, even if you'd rather just walk away right now... Sometimes she hated that she still had that baked in etiquette, which she ignored pretty well for a few years...

Well... She could still ignore it even while speaking, right?

"With you?" She looked Ingrid up and down, hoping that her disbelieving sort of sneer came through as much as she was attempting to make it come through. "It's always needed. Can't trust you as far as I can throw you." She said, and Ingrid rolled her eyes, rubbing at her temples in frustration.

Seriously? You're the one having a bad time? Fuck you, Walton.

"Right, okay, I guess I've earned that." Ingrid sighed, sounding so annoyed that it made Juliette want to beat the shit out of her all over again... Ingrid looked better with bruises under her eyes anyways, and she hadn't bothered to get a nose job the last time... Maybe she wouldn't bother again, it'd probably just add character to her face, right?