Frenemies

30

Author's Note: I'm going to hop on here and say that this chapter is going to hit hard. It is a deep dive into the life Juliette lives. Her personal thoughts, her personal feelings.

She cannot, she doesn't know how to cope a healthy way. And her thoughts and her actions were very hard for me to write.

Please do not hate her for this, don't hate her for her actions. And this is a formal warning that this chapter has a lot of thoughts of self-harm.

I'm sorry in advance.

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The next morning when I wake up, everything is better. I don't recognize the pain in my thighs anymore, I don't recognize the voice calling me pathetic. I only see Grayson sleeping beside me, his hand loosely on my waist. He has a soft smile on his face even as he is sleeping. With a smile, I scoot closer and place my hands on his neck. The sudden thought of being closer to him leads me to place on leg over his torso and hug him tight.

"Julie?", his voice comes from underneath me and I giggle into his ear. I tighten my hold on him and his hands go to my thigh to steady me. His touch is welcoming against my bare skin, I feel it all throughout my body.

"How are you feeling?", he says and I pull away just enough to see him. His hair is messy, fully falling into his eyes. I place a hand on his face and swipe the hair away from his eye. "You sound hot", I say the first thought that came to my mind. His morning voice was so much more raspy than usual and I felt my body warm at it.

"Yeah?", he says his hand on my thigh moving up. I close my eyes to savor the feeling, the feeling of his lingering touch. I loved it too much to admit. "Good morning", he says to me when I open my eyes again and I laugh, hitting his chest.

"Your laugh is so contagious", he murmurs lazily drawing circles on my leg. "Is my brother still here?"

I look over him and toward the smaller bed. The blanket had been dropped onto the floor and Nathan's bed is empty.

"No", I answer and throw my other leg on top of him until I am fully on top him. He laughs from under me when I place a kiss on his ear.

"Julie", he warms his voice soft and yet....breathy when my kisses start to lower down his neck. I ignore him and place wet kisses onto his neck and down to his chest. "Baby", the word is barely audible, I smile when I realize that my kisses are giving him a hard time to breathe. It makes me feel good knowing that I'm making him feel good.

Grayson's hands go just the hem of my shorts and he holds on to it tight.

"Gray", I tease him , my tongue poking out of my mouth to touch his skin. My boyfriend rolls out from under me until he is sitting up, his hand up for me to see.

Red. I see red. That's all I see, his hand, his white shirt painted a red spot. There's a tiny beat of red on his leg also.

Oh no

"Julie?", he asks his voice full of concern. I stand up so abruptly I almost fall on top of him but I jump out of bed within a second. I look down at my legs to see blood dripping down my upper thigh. Shit. I look at Grayson and he has his eyes already one me, soft and delicate.

"Am I to assume that's from your period?", he asks me his voice disbelieving rising on the side of suspicion. He felt the bandages on my thigh, amd I let him. He knows, and now he is asking me wether I am going to lie to him or tell him the thruth.

I try to play it off though and say,"Yeah, I have a heavy blood flow."

"Juliette", he says his voice stern. "What the fuck?", he whispers more to himself than me. In one movement, he is off the bed and kneeling down in front of me. I press my legs together, knowing he is going to check, but he places a hand in between my lower thigh and spreads me legs, his eyes on me.