Borrowed Time

Chapter 152

Cheering at basketball games was quite possibly the biggest sensory nightmare of Juliette's entire life, aside from having to wear a dress with heavy lace that touched her neck when she was a kid once... Actually, they were tied, both gross for different reasons. There was almost no air flow in the gym, it smelt like sweat and floor polish, and everyone was stupidly loud for a team that would constantly lose if it weren't for Tate - with him, they only lost 70% of the time, but that wasn't his fault, he was just one guy. She'd rather tear off her own skin over sitting in the gym until she absolutely had to be in there, and so she... Simply wasn't going to today. She stood up and sighed, grabbing her jacket to shrug it over her shoulder when she heard someone clear their throat.

"Smith. Where are you off to?" She rolled her eyes and turned around, seeing Ingrid standing behind her with crossed arms... Ingrid was mostly tolerable these days, but she still sometimes turned into the teenaged girl version of a helicopter parent on game days... Granted, Juliette couldn't really blame her considering the fact that she had disappeared for too long before games during the football season, but she was setting an alarm this time, it'd be fine.... Or maybe she wouldn't go to Esme, and she'd actually take a walk, it could be good for her mental health...

Her phone buzzed in her hand and she looked down, clicking on the notification with a sharp inhale as she held the phone to her chest, her eyes wide. She hadn't gotten a long look at it before realizing what it was, but she knew Esme's hands were down their pants and their shirt was up... And that she was indeed going out there... Yeah, there was no ignoring that.

Another vibration... God, don't even look. Just go. You know what you wanna do. Ingrid was staring at her with thinly veiled confusion before Juliette cleared her throat, tucking the phone into her jacket pocket.

Be fucking normal for once, please,

"I'm going for a walk. We've got twenty minutes until we have to be in there, and I am not going in until it is exactly twenty minutes." She said, flipping her hair out of the collar of her jacket as she did. Ingrid got a knowing smirk on her face, leaning against the lockers as she observed Juliette.

"Well... You have your windbreaker this time, so at least you won't get 'lost' looking for it." She said, and Juliette grimaced... God, she really could've come up with better excuses in the fall, 'I'm missing my windbreaker' was not a good reason to come back with smudged makeup...

"You're right." She didn't really want to give Ingrid an in-depth response... Don't do it then, you really don't owe her one. "I'm just going on a walk." She said, and Ingrid sighed and nodded, pushing away.

"No details?" Ingrid asked, making Juliette grit her teeth as she shoved her hands in the pockets of her jacket... She knew Ingrid was joking, she knew Ingrid didn't expect her to actually say anything from the smile on her face, but it was just uncomfortable that she was asking at all, even as a joke.

Even when they were friends Jules wouldn't have exposed that sort of sensitive information.

"We're still not friends, Ingrid." She said flatly, unsure of how else she was really supposed to respond to that. Ingrid's face went blank for a moment before she let out a sigh and nodded, pushing off the lockers as she crossed her arms across her chest, seeming to be completely disinterested not even a moment later.

Honestly, it was a little bit scary how easily she could do that, it'd always made Juliette feel uneasy even when they were friends - it made it harder to just Ingrid, because how do you trust someone who flips that switch like it's nothing, right?