Borrowed Time

Chapter 171

The exhaustion that Juliette was feeling into the core of her bones was not something that she would wish on anyone in the entire world - the lights were both too bright and too dim, she felt slightly out of body, and she didn't feel fucking real.  Half the people in her classroom felt fake, and the other half she hated... And Esme disappeared.

Honestly, she was half thinking that maybe Esme had never existed... Maybe it was all an elaborate ruse... Maybe-.

"Hey." Juliette jumped, roused from her thoughts as Esme slid onto the stool next to her, smiling at her as they rested their chin on their free hand, linking their pinkies together on the table. She grinned, slotting her fingers with theirs.

Good. I didn't want to deal with this shit class on my own.

"Oh! There you are." She said, bringing their linked hands to her lips to press a kiss to them before she heard someone clear their throat and looked up to see their teacher staring at both of them sternly.

Right.  Class.  She focused back in on Esme as they cleared their throat, looking back at her with a soft expression.

"I told you; I was running to the bathroom." Oh.  Well... If she was being entirely transparent, she didn't actually remember that they'd said that, she'd been more focused on keeping her eyes open.

Make them seem like they hadn't said that... I'm evil.  Be evil.

Juliette cleared her throat, narrowing her eyes as she leaned her chin against her hand.

"Uh huh..."

"What?" They asked, and Juliette shrugged... Time to start my joke.

"I was starting to wonder if you were just skipping." She said, and Esme gasped, gripping their chest in faux-hurt as they shook their head, making her fight back a chuckle.

They couldn't even feign offense at this, right? They used to skip constantly, it wasn't that far of a jump to be making.

"Me? Skip?" Yes. "Never." Liar.

"Mhm... Sure..." She said, making sure to pile on some sarcasm as Esme let out a sharp breath, shaking their head as they leaned more into the bit... Alright, then I won't pull back from it either.

"I'm offended by that tone." Esme sighed, which made her chuckle... Sure, this was a complete and utter joke, but it wasn't as if Esme skipping class had no bearing in the real world.

The reason that she'd thought that was because they had done stuff like that in the past - it wasn't a far jump to be making - making the joke believable made it better.

Kind of... Probably.

"Yeah..." She cleared her throat, facing away from Esme. "My tone has reason."

"... Fair point." Esme mumbled, and Juliette squeezed their hand before focusing back in on the class, scribbling down notes wherever she could as she pulled her hand back from Esme - she didn't want to, but she needed to make sure that she had stability while writing if she was going to write notes.

... Which she was probably gonna stop, but still... Might as well keep the ruse up for as long as possible.  She sighed, resting her head on her desk for a moment, letting the ruse of being a dedicated student fall.

I'm not a dedicated student, I need hours and hours of sleep... So much... I have not had enough.

She felt a light tap on her arm and lifted her head to look over at Esme.

Yes?

"Hm?" She asked, watching as Esme held out their hand expectantly, but she didn't know why they would do that... Did she have something that they wanted?  She'd literally give them her heart on a silver platter... Was that what they wanted?