Borrowed Time

Chapter 192

Shopping was never in Juliette's strong suits, especially not for shit to wear to Broken Roses concerts, her brain couldn't get over the fact that she was showing skin, let alone that she was shopping for clothing to specifically do that.  She still struggled to dress her body.

That was why she'd enlisted Penny's help; an eager friend and a helping hand, that would make this shit go so much faster.

"Thanks for taking me shopping, I really wanna surprise Esme with this outfit, you know?" She asked, and Penny gave her a knowing smirk, linking their arms together as she continued to lead Juliette through the store.

It was impressive to watch Penny ignore each and every look that she got, every leering smile... All the things that would make Juliette feel like she was going to crawl right out of her skin were so easily ignored by Penny... She wanted to be able to do that, to float above it all.

But she knew that that was the result of a lot of comments, a lot of unwanted advances to the point that she'd gained a shell that just reflected all of it away... She saw the mask faulter sometimes, like if a guy or girl got too close to touching her, she could see the fear that flashed across Penny's face before she would grip their wrist and shove them away, quicker than anyone else ever could.

"I'm all for helping you surprise Esme." She said, smiling as she pulled something off of the rack and turned to her, thrusting it into her hands... Juliette was honestly a little bit afraid to examine it, she had no idea what Penny might think would look good on her, but she doubted that it would be what she normally wore, which was kind of the point. But she looked down, seeing that it was way too short and quickly tucked it back on the shelf. Nope. Cooter has to stay in the cooter-holster. "You two are really cute together." She said, frowning and sighing when she saw that Juliette had put it back.

She chuckled, tucking her hands into her back pockets as she rocked back on her heels.

Ignore that I've disappointed you, let's focus on something else instead!

"Well, I certainly hope so... I sorta wanna be with them forever, you know?" She asked, smiling a bit when she said that, her heart feeling warm. That sounded like paradise - she'd never considered getting old before she got with Esme, she just sort of thought that she'd die some quietly tragic death as a housewife, that it would be covered up as her having 'demons' and that would be the end of it.

Now she wanted children, grandchildren even... She wanted to wake up next to Esme every single morning.

Penny squeezed her arm, giving her a knowing look.

"They want the same thing, trust me." She sighed, turning back to the shelves as she went in to search again, making Juliette grimace... Maybe this wasn't the best thing to do, Penny could pull off way hotter clothing than she could, maybe this was out of her range... But the risk might be worth the reward on this one, right? "The number of times that we heard about the beautiful blonde girl from Hollingsworth, Juliette Smith who would never even look their way, not even to borrow a pencil again... The girl that they had no chance with." Penny said, chuckling to herself as she continued to walk, Juliette trailing behind her.

Part of her wished she could've figured herself out sooner - she would've loved to find Esme back in the day, she would've loved to love them back when they thought that no one could. It would've been great to get to have their heart from the start... Like obviously she had Esme's, it just would've been nice if they'd had hers right back.

"Clearly they were wrong about that." She said, and Penny shrugged like that wasn't entirely accurate, but clearly it was - why else would they be together now, right? Things had worked out, everything had gone according to plan.