Borrowed Time

Chapter 194

The car ride from the venue to Emma's house was the perfect time to completely disassociate from reality and exist in her own little world, that was what Juliette really loved the most about it despite it being fucking long and very annoying to deal with.  She didn't know why they'd booked a venue so far away, but it'd been a good show, and now she could imagine all the gruesome ways that the car could be flattened if they took a wrong turn on the poorly lit roads, which was perfectly healthy and not reason to call her therapist at all.

She was so normal right now.

"Okay..." Shelby's voice startled Juliette back into reality as she looked over at her, realizing that they were driving down Emma's driveway finally... It felt like it'd been forever since the drive started.

"What?" She asked, seeing a smile twitch on Shelby's face as she sighed, shaking her head.

What?

"If they beat us here, I'm going to start to think that they can time travel, because that's the only logical explanation for this shit." Shelby said, parking the car carefully next to Becky and Carly's, which was thankfully empty and not fogged up - Juliette didn't need to see that again, it'd been bad to see it even once before midterms.

But she had to agree - they were speeding like crazy if they were here before them, and that was going to be something that Juliette talked to Esme about because there was no way that Bertha could handle the high speeds like that - she was old, they had to be careful with her if they didn't want to have to get a new car before graduation, which Juliette knew for a fact that they did not want.

"You've got a good point." She looked over at her, smiling. "Or, you know, they're just speeding." Her point was met with a sigh as Shelby shook her head, patting her hand lightly with a frown... Hopefully it was a joking frown, because if it wasn't she was gonna feel really bad.

She just wanted to point out the obvious - she doubted that they were listening to the speed limit unless it was Esme or Penny driving into Franstend - Emma could get off without even a warning, and Tegan... Well, Tegan always drove like a bat out of fucking Hell. The other two were careful all the time.

"You never allow me to have any whimsy." Shelby said, her voice coming out flat as Juliette snorted, shaking her head as she pushed Shelby's hand away. She'd thought that something was actually wrong, that was a very cruel thing to do.

The apologies that she was drafting in her head held little merit now, but they were still there - still there if she needed them because she never wanted to actually hurt Shelby's feelings, she'd probably take a cyanide pill if she did that.

Woah okay, calm down you emo bitch... What the fuck was that?

"I know, I'm such a bitch, huh?" She sighed, hoping that her joking tone was enough to dispel any concern that Shelby might have had at her going silent for a moment - and luckily it was, because Shelby met her with the same sort of tone, the same sort of humor as she huffed, looking away from her.

There we go, play into it. Very good.

"Obviously." She gasped, clapping a hand over her chest with faux shock as Shelby's smile warmed, looking at her sweetly as she reached over to grab her hand again, kissing the back of it softly. "And that's why I love you." She sounded very sincere with that, resting her chin against their linked hands.

Okay, don't be sweet right now, we're bullying each other. Now I'm gonna feel bad for bullying you.

"How sweet." Her deadpan voice brought Shelby back into the joke, and her smile turned into a smirk as she leaned away, resting her head against the headrest of her chair.