Second chance ~ Jude Bellingham

chap 7

Juliette knocked on the bathroom door. "Jude?"

The water shut off as Juliette knocked, and Jude quickly turned his head towards the door. "Yeah?" he called out in response.

"Are you done?" she asked.

Jude wrapped a towel around his body and stepped out of the shower, his hair wet. "Hold on, I need to get changed. Give me like 5 minutes," he yelled back, hastily searching for clothes.

"Okay, I'll wait in front of the bathroom," she replied.

After a few minutes, Jude finally finished putting on clothes and walked out of the bathroom, running a towel over his wet hair. He kept his eyes on the ground as he walked. "Do you know what's going on downstairs?" he asked, looking up as he met Juliette's gaze. He felt somewhat breathless at how beautiful she looked in her dress. He had a bad feeling about the party. "Why are you dressed like that?"

"Your mom and I are going out tonight," Juliette lied, then noticed how he was dressed. "Dress nicer! It's your birthday."

He huffed. "I like being comfortable," he mumbled, looking up at Juliette and trailing his eyes over her body discreetly. "But you look nice..." he quickly added, looking away as they stared into each other's eyes for a moment.

"Thank you, I guess. Give me that towel," Juliette said, smiling.

He glanced down at the towel in his hand and hesitantly handed it to her. "What're you gonna do with it?" he asked, watching Juliette curiously as she took the towel.

She chuckled and started to dry his hair. "You're not staying like this."

He let out a small groan as Juliette began to dry his hair. "Stop, I can do that! And I'm not changing, it's too much effort," he protested, even though her close proximity was driving him insane.

"It's your birthday, please!" she insisted.

He huffed and stared at Juliette for a long moment before rolling his eyes. "Only because it's my birthday and only because you're pretty," he mumbled, before turning around and walking back into the bathroom to get changed into something nicer.

"Alleluia," Juliette said.

Several minutes later, Jude walked back out of the bathroom, now wearing a nice button-up shirt and trousers. "There, I'm dressed up," he said with a light scoff, rolling his eyes. "What now?"

"Perfect, now follow me," Juliette said, starting to walk downstairs.

He sighed as Juliette began to walk, and he followed behind her as they made their way downstairs. He began to feel suspicious. "Where are we going?" he asked quietly as they slowly walked down the steps.

"Shhhh," Juliette whispered.

Jude's eyes widened as all the lights suddenly turned off. "What's going on—" he was rudely cut off by a chorus of people suddenly yelling, "SURPRISE!" as all the lights turned back on. He stood motionless for several minutes, staring at the party that had been prepared for him.

Juliette turned to Jude and laughed.

He stared in shock for several minutes more until eventually, a smile slowly grew on his face, and he ran a hand through his messy hair. "I've never been this surprised in my entire life... and all of you put this together for me?" he mumbled in disbelief, looking back and forth at the crowd of guests. As he looked back over at Juliette, his smile widened.

"Well, your mom was the one who organized all of this," Juliette said.

He nodded slowly as he looked over at his mom with an adoring smile, extremely grateful for the love and effort she had put into this. He turned back to Juliette and glanced at her before speaking up again. "Thank you for helping my mother put this together. I still think you didn't need to get so dressed up," he said with a small scoff as his eyes trailed over her body again.

Juliette rolled her eyes.

He looked back up at Juliette's eyes, and his gaze fell on her lips. He quickly shook his head and turned away, trying to push his thoughts away. He began to walk over towards the other guests, muttering a quiet, "Come on."