Borrowed Time Part 2

Chapter 229

New York City at night would never not be one of the most overwhelming cities in the entire world to Juliette, there was just far too much going on at any given moment for it to be a place that she could understand calling home like so many did. Sure, it was wonderful for a vacation because she was never bored, but she was pretty sure that if she had to stay for longer than a week at most, she'd probably have to tear her skin off of her face.

She rubbed her thumb over the side of Esme's hand, humming quietly to herself as they continued down the street with their friends all a few paces ahead. They were all having fun, laughing and joking and in her mind, Juliette wanted to do the exact same thing, but that seemed like it would be really fucking hard, she was too... In it for that right now.

Too much.

"Hey." Esme's voice was soft in her ear and she turned to look over at them, smiling warmly as she forced herself back into her body - she was lucky enough to be in one of the coolest cities in the entire world with the love of her life, she might as well pay attention to them more than her own overstimulation, right?

"What's up, my love?" She asked, feeling Esme pull her closer as they looked at her with concern in their eyes, which she didn't understand - she'd been keeping her thoughts on the inside, therefore they would have no idea how she was feeling, so why bother being worried about her in any sort of way? Clearly she was fine, there was nothing outwardly wrong so she was fine.

"You're like completely not here right now." Damn. Thought I was hiding that pretty well, why must you see through each and every bit of my carefully curated plans? "Wanna fill me in, pretty girl?" They asked, and she sighed, shrugging... There really wasn't anything wrong right now, at least no more than usual, but she knew that that would not be the right thing to be saying to Esme right now - they would find little to no comfort in hearing that from her.

"Well, and here I thought that I was hiding it really well." Juliette said, wanting Esme to laugh along with her, but they didn't, they just kept their concerned eyes on her face, making her breath feel like it was coming out in short pants - even after all these months, sometimes she struggled under the weight of Esme's full and complete attention. She was pretty sure that weaker women than her would completely perish under their gaze.

"To the outside world maybe, but you're the love of my life so I'm pretty in tune with you." That was very true, aside from Shelby and Micheal, they were probably the person who had the most understanding of what was going on in her brain when she didn't wanna say anything. "What's up?" They asked, and she shrugged... How was she supposed to say 'I'm fine but I wanna take my skin off' without sounding like a total and complete freak? She didn't want Esme to stop loving her because she couldn't speak normally.

Was that dramatic? Of course, but it was something that she constantly worried about.

"I'm just... I'm a little overwhelmed, I guess." She said, knowing that all that was going to do was stress Esme out further, and she was right. They frowned a little, rubbing their thumb over the side of her hand as they looked at her, seeming more concerned than she'd ever seen someone look in her whole life.

Damn. Expressive.

"Wanna go back?" They asked, and she was very quick to shake her head. She didn't want Esme leaving the group just because she was having a moment, she had moments all the time and like all of those moments, this too would easily pass.

"No! We're hanging out with people, I don't wanna go back." She tried, but all Esme did was inch closer to her, wrapping their arm around her shoulder as they pressed a soft kiss to her temple, a move that made her smile wide in spite of the feeling of bugs crawling on her skin.