Chapter 234

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The Columba campus was both bigger and smaller than Juliette had expected it to be - actually, she hadn't been expecting anything at all, not really, because she hadn't thought that there would ever be a reason for her to be on the campus... But Penny had wanted to give it another visit, and they were all there, so why not?

She was distracted by the wealth, by the clear amount of prestige that was around her while somehow still managing to be in the most stressful city in the entire world... it was almost awe inspiring, if she really cared that deeply about the status of it all. She much preferred the campus that she'd be on, it was a bit more secluded, she felt like she was constantly on display as they walked through the buildings... It was getting on her nerves.

Beside her, she felt Esme's cool hand in hers and shivered, leaning into their side as they walked.

"Okay?" They asked, grinning down at her in a way that made her heart feel like it was doing flips in her chest as she nodded, fighting the giggle that almost came out of her mouth... She was sure that there had to be a point where this kind of thing, where the simple look of Esme's smile wouldn't be enough to make her knees weak, but today was not that day, and she hoped it wouldn't come for a long time.

She liked how in love she was.

"Yeah." She squeezed their hand back. "Always when I'm with you." She said, and Esme chuckled, shaking their head as they swung their arms between them, the breeze and movement welcome to Juliette - it made her feel a bit more real, a bit more human.

"That's really sweet, but I meant like... Are you overstimulated? This is a big campus, lot of new things... I was just checking in." Juliette blinked. Oh. Well, that made sense, didn't it?

She thought about it for a moment, frowning... of course she was overstimulated, she'd been overstimulated in one way or another for most of the trip, was it something that she needed to be worried about? Not really.

But it was sweet that Esme wanted to check in and that they cared.

"I'm no more overstimulated than I normally am, you know?  Like... It's just the normal amount." She said, and Esme grimaced, shaking their head as they brought their linked hands to their lips, pressing a kiss to the back of it before Juliette mimicked their movement, doing the exact same thing, a comfort that she loved doing.

"Right, but the normal amount for most people is none, so do you wanna cue me in a bit to how much yours is?" They asked, and Juliette shrugged - they obviously knew that she had a different limit than everyone else, that sort of came with the territory, but she wasn't really sure how she was supposed to explain it to someone else.

Like, okay... Did she wanna crawl out of her skin and run away into another plane of living because she could feel the tag of her shirt while simultaneously finding both comfort and discomfort in Esme's touch because while it was the most perfect thing in the world, their hand was also sweating enough that Juliette could feel it, and it was making her nauseated?

Yes.

But was that something that she thought was really that much of a thing to note? 

No.  At least not to her... But she'd try to explain it.

"Well... I mean, I don't want to rip my fingernails off, so we're doing better than when I have to sit in the classrooms on school with the old air conditioners that are loud and leaky, but I do wanna crawl out of my skin because it's loud and your hand is a little sweaty." Juliette explained, and Esme frowned, going to slide their hand out of hers as she felt her heart drop.

She didn't want Esme to let go of her, that wasn't what she was trying to accomplish with this, she was willing to feel like she wanted to chop her hand off if it meant that she got to hold Esme's hand, that mattered more than anything in the whole world to her.

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