Borrowed Time Part 2

Chapter 242

Hollingsworth's movie theater was the tiniest, shittiest thing in the whole world... Luckily, seeing a movie there was dirt cheap, or in this case totally free because of Esme.

A lovely perk.

"So... How did we get these tickets again?" Shelby asked, and Juliette gave her a look - that felt like it was self explanatory. If they were attending a showing for free at their work, then why wouldn't it be clear that Esme had paid for them?

"Esme." She said, watching Shelby nod.

"Right."

"God, I totally forgot that Esme even had a job at the movie theater." Micheal said, which was fair - they'd only gotten it recently and they were hardly ever at it anyway.

It was just for a little extra cash.

"Yeah, it's their other job. They only work here like twice a week, so less than their hours at the country club." She explained, and Micheal blinked at her, looking almost afraid, which was fair.

Esme was a fucking machine.

And a fucking machine but... But that was not a joke that she was going to tell Micheal. She was pretty sure he'd hate that shit.

"How the fuck do they manage to have enough hours in the day to do all this shit?" Micheal asked, sounding genuinely impressed, and Juliette shrugged. Honestly, she wasn't sure because if she went at the rate Esme did, she as pretty sure she'd be dead in a week or less.

But they made it look easy.

"They're very dedicated to never accumulating debt and to paying off whatever their mother has left." Juliette explained, hearing Emma let out a chuckle as she looked over at them, seeing him shaking his head with a sigh.

What are you giggling about?

"As if Gianna will allow that, she doesn't even let my mom help her." Esme snorted, and Juliette sighed and nodded, tucking her hands into her pockets. She knew that Gianna didn't allow Francesca to help her, that was one of the first things she'd ever seen between the two of them.

Gianna didn't want charity, and neither did Esme.

"Yeah, that sounds about right." Juliette tried to think of the nicest way to say she's too proud to accept help because that felt mean. "She's headstrong." Good wording, much nicer.

"A trait Esme picked up from her." Penny said, and Juliette nodded. Headstrong was a fucking understatement for both of them. She tried to pay for something one time to make up for living there and it had felt like she'd just insulted both of their livelihoods or some shit.

"And a workaholic." Juliette added, and Shelby cleared her throat.

Uh oh. Tread lightly.

She knew that Esme and Shelby could sometimes make jokes that made her skin crawl about Esme's past, and normally Juliette would've maybe laughed along, but she was not in her correct headspace today... Everything felt echoy, and it was pissing her off.

"Another trait Esme picked up." Shelby smirked, nudging Juliette's ribs lightly. "They got the other 'holics' from their father." She said, and Juliette grimaced, flicking her arm hard. "Ow." Oh, shut up I barely touched you.

"Bad joke." She said firmly, and Shelby gave her a look, rubbing her arm with a wince as Juliette fought the urge to roll her eyes because seriously, was she supposed to believe Shelby was hurt by a flick?

This was the same motherfucker who she'd seen body people on the basketball court a few times, she was fine.

"It was funny." Defensive tone.