Borrowed Time Part 2

Chapter 257

 Shelby hadn't gotten better in the following days since her collapse in the hallway, if anything she'd gotten worse, something that Juliette hadn't really thought about happening because Shelby always got better... Well, almost always. There were a few times over their friendship where she'd ended up in the hospital, but her track record was a lot more clean than most people's who held themselves to the standard that Shelby did.

Be perfect or die trying. That was what this was feeling like... She'd gone through this before, it wasn't like Juliette had never seen her like this, she'd seen it dozens of times; when her father left, when her mother died, when everything went down with Ingrid now that she thought about it, when she was sure she was going to fail a class and decided that being hooked to an IV would be better than disappointing her parents... The difference was that with those, she normally stopped in time, but this spiral had no indication of being done any time soon... And Juliette couldn't shake the feeling that she was responsible for it. There was nothing she could really do save from never really leaving her side.

So that was what she was doing now. Shelby needed to go to school to get her shoes for her track meet the next day?

Juliette was in her passenger seat. Shelby wanted to stay up late? Juliette pulled an all nighter with her on the phone... That was how she'd known that Shelby had slept for four hours at least, which was probably better than it'd been in a few days.

Not good, the cause wasn't clear... But it was better than nothing.

Shelby parked wordlessly, letting out a long breath as she brought her head forward to rest on the steering wheel, her hands trembling like she hadn't eaten something in days.

Juliette furrowed her brows, scooting a little closer so she could lean over the center of the car.

"Hey... Are you okay, Shelbs?" Juliette asked gently, reaching over to rub her hand between Shelby's shoulder blades, feeling her relax into her touch after tensing for a moment. She heard her let out a puff of air and watched as she lifted her head from the steering wheel with effort, like it was actually weighing her down.

Her eyebags looked even deeper, like despite the bit of sleep she'd gotten the night prior, she still hadn't seen the right side of her bed in days... It sent a cold shock down Juliette's spine.

This was bad. Sure, Shelby had gotten into moods similar to this recently, but this was the worst she'd seen it in years... And the timeline really was too perfect to not fall on her in some way or another.

Shelby seemed to notice her apprehension and smiled at her, but the gesture didn't meet her eyes.

"I'm fine, J. Just... Tired." She said, her tone not unkind, but still robotic as she rubbed the heels of her hands into her eyes and sighed, letting them drop to her lap. Juliette frowned, taking her in fully... Shelby was normally pretty polished, but she didn't look it right now. Her hair was frizzy, her edges were sticking up, her braids desperately needed to be redone, something she was normally very on top of during track season... And her skin was greasy, papery, almost like it hadn't been properly washed in days despite her religiously followed skincare regiment.

Juliette had half a mind to smell her breath – if she hadn't brushed her teeth, she was ready to phone Shelia about this. Shelby never skipped that step, she said it made her feel less human when she teeth were even slightly fuzzy from lack of care, and Juliette couldn't blame her. It was an overstimulating feeling.

"Are you-." The frustrated sigh that left Shelby's mouth told her that she'd probably pushed the topic about as far as she was going to get it right now.