Borrowed Time Part 2

Chapter 258

Juliette hadn't really slept, not like... Really slept if she was being honest with herself, and it was making her feel like a sentient, over microwaved burrito.

At least what she was assuming one would feel like - her eyes were dry, her lips were cracked, and her head was pounding and she felt just a little too hot, but she hadn't wanted to kick Micheal out of the chair he'd been sleeping in, and as much as she knew that there was room in Esme's van to sleep, she didn't want to leave Shelby alone in case something happened.

Well... Not alone because Micheal was there, but she didn't want to leave Shelby without her there.  That felt mean.  She needed to be there for her friend when she felt responsible for her being in the hospital in the first place.

Micheal was lucky, fast asleep in the chair... He could sleep just about anywhere without much of a problem, and Shelby was out too... She hadn't gotten there.  Combined, she'd maybe gotten an hour of sleep, which could be worse, ti could be no sleep but she'd almost rather prefer that.  It was like saying that a single bite of pizza was dinner.

All it did was make her want more, but she just couldn't get there.

She let out a quiet groan, feeling her body burn as she stretched, her joints really feeling that she'd tried to sleep on her jacket on the floor in the corner of a hospital room... God, this was hell.  She wanted Shelby to go home for a multitude of reasons, but one of the biggest and arguably most selfish reasons why was so that she could sleep a full night in her own bed, wrapped up tight with Esme.

That sounded like heaven... But right now, so did the burnt ass hospital cafeteria coffee... Or a Monster.

Monster was probably a better idea - she'd be up for a while; she needed the get the energy for it.

She sat up, ignoring the throbbing in her temples as she hobbled towards the vending machines, grimacing at the prices... It should've been criminal to charge 4.50 for an original monster... If it was a white one or even maybe a rehab, she could see it.

But the original?  The gasoline bullshit?

That should be considered criminal... Nevertheless, she dug out her wallet and inserted enough money for two, knowing that Micheal would need one too... Part of her wished she'd just taken his wallet, Lord knows that out of the two of them, he could afford a lot more than she could... But it was also his girlfriend who was sick, this could be her treat.

Treat was a stretch... This could be her... Punishment?

It felt more like a punishment to have to choke it down.

She walked quietly down the hallways, dodging around nurses doing their rounds and people being wheeled about, feeling far too healthy to be in the same space as them... It was an odd thought for her brain to have, that she was too healthy to be inside of a hospital, but it was by no means one that was uncommon for her - she had that thought when she was a kid too. She used to sit at her mother's bedside and feel guilt that she wasn't the one in it... Obviously there was relief that she wasn't ill, but she felt bad that it wasn't her.

Sometimes she thought that if she prayed hard enough, that God would switch their places. That her mom would get better... But no matter how hard she prayed, no matter what she did, her mother kept getting sicker, and she kept getting older. Obviously she prayed her to recover too, but she thought she might get further if she just prayed for them to be swapped.

A soul for a soul, so to speak... And that feeling hadn't gone away. She'd spent a lot of the night up thinking about how it wasn't fair that Shelby was the one in the hospital bed and she was fine... Well, physically fine. She kept getting flashes of how it would look if the situation was swapped... her body ached when she thought about it for too long, but it wasn't like she could just stop. Maybe some people could, but she knew that she couldn't. She just wasn't wired that way.