Borrowed Time Part 2

Chapter 268

Juliette felt like somehow, her life was actually turning around for the better like... For real. Like outside of the Walsh house, she still felt that way because somehow, Ethan was out the day that she came back and somehow no one had said a damn thing to her about what happened at the party, she'd remembered her lines, and now she was just getting to rehearse with Jackson, which was preferred because he seemed to never actually make it to rehearsals...

Everything was looking up... Well, save for the fact that Jackson hadn't been focused the entire time that they'd been rehearsing, he'd been quiet in a way that she'd never seen him, like he was feeling guilty for something that she didn't know about. And if he was that was fine, but it couldn't affect now, she deserved this good day.

Was that a little selfish? Maybe, but hadn't she earned the right to a little selfishness?

Juliette reached across the way, smacking Jackson's arm to get him to look up at her.

"Hey." He looked away again, worrying his lower lip... Okay, now her mood was starting to get affected, what the fuck was with this guy? "Hey." He looked back then, plastering an incredibly fake smile on his face that didn't cover the obvious guilt behind his eyes.

Like a toddler trying to cover that he'd broken his grandmother's urn or something while the ashes were still in the air.

"Sorry, what?" He asked, and she sighed, tapping her finger against his script. They needed to get this scene down, it was their first time acting it out in two weeks because of how many rehearsals he'd had to miss, this was their chance to get it perfect.

"Dude, we can't rehearse the scene, which needs to happen, if you keep staring off into space." He looked down again and she sighed, fighting the urge to tear her own hair out... What the hell was with this fucking guy? "Seriously, what is going on with you?" His mouth opened and closed before he cleared his throat, shaking his head.

"I... Nothing. There's nothing wrong with me, I just... Well..." He stammered and she sighed, leaning her head back against the wall.

Whatever he was saying had better be real fucking important for him to be pausing so much... Like, was he trying to add time for suspense? Because all it was doing was pissing her off.

"Dude, stop pausing for dramatic effect and tell me what's going on." She insisted, and he nodded, taking a deep breath before he squeezed his eyes shut, tensing like what he had to say was physically painful for him... Well, if it was she'd feel a bit bad for what she said.

"I wanted to say I'm sorry." He said hurriedly, and she paused, frowning. To her knowledge, Jackson hadn't done anything that would warrant any sort of apology to her, at least not one big enough for him to be this nervous and mopey... Hell, not even a small one.

But the way that he was wringing his hands and not meeting her eyes told her that he probably had done something, and that made her stomach sink... How long had he been sitting on it? How terrible was the action that he did? Was she gonna wanna kick his ass for it?

These were important questions.

"What are you even apologizing for, Jackson?" She asked, keeping her voice level... She didn't want to scare him off by sounding like she was probing for what he'd done... That was the exact thing that he was doing, but what he didn't know didn't hurt him.

He swallowed heavily, resting his head in his hands... Well, she felt like she was gonna vomit now.

If he didn't fucking blow up a hospital or something, then she was gonna be real disappointed because that seemed like the kind of severity that an apology like this warranted.