Sanity Siphoned

Ch5: Time Bonded

Chapter 5

Yup, Michael was sure now the universe had a wicked sense of humor. He was enjoying his time at the Teller residence. Julienne's mom was a pretty good cook and dinner had been easy to get through. They all made small talk, except for Julienne; it took a lot for her to talk or some rather frisky hands. She was a completely different girl when they were alone and he was highly attracted to that girl.

Every so often he'd hear Shane's warnings in his head but he quickly brushed them aside. Yeah it was weird to be with the girl you bullied for years but on the other hand she was right there wanting the same thing. He wasn't the bad guy.

After dinner her conscience was back and a pain in his ass. Julienne planted her butt on the couch and opened up her math homework.

He shrugged his shoulders and sat next to her, so close that from shoulder to knee he made sure they touched. As expected she tensed surprised with his boldness, but she didn't move away. It brought a smile to his face. Oh yeah she totally wanted him.

"Want some help?" he asked. Julienne dropped her pen and looked at him like he grew another head. "What? I can be nice."

She turned her grey eyes away. "I wouldn't know it."

"True, hmm." He said thoughtfully while sitting back on the couch. He reached under her shirt and ran his fingers over her back, she shivered. "I'm going to have to work on that."

"Don't," she sighed as she stuttered on the word. "Have homework to do?"

The stutter was probably another reason she resorted to silence. Last week he would've jumped at the chance to hold it against her. Now he was letting it slide because she had something he was far more interested in than her humiliation. "Nah, I left it at home and I can do it tonight. You sometimes stutter when you're nervous, am I making you nervous?" she didn't do it when she was scared and angry; he had seen those emotions from her enough to know.

Julienne fell back into the silent treatment and began writing from the book on to her notepad. He left her alone, this time. Sitting back on the couch he continued to absently stroke the length of her back and watch her as she tried to pretend he wasn't there. Every few minutes she'd push her hair behind her ear and it'd fall back onto her face.

Over these last few days he realized she was a pretty girl under all her quirks to stay hidden in plain sight, she also had stopped caring and didn't bother with the little things like make-up or styling her messy hair. She wanted to make herself ugly.

Her hair was obviously bothering her but she didn't care enough to do something about it. At school it made sense to leave it all over her shoulders and face because she liked to hide behind it. Michael thought at home she should really let go more of her fears.

An idea hit him and never one to back down he followed it. He went back to her room and came back moments later. Julienne was waiting with that what-the-hell-are-you-doing face. "Come here." He positioned her how he wanted on the couch then sat behind her. "I have this cousin, she's ten and she's obsessed with braiding the hair on her dolls and then taking it out. She wanted help and showed me how to do it." he explained while combing out her long hair and starting a French Braid.

"You help your cousin with dolls?" she sounded shocked and something like impressed.

"I'm not always a bad guy but yeah, yeah I know you wouldn't know that. I'm being nice now and it has nothing to do with trying to get inside your pants."

She reached out and hit him in the leg. "Our moms are right in that room!"

A stupid grin found its way back onto his face. She found the guts to hit and chastise him. "I really like this side of you. You should seriously merge them together." On one hand she was this terrified girl that liked to hide and on the other hand she was spunky. He had a feeling she used to be like that before tragedy struck. He found from his mom about the car accident that killed her father, cousin and almost her. She had been in the hospital for months, that would turn anyone into a depressed shell of their former self.

Done with the braid he bent and kissed her on the neck. That wasn't enough so he turned her face and kissed her on the mouth. His body wanted what it wanted, he didn't care at all who was in the other room.

Her hand was still on his thigh and she used it to get him to stop by digging her nails into his flesh. "Ok, ok I got the message." Well not quite, he kissed her one more time then let her go.

Julienne, ever the wise one, got up and moved to another seat. She knew it would only be a matter of time before he made another move.

He sat back and watched her. She really did look much better without all that hair in her face. She knew he was watching her and in turn she was biting down on her bottom lip, another turn on. How this shy, awkward, social nightmare kept turning him on, he really had no clue but she was giving those leggy cheerleaders a run for their money.

He'd much rather sit in silence watching Julienne's cloudy grey eyes then hang out with someone like Anna and listen to her complain about everything under the sun.

Her mom came out to check on them, she touched her hand to Julienne's head. "Oh honey I like being able to see your face. How did….?"

"Michael likes playing with girls' hair." She didn't look up from her homework.

The boy in question laughed. "Not like that. Like you said Mrs. Teller it's nice to be able to see her face so I lent a helping hand." He watched Julienne as he said it; she went from biting her lip to her thumb nail.

"Well you did a beautiful job." Mrs. Teller continued. "I'm glad to see you both getting along."

A lot of inappropriate replies floated around Michael's head but he couldn't very well tell her she had no idea how badly he wanted to get 'along' with her daughter. He smiled like the charming boy he was supposed to be and kept his mouth shut.