Borrowed Time Part 2

Chapter 235

She nodded, walking up behind her as Shelby finally opened the door so that they could start their walk down the hallway to where the rest of their friends were waiting to leave - the band, plus Mari obviously, had gone up ahead to get things set up and do sound check, so really the only people waiting were Becky, Carly, and Micheal, and they were all so engrossed in their conversations that Juliette had to clear her throat twice for them to look up at her. Becky was the first one who did, standing up with a grin, a suit the others followed quickly.

"There you two are, I was close to going in there and taking the door off the hinges to see what was going on." She said, and Juliette furrowed her brows, shaking her head as she saw Carly chuckling, looking up at Becky like she'd said the funniest thing in the world and not a very strange way to handle them taking a while. Why not just knock? What was hard about knocking one's knuckles against the door? What made that into something that was difficult, why remove the piece of wood? It was a heavy door, an expensive door, that was a lot of work.

She shook her head. You're thinking too much about this, keep speaking.

"I wanted to make sure I was wearing the right outfit." She said, and Micheal turned around, giving her a knowing look as he walked around the couch and pushed up on his toes to press a kiss to Shelby's lips before speaking. Disgusting.

"To impress Penny?" Huh? How the fuck had he guessed that? She saw his smile die as he looked at her, seeming confused before he took her hand with a gentle squeeze, like was ready to shoot into some kind of apology to her, not that she really needed one... What he had said had been accurate, no apology needed. "What? I'm just assuming because I know that you already know how to impress Esme, you two have been together a while, so I can only assume it's about Penny." He said, speaking so blatantly that it made Juliette want to chomp down on a live wire - the fact that everyone knew everything even without her talking about it was just a good reminder to herself that she was nowhere near as good at hiding her thoughts as she had assumed that she was, and that was just simply the worst news that she could ever receive in the entire world.

She rubbed her hands on her skirt and cleared her throat, nodding.

"You're right, I just forget how well you know me sometimes, and it's a little freaky." She explained, and Micheal gave her a knowing smile and nodded, patting her arm lightly before he spoke, something that told her that he was about to say something that she really didn't want to hear and that she wouldn't be able to escape even if she wanted to.

That was Micheal's brand of wisdom - he was smart about feelings because his mother had given him an excellent emotional basis to work off of, and he would ensure that you knew that he knew what was going on in a way that was so gentle and sweet that there really wasn't a way to be upset with him over it.

"Hey, in my defense this has been painfully obvious to everyone but you." He said, tone soft and sweet as Juliette frowned... She'd honestly thought that she'd mostly hidden her crush on Penny pretty well. Sure, everyone knew that they'd slept together, that had been obvious when Penny had rolled out of hers and Esme's room wearing their clothing, but the fact that he was so comfortable just saying that he knew was a little shocking to her.

"Wait, really?" She asked, and he nodded, squeezing her hand softly as he did.

"C'mon, Jules... I know you so fucking well, you think I didn't pick up on it? I'm an intuitive person." Micheal reminded her, and Juliette grimaced, nodding as she squeezed his hand back, rubbing her thumb over his soft skin as she did. His touch was one of her greatest comforts in the world, that was something that she had never been able to deny, nor would she want to.