Borrowed Time Part 2

Being back at school was oddly nice, the day had been structured, which she'd been missing... Plus, rehearsal would be fun.  She hadn't talked to anyone not on the trip the whole time they were there, so it'd be nice to reconnect.

Granted, was she still sitting next to Becky?  Obviously, but she could mentally reconnect, that was a thing.

"So, I have a question, and you don't have to answer it if you don't want to." Becky said, and Juliette turned her head to look over at her with furrowed brows because... Well, she'd never understood that clarification even if she made it herself all the time - questions, by definition, were things that could not be answered sometimes.

So why clarify that?

"Isn't that normally how questions work?  Like theoretically, I could just walk away, and you really couldn't stop me." She pointed out, and Becky paused before leaning forward, resting her chin on her hand as she did, looking only mildly annoyed, which was fair.

Juliette would've looked very annoyed herself, she was sure of that.

"Yes, but politeness would ordinary stop a person from doing that." Becky reasoned, and Juliette shrugged.  Sure, normal people but sometimes she acted in ways that were odd, and that was why it didn't make sense to her.  The unspoken rules of communication were a mystery to her.  They were unwritten.  And therefore unreadable.

"I'm only polite occasionally." She said, which made Becky give her a confused look, but she was unsure as to why - that was just the truth.  She was only polite occasionally and only to those who really deserved it.

That didn't used to be the case, but she'd learned her lesson on blanket politeness this year, and she wasn't going to deal with it again.

"You're always polite to me." She said, which was accurate - that was because Becky was wonderful, she deserved politeness and kindness - but there were plenty of people in their lives that did not deserve those things.

Bryce.

Colton.

Ethan.

Ingrid... 99% of the time anyway.

"Yeah, because you're my friend." That wasn't the point of this conversation, Becky had a question, and she was going to answer it, not because of politeness but because Becky deserved an answer. "Anyways, what's your question?" She asked, watching as Becky leaned in a little closer and she fought the urge to lean away.

This was just... A lot of closeness.

"Did you and Penny hook up on the trip?" Becky's question rang in her ears like she'd shouted it, and Juliette smacked her arm hard, her face burning as she did.

Becky rubbed her arm and frowned, looking between that and Juliette enough times that if she hadn't already felt guilty, the guilt would have found her.

"Don't say that so loud!" She hissed, and Becky chuckled, seeming to understand as she reached over to squeeze Juliette's arm softly in a way that would have been reassuring if Juliette wasn't thinking of how she could simply cease to be.

That was the only way to handle any of this - dying.

She had to kill herself.

"No one is listening.  I could get on a bench and shout about the possible threesome, no would listen." Becky said, and Juliette smacked her arm, grimacing as she rested her head in her hands, wanting to disappear.

She was far from ashamed of what had happened with her, Esme and Penny - she wanted it again and again, but no one else needed to hear about that, that was just... She didn't want to subject them to her horniness.