Juliette has that effect on most people.
“To be fair, I'm clueless most of the times,” Aryan retorts, shrugging. I refrain from hitting his head like I usually do when he makes self-deprecating jokes.
“Yes, I can tell,” Juliette agrees in her usual bitchy tone.
“Shut the fuck up!” Victoria, Aryan, and I shoot out in unison, we were definitely triplets in another life.
She's provoking me. She knows I can take her insults, but when it comes to my friends, it's very easy to aggravate me. I'm clenching my fists tightly, trying to let her comment go. At least I was, until she made another one.
“What? I was just agreeing with you,” she says to Aryan in a faux confused tone. “I was gonna call you an imbecile, but I didn’t think you would know how to spell it.”
It takes me two whole seconds before I have Juliette pinned up against the wall, my hands bunched up in her collar as pure, white, hot anger is dispelling from my whole body.
My friends don't make a move, although from my peripheral vision, I can see Victoria clenching her fists. They know to let me handle this.
Part of me feels guilty, so guilty for even holding her aggressively like this after what I did at her home. My intentions were malicious, but never in a million years would I have expected to hear how morbid her mother’s past was. Not that it justifies her homophobia, but it explains it. It helps me understand both Juliette and Samantha better.
I've felt so culpable that I've let her treat me like nothing; like pure garbage, just so she can feel better.
But coming for my friends?Oh no. This is where my guilt has finally dissipated. I'm done taking it.
“Shut your fucking mouth!” I spit my words harshly at her as I push her further into the wall.
She doesn't talk, she just keeps smirking devilishly, her eyes practically raking me. I continue. “Say what you want about me, but keep your mouth shut when it comes to my friends.”
“Or what?” she taunts, biting her bottom lip. I find myself becoming distracted by that action—momentarily.
“Don't test me, Juliette.”
“You don't scare me, Adaline.”
I know I don't scare her, just as she doesn't scare me. There's no fear in this game we play—there never has been—and that's what drives her insane.
“This stops now. I'm done. I won't take your shit anymore,” I tell her seriously, not missing the way her demeanour instantly changes.
Her eyes narrow and her smirk fades. I can see the way her jaw clenches slightly; not in an angry way, but more in a displeased way.
She knows I'm being serious. I'm done letting her do this because of one shitty thing I did.
It's ridiculous. Her mother and her are still miserable bitches, the shit they've been through doesn't excuse anything. You don't get to generalize a group of people because of one horrible person. Do I hate all blonde people because Juliette is a bitch? No.
“This ends whenIsay it does.”
She's so sure of herself. Her words exuding pure control and power, as if she can't even imagine a world where I don't sing to her tune. Has she met me? I will never give her that power, ever.
“You need to get over it; you've tortured me enough.” I say exasperated, which might be an exaggeration. Sure, these two weeks have been annoying and inconvenient, however, the real torture has been not facing her for two weeks, when she sent her friends to do her dirty work. It was unbearable. Not because I missed her, but because no one fights with me likeshedoes.
Her minions are deplorable and annoying, but they aren't infuriating and venomous like she is. They don't have it in them to bother me like she does. It was pure torture hearingherwords come out oftheirmouths.
She blinks. “Now you know how I feel when I'm aroundyou.”
I exhale at her comment. The sheer seriousness in which she's speaking rattles me a little. As she stares at me, I can't will myself to look away or to even breathe.
She feels that I torture her? I should ask her how I do that. I so desperately want to know the ways in which she feels tortured by me.
“You could cut the tension with a knife.” Aryan’s failed whisper brings me back to reality.
I was too entranced with my showdown with Juliette that I had completely forgotten my friends were here too. I let go of her collar, unable to meet her eyes again.
