𝐒𝐏𝐎𝐓𝐋𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 - 𝐡𝐬𝐦𝐭𝐦𝐭𝐬 (𝐢𝐯)

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀𝒙. 𝐬𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐜𝐭

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐞𝐧
━━ 𝒔𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒎𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒂𝒄𝒕

"How are your costumes going?" Juliette yelled into her phone, which was on speaker on top of her desk a few feet away from her.

    "I'm starting to regret my choice..." Ashlyn's voice reached her.

    "Hey, has anyone heard of Kourt?" Carlos asked. Even though they had asked Kourtney to join them on their pre-party Facetime call, she hadn't replied to their messages, which kind of worried them. She was putting a lot of pressure on herself with her college applications, especially because early admission was today and because Kourtney was applying to all the Ivies (and all means all of them).

    On her side, Juliette was still unsure about her future. Even though she would have loved to apply to the art programs of Yale or Columbia, she was fairly sure she didn't meet the requirements and she had been so busy lately that she wouldn't have been able to complete a full sketchbook even if she gave up sleeping completely. Thus, she had decided to apply to the local university, which also had some interesting degrees. The good side was that she wouldn't be too far from her family or Ricky, which made it all a bit better.

    She looked at herself in the mirror and straightened her tie. Gina was hosting a Halloween party that night and Juliette had decided to wear her very expensive Slytherin costume. She had bought it on impulse a few years back and she had only used it once. The memories brought an immediate feeling of warmth and joy so she decided it was high time so put it to use again.

    Juliette loved Halloween. She loved it even more than Christmas. Not only did she love the whole spooky vibe that filled the streets but she also loved horror movies and she could not wait for the party to be over so that she and Ricky could go back home, get under the covers and marathon their way through the biggest horror franchises.

    "Oh, Ricky's here, I have to–" she said when she heard the doorbell, but she stopped on her tracks when she realised what she had done. "He's just... he's picking me up because he lives around here."

    "Okay, girl, we'll pretend we believe you," Carlos spoke. "See you all in a bit."

    She got off the call and took a last look at herself, putting her phone in the pocket of her robe and taking the wand she had chosen as a prop. By the time she got downstairs, Ricky was already inside her house, talking with her sisters. He was wearing a red swimsuit and a shirt with an abs picture on it, which made Juliette chuckle.

    "What are you, Baywatch?"

    "Zac Effron on Baywatch," he pointed out. "What are you, the Weasley gone astray?"

    As soon as the girl reached him, he put his arm over her shoulder and brought her closer to him to leave a soft kiss on her temple. After saying goodbye to the Duchamp family and promising to behave in Gina's party, they left.

    Juliette looked at Ricky's interactions with her family with a smile. He was almost like a son to them, especially because he spent so much time with them just for the sake of not spending it in his own house. Not that he had a bad relationship with his father by any means, but not having his mother around and knowing that Mr Bowen would tell Miss Jenn even the times Ricky showered really took a toll on the boy.

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This time, Juliette and Ricky walked together into Gina's attic, but they acted so nonchalant about it that they sort of managed to make everyone ignore that small fact. Or so was their intention, anyway.