Justin
Waking up, my arm was around Juliet.
Peering down at her, her eyes were closed and her eyelashes were flecked with sleep. Lips slightly parted, a strand of hair, hickory at the top and then caramel at the ends, fell onto her lip as she moved her head down further on my chest. Reaching my hand over, I tucked the strand of hair behind her ear and her head turned to me, her eyes opening.
"Good morning," she murmured softly.
"Good morning," I repeated.
The duvet reached up to Juliet's chin as she rested her head back on my chest. She rubbed her eyes vigorously before sighing contently. Her hair was quite manic, if I do say so myself. Then again, my bed hair wasn't going to be much better, that was obvious. Even so, in this moment, even with sleep in her eyelashes and the corner of her eyes and her hair sprawled out on the pillow and my bare chest, she still looked beautiful.
"Do you regret it?" she asked suddenly.
It took me a moment to decipher what her true insinuation was. In the fleeting pause, she looked up at me, peering through her eyelashes which were now devoid of sleep. She bit her bottom lip gently but then let go as I opened my mouth to speak.
"No, I don't," I breathed, "do you?"
"Definitely not," she concurred. "Although, I think it was one time too many."
Smiling at her reply, I leaned in and kissed her forehead.
Candidly, I was worried that Juliet may have been regretting what happened last night, especially considering we made love about three times in the space of the evening/night. After the first time, we just laid together and waited about twenty minutes before finally traipsing downstairs – despite Juliet's pain – and cooking dinner. By the second time, she almost froze when I was putting on the condom.
"I only saw you bring one," she said, somewhat shocked. "I didn't see more."
"They were hidden in my clothes," I replied sheepishly. "I just threw in a bunch and they must have gotten tangled."
"Oh," she said.
Now, awake and out of bed – and fully clothed, might I just add – we were just making sure the kitchen was tidy for when Ian got back, even though he was coming back later tonight. Mercifully, today was a Saturday so we had the entire day to just relax with one another and finish up any homework... by assisting one another. Or, to correct myself, I mean by badgering Juliet to give me some answers.
"You're very clever, Justin," she said, "so I'm pretty sure you know most of these answers."
"Do you know these answers?"
"I know some of them."
"Which ones?"
"Justin."
"Juliet."
"Do your homework yourself."
She gave up replying to me after that and managed to scribble down a bunch of answers to the algebraic equations we had to answer for Math homework... which wasn't the end of it. We had a bunch of diverse questions and equations to answer which weren't specific to algebra.
By the evening when Ian did come home, he wasn't at all surprised to find out we had finished our entire collection of homework and managed to keep the house tidy. Instead, he said, "Have you not been doing anything else today? It's a Saturday and summer is approaching."
Juliet, deterred, replied with, "We finished our homework, Dad. We have the rest of the weekend to enjoy the nearly-summer-weather."
Ian, outsmarted, frowned. "Would you like to stay for dinner, Justin?" He had actually stopped off at the local takeaway to bring food home and it looked like he had bought more than enough for all of us. He announced this as soon as he walked in the door, carrying his suitcase but not the food.
"As long as I'm not intruding," I responded.
Ian grinned broadly. "Of course not. Sport, will you set the table and bring the food inside from the car? I could only manage my luggage. They're in the trunk, okay?"
Grumbling slightly, Juliet ambled slowly out of the house. Her gait was slightly sluggish and it hadn't always been that way. She used to walk with her head bowed and her gait limited but still slightly composed. Now, she kept her eyes up, her arms rather motionless by her sides and her feet seeming like they dragged the floor and she didn't pick them up properly unlike before. Effects of the heart condition? I mused to myself.
But as Ian began picking out the cutlery from the drawers and transporting them to the table, I strolled up to him like a man on a mission. "Ian," I began, "could I ask you something, please?"
"Of course." He laid a fork and knife on the table on a placemat, but gawped down at me slightly with a perplexed expression plastered on his face. "Should I be somewhat prepared for this?"
Shaking my head furiously, I said, "No, no, it's nothing like that. It's just... Juliet wanted some things done," I said, keeping things vague, "and one of those things was for people at school to remember her." I purposefully left out the part of the surname aspect of that task on the bucket list. It also just occurred to me that we could cross off the one which entailed Juliet losing her virginity.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, she left it quite vague. So I thought perhaps charity work to raise money for a charity of her choice which would naturally be a charity relating to her heart condition. How does that sound?"
Ian looked impressed. "It sounds really good, actually. But do you have any ideas for the charity work?"
In a hushed whisper, I began listing some of the ideas I already had. He upheld the impressed expression and tone in his voice with a hint of astonishment because of actually coming up with these ideas. He did, however, have a few suggestions to add as I finished... which I tried to do quite quickly considering I heard the boot of the car slam shut and I knew we only had moments, if a minute at most left to discuss.
"They're great ideas, Justin, but I think you could do something else, too just to add that spark of originality into the mix."
Then he told me some of his own suggestions and I made a mental note not to forget them. The front door then closed and faintly I could perceive the distinguishable sound of keys rotating in the lock contraption on the door.
"Thank you, Ian, I really appreciate it." And to present my sincerity to him, I smiled both broadly yet friendly.
"What do you really appreciate?"
Turning to the door, Juliet was a little red in the cheeks – perhaps the excursion to the car to get the food and back wasn't so good considering she was still aching as she had notified me today just before Ian got back. She held the bags of food in her hands before lifting them up and dropping them daintily on the counter.
"Nothing," both Ian and I said at the same time.
Juliet frowned quizzically.
"Will you get us all some drinks, sport? I'll think I'll have a beer... pick one for me, would you, please? You and Justin can have a Coke each." And then Ian got to work on laying out all of the takeout food onto plates and escorting them into the dining room.
"What were you two discussing?" Juliet whispered sceptically to me.
"Nothing," I responded, "he just thanked me for staying for the night and spending time with you two now."
Juliet smiled, but whether she believed me, I had no idea. I had never really tested my lying skills to someone and asked for their input on whether they were gullible enough to believe my lies. I tried not to lie, mind you, but in this case, it was indispensable.
At the end of the meal and feeling alarmingly stuffed with greasy food, Juliet declared, "Justin said you thanked him for staying the night and staying now." She took a sip of her Coke.
Ian, alarmed by this, widened his eyes until he saw my I had to make up a lie and this was the best I could fabricate expression to which, he composed himself and nodded far too many times for my liking. "Oh, yeah, I did," he said, "yeah. Yeah, thank you, Justin."
"It's my pleasure," I said mechanically.
Juliet, inadvertently, coughed a little on her drink but mercifully, Ian seemed blissfully unaware of the connection between the choking and pleasure remark.
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Author's Note:
LMAO nice little pun at the end :))))) How did you guys find this chapter? Justin has Ian's approval for charity work! Any ideas what it could be???
Thank you :) x