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❛ ᴏᴄᴇᴀɴ ᴇʏᴇꜱ. ❜ ° . ༄
- ͙۪۪˚ ▎❛ 𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐄 ❜ ▎˚ ͙۪۪̥◌
»»————- ꒰ ғᴇᴀʀ sᴛʀɪᴋᴇs ᴏᴜᴛ ꒱
❝ CHALLENGE ACCEPTED ❞
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Juliet leaned against the lockers with her back pressed against the metal as she waited for Topanga to gather her things for class.
"Are you going to the party tonight?" the girl asked her casually.
"'Course. What about you?"
"I'm planning on it," she admitted as she placed a few books in her bag.
"Jack told me they're planning on doing seven minutes in heaven," Juliet informed her.
Topanga turned to look at the redhead. "And are you hoping to go with him?"
"Maybe," she shrugged. "He's my friend and he's cute but I don't know if I really, really like him."
"Like you like Shawn," Topanga clarified.
Juliet's face turned pink at the mention. "What about you and Cory?" she asked, changing the subject.
"I wouldn't mind that so much," she admitted, looking a bit embarrassed. "I do know him well, after all."
"Yeah," Juliet agreed as her eyes drifted across the hall to where Shawn and Cory were also (probably) talking about the party.
🌎🌎🌎
Juliet arrived at the party with Cory and Shawn. The former was clearly panicking about whatever he thought was going to happen in the closet. The redhead herself was also kind of nervous (since she'd never kissed anyone before) but she wasn't being overdramatic about it like Cory was.
"This is great, all the girls brought their lips," Shawn commented eagerly as they stepped off the last of the stairs.
"I don't think they had a choice about that, Shawnie," Juliet snarked, absentmindedly twisting her fingers together.
"Shawn, there's a girl with braces. What if I get her? She could cut my tongue and I'll bleed all over my shirt!" Cory cried as he looked around. "Oh no, Sally's wearing wool. I'm allergic! What if I sneeze into her mouth and pop her lungs?"
"Cor, I'm pretty sure that's physically impossible," the redhead reassured him.
"Relax, man," Shawn added as he lead them over to the food table. "Have a snack. Carbo load before the big race."
"With bean dip?" Cory scoffed. "Are you out of your mind?"
"What are you worried about? Your breath?" Shawn asked.
The curly-haired boy slapped a hand over his mouth. "My breath? I didn't even think about that! Oh, man, I'm gonna kill them coming and going. I'm gonna blow us out of the closet. I'm getting out of here."
Cory tried to leave but both Juliet and Shawn stopped him. "Hey, if I have to be here, you have to be here," Juliet said as she gave the boy a pleading look.
He (and Topanga) were the only ones who knew how she felt about Shawn kissing other girls. They were also her. . . support? if her name got called with Shawn's. The boy turned around only to come face-to-face with Topanga. "Hey, Cory," she greeted him.
The boy pressed two fingers against his lips before he replied, "hi, Topanga. Boy, what a great party, huh? It was great! I was in the closet for fourteen minutes. I'm gonna go home and ice my lips."
Shawn and Juliet forcefully held him back.
"Cory?"
"Eric was right, too much can go wrong."
Juliet grabbed his wrists and met the boy's frantic eyes. "Hey, when has Eric ever been right about anything? What does he know about how tonight's gonna go, Cor? Everything's gonna be fine. Just take a deep breath."
"Cory, chill," Shawn agreed. "You're going to be fine and you know why? 'Cause right up until the second you go to that closet, I'll be here with you no matter what."
"Yeah, we're not leaving until we get called," the redhead added. "'Cause it's Cory, Shawn and Juliet, remember?"
"Shawn and Melanie!"
"See ya!" Shawn smiled at them before he made his way over to the closet.
As he put his hand on the doorknob, Shawn turned as if to check that Melanie was following him. His eyes slid past the brunette to the redhead he'd just left, almost as if to make sure she was okay with this. She didn't see his look, though, as she'd turned back to talk to Cory and Topanga. Shawn twisted the knob and disappeared into the closet with Melanie.
Once Shawn's name had been called, Juliet had turned away so she wouldn't have to watch him go in with a girl. She was met with both Cory and Topanga's sympathetic expressions.
"I'm okay," she said with forced brightness. "Really. I mean, it's not like he's my boyfriend or anything. Shawn has the liberty to kiss whoever he wants."
"Are you sure, Juliet?" Topanga asked, her eyes darting to the closed door.
"'Course," the redhead answered in the same, forced tone. "He's my best friend. I mean, I'm gonna go into the closet and kiss someone so I don't expect him to get all worked up about it."
She moved one of her hands to her chest to rub at the sudden sore spot that seemed to come from the area around her heart. Really, she was just fine. It wasn't like she was thinking about what it would be like to be in the closet with him, to have the safety of the dark as she finally acted on her suppressed feelings. Although, she thought, maybe he'd be so disgusted that he'd want out before the seven minutes were over.
That was a very sobering thought, though she didn't think Shawn would do that to her. Still, it didn't stop the redhead from imagining what it felt like to have his lips pressed against hers or to think about what it would feel like to stand so close to him. She was pulled out of her daydream when Shawn's seven minutes were over and he tried to close the door.
"Alright, kids. Now time's up. Come on, come on. No overtime, no extra innings."
Shawn exited the closet with Melanie and the two went their separate ways while the boy joined his friends again. He was giggling like he had been when Hillary first asked him out.
"Is that the shirt you went in with?" Cory asked.
Shawn looked down, still giggling. "No. Cory, that closet is your friend."
"Jack and Juliet!"
Shawn's laughter got abruptly cut off as the redhead's name was called. Straightening to appear more confident, she sent her friends a smile. "See you guys on the other side."
She headed towards the closet only to be met up with the blond. Unlike his usual button-down shirts, Jack was wearing a medium brown sweater with unevenly-spaced horizontal cream stripes. Juliet looked down and noted the dark blue jeans he was wearing. "You dressed down for this," she teased him with mock disappointment.
The boy ran a hand through his hair as he opened the door. "Yeah, well, I figured a pretty girl would be too focused on my lips to notice what I was wearing," he said, and gave her a look that indicated she was the pretty girl.
Juliet turned pink as she stood back to let the boy enter first. He gave her a confused look before he accepted her offer. Before the redhead followed him in, she paused with her hand on the knob to glance behind her. She startled slightly when she realized Shawn was looking right back at her with an emotion on his expression that certainly wasn't the dopey look he'd come out of the closet with. In fact, she had no idea how to interpret it, but it made her want to bail on Jack in fear of hurting her best friend. The girl shook her head and turned around. Shawn had gone in with a girl and she hadn't made a fuss so he had no right to.
Once they were enclosed in darkness, silence fell between the two until Jack spoke again: "uh, how's it goin'?"
She gave a little giggle. "It's a bit dark in here, isn't it?"
The light switched on to reveal the boy's face. "Hiya."
"Hi."
She shifted under the intensity in his blue eyes. "We don't have to do anything if you don't want to," Jack reassured her. "I'm, uh, nervous too. I've never kissed anyone."
"Me either," she admitted.
"Not even Hunter?" came his surprised question.
"Not even him."
"I won't deny that I'd like to kiss you," the boy offered, "but please don't feel pressured to do so if you don't want to."
His mouth tugged up in a smile as he watched her turn pink. "I wouldn't mind it either," she finally said. "At least you're someone I know. I don't think I could do it with a random stranger."
Jack took a few steps closer to stand in front of her. "Is this okay?" he asked.
Tilting her head up to look at him, Juliet couldn't help but admit that he was cute, especially with his puppy-dog blue eyes and golden floppy hair and his lips did look soft. Juliet stepped closer to the boy to close the space between them. "Is this okay?"
One of his hands, which she noticed we large and well-maintained, came up to gently tuck some of her red hair behind her ear. His warm hand rested comfortably against her cheek. "Is this okay?"
A grin pulled at her lips. "Are we gonna spend seven minutes asking the same question over and over?"
"I don't want you to feel uncomfortable, Ocean Eyes," Jack explained quietly as his eyes met her own.
She liked that nickname. "I'm not," she reassured him. "I'll let you know if I am."
With a little nod, he leaned down tentatively, allowing her a chance to pull away. When she didn't, he continued the path towards her lips. It was kind of nice, kissing him, Juliet thought. Her hands moved to hold on to his waist as she moved her lips against his. The action left her own buzzing pleasantly and she decided that this was definitely a repeatable experience.
(She was definitely not imagining Shawn in Jack's place.)
🌎🌎🌎
After the party, Shawn walked Juliet home as they usually did. They had walked for quite some time in silence before the redhead finally broke it: "I know you want to ask so go ahead."
"How was it?" he questioned her immediately.
She shrugged. "It was nice. I don't really know what all the fuss is about but I think it was repeatable experience."
"Repeatable with Jack?" he tried to keep the bitterness out of his voice.
"Maybe, maybe not. I don't get on your case about how many girls you kiss," she pointed out.
"It's different for you!"
"How? How is it different for me, Shawn?" she demanded as she stopped to turn him to face her.
The boy avoided her eyes. "You're a girl. As a guy, I know that we don't take your feelings as seriously as we should and I don't want you to get hurt."
The redhead blinked in surprise. "As much as I appreciate the thought, Shawnie," she began in a much softer tone, "you can't protect me forever."
"I can try," he huffed stubbornly. "That's why we were married, after all."
Juliet frowned at the use of past tense. "Were?" she asked.
Shawn finally met her eyes and shrugged. "Yeah, well, I figured you'd want a divorce now that we're in high school. After tonight, I guess I kinda figured I couldn't keep you from liking other guys."
Oh. Juliet's heart was hurting again especially at the thought of having an 'official' divorce. It was better when neither had mentioned whatever Shawn had felt for her in the past and she could pretend he still felt it now. Now that he'd specified what he felt (or didn't feel) there was no pretending anymore.
She swallowed thickly past the sudden lump in her throat. "Can we still be cookie partners though?" Her voice sounded unusually small.
The boy's expression softened and he reached for the redhead's hand to give it a gentle squeeze. "'Course, Julie. We'll always be best friends."
"Right," she agreed faintly. "Best friends."
🌎🌎🌎
"Ladies and gentlemen, the Amazing Lipless," a guy teased Cory the next day.
Juliet shot him an annoyed look and promptly turned her back on the boy, preferring instead to put a comforting hand on Cory's shoulder. "Just ignore him, Cor. He's only trying to get under your skin."
"I'm okay. Life goes on. Here, drive this through my brain," the boy responded.
"It's okay, Cor. I think it's only a few guys that know and it's not like they're gonna tell everybody," Shawn tried to reassure him.
"Hey, Cory, listen. Uh, if you ever need to talk about, y'know, anything, I'm always available, okay?" Mr. Turner offered as he passed the trio in the hall.
Once he walked away, Cory sighed. "I've sunk so low that even teachers feel sorry for me."
"Kissing's not all it's cracked up to be," Juliet told him. "I don't really know what the big deal's about. It's just a big problem over nothing like it usually is."
"Look, in situations like this, it's like my Uncle Ralph always says: 'it's not what you did. It's what they can pin on you.'"
"So you're saying—"
"Deny. Deny everything. Hey, you were in a closet. Who else knows what actually went on in there?"
"That's actually not bad advice," the redhead commented, almost surprised.
"Just because he didn't kiss me doesn't mean he's some kind of freak," Topanga told the girls who were following her.
"And I should've known it wouldn't work," Juliet sighed.
"No, no! Make her stop!" Cory exclaimed.
"Look, all of you. Any guy can just crawl in a closet and kiss a girl but Cory's different because he's a really nice boy," Topanga defended him.
🌎🌎🌎
"Hey," Jack's voice came from behind Juliet and startled her.
The redhead turned around and tipped her head up slightly to smile at the boy. "Hey."
The blond shifted on his feet, his hands stuck in the pockets of his slacks. "So, about the party—"
"We don't have to talk about it if you don't want to," she offered.
"I do want to," he confirmed. "I think you know that I find you attractive and, well, we work well together, so—"
Juliet turned pink at his compliment. "Do you, uh, wanna be friends first?" she offered. "I'm not opposed to potentially dating you. . . I just really like someone right now and it wouldn't be fair to you if I didn't like-like you like that."
"Hunter," Jack said immediately and nodded slightly when she didn't deny it. "Understandable. I think if I were a girl I'd be in the same boat." He gave her a teasing grin. "So what you're basically saying is that I'm gonna have to woo you away from him?"
A smile curved at the girl's lips. "Yeah, I guess so."
"Well, then, challenge accepted."
[edited may 2022]