Chapter 42

Immediately opened her door and got into her room, Ashley followed her and Skye walked into the house, looking at the interior.

This place is fine as fuck! Damn! I can't believe I get to stay here. I can't wait to see what the bedroom looks like. Does Juliette still like pink? She used to like pink a whole lot. I'm surprised she did not paint this living room pink. I'm definitely going to be using that hanging chair, it looks comfy as fuck too, she thought.

"Skye, are you coming?" Ashley called out.

It snapped Skye out of the thoughts she was having and then she rolled her luggage into Juliette's room. Juliette was changing her clothes. Skye watched her remove her jean and her too and slide into a comfortable big t-shirt. The words on the T-shirt was "S.L.U.T".

"Interesting choice of shirt." Ashley joked as she read out what was on Juliette's shirt. Juliette looked at it and smiled. Then she said, "I mean, aren't we all."

Ashley looked at Skye and said, "Nope. We have not all been that. And you young woman, are not allowed to be that."

"Ash, relax, you're begining to sound like her mother. She's a teenager, this is their thing."

"Same as poor choices, poor judgements, and poor taste in everything classic."

"Isn't classic for like oldies?" Skye asked.

It was obvious she was mocking Ashley in a joke so they all laughed.

"I thought you'd shower first and maybe lie on the bed."  Ashley said to Juliette.

"Yeah, I'm gonna do that but I just wanted to help Skye settle in."

Then she turned to help Skye put her stuff inher closet. She showed her where to keep her luggage. The drawers where she keeps some stuff that they can both share. She took Skye out of the room and showed her the bathroom.

"Whatever you do, don't spend too much time in the bathroom. Carlos has this stupid water meter that charges us a ridiculous amount for little usage. The bills get higher every time and it's not that I cannot afford it, I just don't like to ask him why they are so high each time. I mean, you've seen how he looks and smells, that's not the kind of guy I would like to sit and discuss with."

"Got it. I did not know you share the bathroom with the guy from earlier." Skye said. She tried to avoid saying what she wasn't sure of. She did not know if Juliette was dating him because of how they sat in the car and how he barely joined in the conversation but she also got another signal from the way he stared at her without knowing he was doing it. She watched him stared at her like that at the airport and when he offered to help them get their stuff. When he thought that they were talking about the music he was listening to. He looked at only Juliette and smiled, even though she was the one who tried to respond and tell him they were talking about something else.

"His name is Matt, and he is just my roommate. He moved in after my old roommate, Chelsea moved to stay with her fiance. This was still Carlos' doing, I told him specifically to get me a female roommate but he never listens to anyone beside himself. See why I really hate that man?"

"We hate Carlos, got it." Skye repeated with a smile.

Juliette smiled back then they walked out of the bathroom. They got to Matt's room that was directly opposite hers and she heard his voice inside the room and she guessed that he was on a phonecall or something.

"You know who owns this room already. Don't go in there. I have actually not entered in there and stayed in it since he moved in- there's no reason to anyways. Moving on, you have seen the living room, the kitchen, the balcony facing the living room and my favorite place, the pantry. Do you have any questions?"

"No. This place is lovely. Who designed it?"

Juliette looked around as Skye complimented the place. She smiled and felt proud of the little changes that she and Chelsea had made that now enhanced the place and made it look amazing. It was a beautiful and well-designed penthouse.

"Well, most of the stuff here are mine but when the original plan for this arrangement came, I would not say it was all me. Chelsea had a heavy hand in this. It took us several months to get it right. When she moved out and packed her stuff, I'm not gonna lie, the places that were empty, I had the buy stuff to fill it up but now looking at it, it's all worth it."

"Wow."

"I forgot to tell you, we have a cleaning lady. She comes in two to three times in the week. She is in charge of cleaning, laundry and other little stuff around here so don't be uncomfortable if she carries your dirty laundry, I pay her to do it."

Skye was overjoyed because she hated doing laundry but besides that, her entire life was literally about to take a turn and she did not know if was adjusted for it. Not only was she about to change her school, she will not have to do anything around her tolease anyone. She did not have to clean the house or do laundry or even try to impress anyone. If she had known that it would be this easy, she would have come sooner. She waited to hear the catch. To see if Juliette would say or assign anything to her.

"So, you don't want me to do it, is that what you're saying?" She asked. She had to be sure there was no catch.

"No. I don't want you to do it. So, now that I've shown you around, this is an official welcoming party. Although, u still have to introduce you properly to Matt and tell him that you're going to be living here till I can get a good place for just the two of us."

Skye's eyes widened. She could not believe that Juliette was willing to uproot her life just so that she could accommodate her in.

"You will get a place for just the two of us? She asked

"Yeah, of course. Now, why don't you get on with whatever you want to do while focus on Ashley."

"Sure. Thank you Juliette, you're the best sister anyone could ever ask for."

"You're welcome love."

They hugged for a while and then Skye decided to watch some shows on TV from the Netflix account connected to the TV. Juliette just went back to her room to talk to Ashley.

"Is she settled?" Ashley asked her as soon as she walked into the room.

"Yeah. She's seeing some series on Netflix."

"That's cool. I'm glad you're handling this well."

"I know right. I can't believe I freaked out about it. I think everything is gonna go very well with me and her. I just need to go back to my foster family. Honestly, at this point, I don't know if I can face them alone."

"Who said you have to face them alone? There is no way in the devil's butt I'm gonna let you drive up to those people by yourself to ask for her custody. It's not our problem. Whenever you're ready, just let me know."

Juliette smiled. She knew that Ashley meant every word of what she just said. She wished she was half as good or even close to being half as good as Ashley was to her.

"Aren't you the sweetest human to ever walk the surface of the earth?"

"Girl, you know damn well, I am!"

"So, how are things with you and Winston?"

"Going well and all. Speaking of Winston, girl, I noticed something today. I don't know if it was the sun from the trip or whatever but when I got to the airport today and saw you and Matt, as I stated at him from afar and even when I got close, there was just something in him that kinda reminded me of Winston. I'm not trying to say anything but damn, they have very similar features, it feels like I'm the only one who sees it."

"No you're not. I've noticed the same thing. I think it's the eyes. They have literally the same shade if blue eyes. There's something about the way their eyes are, it's alike but that's not all, Matt has almost the same jawline as Winston."

"Oh my God! I thought I was the only one who saw this. Today, yeah, as I was driving, when I look over at him, like from my side, it felt like I was looking over at Winston. The difference was in the hair. You know Matt has the hair tied behind in a man bun thing going on with him and Winston has a nice blonde highlighted swoosh going on with him."

"Yeah, they look alike, they could pass over as brothers."

"I know!"

"Enough about Matt and his striking resemblance with Winston, what's up with you and him? Don't dare hold back on anything. I need all the tea you can give me."

Ashley laughed and then said, "Relax, Ma'am, there is no twa to spill. You know how drama free Winston is, although I can't say the same for your boyfriend."

Juliette rolled her eyes.

"I saw the way you were about to get upset while you were angry texting someone and I figured that it would be him so spill your own tea."

"It's one of those Nathan being a complete childish prick as usual. He has it in his head that Matt and I are more than roommates and he knows how that gets me whenever he brings it up. Like, I have told him a billion times that there is nothing happening between me and Matt. It's not like a thing where I have to kind of like, remind him that he is the one I want and not Matt. Matt is a leading problem in the relationship and sometimes I just get tired of explaining myself to him."

"Well, I have seen the way you both stare at each other so I know where he is coming from, even though that is not an excuse for the woman you say you love."

"I don't stare at him anyway."

"Stare at who?"

"Matt. I don't stare at him any different from the way I stare at a random stranger at the mall, or the supermarket."

Ashley laughed and then said, "Juls, I'm your best friend and I can tell you this for free because no other person knows you as much as I do, You and Matt are a thing. You guys obviously are attracted to each other in a way everybody but you can see. The way his eyes light up when you walk into the run, the way you get uneasy when I pair you guys together or say something is going on with you. Nathan is a jerk, a phony and a two faced bastard but for once in his life, I agree with him that Matt and you are a threat to him."

"So what do you want me to do?"

"Nothing, obviously. I want to see how this plays out. I'm honestly very curious and would really like to see if this is going to happen or if y'all will just flirt with each other and then allow everything to dissolve like it was never there, I'm curious to see how this plays out."

"Nothing will play out because nothing was supposed to play out in the first place. It will all be in your imagination and probably due in there. Right now, I need to make Nathan understand that the world does not revolve around his pretty little butt."

Ashley crunched her face at the visualization of Nathan butt, then she said, "That is a very nasty visualization. Why would you ruin my day like that?"

Juliette rolled her eyes and then asked, "Where is Winston though?"

"He had to go see his friend or was it his buddy? I can't even remember. He said he wanted to go see his friend and where this friend stays us like, more than an hour from here. According to him, he has been going over every Sunday to see his friend or buddy. He said buddy."

"Are you sure that's not his parents or something? What guys leaves his house on a beautiful Sunday like this and travels for an hour or more to go see a buddy? Wait, are you sure he's not with another woman?"

"Why would you think that?"

"Well. Think of it like this, this is a routine for him. Like a pattern. A man literally only does things in patterns if the thing is very important to him. Now, he used the term "buddy" to describe this person leaving the gender of the person up for questioning because he technically did not say or say the gender of the person so you can't point it that he is going to see a female. Another point is, if he has to make our time every Sunday, forsaking whatever he could have been doing. I mean, he has you but he prefers to go see this buddy, something tells me the buddy in question is female."

"That's not proof enough."

"Think of this, if he were going to see his parent, he'd say, "I'm going to see my parents", and if he were going to see a relative, he would refer to the person as his relatiolve but he has not done that. He literally left out the gender of the person, what do you think?"

"I don't know okay? Winston is not the kind of guy you'd attribute cheating to and even if he were to cheat, at least it's not within the same town I leave, no offence to you and that general penis you're dating."

Juliette closed her eyes briefly as she took in what Ashley just said about Nathan. Ashley was right, he was a serial cheat and she had taken him back more that she should have so Ashley was right, he was a general penis. Just as these thoughts went through her mind, she thought about something so she held up her finger like she wanted to say something.

Ashley stopped talking and looked at her, waiting to hear what she wanted to say and then she said, "What if Nathan is always insecure about me and Matt because he is cheating on me or because he knows he is a cheat and he's trying to project this persona on me? I mean, that is the only rational explanation to his behaviours, or can you think of any other reason he would be behaving the way he does?"

"Or, he is just an insecure piece of shit that does not trust you."