Chapter Three - Coffee Shop Scandal

Juliet and Ailey walked into the coffee shop just before the lunch time rush. They had just come from her house. After all, Juliet needed to clean up and change. Her boots clicked on the cobble stones and her jeans rustled as they brushed together as she walked. Melissa waved from a booth in the back. Her green eyes sparkled with laughter under the eve of red hair. The wave of curly, red was tucked behind her ears, slanted down the curve of her neck coming to rest just below her tense shoulders.

The two girls smiled and waved back, making their way towards her.


Ailey was just as distracted through out Juliet’s shift today that she didn't even notice the change in Julie until she was caught up in a whole new game.

Juliet watched the eyes that followed them through the crowd through her entire shift. Thoughts bubbling in the back of her brain as she followed the looks of want that made heat filter through her. Then of course there where the looks of icy jealousy that made her want to laugh. The looks of utter confusion made it that much better. She knew that no one really liked her here, so why not give them a reason to hate her with the passion they all claimed they had. Well, when it came to hating a complete stranger that they refused to get to know.


Juliet slowed her limp, reached up and tugged the band that held her hair up, shook it out all sexily and let her honey brown ringlets fall and made an emphases on the natural swing of her hips. She smiled quickly at Ailey and Melissa. The two girls glanced at each other as Ailey slide into the booth. Curious as to what Juliet was up to now.

'Thank god, my shift is over' She smiled a storm brewing in her calm eyes. ‘Now, Honey, What do you say we give these people something to stare for?’ She asked standing before the booth with a wicked grin. Melissa shook her head. Ailey grinned.

‘Oh how I love a challenge.’ She snickered glancing around. There. Something had caught her eyes.

‘Juliet, are you up for a challenge?’ she asked a rather devious smile graced her lips. Juliet smiled back.

‘I am always up for a a challenge from you, my dear’ Juliet laughed.

‘Okay, Here it is.’ she started with a wicked grin as she leaned closer to the two girls. Melissa shook her head again and leaned in none the less.

‘Jewels, Your to kiss the next person to walk through that door. Don’t look to see who it is. Just do it.’ Ailey waited for Juliet to reject her idea. The rejection never came. Juliet simply walked away from the booth and slid up next to the entrance to the coffee shop. An added bounce in her limp and swing in her hips.

‘The two of you are so immature sometimes.’ Melissa teased. Ailey looked at her sidelong with her lazy brown eyes and pouty lashes. They all knew that she loved these random escapades just as much as they enjoyed pulling them off. Ailey laughed. 'But even as a cripple, Julie looks stunning' Melissa nodded her agreement.

Juliet waited with great patience by the door. She closed her eyes after Ailey mouthed to close them. She heard the tinkling sound of the bell attached to the door as it opened. With a quick breathe and a fast glance at Ailey, she stepped out in front of the new comer and prayed to God it wasn’t a girl. Much to her surprise, the soft lips that met her’s where warm and very willing for that brief moment before she pulled away and ducked her way back to her friends. Never once looking back at the (she assumed) shellshocked boy she had just kissed. Her fingers brushed her lips gently as she reached the booth and proceeded to sit with her back to the door. She did however listen hard for any hint of who still stood by the door.

‘Come on.’ she heard someone’s gruff voice say. The clap of a hand against a toned torso. A common sign of affection among the male population. She sighed. She desperately wanted to know who she had just kissed, but not enough to risk a glance back.


Melissa and Ailey stared at Juliet, their jaws on the booth in front of them. Juliet couldn’t take it. She shifted her hair with a graceful touch of her fingers. She glanced back through the curtain of her hair to see the boy she had kissed turning his back to her. Juliet about fell out of her chair.

‘Oh shit.’ was all she managed to say before she laid her head on the table with a rather loud thump. Melissa giggled. Ailey looked about with a smug smile dancing on her face and set her eyes on fire. Juliet looked up and glared.

‘You did this!’ she barked. ‘You knew he was coming in next. You conniving--WITCH!’ she growled darkly. Ailey smiled and bowed ever so slightly. She briefly thought about jumping over the table and strangling her, then thought better of it. As much as she hated to admit it at the moment, she would miss the silly girl if she where gone.

‘I hate you.’ Jewels growled, her eyes narrowed as she glared darkly.

‘Aw, but I love you’ Ailey smiled that smug smile. Juliet glowered, sulking darkly. ‘Besides, you wouldn’t make a move yourself. So maybe I tricked you into making one. But now you’ll have no choice but to ride it out and see what happens.’ She snickered at her own cunningness. Elli patted her on the shoulder. Juliet sat up suddenly and grinned. The other two girls new that look.

‘I choose to let go, Ailey! He doesn’t feel the same. So why would I keep putting myself through this hell.’ Jewels gripped. Ailey looked at her as if she where crazy.

'You've only known him a year and as far as we can tell, you've hardly said six words to the boy!' Melissa chimed in. Ailey nodded. Juliet knew she had messed up then. She had let a few words slip that she hadn’t meant to let slide. So she did her best to change the subject. She glared darkly into her friends’ drinks.


‘uh oh’ Melissa whispered, mocking fear. That was the look of vengeance. They knew that look and it meant war. They knew the words that would leave her mouth before they left her mouth.

‘Just remember, pay backs a bitch’ Juliet barked with such fire that they both nodded. Juliet was already planning on how to get back at Ailey for that stupid stunt she had just pulled. Ailey had tricked her into kissing Kyle Brody. Melissa smiled and passed Jewels a drink to help cool the temper that was threatening to explode all over them. Juliet looked at them both darkly.

‘I can’t believe you didn’t warn me!’ she shoved away from the table, standing in a rush. In her attempt to flee the table, her friends and the coffee shop, she managed to tangle her pant legs in the chair and fall. Luckily for her, She’d had years of practice and stopped herself from breaking her face on the leg of the chair across from her. She did, however, split her lip open and to make matters worse, she’d bled on someone’s shoe.

To add insult to injury, she was pretty sure she had just turned that sprain in her ankle into a break.

Ailey fell over into a laughing fit. Thats when Juliet was knew it was bad. It was really bad. Juliet just laid her head down on the coolness of the cobble. She wished she would just melt into a puddle and fade away into the nothingness.

‘Walk much, Julie?’ Ailey giggled from the table.

Juliet felt heat of a blush burn her cheeks as a hand drifted into her view. She accepted it really wishing that she could vanish. He should have just let her lay there on the floor. Why did he always have to do this to her!

Whenever she got Kyle out of her mind, he showed up and did something like this. He was nice and showed compassion and she was hooked all over again. She wanted to hate him but she knew she couldn’t. She sighed.

His hand was slightly calloused from work he’d done in his young life but they seemed to fit almost perfectly in her’s. Brody lifted her to her feet. Just before she yanked her hand away from him she glared.

‘Why do you keep doing this to me, Brody?’ she snapped before bolting out the door of the coffee shop. Melissa and Ailey looked at each other and then at Brody.

‘What did you do to her?’ they asked as they clamored out of the booth. Melissa dropped money on the table as Ailey shoved past Brody.



Juliet paced outside while swiping her fingers through her hair. It wasn’t until Melissa and Ailey where out the door that she felt a familiar set of eyes on her. A glance up told her that Kyle was there, watching the two girls dart up to her and wrap their arms around her. She could see his lips move from the window. She didn’t have to hear him to know the words flowed smooth as honey from his lips.


‘Because I love you’ she whispered mimicking the words she’d watched him whisper against the glass. Ailey hugged Juliet.

‘So, what do you guys think of going back to Jewels place and have one of those Pepsi floaty things?’ Ailey teased. All three girls laughed. They looped their arms around each other and walked toward the road that lead back to Jewels’ house. Juliet kicked at the gravel as they walked. She would think about the pain in her ankle and getting it looked at later. For now, she was just going to go home and chill with her friends.







They had walked a little ways when Melissa laughed.

'So Julie, How long have you been walking?' she teased 'I mean, Yesterday you fall, scrap your knees all up and sprain your ankle and today you get your pant leg all caught up in the chair leg and bust your lip open.' She said it gently and with laughter in her eyes. Ailey laughed shifting her weight away from her friends to watch how Juliet reacted to the teasing. Juliet was quiet for a long time before she spoke.

'Alright! Alright! So I can't be trusted to walk on my own two feet!' Juliet said, throwing her hands up in mock defense. The girls all laughed. She would miss things like this when she left for school.

'What am I going to do with out you guys?' she whined. The other two girls just grinned as they walked toward Ailey's house.






The girls all sat lounging in the tall oak tree outside in Ailey's back yard. Just enjoying the warmth of the sun and the ease of having laughed so hard for so long. It was the calm after a major storm but the peace wouldn't last for long. They could all feel the tension that was building. Since in small towns, word travels faster than wild fire and every action has a reaction, as Juliet and her friends where about to find out.

An eery alarm screeched through the air making the girls jump. Juliet's phone shrieked her dislike for Lucas at that moment in time.

'Wow. Word travels fast round here' she said as her friends giggled 'welcome to a small town'. Juliet tactfully hit the ignore button and tried to regain the relaxed ease from before. The other two girls glanced at each other.

'What is it your not telling us, Julie?' Ailey asked. Juliet looked at them, she knew she would have to talk about it sooner or later. She was just hoping for the latter.