I'm In Denial

7:38 pm - 18th Saturday

"How's everything going so far?" Her mother asked her, it seemed as if her mother was listening to what Juliette and her friends were discussing upstairs.

"It's going fairly well," Sky smiled, he realized that they had mentioned quite a few things that he'd rather not have brought up at the family dinner. "We got down lots of notes and talked about school in general," he didn't know what else to say.

"Is that so?" Juliette's mother grinned purely, a smile that imagined picture-perfect and absolutely mesmerizing. "Well, I'm glad the three of you got lots of things done and also got to know each other better."

"None of this could've happened if you declined our request," Freya replied formally, earning a surprised look from Juliette's mother.

"Oh, it was nothing, besides, Juliette could use some company," her mother watched Juliette's reaction, "besides Mara," she whispered looking sheepishly at her daughter.

"Mom!" Juliette held her laughter in while trying indicate that what her mother had said was mean.

Mara and Juliette had been friends from grade school, ever since, the two of them have been inseparable, it wasn't even a joke from some point, they have a drawer of clothes at each other's houses for whenever one or the other decided to stay over.

They didn't travel much but whenever they could, they snatched opportunities to nearby popular places by train or by bus. Mara's favorite place was a massive theme park not too far from where Juliette lived, she traveled with Juliette's family because she loved them, Mara ended up having the best two days of her life there.

Now after she got a boyfriend, their little adventures slowed down, it was a little unfair to Juliette but she agreed that it was for the best, Mara and Michael had a great relationship, some might say even perfect.

"Mara will always be here, you know that," Juliette laughed lightly nudging her mother's shoulder before picking her fork up.

"Well, you brought this upon me," she sniffed playfully, before tickling her daughter. Just as the tickling died down shuffling steps made their way closer to the four of them sitting at the table.

"Sorry," Carter apologized and grabbed his plate. "I have to finish this before 9:59pm." He then disappeared back upstairs to finish whatever he had procrastinated the last few days.

"Is he always this anti-social?" Freya curiously said as the door to his room closed upstairs. "I mean."

"Haha," Juliette's mother almost snorted. "No, darling, he just acts that way when he has to get things done quickly," her mother loved observing people, sometimes she would pick up every small detail of the person the rest of the time she'll have basic facts memorized.

"Damn, couldn't be me," Freya showed her hands, giggling.

"No, it certainly, could not," Sky rubbed his forehead while Freya wiggled her eyebrows at him.

The rest of the dinner went on, Sky's little crush wasn't brought up even once, but it wasn't forgotten either. Juliette's dad and little brother up finally, the two of them decided it was best for a little sight-seeing in their own town before coming home. Carter reappeared when the three of them were washing the dishes. "Do you guys know, that Julie sleeps with a stuffed animal, still," he smirked putting his empty glass in the dishwasher.

"That's nothing to be ashamed of," Freya defended Juliette. "I also do that, so does Sky," she pointed to him.

"Huh, interesting," he didn't like his answer but he was glad they didn't think of that as something only a child would do. "I've got Mars on my phone, if you want to speak to her, please do it now, or else I'm hanging up."

"Oh god, she is?" Juliette looked at her brother in shock. "Why didn't she call me?" She took her phone out of her pocket and gaped looking at the number of notifications from Mara, immediately Carter took out his phone and cut the call. "She's going to kill me," Juliette scrunched her nose and tapped one of the hundreds of missed call notifications and pressed the phone to her ear.

You ever heard of picking up?" Mara seethed through her teeth.

"I was eating!" She fumed.

"That's no excuse Jules!" her friend growled." OK, listen, my English partner decided that she was too good for the project and I'm going to need a hand..." the call went silent, Juliette didn't understand but the silence made her click.

"Of course, I can help you," she muttered before Mara cut the call on her. Sky glanced at Juliette expecting an answer, but she said nothing, she shrugged it off and asked everyone to head on up to her room. Once they finished loading the dishwasher the lot of them headed upstairs and had a seat on her floor.

"So, anything else?" Sky was quite ready to head to bed, his honey colored eyes drooping slowly, "I mean, do y'all…" his voice was slightly slurred as he yawned loudly.

"You know, you don't have to stay up so late, right?" Juliette told him, her voice soft like silk, her glance sweet like honey. "No one's going to force you," she watched as he drifted off to sleep, not uttering another word. His head on Freya's shoulder while his eyelids fluttered lightly before he was actually fast asleep.

"Aw, look at him," Freya said without actually looking at him. "I'm so lucky to have a friend like him," her voice was covered with happiness as the two of them continued to talk about him.

"Did you know, for his fifteenth birthday we bought tickets for a cruise trip?" Freya seemed to love traveling, although Juliette wasn't a big fan of it she was curious as to how things turned out with Sky's fifteenth birthday.

"Oh yeah?" Juliette raised her eyebrow. "And how'd that go?"

Freya snickered, "that was the last time we ever traveled by cruise anywhere," her eyes darted to Sky, who was starting to snore louder than before. "Turns out the idiot has sea-sickness and not the average 'oh my there's water everywhere, the boats bobbing up and down' but the 'why are you jumping up and down like that?' " She paused. "That was enough to scare the living crap out of me."

"Damn, poor thing, I quite enjoy cruise trips," Juliette replied, her voice covered in joy.

"Yeah, next time we should go and facetime him the whole way," Freya claimed jokingly, she threw her head back and chuckled loudly, but not loudly enough to wake their friend.

"Sounds good to me," she laughed sharing a moment with the lovely brunette, Freya's brown, wavy hair just barely touched her shoulders. "Not me being very annoying and completely off topic, but I am curious about you-know-who," Juliette brought it up once more, wanting to eagerly know who the individual was.

"Oh you'll know, someday, like any day he'll tell you," Freya giggled once more.

"Mhmm, I'll be waiting for that day, more than anything…"

"Oh, we've traveled the seas, we've ridden the stars

We've seen everything from Saturn to Mars"