Page 23 of Now and Again

Not that Juliet had much to say in that department. She was still living with her parents and dating had not been a thing for some time. She’d had a couple of relationships. But nothing that lasted. She’d been single now for… Good god, was itthatlong?

‘Hey,’ Riley said.

Juliet snapped out of her fugue. ‘You talking to me?’

‘Yeah, Taxi Driver, I’m having a coffee. You want one?’

‘I’d love one, actually,’ she said. Though she was welcome to use anything in the kitchen and eat what she liked, she couldn’t fathom the fancy coffee machine and she had to stick to instant. Sure enough, Riley was grinding fresh beans—the whole shebang.

As Riley handed her a hot cup, she was hit by a sensation of déjà vu. Riley. Coffee. A pool. When was it…

Oh. Yes. She remembered now. That party. The kiss.

It was like the memory hit Juliet over the head and the next thing she did was drop the entire cup all over the floor with the loudest smash. So much had changed, and yet some things clearly didn’t. ‘Oh, Sh…ugar!’ Juliet cried, getting down on her hands and knees, grabbing up pieces. ‘Mia! Stand back!’ she warned the girl, who stayed exactly where she was, which would also do fine.

‘I’ll get some kitchen roll, you get the cup bits,’ Riley said, snapping into action.

They were both on their hands and knees, cleaning the mess. Juliet leaned over to snag a particularly evil little shard when she bumped heads with Riley, hard. ‘Godsakes, I’m an idiot today,’ Juliet said apologetically. Riley, rubbing her head, grinned forgivingly. ‘It’s fine. I’ve got a pretty tough nut.’

Juliet smiled at her. That’s when she saw the situation from a distance, her and Riley inches away from each other, on all fours, grinning at each other with Mia looking on. She got up quickly, opening the bin, trying to stop the tingling that was happening all over her skin. She wasn’t sure what her body was trying to do to her, but whatever it was, Juliet wasn’t having it.

Riley kept mopping up coffee with her back turned to Juliet, so she couldn’t read Riley’s feelings on the funny little moment. If she had to take a guess, though? Riley probably hadn’t thought twice. She was just being friendly, trying to stop Juliet from feeling like the fool she was.

She went back and picked up the remaining shards of the cup, careful not to look at Riley. Between them, they had the mess dealt with pretty quickly. Once it was done, Riley stood and put her hands on her hips, looking around. ‘That’s that. So, shall I pour you another one?’

Juliet laughed. ‘If the cup’s trying to jump out of my hands, maybe caffeine isn’t the greatest idea. Perhaps next time.’ She turned at the sound of the door. ‘Oh look, there’s Amanda,’ Juliet cried with relief as Mia’s mother walked in. Mia flew to her, and Juliet said, ‘Hi!’

‘Hi,’ Amanda said, looking a little baffled as to the level of enthusiasm her arrival had elicited from the nanny. Almost as much as her daughter. But Juliet didn’t care if she was being weird. She needed a reason to leave, and now she had it. ‘Right, well, I hate to dash, but I have to get back. Got a… thing.’

‘Oh, sure,’ Amanda said.

‘Bye,’ she said to the room, careful not to say it to anyone in particular. And she ran.

As she left, she was annoyed with herself. She wasn’t supposed to be like this anymore, sprinting from the Powell residence, trying to avoid Riley. So why was she doing it again today?

She shouldn’t have been asking herself that question like she didn’t know the answer. But she’d gone into self-protective mode. It required a healthy dose of denial.

She told herself she was crushing on a phantom, that she didn’t know Riley anymore. If she ever had. Ten years could be a lifetime. But the thing was, she still felt like Riley knewher. When Riley looked at her, she felt like she was looking right into the heart of her, seeing everything. Because that’s how Riley was, observant and sharp. She always had been. And there wasn’t very much to dissect. Juliet was still the same girl she’d always been.

THEN

‘Paul! You can’t do a handstand in a pool when you’re fucking smashed, mate! I’m too drunk to save ya!’ yelled a voice, and Juliet stepped back from Riley with regret.

Juliet turned to see several drunk boys spilling out of the house, but they were pretty focused on their well-oiled buddy and his desire to become a party legend and maybe die in the process. They didn’t seem to notice what they’d broken up. A kiss. Juliet’s second-ever, but quite an improvement on the first one. Was this what kissing was supposed to be like? Because if so,wow. Riley certainly knew how to make a girl swoon. Juliet was drowning in confusing social cues one minute, then drowning in Riley’s lips the next.

But now some morons had broken it up, and she and Riley were standing in the reflective light of the pool, looking at one another. Juliet didn’t know what was expected of her now. She had this instinct to run before anything could ruin the moment. But she knew that if she ran,shewas the one ruining the moment. This wasn’t just about what she wanted. This was happening to both of them.

‘Well,’ Riley said, and she looked away with a touch of shyness that Juliet had never seen her display before. ‘That was…’ She left the sentence hanging for about a thousand years before she finished. ‘…Nice.’

‘Yeah,’ Juliet managed to reply through an outrageous and sudden case of dry mouth. Then she started nodding, for quite a long time. She felt her feet take two small steps backwards. ‘Nice.’

Riley’s face dropped. ‘Are you OK?’

‘Who me?’ Juliet said. ‘I’m absolutely—’

The end of that sentence was going to be ‘Fine.’ But she never reached it. Because Drunk Paul still had every intention of doing his underwater acrobatics and he came running at the pool, fully dressed, his friends still begging him to stop. But his focus - if not his vision - was strong, and he sprinted,his arms spreading into eagle wings.Juliet caught one of those arms across the chest and was clotheslined right into the pool.

For whole seconds, she was underwater, sputtering, choking. Eventually, she felt a hand on her arm. ‘Shit!’ she heard Riley yell from a distance as she broke the surface. She realised Paul had tried to correct his error and was the one pulling her up. ‘Are you alright, dude?!’ he was asking her. ‘Not a dude,’ she coughed, a bit of water coming up. People were coming out of the house now, the party becoming an alfresco affair. Riley was around the other side of the pool, walking round to help Juliet, who’d ended up at the side of the pool closest to the house. Juliet couldn’t believe it. Why did these things always happen to her? Still, it had cut an awkward moment short, so there was that to be said for it.

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