Chapter 202

                                    

                                          
If Juliette had known that joining the musical was going to leave her with a headache every single day and a mental battle of begging for the sweet release of death, she never would've done it... Granted, how was she supposed to know that she'd have to deal with Ethan's creep ass as well as Iris being a bitch all the time?   No one had informed her of that part of joining a new extracurricular activity. 
And it wasn't as if she couldn't handle bitchy people and bitchy cohorts - she'd been a cheerleader for her entire high school career and getting along with most of those girls was no walk in the park.  But Iris and Ethan made Katherine and Imogen look like a goddamn cakewalk.  She'd gladly take their passive aggressive shit over Ethan's leering eyes and wandering hands and Iris's slighted comments about the way that she looked, the way that she acted, her chemistry...
It was annoying.
"You know Juliette, I have to applaud you." She paused in the doorway of the theater, the hair standing up on the back of her neck as she saw Iris approaching behind her, a haunting grin on her face... Whatever was going to be said right now, she was more than sure that she was going to hate every single word that came out of her face.
But she had to pretend like she didn't know that - it was much better if she made her incriminate herself instead, because then there was no backtracking, no guesswork, and no way that she could pretend that she 'didn't mean it like that'.
Juliette rocked back on her heels, giving her a nervous, fake smile.
"Uh... Thanks?  Why?" She asked, her voice cracking over the words as she looked around Iris to where Becky was still talking to Allison about something and where Jackson was laughing with Marley, Peyton and Yvonne... In short, she was utterly fucked unless one of them saw her throwing up a distress signal... Or unless Carly was somewhere lurking in the shadows.
Iris leaned closer, her smile going from haunting to condescending so quickly that Juliette honestly felt dizzy.
"Well, I know this is your first time with such a big responsibility, and you're doing a surprisingly good job." Iris said, her tone coming out so condescending that Juliette was practically choking on her insincerity.
Also, she was just wrong, this was way less responsibility than having to head the fucking cheer squad, running bible study and youth group all at the same time.  Walk in the fucking park when comparing the two.
"I mean, I was head cheerleader, but okay... Thanks, Iris.  See you later." She sighed, pulling her hoodie tighter around herself... Well, Esme's hoodie, she could tell from the smell of their soap left on it, it always made her feel calm, almost serene in her existence.
But Iris wasn't done with her.
"I just never knew that a heavy girl could make a believable Sandy, but leaning into that 'virgin-whore' thing that you've got going just makes you nail it." She froze, turning back around with a furrowed brow, feeling her heart get a little cold.  She hated when people commented on her body, especially when they had no fucking clue what she'd been through to recover.  There was a time when that comment would tear her apart, and it wasn't long enough ago for her to let this bullshit fly.
"What did you just call me?" She asked, and iris raised an eyebrow, looking annoyingly proud of herself, which was stupid... Who the fuck got proud of trying to destroy someone's self esteem?
"Virgin-whore?" Iris asked, and Juliette snorted, shaking her head.  That had been said to her multiple times by people that she'd cared a lot more about than she cared about Iris's stupid opinion.