Juliette Oakland is from a small town in New Haven, Vermont. Since the moment she was born she was thrown into a world of abuse and neglect. Her mother died during childbirth which led her to fall victim to the hands of her alcoholic father. She had...
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***Erica Whitlock***
Juliette's P.O.V
Layla, Harvey, and I all stayed at Layla's apartment for the remainder of the night. Without meaning to all three of us had fallen asleep on the sofa in the living room. I, the smallest out of the bunch was in the middle, my legs draped over Harvey's knees, my head= resting on Layla's thighs. Layla herself lay half up, half down, with her led resting upon the arm on the couch. Harvey however, much larger than us both was left in the most uncomfortable spot as he was sitting directly up. The only indication that he was asleep was his closed eyes and his head that was resting upon the back of the couch, completely exposing his neck.
A surge of guilt flooded through me. The only reason that all of us fell asleep like this because we had spent the rest of the night talking. Some of it was about the events that had unfolded that night, most of it was seemingly meaningless things. They were clearly attempting to make me feel better. I would be lying if I said that it hadn't worked though.
As soon as the New Haven Fall Festival was brought up the thought of the cold, the memories of my father were completely washed away, placed into a corner in the back of my mind.
"Come on. You have to go." Layla had pleaded. At the time I had rolled my eyes, but deep down I wanted to go. I needed to start putting myself out there, experience new things. But that was deemed hard with no money and no job.
"I don't have anything to wear." I said truthfully, thinking of the small choice of clothes in my closet. The only garments that I had that weren't falling apart at the seams were the ones that they had gifted to me, none of which I thought were suitable for the festival.
"We can go shopping. We'll make a whole day of it. I wanted to grab a new outfit anyway." Layla was back to her normal upbeat self-halfway through the night.
"I don't know." I had answered, wondering how the hell she thought that I was going to shopping when I was penniless.
"Come on Juliette. It'll be fun. Besides, Harvey can come too." She looked to Harvey with pleading eyes.
"Yeah. I'll be there." He chuckled.
Despite my dismay I agreed to go. Even though I knew that I wouldn't be able to get anything, I was at least glad that I was going to get to spend time with them.
Remembering the smile that she held when I agreed, I couldn't help but crack a smile of my own as I carefully pushed myself off of the couch. Harvey stirred in his sleep as I moved my legs, but Layla remained unmoving, still sprawled out on the sofa.
Quietly, I made my way to the bathroom, last night's events now fresh in my mind. If anything happened with my father again, which was bound to happen sooner than later, Harvey was going to be stepping in, and this time there would be nothing that I could do about it. "And what would happen then?" I asked myself, now washing my hands. I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if he got hurt if he was caught in an altercation because of me.
