𝐎𝐂𝐄𝐀𝐍 𝐄𝐘𝐄𝐒 ━ shawn hunter¹

1│MY BEST FRIEND'S GIRL

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❛ ᴏᴄᴇᴀɴ ᴇʏᴇꜱ​​​​​​​​​​. ❜ ° . ༄
- ͙۪۪˚   ▎❛ 𝐎𝐍𝐄 ❜   ▎˚ ͙۪۪̥◌
»»————- ꒰ ᴍʏ ʙᴇsᴛ ғʀɪᴇɴᴅ's ɢɪʀʟ ꒱


❝ IT'S A NEW YEAR, A NEW ME ❞

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As Juliet walked down the short hallway of her apartment, she tiredly rubbed her eyes. She'd stayed up a bit too late on the phone with Jack last night and now she was paying the price. It was the first day of school, too, which was unfortunate. As she entered the kitchen she stopped and stared, now fully awake, at the never-before-seen sight in front of her: Daly Capelwood, home on a Wednesday morning, talking on the phone and occasionally giggling.

In her entire memory (save for the first few years before she met Shawn) Juliet could not remember the last time she'd seen her mom at home in the morning on a Wednesday. Or ever. Either something terrible was happening or something very good; it seemed to be the latter since her mom certainly looked happy— she had a bright smile on her face and her emerald green eyes sparkling.

"Mom?" Juliet asked, completely caught off guard.

Daly looked up from where she'd been playing with the cord and her smile grew larger at the sight of her daughter. She placed a single finger to her lips and then pointed to the phone as if it wasn't obvious what she was doing. When she stopped talking and started listening to the other person's reply, she mouthed good morning to her daughter.

"Uh, yeah, good morning to you, too, mom," the red-haired girl said awkwardly. None of her questions had been answered but a quick look at the kitchen clock— though ten minutes fast— told her that Jack would be there soon to pick her up. "Uh, I gotta go. I'll. . . see you later?" she asked uncertainly.

When the woman nodded, Juliet grabbed her bag and waved goodbye to her mother before she exited their apartment. After heading down the dark hallway with its flickering lighting, she took the narrow stairwell to the first floor and pushed open the door to walk to the main entrance so she could wait outside. She sat on the curb when she got there and puzzled over her mother's strange behavior.

Not too long after, a familiar, black car pulled up next to her and the back window rolled down to reveal Jack's face. "Hey, Ocean Eyes."

The girl stood and smiled happily at him and opened the door to slide inside. "Hey, Jackie."

She still couldn't believe that he was her boyfriend. He'd finally managed to 'woo' her enough to say yes at the end of the school year last year. Then, they'd had a whirlwind summer as they took both day trips and several-days' trips to places all around the U.S. and even overseas. She'd learned that Jack could be very spontaneous and a day of doing nothing could turn into a day of jetting off to France for dinner. She'd hardly been home at all and missed spending time with Cory and Shawn. As John handed her a brown bag containing her breakfast, she felt Jack's eyes on her. 

"What?" she asked curiously as she turned to him.

The blond turned faintly pink. "Nothing. It's just, um, you look really nice."

Juliet gave him a shy, pleased smile. "Thanks," she said, still getting used to how often he complimented her— and the best part was that it seemed incredibly genuine.

It wasn't even like she was wearing anything distinctly fancy— just a cream-background sundress with blue flowers scattered over it. She wore a buttery-leather jacket on top with matching ankle boots. Her red hair had grown out even more over the summer so that it fell down her back in a flaming waterfall.