𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐄𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓
𝗜𝗠𝗣𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗘𝗡𝗧

JULIETTE beamed at the blonde girl in her doorway, bringing Madelyn in for a hug. "Hi! Oh, it's so good to see you!" Juliette nodded in agreement as they pulled away, stepping aside to allow Madelyn to come inside.

"Oh, your apartment is so beautiful! I'm jealous." Juliette chuckled at that, closing the front door and following Madelyn into the kitchen. "God, look at this place!" Madelyn gawked at Juliette's kitchen, the singer raising an eyebrow, "It's not much-"

"Not much? Juliette, I lived in a small apartment in Charleston with a building floor full of guys during a global lockdown, trust, this is gorgeous." Juliette laughed at that, walking towards her cabinet, "Wine?"

"Yes, please. Thank you."

"Wait," Juliette raised an eyebrow and glanced at Madelyn as she grabbed a wine bottle from the wine rack on the wall, "You lived where during the pandemic?"

Madelyn sighed dramatically as Juliette uncorked the bottle and began pouring the expensive red into wine glasses, "Yeah, we started filming not long after the pandemic, so when we finished filming we were still on lockdown and all of us were living in this 1 apartment building. Some of us had roommates, Chase and I were dating at the time so we were living together-"

Juliette glanced down at her feet, where her Siamese cat, Lyla, was weaving through her feet. Then, registering what Madelyn had said, her eyes went wide and she paused, "You and Chase dated?"

Madelyn laughed and nodded, accepting the glass from Juliette, "Yeah, for a little over a year. It was a mutual break up, no bad blood. I have a boyfriend now, anyway."

Juliette chuckled and placed her hand on the marble island, "I didn't know that either! Gosh, I know nothing about you!"

Madelyn leaned slightly over the island, "I know nothing about you! If we're gonna be married I think we should know each other!" The two women broke into a fit of giggles, both of them moving their conversation to Juliette's couch.

"He was a dick, really, I'm not sure how I didn't see it before."

Madelyn scoffed in surprise, wrapping her arms around her knees, both girls curled on Juliette's couch. "I just can't believe he got mad at you for catching him cheating! Thats so narcissistic!"

Juliette shrugged sadly, glancing down at her almost empty glass of wine, "Yeah, I don't have the greatest track record with guys, I guess?" Madelyn went quiet, and Juliette glanced up at the confused girl, Madelyn giving Juliette a silent look to explain.

She sucked her teeth, "My first boyfriend, Justin, was just an unbelievable asshole. You wouldn't think a 16 year-old would be so full of himself, but then there he was. He forgot I existed half the time and always focused a little too hard on helping out the cheer team. And then Griffin, who, ya' know. Add in a few weird situationships here and there." Juliette shrugged and chuckled awkwardly, "It's whatever, past is in the past."

Madelyn nodded sympathetically, reaching a hand out to place it on Juliette's knees, "Drew would never do any of that to you, I promise. He's the kindest, most thoughtful and selfless person I know."

A half-hearted chuckled left Juliette's lips, and although she didn't feel flattered, the mention of Drew still made her cheeks bloom pink. "Drew and I aren't dating, Maddie."

Madelyn smirked and leaned back against the armrest, "Not yet. That man will not shut up about you, by the way. Ooo-" Madelyn sat up again, Juliette's eyebrows shooting up in amusement. "-have you written any songs about him?"

Juliette's eyes went wide, cheeks blooming pink as her eyes glanced over to the songbook sitting on her coffee table, "Oh, I. Well, I don't-"

"Oh, please tell me you have! I'd love to hear one!"

Juliette chuckled and shrugged, "Yeah, I've written a couple about him-"

"Please, let's me hear one? I beg you! I won't tell anyone!"

Juliette chuckled at Madelyn's begging, rolling her eyes and reaching over to grab the book off her table. It was brown leather bound, with a thin leather strap wrapped around it to hold it together. Madelyn noted the different colored sticky tabs sticking out of the side of it, and her curiosity got the best of her.

"What's the tabs?"

Juliette chuckled and unwrapped the leather binding, "They're to separate the songs. So blue is a sad song, pink is romance, yellow is happy, purple is undetermined, just little lyrics I think of, and green is unfinished."

Madelyn nodded in awe of Juliette's process, before noting the 5 or 6 red tabs, "What are the red ones?"

Juliette's cheeks bloomed in embarrassment, shrugging as nonchalantly as she possible could with the wine flowing through her blood, "Uh, those are...like, horny songs."

Madelyn paused, before a mischievous grin spread across her cheeks, "Any red pages about Drew, dear Juliette?" Juliette's eyes went wide, knuckles turning white as her grip on her songbook tightened, "I—"

"I knew it. Please let me hear one! Or even just one line!"

Juliette groaned in embarrassment while flipping the book open, manicured finger finding one of the red tabs near the back of the book, "I swear to god, Madelyn Cline, if I hear this song on TMZ tomorrow, I'm suing you."

Madelyn laughed and brought her fingers to her mouth, mimicking a zipper over her lips before a giddy laugh escaped her.

Juliette founded the page, lyrics written in a pink pen she had in her nightstand the morning she began writing it. The top of the page had ' B̶e̶d̶r̶o̶o̶m̶ C̶h̶e̶m̶i̶s̶t̶r̶y̶ ?? Bed Chem ?? ' and Juliette grimaced.

"It's a work in progress."

Madelyn nodded, taking the book from Juliette's outstretched hand. Juliette was never super private about her music, even her unfinished and abandoned songs. She appreciated criticism and loved hearing it from her friends and family.

But watching Madelyn's eyes scan over a song about her costar was bordering embarrassment. The blonde's eyes slowly went wide in shock, a smile spreading out over her cheeks as she leaned out and placed her wine glass on the coffee table so she could hold the song book with both hands.

Juliette chuckled nervously, fingers anxiously picking at the skin of her cuticles as Madelyn slowly looked up from the songbook, "Come right on me , I mean camaraderie? Juliette Carter, oh my God!" Juliettes cheeked grew a deep shade of pink, reaching out to snatch the book from Madelyn's hands. "You're done-"

"You're a bad girl—"

"Madelyn," She warned, but the blonde continued.

"Naughty, naughty."

"Do not tell Drew—"

"Why? You wrote it about him–" Madelyn squealed as Juliette flew forward to reach for the girls face, Madelyn blocking it with a giggle. "I'll tell him—"

"No you won't! If he knew I wrote a sex song about him—" Juliette continued to practically crawl on Madelyn to get the girl to shut up, but she still refused.

"He'll have to dick you down—"

Juliette's phone began to ring, making both girls pause and look at the phone on the coffee table. "I bet that's him right now—"

"I'll kill you." Juliette joked, crawling off of Madelyn and hastily grabbed her phone. drew 💋 and a screenshot of the man grinning widely on a FaceTime lit up the screen. "Oh it is Drew-"

Juliette laughed and looked over at Madelyn, "I'm going outside, you nuisance!" Madelyn stuck her tongue out at Juliette as the blonde stepped out of the large window and onto her small balcony.

She took a deep breath before answering the call and pressing the phone to her ear.

"Hey, gorgeous."

Juliette's cheeks grew pink, the blonde leaning against the railing, "Hey."

"Are you busy? Am I interrupting anything?"

"No," Juliette bit her lip and looked back at Madelyn, who was laying down on the couch scrolling through her phone, "Madelyn is over right now, we've just been hanging out."

Drew's laugh flooding through the phone made her grin, "Well, I don't want to interrupt you two-"

"No." Juliette was quick to interrupt, "You're not interrupting. We've just been talking. Did—Did you need something?"

"Oh, no. Not really. Just wanted to hear your voice. I've been with Rudy all day, and I'll tell you what, the kid can't shut up about Elaine. Just, made me miss you a bit."

Juliette couldn't stop the giddy smile, heart pounding in her chest as she struggled to not do excited jumps. "Oh, I see. Well, you're seeing me tomorrow-"

"How about tonight, too? I was thinking I take you out for dinner?" Juliette's grin grew wider, if that was possible. Eyes looking up from her socks and out at the brick apartment wall across from her. "You are so impatient. Well, where are you taking me, Starkey?"

He grinned, staring down at the now unlit cigarette between his fingers, late afternoon sun over the ocean keeping his eyes busy.

"Have you ever been to 71Above?"

Juliette's face fell at the mention of the high end restaurant. "Uh, it's a nice place, but, not really my style. 150$ per person is just a touch ridiculous to me."

Drew chuckled, dropping his head with a smile, "Alright, how about The Palm?" Juliette nodded to herself, "Better. You're catching on."

Drew smiled, "Can I pick you up at 5? Gives us a couple hours until."

A soft noise of amusement escaped Juliette, and she rolled her eyes, "Well, I'll need more time than that to get all pretty."

"I could pick you up right now and you'd still be the prettiest girl at that restaurant."

The butterflies in Juliette's stomach weren't just fluttering anymore, they were doing full fledged backflips inside her. Her cheeks almost burned with how warm they were, smile wide enough it began to hurt, "You flirt."

"I'll see you at 6, then."

"See you at 6."

With that, she pulled the phone away from her ear and ended the call, bliss fading away as she realized this would be their first real date.

Juliette rushed back inside with wide eyes, Madelyn sitting up quickly, "What happened?"

"We're going out tonight. To dinner."

"You guys are going on a date!" Madelyn squealed, shooting off the couch in excitement. Juliette nodded, swallowing the lump in her throat, "Our first, actually. Technically."

Madelyn's eyes went wide, slowly nodding. "I'll facetime Sadie."

Juliette nodded stiffly, shock and anxiety settling into the girl, Madelyn chuckling at Juliette's shocked expression, "That's-that's nice, I'll need double the outfit advice. I'm gonna go shower."