A Poignant Fallacy

Scene 38- Beaming More

Juliette wakes up the next day in a glorious mood. She brushes her teeth, puts on a cute outfit that she picked herself, and paints her toenails all before going downstairs for breakfast.

She made herself a smoothie and decided that she wanted to swim. Not before she was bothered by her family members of course.

She stands at the island sipping her smoothie when Beau and Gavin walk into the kitchen.

Beau says, "Woah. Someone dressed themselves today."

Gavin laughs, "Yeah where's the ruffles that are always on your butt?"

Beau adds on top, "And the dress with the matching bow that's bigger than your head?"

Juliette rolls her eyes. She tries to say a clever comeback,

"At least I look good whether I pick out my outfit or not. Unlike you."

Beau looks at her in silence for a second. Her eyes widen as she realizes what she's done.

"Shut up Juliette."

She internally smiled. He had nothing on her.

She put her hands up and said sarcastically, "Oo I'm so scared."

And then she walks out of the kitchen with her smoothie. She had won. Juliette was beaming more than she already was before.

She wrote in her diary while she sipped her smoothie for a while and then changed into a white and blue striped bikini. She had got it at the mall with her friends secretly hoping her parents wouldn't care. She slipped on a giant t shirt that she stole from Jackson years ago so no one would see her bathing suit choice.

Once she successfully got outside she stripped off her stolen t-shirt and jumped into the water. She did dozens of laps back and forth of freestyle before she got tired and took a break. She stayed on the side of the pool with her arms holding her up on the edge. She wished she had a phone to look at while she took her breaks, but instead just grabbed one of her favorite books to read in the pool.

Hunger Games was an all time favorite for her, but she wasn't feeling it. So she put the book back on the concrete edge of the pool and swam to the end to start doing laps again. She pushed off and started to do a butterfly stroke.

She loved swimming through her sparkling pool, feeling the water between her fingers. She felt like she could do anything when she was underwater. She wished her Daddy would let her do swim team, but he said that he didn't want her to burn out of golf if she had too many activities to do.

She was coming back on her third lap when she saw two people walking closer to the edge that was by the house. Two adults it looked like. She starts to swim extra fast and with perfect technique to impress whoever she would meet at the other end when she was done.

She immersed herself underwater one more time as she slowly grabbed onto the edge of the pool and popped out of the water. She rubbed her eyes and slicked her hair back and looked up to see Jackson standing over her.

"Hi JuJu." he said, waiting for her to interact with him.

"Who's that?" Juliette asks, a little bit harshly.

She saw a tall woman with dark brown hair smiling down at her. She had the whitest teeth and green eyes that looked translucent.

She was beautiful. And Juliette knew exactly who she was. Scarlett, soon to be married to her favorite brother Jackson. She always had to look at her while her mom would show her Jackson's facebook posts during the years he was away. She had seen her on a hiking trip, art museum, and what seemed like millions of restaurants and bars, but she had never seen her looking like her sister in law.

Jackson gave Juliette a stern face and rolled his eyes,

"Juliette," He said in a warning tone,

"Surely you remember my girlfriend Scarlett?"

Juliette doesn't want to make Jackson mad so she perkily says, "Oh yes, sorry my vision is kind of blurry from the water."

She giggles and instantly charms the both of them. She was good at playing the cute card.

Jackson offers her his hand to pull her out,

"Come eat lunch."

Juliette shakes her head and smiles. Before Jackson could say anything to convince her, she goes underwater and swims away. Eventually she has to come up for air and she finds herself in the middle of the pool.

Jackson says something quietly to Scarlett and she walks inside. Juliette watches him as he grabs a towel from the storage and asks her to get out again.

"Please? I want to talk to you. And I want you to talk to Scar."

Juliette rolls her eyes at the request and the nickname. She reluctantly swims to the stairs and slowly gets out as Jackson wraps her in a towel and hugs her.

"That's quite the swimsuit. Doesn't look like anything Mom would buy for you."

Juliette remarks back cleverly, "Probably because I bought it."

Jackson then laughs and pushes her back lightly so she starts to walk into the house.