Joseph Loves Juliette
A Masterson Series Novella
Lisa Lang Blakeney
Writergirl Press
LISA LANG BLAKENEY
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Copyright © 2018 Lisa Lang Blakeney.
All rights reserved.
Published by: Writergirl Press
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Author’s Note
Hi Fabulous Readers!
This is a short & sweet novella featuring the instalove connection between Joseph Masterson (Roman’s father) and Juliette Hill. I wrote this because many readers were interested in Joseph and Juliette’s backstory. If you’re a Joseph fan, I think you’ll enjoy it!
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*Please note that this novella was previously released in a special edition of the Masterson Series Boxed Set.
xoxo,
Lisa
Introduction
Whatever she wants.
Whenever she wants it.
However she likes it.
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As teenagers, it was love at first sight for Joseph Masterson and Juliette Hill, but they were from completely different worlds and it wasn’t meant to be. When the two have a second chance meeting as adults, they discover that the powerful chemistry between them is still there and stronger than ever.
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But this time there’s no way he’s letting her go. In fact, this time, his mission is to give Juliette the world or die trying.
Juliette
“Everyone has a moment that may change and ultimately shape their lives. The trick is realizing when it's happening. I know when mine occurred. It was twice. The first was the moment my eyes locked with Joseph Masterson’s. The second was when he walked back into my living room and claimed my heart.”
-Juliette Hill-Masterson
Joseph
Ode To Juliette
The very first moment I laid eyes on my wife I was dumbstruck. She was ethereal. A vision. The most beautiful girl I'd ever seen in my life or the next.
There were a million reasons why someone like me shouldn't have even bothered looking in Juliette Hill's direction, but I've never been a reasonable man.
I was raised in the gutter.
A boy from the streets.
And I've had to do a myriad of unreasonable things to get myself out of there, and even worse to stay out.
But I wouldn't change a thing.
Because every morning that I wake up to see and touch my wife's warm, luscious body laying next to mine–I am convinced that everything that I've done has been worth it.
There was no way that the innocent girl I met, and the sophisticated woman that she's grown to be, would have ever settled for anything less. Less than who I am. Who I've carved myself into.
So I'll do whatever. Eliminate whoever. Whatever it takes to make sure that my woman stays next to me. Warm in my bed. For the rest of the days I have left on this Godforsaken earth.
She is mine.
She is everything.
She is my Juliette.
Juliette
Franklin Senior High
A lifetime ago…
My best friend Karen is running down the second floor hallway towards me at warp speed in her washed out Billy Idol T-shirt, with her freshly dyed punk rock pink highlights flying wildly behind her.
Any other day I would have been chuckling at her pigeon toed gallop, but today seems different. I can tell by the look of urgency in her eyes that something is seriously wrong, and that she's dying to tell me whatever it is.
A knot begins to slowly form in the pit of my empty stomach, and it's not because I skipped breakfast. I can tell that this isn't going to be a dose of our usual mindless morning gossip. Something's very wrong.
She calls out to me with urgency. "Jules!"
I'm momentarily relieved that she is at least still calling me by my nickname, so it must not be all that bad. If someone was seriously hurt then she would call me by my full name, Juliette, but my eyes still grow wide with dreaded curiosity.
"What is it, Kay? What's wrong?"
"Let's go outside to The Pit. I need to ask you something."
Outside of school grounds, on the West side of Franklin Senior High School, is a self dedicated area for the kids in our school who smoke cigarettes and sometimes pot called The Pit.
At this time of day, mid-morning, it's a really good place to get away for a few moments of privacy. Most of the smokers are actually already in second period study hall, also known as the "do last night’s homework" period, so we'll basically have the area to ourselves. We're skipping gym, which is fine, since we have a substitute teacher all week.
Karen takes a deep breath and a long swallow in what seems an effort to stall, but because of the lump forming in my throat, I simply wait silently and patiently for her to gather her composure and say whatever it is. Honestly, she's scaring the shit out of me. She never acts like this.
"So…are things still good with David?"
"Yes…why?" I ask hesitantly. Afraid of where this may be going.
"So you talk to him still…I mean you two are still together?"
I’m getting freaked out by all the questions. Karen knows damn well that we are together, but obviously she knows something about David that I don’t. I just wish she would spit it out already.
"Yes, Kay, you know we're still together. What. Is. It?"
Karen nervously rubs her hands up and down the front of her pants as she continues on.
"Well…I heard from someone that you had s.e.x. with him last weekend."
My stomach drops as she spells out the word.
S.E.X.
How does she know.
"What,” I respond in a pained voice.
"Of course that isn't true… right?"
"Who told you that?"
"Well is it true?" she asks incredulously. "Did you give up your not-until-I-meet-my-husband virginity to David and not even tell your best friend about it?"
I might have mentioned to Karen that I was going to wait until I met and married my husband before having sex. That I promised my parents and my priest that I wouldn’t. Actually I might have told her that a thousand times. How could I not? It's been drilled into me by my irrationally conservative and judgmental mother since I got my first period.
Keep your legs closed, Juliette. Premarital sex is a sin against God. Plus you don't want to end up like your Aunt Tina. She should have never had a kid without getting married first. That unemployed boyfriend of hers left her high and dry before the baby even took her first breath. There's a place in hell for deadbeat fathers like him.
So ever since I can remember, abstinence until marriage was my motto. A plan to assure me that I would never disgrace the family or myself like poor Aunt Tina did, but then I second guessed all of that when I fell for David, or at least my hormones did all the second guessing for me.
"I want to know who told you that.” I demand an answer. Choosing to ignore Karen's hissy fit about not knowing first, because that’s totally besides the point.
"Gosh, it is true!” she exclaims with a mixture of awe and anger. "Well, you're not going to like this, but Sarah Dixon was the one who told me that you had sex with David. She said she found out, because her stupid brother saw the whole thing."
I'm just about ten seconds away fr
om vomiting all over The Pit's azalea bushes.
Her brother saw me having sex?
Saw!
Sarah is a popular senior at Franklin and has a big mouth that runs incessantly about whatever gossip is flying around that day. Her twin brother is a friend of David's. If those two know, then I have little doubt that the entire school knows or will know very soon that I've lost my virginity.
"What do you mean he saw?" I whisper the question as if speaking it quietly will make his crime any less of a possibility.
"Don't freak out, but evidently David must have told Sarah's brother and some other guys that you were coming over his house last weekend and what the plan was."
She says the word plan using air quotes.
"So according to Sarah, they came over before you got there and hid in his walk-in closet. I think they watched everything, Jules. Those spoiled assholes."
I try to stop them from falling, but it’s difficult. Heavy, salty, tears start to roll down my face, and then an excruciating tightness in my throat and chest forms that I pray will be the death of me.
Heart attack at seventeen.
Just kill me and get it over with.
I'll never be able to hold my head up in this school again. I can honestly say that I probably don't hate anyone on earth as much as I hate David right now.
"How many people know?" I ask softly.
"I don't really know, but it wasn't like Sarah's brother actually told her. She overheard him talking to someone on the phone, making fun of the fact that David only lasted three minutes before he … well you know….came.
“But I don't think they're going around telling tons of people though," she says quickly. "You're not some hoe bag, Jules. They know that. They were laughing more at him than you."
I close my eyes for several moments as the realization hits me that there were other people in the room. Guys that definitely know who I am and who all of my friends are. Guys who probably saw every face I made. Heard every noise I made. Heard me say that I loved him. Guys who have big mouths.
People don't necessarily know that I’m not a hoe bag or some skank. If those guys start running their mouths, kids will start talking about me over casual lunch conversation with their friends, and the story will take on a life of its own. I know because I’ve seen it happen to other girls in my school. David may have single-handedly ruined my reputation in the only place I've ever lived. In the only place I've ever known.
Now that I think closely back on that night, I remember the closet. I remember thinking how nice David's professionally decorated bedroom was. He had high cathedral ceilings with a professionally painted mural of the seashore on one wall, expensive dark mahogany wood furniture with brass pulls, and there were these cool, intricately carved double doors to his closet, which now when I think about it were slightly ajar that day.
I didn't think anything about it at the time. I certainly didn't think they were open so that people could watch one of the only moments in my life that I’ll never get to do over.
I lower my head in quiet shock and disbelief as it all really begins to sink in. Karen begins gently rubbing her hand up and down my back and staring at me with caution, like she is waiting for me to erupt or have a nervous breakdown or something.
While the tears are already starting to roll down my face, I still haven't broken out in the "ugly cry" yet, and I am trying my damnedest not to let it get to that point. Not because Karen hasn’t ever seen me break down, she has most definitely seen it once or twice, but I guess I'm trying to convince myself that I'll be all right.
Although I'm not sure that I will be fine at all.
Not ever again.
Juliette
I really like David.
What I mean is that I really liked David.
He moved to our town when we were both starting the fifth grade, so we’ve known each other a long time. We were always friendly, but he never paid me much attention until last year.
It was then that he started looking at me differently: flirting with me in English class, sitting next to me in the lunchroom, holding my hand in the hallways. I guess that’s what hurts most about this. I thought I knew him, but I didn’t see this coming–not by a long shot.
"Shows you what I know,” I say to Karen. I attempt to smile in jest, but it ends up being more of a painful smirk. "I thought him lasting three minutes before it was over was a good thing."
I can see what can only be described as pity slowly clouding my friend’s eyes. She has to be thinking what I already know–that David thinks that I'm a joke. That our "relationship" was all in my head, and that I’m an idiot, and that there is no way those guys, whoever they are, aren't going around telling everybody about what they saw.
The kids in our school are notorious for spreading gossip in record time, so I can pretty much be assured that everyone will know that I am no longer a virgin as well as the color of my frickin' underwear by the end of the week.
I’m finally beginning to process the enormity of everything Karen has just told me, and it's probably the cause of the throbbing pain at the base of my head.
I’m doomed.
I pinch the sides of my neck firmly to alleviate some pressure then slump down defeatedly on the wooden bench behind me, drop my books, and start to sob.
Here it finally comes.
The ugly cry.
Karen immediately sits down next to me and wraps one of her arms around my shoulders. It’s a rare show of affection from my tough as nails bestie, which is why I appreciate it so much.
"It's going to be fine, Jules. It was your first time. You held out for the guy you thought was the one. How many girls in the senior class, hell…in this entire school can say that? Most of them gave it up eons ago. Myself included."
Karen flashes me a warm grin which soothes some of the ache I feel in my heart. Maybe she is at least partially right. Perhaps I can take some solace in the fact that I definitely was one of the last mohicans when it came to losing my virginity. No one I know is in any position to judge me.
Right?
"I thought it was special…I thought he at least respected me…He took me out for pancakes afterwards. Oh my God, I sound ridiculous don't I? He's a jerk…I knew this already…I've seen him with other girls…Why would I sleep with him, Karen?"
"Because he is one of the most popular guys in school and he's always been nice to you. How were you supposed to know that he would pull something this heinous. Who makes a plan to have their friends watch them having sex. I mean who does that?!”
I love and appreciate that Karen is just as angry and appalled as I am. Like always, she has my back.
"Who else was there?" I needed to know.
Karen hesitated.
"Could this get any worse? Just tell me. I want to know who's walking around talking about me behind my back."
"I need to ask first. Did you at least enjoy it? If you had given me a heads up that you were going to do it, I would have given you some pointers.“
“It was supposed to be a private moment between the two of us. You’re going to need to get over the fact that I didn’t tell you,” I say a little irritated. She just comforted me two-seconds ago, and now she’s finding a way to make this about herself.
“My bad, Jules, you’re a hundred percent right.”
“And as far as if I enjoyed it–was I whooping and hollering like you claim you do all the time? Uh, no. It was three minutes of him grunting and me holding my breath until he was finished.”
“Yikes.”
“Exactly–I think you and a thousand Rated R movies lied to me about how wonderful sex supposedly is.”
"Well, it's hard to have an orgasm the first go ‘round."
I have no interest in talking orgasms or technique. I just want to hear the rest of the details about what happened in that room. I need to know what I’m dealing with.
"Who else was there, Kay? That's all I care about. Whose car windows am I bashing out toni
ght?"
Like I really have the balls to knock someone's windows out. My brothers probably would, but there’s no way I’m ever telling them about this, mainly because they would yell at me first for being so stupid and sleeping with David.
"There was Sarah's brother Ray and two other kids with him I think."
"Who are they?"
"I don't know, but I don’t think they’re from here. If you’re going to stress at all, I think Ray is the one that we have to worry about keeping his trap shut. I mean that is if you're even worried at all."
If I’m worried? Is she serious? Clearly Karen must be trying some reverse psychology crap we learned in class to trick me into believing that this isn't a big deal.
It isn’t working.
"You had sex with your boyfriend, Jules,” she continues talking. “Three people saw. So what?! Hell, you didn't murder someone. You didn’t sleep with all three of them (not that I’m slut shaming), but it's just not that big of a deal if you ask me.”
While I appreciate my best friend's attempt to downplay this catastrophe, I know what she’s saying is pure and utter nonsense.
"If it wasn't that big of deal, Kay, you wouldn't have skipped class to find me and tell me like it was a matter of life or death. You know it's a big deal. We hang in a small enough circle that everyone is going to find out and everyone is going to talk. Same thing happened to Marion last year, and you see what happened to her.”
“You and Marion are two very different people.”
“Are we? Kids are going to make me out to be the dumb, naive girl who got herself entangled with the 'out of my league' quarterback. It's all so cliche."
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