Rayna opens her eyes and groans. It's the second morning she wakes up in an unfamiliar bed, in an unfamiliar room, in an unfamiliar house.
She hates this house. It's impersonal, and cold, and too... white. And there are those stupid glass walls. She feels like a goldfish in an aquarium.
It's too quiet too. Emily had dropped by, the previous morning, but Rayna had sent her back home and told her to take a few days off. She hadn't trusted herself to act as Juliette around her. Now she wonders if she should call her back, just to have someone to talk to.
She isn't used to living alone. She has never lived alone. She'd moved in with Deacon after her father had kicked her out of the house, and she'd spent the next eleven years with him. Then she'd met Teddy.
She sighs.
She has lived less than 36 hours in this body, but it feels like an eternity already.
Reluctantly, she drags herself out of bed, puts a robe on and heads downstairs. She's pouring herself coffee when she hears the sound of the doorbell. She glances at the clock and panics for a second. Someone ringing the doorbell this early usually means bad news. She takes a sip of coffee and a deep breath, and she walks to the door. When she opens it, she's greeted with the sight of a huge bouquet of flowers.
"Juliette Barnes?" the delivery guy behind the flowers asks.
"Yes."
He hands her the flowers, and she almost signs Rayna Jaymes on the delivery notice but catches herself just in time. She thanks him before she closes the door again. She searches for a card attached to the bouquet.
I'm sorry. I don't want things to end this way. Sean.
Oh, Sean. She'd entirely forgotten about Sean. He'd stopped texting sometime in the afternoon and after that, it had just... slipped her mind.
At least, he didn't show up in person. If she continues to ignore him, maybe there's a chance she will never have to break up with him.
—
Rayna is sitting on the stairs outside her own house when Juliette parks the SUV in the driveway. She'd been tempted to come over earlier to see the girls before Juliette would drive them to school, but she'd decided against it. It would only have made it worse. It would have made her miss them even more.
She came over because she and Juliette needs to talk about the song for the anniversary show. Whatever is going to happen or, God forbid, not happen between now and Friday, they will still have to do that damn song. She also needs to talk to Juliette about her visit to Jolene. She'd almost told her last night when she'd called, but she'd chickened out at the last moment. Maybe it's for the best. It isn't a conversation to have over the phone.
The visit itself hadn't gone as bad as Rayna could have feared. Jolene had been over the moon to see her, and all Rayna had needed to do was to listen to her. Jolene had been insistent that she was working hard to get better, that she was doing this for Juliette. Rayna had kept having flashbacks to Deacon, all those years ago, telling her he was doing this for her.
"Hey!" Juliette shouts as she gets out of the SUV. "What are you doing here?"
"Glenn has been calling all day yesterday to ask what we're going to do about the anniversary show," Rayna explains as she gets up and brushes off her jeans.
"Well, Bucky has been calling all day yesterday to ask what we're going to do about the anniversary show."
Rayna scoffs. "We should send them on vacation together. It would give us a break."
Juliette smiles at that. "Does that mean you want to... talk about the song?"
She doesn't want to, but she doesn't think there's a choice.
—
"Do you realize that if we haven't swapped back by Friday, we'll have to perform as each other?" Rayna asks.
She's sitting at the kitchen island while Juliette is busy making coffee. It feels weird. It feels like being a stranger in her own house. Juliette looks too comfortable moving around her kitchen. Juliette, in general, seems to have slipped into her life a lot more easily than she has slipped into Juliette's life. She isn't sure what to make of that.
"It has crossed my mind, yes," Juliette says as she pours coffee in a mug that she slides across the island to Rayna. "Have you tried to sing as, I mean, me?"
"Well, no. You?"
Juliette shakes her head. She fills a mug for herself and keeps staring at it for a long moment before she asks, "When do you think it will happen, us swapping back?"
Rayna sighs. "I don't know."
She was the one who'd suggested that there is some lesson they need to learn in order to get their bodies back, but the truth is she has no idea what is going to happen. What she knows, though, is that if the point of all this is to understand each other better, keeping things from Juliette isn't going to help.
She fishes into her purse and gets the envelope out. She hands it to Juliette. "Deacon dropped by yesterday, and he gave me this," she explains. Juliette frowns as she takes the envelope. "He said it's a letter from your mom."
At that, Juliette's face changes. "Did you read it?"
"No." It's the truth, she didn't read the letter. Juliette folds the envelope in two and slides it in the back pocket of her jeans. Rayna squirms on her stool. She's going to have to come clean at some point anyway, so it's better to rip off the band-aid now. "I didn't read the letter, but... I went to see her," she confesses.
Juliette blanches, and Rayna wonders if it's what she always looks like when she's pissed. "You what?"
"Deacon told me she wanted to see you, and—"
"You had no right to do that."
"Family is important, Juliette. And I got the impression she's working really hard to get better. If you went to see her, you would see that she—"
"I would see what? I would be reminded that I had to eat dry pancake mix because all our money went up her nose? Or that my first kiss was from one of her creepy boyfriends? I know how important family is, Rayna, because I never had one."
The good news for Rayna is that she is, indeed, learning more about Juliette. The bad news is that Juliette is looking at her like she's about to murder her. "I'm really sorry, I didn't know any of that," Rayna apologizes. "It's just... I lost my mom when I was twelve, and I would give anything to see her again."
"I'm not you," Juliette seethes, and Rayna has to bite her tongue not to make the most obvious joke. Juliette walks to the door and opens it. "Get out."
"Excuse me?"
"Get. Out."
Rayna sighs. "Alright." She isn't going to fight with this Juliette. She grabs her purse and heads out. She has barely walked outside when Juliette slams the door shut behind her.
Great. She's just been kicked out of her own house.
—
The girls are asleep, and Juliette has set up camp on the living room's couch, in the dark, a glass of whiskey in her hand. What is left of the bottle sits on the coffee table.
She's been mulling things over all day. What had happened with Deacon had been unintentional, but Rayna visiting her mom felt very much intentional. She still can't believe Rayna did that.
Juliette is about to pour herself another glass when she hears Teddy open the front door. She has barely seen him these last two days, and she came to the conclusion he must be purposefully trying to avoid Rayna. Not that she is complaining.
He turns the kitchen's light on and checks the fridge before he notices she's here. "Hey?"
"Hey."
He looks between her and the bottle before he sits down on the opposite couch. "Rough day?"
At this point, she is in a murderous mood and bordering on drunk. "Do you care?" she snaps. Teddy looks taken aback. "What are we doing here?" she continues.
"What do you mean?"
"This," she says, gesturing between the two of them, "is not a marriage. Why haven't we divorced yet?"
It's petty, and it's wrong, but Rayna messed with her life, and Juliette is intent on taking revenge. Teddy looks surprised, but not as shocked as he should be. Juliette guesses it isn't the first time the word divorce has been brought up.
"Is that what you want?" he asks.
"I don't know, is that what you want?"
Teddy sighs, annoyed. "I can't do this tonight, Rayna," he huffs before he gets up and heads upstairs.
Juliette smirks, pleased with herself. If Rayna is going to meddle in her life, two can play this game.
—
One thing Juliette learns the next morning is that Rayna's body has a much lower tolerance to alcohol than hers. She wakes up wanting to die. She ponders spending the whole day in bed, but then Maddie barges into the room complaining she lost a shin guard, and Daphne calls from the kitchen to announce they are out of Froot Loops, and Juliette has to say goodbye to her hopes of dying in peace. She drags herself out of bed and goes on a quest to find a missing shin guard and a fresh box of Froot Loops.
—
"You're different."
Juliette looks up from her coffee to find Daphne staring at her from her stool on the other side of the kitchen island. Maddie who's sitting next to her lifts her eyes from her phone but keeps quiet.
"What do you mean?" Juliette asks.
Daphne seems to think about it while she pours milk in her bowl of Froot Loops. "I don't know, you've been acting... weird."
Juliette takes a sip of coffee. "It's been a weird couple of days," she says. Weird is the understatement of the year. "I'm sorry if I've seemed... off."
She thinks about last night and feels a pang of guilt. It had only been a way to get back at Rayna for what she'd done, but Juliette realizes that if she were to mess things up between Rayna and Teddy, it would have repercussions on the girls. The last thing she wants is to hurt these girls.
Maybe it's the hangover talking, but she feels bad about what she's done. The surest way to prevent Rayna from further messing with her life, anyway, is to get it back. And Juliette has a hunch it isn't going to happen if she keeps ignoring her.
"Hey, girls... what would you think about skipping school today?" she suggests. They both freeze and look at her like she's grown a second head.
"Seriously?" Maddie asks.
Juliette nods. "I have to go see Juliette Barnes today, and I thought maybe y'all would like to... tag along?"
Maddie and Daphne look at each other before they jump down their stools. They run around the island to get to the other side and launch themselves at her, screaming.
Juliette laughs, trying to keep her balance. "Alright, I'll take that as a yes."
—
TBC