Later That Evening

Juliet walked up the driveway and looked over her shoulder with a smile, "Bye girls!" The brunette waved at the car that gave a quick honk and pulled away. Despite the very rocky start this morning, Juliet's day with her odd little group went perfectly. Once they were out of the house she was able to relax, talk with them, go through just about every store in the mall, and even come up with more plans for the future. This even extended to Bella, Juliet spent a far amount of time talking to the woman, even delving into personal topics. As it turned out, Bella was quite knowledgeable when it came to all things sexual, and she was more than happy to give the brunette a few tips for her next hook-up.

Putting the thoughts of the day behind her she headed inside, finding her aunt and uncle in the middle of dinner, "There she is," Andrea warmly said as Juliet walked over to the pair, "Have a good day, Julie?"

"Yeah, it was fun, I went to the mall with Quinn and a few other girls from school," Juliet replied,

"Hungry? I can fix you a plate," Ethan offered, half way out of his seat before he was done speaking,

"Thanks, Uncle Ethan, but I already ate at the mall," Ethan returned to his seat and in turn, Juliet realized that someone was missing from the table, "No Kenny?"

Ethan shook his head, "He said he wasn't hungry," The man replied, sounding a little frustrated,

"We think he's been in his bedroom all day," Andrea added in soft concern,

"Really? But I saw Kenny go out to the garage to work on his car this morning," Juliet said with a quick tilt of her head,

Ethan nodded, "Yeah, I saw that, he left a pretty big mess out there too. All his tools on the ground, music still playing. He must have a stomach bug or something," He guessed,

"Unless, Julie honey, did anything happen earlier today that you know of?" Juliet shifted her weight and kept her eyes off her aunts. Of course Juliet immediately thought of Ellie's teasing possibly being the catalyst of her cousin's poor mood, but telling his parents that seemed even worse. "Nothing that I can think of...I'll go talk to him though,"

"I think he'd appreciate that," Andrea nodded.

Juliet gave the pair a final smile and headed out of the dining area and to Kenny's bedroom, letting herself inside immediately. The bedroom light was on but nothing else, Kenny's computer and television were off and the teen was merely in his bed, turned on his side, "Hey, you asleep?"

"No," Kenny muttered back, not bother to turn over.

Juliet gently pushed the door so it was only open a crack and walked in further, looking around the bedroom for a moment. "I...see you didn't stay home all day, you brought the file back to the police station?"

"Uh-huh," Kenny hummed back,

Juliet crossed her arms and lightly tapped her foot, "Well? How did that go? Were they recruiting?"

"They said the last batch of recruits already went in and the next drive wouldn't be until the end of the summer, so no, Julie, they weren't," Kenny blankly replied,

Juliet let out a soft sigh and moved to Kenny's bed, sitting at the end, "I'm sorry Kenny, I know you had your heart set on trying sooner," The brown-haired teen shrugged in response.

The pair went silent and Juliet blew some more air out of her mouth as she tried to think of what else she could say. She never liked to see her cousin so down, but today clearly wasn't a good one for him. Shot down by his dream job and tormented by a girl in his own house, not a good combo in the slightest. Juliet's eyes suddenly lit up and she got from the bed, "You know, Ken, the drive being at the end of the summer could be a great thing!"

Kenny finally rolled onto his back, looking at Juliet with narrowed eyes, "How?"

Juliet reached into the back pocket of her jeans and produced a small paper card, "Here, Ellie gave it to me," In a flash Kenny snatched the card out of Juliet's hand and was sitting up in bed, inspecting it. "I heard about her messing with you this morning, and trust me she got the message that it wasn't going to be accepted. She did apologize to you, right? And she meant it?"

"Yeah," Kenny blankly replied, barely paying attention as he scanned over the card. Did she give this to Juliet for me?! Kenny thought, wondering if just maybe it was the blonde's phone number, but alas the teen had no such luck, "Is this...a business card?"

"Yeah, it's for the gym Ellie has been going to," Juliet explained as Kenny's body started to slump once more, "She's been going almost every morning for two months now, and it's been great for her body. I was thinking of going, but you should too! Think about it, it'll get you out of the house, and it can help prepare you for the recruitment drive at the end of the summer. No offense, Ken, but you should be in better shape if you're trying to be a cop,"

Kenny let out a half scoff, "I don't know Julie,"

"Come on, it'll be good for you," Juliet urged as she reached out and rested a hand on her cousin's shoulder, "It's not too far away, you could even walk it," Kenny absently flipped the card over a few times, "Please, for me, promise that you'll go at least once. Just to see if you'd like it,"

Kenny looked up at Juliet and the black-haired girl sweetly smiled back at him, her eyes looking at him expectantly. The idea of going to the gym didn't completely bother him, and to add in Juliet's little plead made it even harder to outright deny, but the idea of going to the same gym where Ellie was made him feel...strange. On one hand the idea of being near her again, talking, joking around, getting in shape together was amazing. Not to mention the few fantasies that already were forming in his head of sharing a shower with her in the locker room added to his desire to say yes. But then again, Ellie was in a committed relationship, she already turned him down today, showing up at the gym could only freak her out, or maybe even get her mad enough to tell Will that he was stalking her.

Kenny let out a soft groan and looked between Juliet and the business card a final few times before saying...