Chapter 2: Take Your Time
It's delicious to have people adore you, but it's exhausting, too. Particularly when your own feelings don't match theirs. ~ Tasha Alexander, A Fatal Waltz
"No…" She breathed, shaking her head, starting to back off the stage. She was not about to have her soulmate be the infamous Tony Stark.
Not today.
He caught her arm as she went to turn around, and she felt the same tingling in her arm, where his hand was.
"Come on, we can figure that out later. Let's just finish this," he whispered, covering the mic he was wearing on his lapel. Jules caught his chocolate brown eyes and sighed, shaking her head again.
"Fine," she muttered, ripping her arm back. She could still feel the electricity buzzing through her arm, What would her parents think when she started aging? It wasn't fair.
Tony Stark? He was a playboy.
Tony lead Jules to the acrylic stool that was in the middle of the stage, hand out to help her get onto it. Being only 5'1", she was thankful for the help.
Even if it was from Tony.
She sat and made herself comfortable before he brought over the electrodes that appeared to be connected to wires of some sort.
'That must be BARF' she thought to herself. She hadn't thought about the potential consequences of being Stark's guinea pig. Not until they started placing the electrodes on her head and his assistant told her to start thinking of her most traumatic experience.
No, that experience was something she wanted to never think about again. But the minute she started thinking about it, the events of that day came flooding back. Except this time, it was playing out in front of her for the entire theater for everyone to see.
"Jamey! I told Ellie I'd play hide and seek with her, but I can't find her!" The ten-year-old Juliette called from the living room. Her babysitter, walked out from the other room, appearing from around the corner.
"Have you checked outside? She's probably in the woods somewhere. You know your little sister." The babysitter patted baby Juliette's head before walking out of view again.
Baby Juliette turned and started to walk out the French doors that lead onto their patio and pool area, a small blonde head, floating face down in the pool.
But, who was in the pool? An unexpected thrill of fear chilled down her spine.
Ellie.
With a scream, the dream sequence faded.
Juliette's heart was aching as she was trying to keep herself from crying. The last thing she ever wanted to do was relive that moment. She looked up and over to see Tony Stark shedding a few tears.
Was it because he could feel the same ache in his heart that she did?
Or did he just pity her for what she'd gone through?
Jules would never know.
He nodded before coming back to her from the podium. Jules really didn't want to be a part of this experiment anymore. She didn't want to see Ellie like that, she didn't want any of it.
That buzz of electricity came back, and Juliette looked up, meeting Tony's eyes again. He seemed distant now, and his eyes were red and puffy. He had felt the effects of what she just relived, alright.
Serves him right for forcing her to relive the worst day of her life, all over again.
"I'm sorry," she heard him whisper.
Jules gave a hesitant nod, eyes traveling back to her lap. She just wanted to get off of this stage. She wanted to be done.
Tony turned away from her and back to the crowd. "Now, BARF is going to replay the scene, but this time, altering the memory so it's not as traumatic for her," he explained, moving out of the way for the projector to start again.
Starting the story over.
Now, it was back further. Ellie had told Jules that she wanted to play hide and seek, but with a quick glance at the pool outside, Jules grabbed her baby sister's small arm.
"Let's stay inside, alright Elle? We don't want to get in trouble from Mom and Dad," she said. The three year old's eyes lit up and nodded with a smile, before running off to go hide somewhere in the house.
It was like a weight was lifted off of Juliette's chest.
She'd replayed the same scenario in her head thousands of times.
If only she had told her sister they needed to play inside. She'd done it dozens of times before that day, but the one time she didn't, ended in tragedy
There was a clapping in the audience, and she wasn't sure if they were clapping out of pity for what happened to her, or because Tony's invention seemed to work.
Jules slipped off the chair and Tony motioned to her from the other side of the stage.
"Another round of applause for…" the billionaire trailed off, realizing he didn't know her name.
"Juliette." Jules said, knowing only the very front row could hear her as well as Tony.
"Juliette!" he finished, smiling at her with that damned playboy smile Stark loved to show off. She nodded once as a thank you and started off stage. She felt Tony try to stop her one last time, but she kept walking.
She didn't have the emotional stability to continue dealing with Stark. And he was supposed to be her Soulmate.
Sliding back into her seat, Jules pulled her iPad back out and continued to take notes on Tony's speech. As much as she felt the need to run back to her apartment on Long Island, this paper needed to get done and it was not going to if she didn't stay for the entire speech.
Tony finished, telling the students that all of their projects were officially funded by the Stark Foundation, causing the theater to erupt into applause.
Jules slumped more in her seat, not an engineering major in the slightest.
Once everyone had filed out of the theater, Jules was still in her seat, trying to finish taking down her notes from the seminar, when she could feel the presence of someone standing over her.
Juliette looked up and saw Tony, causing her to look back at her phone.
"Look," she started, beginning to pack up all of her stuff. "We don't have to talk about this. It was probably just a mistake. You can move on with your life, and I'll move on with mine" she said, not making eye contact with the taller man as she stood up.
"Juliette, you and I both know it doesn't work that way," he frowned down at her as she threw her heavy backpack over her shoulder.
"Well, you never know" she retorted, sliding past him.
She didn't want anything to do with Tony Stark, and she was sure that he wasn't going to want anything to do with her.
Stopping at the entrance, she glanced back at him.
"Plus, you don't even know me," she said, watching him purse his lips into a thin, frustrated line.
With one last look at the man that was supposed to be her Soulmate, she turned and walked out of the lecture hall.
She didn't look back.