Angelo had been away most of last night for some sort of 'business meeting' which had prompted me to sneak Marina in through my bedroom window. We'd talked through almost the whole night, being open with each other much more than we usually were during the daytime and in the company of others. Mostly, I'd tried to squeeze the information of who she liked out of her while she insisted there was no one, meanwhile laughing in anticipation of how we could use the night's new information against the Montagues.
We weren't bad people or mean bullies, we didn't pick on random kids, didn't force them into… smoking, or whatever. But when it came to the Montagues, we were ruthless; we had to be. "Never let a Montague walk away from you unscathed," had been drilled into our heads since birth, and for a good reason.
Of course, the secret sleepover had led to the both of us getting no more than one hour of sleep, so, in the rush to get to school, we'd grabbed two cups of strong, black coffee from a nearby café, one of which was now warming my hands as I knocked on the closed door of the Drama classroom.
"Fashionably late?" my teacher questioned with the raise of an eyebrow, to which I replied with a shrug and a nod. "Sit," he sighed, so I looked around for a seat…….. and found the only available one beside Romeo Montague.
Brace yourself, I thought, stifling a small groan as I seated myself down.
I got to school early for the first time in ages for the sole purpose of talking to Juliet before school. Talking to girls had never been a problem for me, but suddenly I couldn’t function around one. Drastic times called for drastic measures. So what if some loser was dating Juliet? There was no way he could be better than me at anything, including romance.
The rose in my locker was living proof of that. Or well, dying proof, since it wasn’t looking too great before first period. The worst of it all was that Juliet had yet to show up. Was she with her boyfriend? Were they fighting? Maybe she was mad at me for storming off last night?
Mercutio insisted I was loosing my mind, but all my worries seemed perfectly valid to me. She hadn’t come to class yet either. I watched the seats fill up around me, taking to sketching the rose in my locker on a page of my notebook. My heart stopped as someone slid into the seat next to me. Trying to be subtle, I glance over to see that it was, in fact, Juliet before forcing myself to look away before my face got too flushed.
Do I say hi? Can I? Should I? Yes? No. No, no definitely no. Avoid at all costs. Ignore for safety. Don’t do anything stupid. I managed to fixate my gaze on my sketch and continue working on the flower’s petals, feeling proud of myself for resisting temptation.
I raised an eyebrow, my eyes sliding sideways to Romeo, who seemed to be pointedly ignoring me. "You're not looking too great this morning, did Rosaline reject you a third time?" I asked, a smirk on the subtle curve of my lips. Oh, this was too fun. Finally, a reason to embarrass him with a solid foundation. At the front of the class, our Drama teacher was writing something on the board.
I'd taken the class because, quite frankly, I loved to act. I had a whole bookshelf full of old theatrical scripts, and a few notebooks filled with my own—the whole idea of being out there on a stage caused a thrill to go through me. Obviously, there was no use pursuing a Drama career, my father wasn't going to have any of it, so I took the class instead… It was the next best thing.
“Didn’t get much sleep.” I replied gruffly, silently thrilled she had started conversation. To be fair, it was a jab, but I’m going to take anything I can get for now. I kept my gaze on my drawing, refusing to let myself get that distracted again.
The teacher started to write something, but I couldn’t care less. Why was I suffering through a drama class? Punishment. After my first rejection from Rosaline last year I was completely devastated. Torn up enough to refuse to go on any missions my father sent me on. In his words “If you want to act like this, learn how to do it properly. Maybe you’ll actually pass this time.”
I snorted loudly, taking a deep sip of my steaming coffee. Yes, I had bags under my eyes, and yes, it was obvious how little sleep I'd gotten, but I was still confident in my appearance, since Marina had helped fix me up in the morning.
But my train of thought was cut off when our teacher cleared his throat and pointed to what he had written on the board. "This," he began in his typically musical voice, "Will be your life in this class for the next two months. Write and perform a two-person show." Immediately, an excited murmur spread through the room. Friends began to make eye contact, partners already being chose, but— "However, I have already chosen your partners based on skill." A loud groan followed this announcement.
The teacher began to read from a long list of who would be paired with who, and Juliet could feel herself drifting off. No Marina to perform with…. I just hope I'm put with someone bearable..
"Juliet Capulet and Romeo Montague, come and collect your assignments!"
My head snapped up.
"What?!"
My heart pounded in my chest. I suddenly felt extremely grateful my father forced me to take this class. “What’s wrong, Capulet? Aren’t competent enough to handle me?” I teased, rising up from my seat and swaggering over to collect our assignments for whatever we were doing together.
The unexpected victory had pumped confidence back into my veins. Let’s see her boyfriend try and get rid of me now. A mischievous grin stretched across my face as I set our papers down on the table, not bothering to read them.
Well……… that sucked absolute ass, to say the least.
Admittedly perplexed by his sudden change in mood and incredibly pissed off at our drama teacher, I let my gaze simmer over with controlled anger and levelled a smooth glare at him. "Oh, I'm more than competent enough to handle you, Romeo. I'm at the top of the class, remember?"
Mercutio is going to kill me for this, maybe even literally this time. “Top of the class, huh?” I scoffed, admittedly spurred on by her response. The way this girl makes me feel is insane. With the right tactics she could probably goad me into just about anything, but as long as she didn’t know that, I would be safe.
“Funny how you think I’m going to help you with this. My father will probably have Mr. WhatsHisFace in a casket by the end of the week.” I snickered, using his usual tactics to get under her skin. The only difference being that I refused to look at her.
I raised an eyebrow, pinning him down with a perfectly cultivated look. "Funny how you assumed that I'd want you to help me. And no, you've got it wrong, actually, it's my father who will have you in a casket by the end of the week." I tapped the worksheet, then glanced down to inspect my fingernails, which Marina had painted a glossy shade of scarlet for last night's party. "And I like Mr. Rizzo, which means that you are going to leave him alone. If not…. well." I cracked a grin. "Let's just say that I have information that you don't want to get back to you parents."
Focus, Romeo! Focus! Stay strong. I did my best not to squirm or shift underneath Juliet’s glare. “Oh, I’m sure, darling. My family adores it when Capulets walk into our territory to lie about their golden child.” He rolled his eyes, leaning back in the chair. “I give him three days tops before he washes up in the lake.”
"Did you just call me darling?" I let fire ripple beneath my tone, searing through my words—a warning. "And, actually, you forget that I literally beat you to the ground only yesterday morning. Easily. I won't hesitate to do that again, and…….." This time, my voice was bitter, almost raw. "Francesco Rizzo is a close friend of my family. I think the Montagues have hurt enough of the people we care about, don't you?"
(she's referring to her mother, check the 'family' section of her template)
(https://people.howstuffworks.com/mafia.htm is a good resource about the mafia, go straight to the second page bc the first is useless)
Pros and cons of this situation. Pros: Juliet is talking to me, she has to spend time with me almost everyday now, she’s really pretty, she could kick my ass if she wanted to.
Cons: Juliet is insulting my family, I have to pretend to hate her, she actually hates me, she will kick my ass because she wants to.
I weighed out this situation carefully. The thought of Juliet hating me hurt like hell even though a week ago I wanted her dead like the rest of my family does. The sudden sinking feeling in my chest threw me off my rhythm, leaving me to stammer out a quiet: “Whatever, Capulet.”
I was surprised at myself, at how easy it was to lash out, the wound of my mother's death never really having healed over. "I'm going to the washroom," I muttered, rising to my feet and leaving the classroom as quickly as I could without bothering to ask the teacher for permission.
Keep it together, idiot, I told myself harshly as I slipped into the safety of the bathroom. I could definitely hold my own, stay composed. But when it came to my mother….. I fell apart.
It only took me a few minutes to cool down, draw the heat and pain back inside. As soon as I was confident in my ability to hold a pokerface, I was returning to the class, looking Romeo straight in the eye as if nothing had happened.
I knew I made a mistake as soon as she got up to leave. I groaned quietly, resting my head on the table in frustration. Being outgoing just seemed to drive her away more. I changed tactics, straightening everything out our desks, ripping a piece of paper out of my notebook for each of us. I grabbed my earbuds out of my pocket, plugging them into the headphone jack on my phone, opening YouTube.
As Juliet returned, making an uncomfortable amount of eye contact, I rested my head on the desk, putting one of the earbuds in my right ear. “Put the other one on.” I ordered, not bothering to explain myself.
"Do you have some kind of mood swing disorder?" My voice was smooth as marble and colder than ice. "But fine, as long as I get to pick the music." I held out my hand for his phone, frowning down at the assignment sheet on the desk in front of me.
"And, as much as I hate it, this is a group assignment. We have to actually talk for it to work…. and though I wish I didn't have to interact with you, I need a good mark on this project."
“Already started working, Capulet. Aren’t you supposed to be good at this? I get inspired by music pretty easily.” I gently handed my phone over to her, staring at the blank sheet of paper in front of me.
I snorted, giving his empty paper a doubtful glance before taking his phone into my hands. Our fingers brushed briefly, causing me to jerk my arm away, but I quickly forgot about the slip up, chewing on my lip as I tried to choose a song. A strand of dark hair fell across my line of vision, and I moved to brush it away, fingers hovering over the small screen before I looked up 'Nothing Compares 2 U', the Sinead O'Connor version. One of my mother's old favourites… I didn't even stop to think about the actual meaning of the song and the fact that I was playing it for Romeo, of all people.
I felt my face grow red as Juliet lightly brushed my hand with hers. She promptly retracted it like she’d just been exposed to the plague, but by that point every sappy gene in my body had been activated. I watched Juliet thoughtfully type something up, chewing her lip. The song wasn’t what I expected, but the lyrics were driving me insane. Is this some sort of message? Girls are so confusing sometimes… I couldn’t quite wrap my head around it.
But around halfway through the song, I started to scribble down ideas onto the page.
-couple, living out their lives, husband is never around when anyone else is. Plot twist: he’s a ghost/figment of the imagination
-runaway teen learns how to survive on his/her own
I looked up at Juliet as the song faded out, still flushed a bit red.
I promptly ignored Romeo's facial expression and leaned over his desk, pen in hand. Beside the note about the husband being a figment of his partner's imagination, I wrote:
'(or a hallucination. Runaway teen falls in love with someone who turns out to be their hallucination?)'
"Any other ideas?" I asked coolly, tapping the page with the end of my fingers again. The song had ended, transitioning into some other popular 90's tune, also about love.
I don’t think I breathed the entire time Juliet wrote on my paper. “I uh…” I paused to clear my throat, trying to calm myself down. “N-Not at the moment. If you play something else we can think of something else I’m sure. Since you— we, probably won’t want to act out a lovestory.”
"Fuck, you're right," I muttered, heat rushing to my cheeks for a brief moment. "I forgot we'd have to act it. A teen who hallucinates a… sibling, then?"
God, Marina is going to have a field day when she finds out about all this…..
Just for the sake of pleasing my best friend, I scooted my chair closer to Romeo's, a picture of cool, relaxed ease. "How much tragedy-versus-comedy are we going for in this?" Though my words were friendly, my tone was far from it, almost bordering on hostile.
I now perfectly understand what a mixed signal is. Juliet’s close proximity and cold tone have me completely baffled. I couldn’t even look in her direction at the moment, pretending my eyes were glued to the paper. “Um… You can decide. You’re the one who cares about this stuff anyways. I’m just…” I verbally backed myself into a corner, unsure of to react when she was so close by. “Doing sports, you know.”
"All those sports, and yet it's so easy to grab you by the collar of your shirt and slam your face against the wall….. I'm underwhelmed." My eyes still fixed to the sheet of paper in between us, I chewed on my lower lip, which was already chapped and bloodied compared to the glossy, smooth thing it had been last night. "To be honest, I'd much rather to tragedy. Angst, and whatnot."
I nodded, withholding a frustrated groan. What did I want to say? Something along the lines of ”Ever since you bashed my head into a wall I’ve been madly in love with you.” I was also wallowing in regret. Why did I have to tell her to avoid doing anything with love? I very faintly, but still audibly whispered “Why am I like this?” Before taking a deep breath and offering her an amicable smile. “Tragedy it is then.”
"Great," I hummed, glancing up at him with a completely blank facial expression before writing down a few bullet points on my lined piece of paper. "Why are you like what?" Of course I was going to ask him that, after his tiny monologue, how could I possibly pass up an opportunity to make him feel insignificant? He deserved it, as did his whole family.
I could physically feel the blood rushing to my face. “What are you talking about?” I did my best to muster a confused expression, tilting my head to the side a little. It seemed Juliet was letting YouTube autoplay do its job, and the constant love songs playing in the background weren’t helping my situation. “Do we need a plot first or main characters first?” I prayed that maybe she’d stop if I put actual effort into this. Anything to stop this nightmare of confusion and constant missteps. I’m Romeo Montague for Christ’s sake! I always know what to do! In every single situation except this one right here.
"Smooth, Romeo, real smooth," I snickered, tucking another lock of hair behind my ear. "And it would be a good idea to plot how many characters we're each going to play, just vaguely, before we work on the plot."
I absolutely despised the idea of having to work on a two-month project with this guy, but dear lord, was I enjoying the sigh of him this distraught and conflicted.
“Let's do that then. That’s a great idea.” I desperately needed Juliet to focus on anything but me at the moment. “You uh… you listen to a lot of love songs.” I commented quietly. I didn’t mean it as a bad thing, but I mostly did it so I didn’t have to hear another stupid love song describing the girl in front of me when I could already see her as clear as day on my own. Wow, cheesey. That’s a new low. That was bad.
"Excellent observation, smart one. What's that supposed to mean?"
I barely spared him a glance, quickly tapping his phone screen as it began to go dark and clicking the search bar. "Your turn to pick a song, by the way." My own phone buzzed from where I had stashed it inside the desk, and I quickly fished it out.
MARINA: How's drama with Montague?
Snorting, I hastened to respond, purposely leaving the screen in plain view of said Montague.
JULIET: I got paired with him for a project. Send help.
MARINA: Tf?? Poor bb
JULIET: Me or him?
MARINA: Haha. Both, i guess. must b hard to get partnered up with someone hopelessly in love with u
JULIET: He's not in love with me
MARINA: Pfft. U blind or what?
JULIET: Come on, Mari
MARINA: No, you come on. He liiiiiiiiikes youuuuuuuuu
The conversation went on like this, all within Romeo's line of sight.
