Falling for Romeo (13 page)

How could something meant to be a gesture of good will curl his insides like he’d just witnessed murder?

John sat in the chair like a prisoner, unable to get up and keep her from spreading her kisses to every guy in the room.

“Save it for the stage,” he snapped.

Jennifer finished blotting Drake’s cheek and looked over her shoulder. A tense hush blanketed the room and she turned, setting one hand on her hip. “I have plenty to go around.”

“That’s what I hear.” John shot up out of the chair, moving Lacey aside.

Jennifer’s other hand fisted on her hip. “You keep saying that, only you don’t have the guts to tell me what it is, or the nerve to check out what you hear before believing it.”

“I don’t need to check it out.” John met her halfway in the middle of the room. “I can see it.”

“And what do you see?”

“You’re kissing every guy you can get your hands on.”

Jennifer didn’t dare glance around into the silenced faces of everyone watching. Her eyes flushed with tears, and soon those tears would stream down her face. “Why do you care?”

“I have to kiss you, don’t I? I don’t want leftovers.” Hushed whistles and murmurs of disbelief pierced the air. No one moved, standing as shameless observers.

k

Falling for Romeo k J E N N I F E R ll A U R E N S

One tear did escape then, and it ran down the side of Jennifer’s face. He thought she was used goods—that hurt. Her lower lip gave way, trembling. In all of her years learning the craft of acting, she’d never been able to control her lower lip when her emotions broke loose. But she had learned she could exit gracefully. So she did.

She found a deserted corner in a forgotten hall. She wasn’t alone for long. Bodies gathered behind her. She heard whispering and somebody placed a hand on her shoulder.

“Jenn?” Taunia asked.

“Is she okay?” She recognized Fletcher’s voice; it was his hand on her shoulder.

“What a jerk,” Trish said.

“Yeah,” somebody agreed.

Jennifer made herself think of the play, of performing, of losing herself in the show.
That’s the
beauty of acting.
She thrust up her chin and sniffed. She wiped at her cheeks before facing those who had come out to check up on her.

“It’s nothing,” she said. “He’s a jerk, that’s all.” The heads surrounding her nodded in sober agreement but Jennifer knew most of them probably thought John’s indiscretion was warranted somehow.

They followed her back into the drama room, quieter now as she entered. She was keenly aware that everyone, including John, who was slipping on his white, blousy shirt, watched her. She refused to look at him but she smiled at everyone else, sorry her eyes were red, making her look like she cared about what had happened. And she did, no matter how she tried to convince herself that she didn’t.

k

Falling for Romeo k J E N N I F E R ll A U R E N S

She finished dressing with her back to the room, not speaking to anyone.

Ty, the stage manager, called everyone to the curtain and the cast gathered there in a somber mood, waiting for the music to cue up, for Chip to greet and welcome the young students in the audience.

And then it was time.

How will I ever touch him, kiss him, feeling the way I
do? Wouldn’t that be something, to push him away right
in front of everyone?
But that would not be true to Juliet.

Jennifer’s cell phone vibrated on the bed next to her. The picked it up. Rachel. It was impossible to think that out of a cast and crew of fifty, no one would say anything about the incident. ennifer didn’t mind the limelight; she just didn’t like it spilling offstage into her personal life.

“I heard what happened,” Rachel said. “I can’t believe he called you a ho.”

“He didn’t call me that.”

“I heard you called him your pimp, you know, with all the action you guys are getting together onstage.” It seemed like a very bad dream with no end, this round of rumors. “Neither one of us said anything like that.”

Rachel sighed. “Oh. Well, then what
did
happen?”

“He told me he didn’t like me kissing every boy I got my hands on because he has to kiss me, and he doesn’t like kissing used goods.”

“He said, ‘used goods’?”

k

Falling for Romeo k J E N N I F E R ll A U R E N S

“His exact words were, ‘I don’t want leftovers’.”

“What a jerk,” Rachel hissed. “He’s more than a jerk.

He’s a—”

“Rache, it’s okay.” But the words echoed in her hollow heart and the sting of tears bloomed behind her eyes again. The more she thought about it, the more incensed she became.

Rachel wouldn’t get it. Rachel handled boys with the ease of picking the ripest fruit at the grocery store, taking a bite or two and tossing it when she’d had enough. For Jennifer, males were much more complicated because the largest part of her heart was still occupied with thoughts of only one.

Jennifer rolled onto her stomach. “I’m wasted. I need to get some sleep,” she said. “Tomorrow’s opening night and if I don’t feel better, I’m going to stab myself with the knife for real.”

“He’s playing games with you. I can see a player a mile away.”

“Why would he do that?”

“He probably likes you.”

Something pleasant swarmed in Jennifer’s stomach.

“You’re way wrong.”

“How long have you two been playing at this love to hate each other thing?”

“We’re not playing at anything.”

“You two practically invented it. I mean, how many people have known each other as long as you two?

Living within twenty feet—he’s practically part of the family.”

“And we’re more like brother and sister than—

than—” Jennifer couldn’t bring herself to verbalize the

k

Falling for Romeo k J E N N I F E R ll A U R E N S

words boyfriend and girlfriend.

“He’s not leaving it alone, Jenn,” Rachel went on.

“That means he cares. He may not know that he cares.

He may not admit it. But I bet that’s why he’s acting bipolar.”

“You think?” Jennifer went to her window and looked across into John’s. “But he’s being so mean.”

“It’s totally playground, I know.” Rachel had worldly wisdom that had earned Jennifer’s admiration. “But some guys are stuck there. Yes, even guys like John Michaels.

Think about it. Who was he three years ago? A nobody with a nice tan.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“And suddenly he’s Mr. Hottie that every girl wants.

Go figure.”

“Why?” They’d had this discussion before, but neither girl tired of dissecting the social status quo at Pleasant View High School.

“Have you looked back at our yearbooks from junior high? The guy wore his hair like he’d just come from boot camp. And he had braces.”

Jennifer smiled. John’s mother had complained about John’s fifteen cowlicks since Jennifer could remember. John wore the short cut out of necessity. But he’d grown it longer in high school, and that, coupled with the normal changes of muscling out and growing up, had created someone totally hot.

“Your problem is you happen to have taste like ninety-nine percent of females,” Rachel said.

“And you don’t think John’s hot?”

“From a strictly physical standpoint, yeah, he pretty much defines stud. But he’s got major issues with k

Falling for Romeo k J E N N I F E R ll A U R E N S

perfectionism.”

“You know, I always thought that too.” Jennifer leaned against the window, still staring across into John’s.

“He’s been like that forever.”

“Of course.”
Rachel reminded her of their coined phrase—of course— they attached to anything and all things John. “Nobody tries that hard to please at our age.

We’re too self-absorbed.”

Not him, Jennifer thought with such sappy ease she wanted to kick herself.
Just hours ago he humiliated me in
front of the cast. I should be livid.
But she knew who John was beneath the captivating eyes and brilliant smile.

It was in memories of the way he helped her mother unload groceries; of how he mowed their lawn when her dad was gone on a business trip; or defended her little brother from a neighborhood brat that brought Jennifer’s heart back to him, even after arguments, after years of distance. Even after what happened today.

She said goodbye to Rachel and hung up the phone staring out into the darkness of his room. It wasn’t fair. He really was the nicest guy she knew. She couldn’t help that she liked him.

She thought about what had happened at the matinee, how he’d acted – dare she think the word—

jealous. Rachel’s suggestion that he was playing some kind of game, that he really did like her, sounded as foreign in her ears as the Chinese language.

She decided not to entertain the possibility, knowing how easily she could be lost to it, hopelessly lost, only to be heartbroken when nothing happened.

Friends are always just friends. And that’s all she and John would ever be.

k

Falling for Romeo k J E N N I F E R ll A U R E N S

Twelve

Only one line forgotten so far, pretty good for an
opening night.
Jennifer remembered last year’s play,
Some Like It Hot
. Dirk Jasper had completely missed an entrance. They’d found him in the boys bathroom, puking.

Jennifer doubted John had eaten dinner. She looked across the stage at him as she crouched in the tomb where Romeo was to discover Juliet “dead.” He watched the other players, drawn in or concentrating on his entrance, she wasn’t sure. His hands opened and closed. The bones in his jaw flexed every now and then—

he looked totally hot.

Feeling warm, she fanned her face with her hands.

Oh, well, I could blame it on the lights,
she thought. It didn’t help that his costume accentuated his lean frame.

He wore beige tights underneath a long, paisley tunic. He had a reckless, pirate look about him. He’d unbuttoned the top button of his shirt, revealing the dark skin at the hollow of his throat. His long sleeves were rolled up. He’d hear from Chip after the show. Chip had warned that no one was to alter their costumes in any way during performance—even under the sweat of hot lights.

Their death scene was coming. Romeo would come across her lying there, and thinking her dead, drink of the vial and kill himself. Juliet would awaken and stab k

Falling for Romeo k J E N N I F E R ll A U R E N S

herself, covering him with her body.

The scene was the climax of the show and in rehearsal John did it well. She thought he could give more of himself to it, but knew how hard it was to let go in front of an audience.

He made his entrance and began one of his final monologues as he fought with Paris.

“Wilt thou provoke me? Then have at thee, boy!”
She heard the rapiers clang as steel sliced steel.

Heard the boys grunt, the heavy thudding of feet. Then, one big thud as Paris fell.

“Oh, I am slain! If thou be merciful, open the tomb.

Lay me with Juliet.”

Jennifer readied for the cardboard “rock” to be rolled back, revealing her. John always stumbled on this next monologue and butterflies filled her stomach for him.

His voice drifted up underneath the cardboard set.

“Said he not so? Or did I dream it so? Or am I mad,
hearing him talk of Juliet?”
Without any mistakes, John recited the half-page monologue and then opened the tomb. She closed her eyes and focused on lying still. She felt him rush toward her, then kneel at her side.

As practiced, he grabbed her hands, bringing them to his chest.

“Oh, my love, my wife!”
He kissed her hands.

“Death, that hath sucked the honey of thy breath, hath
no power yet upon thy beauty.”
His voice choked with more emotion than Jennifer had ever heard and she almost peeked through her lashes at him.

Brilliant waves of electricity danced in the air around them. Excitement sprang through her senses.

k

Falling for Romeo k J E N N I F E R ll A U R E N S

“Thou art not conquered yet. In crimson thy lips and
in thy cheeks, and death’s pale flag is not advanced
there—”

All of a sudden, his arms scooped under her back and he lifted her against him. He continued the speech.

Jennifer forced herself to remain docile, even though the spontaneous move shot rocketing tremors through her system.

One of his hands stroked her face as he spoke.

“From this world-wearied flesh. Eyes, look your last. Arms,
take your last embrace. And lips, O you
the doors of
breath, seal with a righteous kiss a dateless bargain to
engrossing death.”

She didn’t dare open her eyes, but her body tensed. He held her cradled tight, one hand cupping her face. His breath brushed her lips and her heart sped in her chest. In practice he had only held her hands and wept over her, and then drunk from the vial before falling dead. His fingers were light at her mouth now, tracing her lips as he sobbed; then in a shocking move, the heat of his mouth was on hers.

She tasted salty tears. The warm urgency of his lips sent a ravaging shiver through every part of her and as he slowly drew back, she fought her natural response to open her eyes and look at him.

“Come bitter conduct, come unsavoury guide.”
Still holding her against him, he reached for the poisonous vial, finishing the monologue with wrenching emotion.
“Thy drugs are quick! Thus with a kiss, I die.”
He crumpled over her in a different position than he had during their weeks of rehearsal. His impromptu actions now left them entwined like a pretzel. For a k 0

Falling for Romeo k J E N N I F E R ll A U R E N S

moment she could hardly breathe under his weight.

They lay in a moment of complete silence. She had the sudden urge to fold her arms around him. There was no response from the audience. It was as if they weren’t there.

Friar Lawrence entered and gave his startled lines to the Chief Watchman and the Page who came bearing flowers to the tomb. Jennifer began to awaken as Juliet.