(ROMEO)
Marina didn’t press me to give her details I wasn’t ready to give up. Like the amazing, perfect-beyond-words friend she was, she helped me fix my makeup to cover up the bruises as best as she could, never letting go of my arm, always a constant assurance that she was there, that she wasn’t going to leave.
“Thank you…” I whispered, meaning the words more than ever before. “So much.”
(He’s got a thick skull, he’ll be okay)
Despite Romeo’s message, I still waited around the hallway until the final bell, hoping he had somehow backed out of whatever idiotic plan he got himself into. First he missed football practice, which I hadn’t seen him do in years. And now this? Something told me this had everything to do with Juliet, but I promised Romeo I wouldn’t freak out. I grabbed my books and went to my first period class, chewing my lip anxiously.
(Lmao but at the same time, poor bb 😭)
Marina just shook her head, told me it was nothing, squeezed my arm, and led me carefully to my locker. She didn’t treat me as if I might break at any given second. She didn’t treat me as if I was weak, a coward. She only made sure to keep her words quiet and her motions careful and slow as I gathered my binders.
I didn’t have class with her all morning. My first class, Pre-Calc, should have been with Romeo and Mercutio, plus Joe and two of the guys, but when I arrived, Romeo was missing. I recalled his words from the following day and sat down in the only available seat, next to Mercutio, avoiding Joe’s eyes.
I checked by texts for the hundredth time in the past ten minutes. Nothing. No response. Silence from Romeo was never a good thing. How the hell was I supposed to focus now? To make things worse, I was stuck sitting next to Juliet, the girl who probably put Romeo up to this nonsense. I shot her a glare, writing a message in the corner of my worksheet. ”What the fuck did you do to Romeo?”
My hands were visibly shaking by the time I finished writing out my response. “Nothing. I saw him yesterday, he said that he was probably going to be away. That’s it.”
It was clear that I wasn’t my usual self; the fire was gone completely from my eyes, leaving me an empty shell.
I discreetly grabbed my phone, scrolling up to the last message Romeo sent me, showing it to her, ”Bullshit. He missed practice yesterday too. Now this? Where did you see him? I wrote back, trying not to freak out. Romeo vanishes and now Juliet is acting weird? Something bad is happening. But how to stop it? That was a whole other struggle.
“At the library,” I wrote, having to stsrt the sentence over several times because of how badly my hands were quivering. “I know he missed practice. We were put together for a project, he told me to meet me at the library to work on it.” I could feel Joe’s eyes burning holes into my back, but ignored him.
I watched her shaking hands. Romeo would’ve been freaking out right now, but unfortunately, I didn’t have the same sympathy for the Capulets that he did. I look at the note in distain, seeing that it was no help to me. It made sense though. If anyone would pull off some ridiculous stunt to impress a girl, it would be Romeo. I had no idea where he even was.
I couldn’t bring myself to look anyone in the eyes, couldn’t trust myself to keep it together, so I just glued my eyes to my worksheet, my pencil hovering over the paper but not moving to actually write. After a few minutes, I felt a hand in my shoulder, and instinctively flinched away. I framed my head to catch a glimpse of who t was, and upon seeing Joe, I let my whole body relax with relief. He crouched down beside the desk, shooting Mercutio a quick glare before focusing worried eyes on me.
“Juliet? Did he…. did he…”
My silence was enough of an answer.
I woke up, feeling a whole new different kind of terrible. All the strength had been drained from my limbs, making it feel next to impossible to move. My entire body ached, head to toe. A bandage was wrapped around my head, I could feel it, but I hadn’t gotten the strength to open my eyes just yet. My arm felt weird. My right wrist was tied to the back of a chair, but my left was propped up by some kind of sling. My head was by far the worst out of everything. “Where the hell am I?” I groaned, starting to squirm before letting out a gasp of pain and wheezing.
“He’s awake. Let’s get started.” I had no idea who was talking, but as the blindfold was taken off, I saw two Montagues sitting in front of me. One held a hammer in his hand, while the other had a pen and paper. “How about you tell us what you were doing in Raffael’s room, Romeo?” One growled.
(Sweet Jesus no not Romeo)
The rest of the morning dragged on, a prolonged hell. When lunch finally came, I found myself sitting, silent and staring down at my untouched meal, at a table full of guys trying and failing to make me smile. “I’m sorry…” I would murmur to Joe, and he would shake his head. “Don’t be.”
The room was completely dark except for the single bright light hanging directly over my head. Half blinded, and in excruciating pain, I glared at my father’s henchmen. “I’m his son and the future leader of this family.” I hissed, wincing as how dry my throat was. Neither of the men seemed impressed.
“We’re not here to play games. Now tell us the truth.” The one with the pen growled at me. I groaned quietly in pain, but forced myself to respond.
“You don’t have to like it, but I have a right to be in there.” I spat back, biting back a whimper, and then a scream as my left arm was yanked out of the sling. I paled as I saw the other man bring down the hammer repetitively, officially exposing part of my bone to the open air. I wailed and screamed until I couldn’t breathe, tears pouring down my cheeks.
(He’ll be fine this won’t last long)
(British oh my god)
It was so strange, having them all be this… gentle. We were part of the mafia, for God’s sake…… When I voiced this to Jamie, he simply shrugged and said that the mafia could wait. I didn’t know how to feel about it all—-any of it.
(I think I’m going to sleep…. but I will be waiting anxiously for news on Romeo!! Gnight :)
(Goodnight Topaz! Romeo is “safe” now!)
I didn’t give anything away. Or anything important at least. All I know was that at some point I passed out from blood loss, fear, or dehydration. When I woke up there was a heartrate monitor steadily beeping next to me, my arm was in a cast, and I felt numb. My whole body did. Numbness. My brain was sluggish to catch onto what was going on, and it took me several minutes to correlate everything with a hospital. I was in a hospital. Alone.
Well, not completely alone. A nurse came in a few minutes later, asking me a few questions that my brain was not ready for. She ended up leaving pretty soon after, giving me a sweet smile and a gentle pat on the head. God I wish someone else was here, except maybe my parents. Even the thought of going back home sent my heartrate monitor into a frenzy. Maybe I could just live here for awhile? It honestly seemed better than school and home after today.
My phone was nearby. I could see it. I reached over carefully and fumbled to open up the camera. The sight was rough. All my previous cuts were there, except now joined by a black eye and a swollen lip to match my bruised jaw. Bandages wrapped firmly around my head like a crown. I took a picture of myself, laughing even though it hurt. “Mercutio’s gonna fine’ this so funny.” I mumbled, hitting send and burying my head in the mountain of pillows, enjoying the blissful relaxation that came with being sedated on a shit-ton of painkillers.
(huge sigh of relief
G’morning!)
I didn’t get much done in Drama class that afternoon. I was too busy thinking of Paris, thinking of Angelo… It was a relief when the bell finally rung, signalling that it was time for the final class of the day, even if it meant I’d have to be with Mercutio.
Biology was the one class I didn’t have any friends at all in. I didn’t really mind it, I could go an hour without talking to anyone, but today….. I found myself paired up with Mercutio before long.
(Good morning! Today is insanely busy.)
I shifted uncomfortably in my seat as Juliet sat down next to me in bio. I kept my phone out on my desk, waiting impatiently for the text from Romeo saying he’d gotten into some deadly situation and come out unscathed as per usual. I tried to focus on my notes, but it was almost an impossible task. Every quiet buzz had my eyes flashing over to the screen. I didn’t get any messages until the last twenty minutes of class. Romeo’s contacto photo showed up, a dumb picture we took together when we were twelve.
ROMEO: Sent a photo
I stared blankly at my lock screen before sighing quietly in relief. I kept my phone on my desk, in Juliet’s line of sight. I unlocked my phone, expecting the usual heroic photo. But what I saw next I never would have imagined. Not from whatever stupid adventure he had taken.
My best friend was in a hospital room. I could see the machines behind him. The wires attached to his arm. The color drained out of my face as I eyed the gauze wrapped around his head and the glazed look in his eyes. “Fuck.” I breathed shakily, my gaze shifting to the cast on his left arm that stretched up to his fingers. “Holy fuck.” I didn’t even know how to respond. He didn’t text anything else, and if it weren’t for the stupid lopsided grin his was giving his phone, I would’ve assumed he was being held hostage.
What do I text back to that? Should I leave now? Tear apart hospitals across the city until I found him? The pencil in my hands snapped. I turned to Juliet accusingly. “If you lured him into this, I swear to god.” My hands were physically shaking. I had yet to pick up the phone. I wasn’t even sure if I could.
“What the fuck do you want now?” I snapped at Mercutio, but my voice was weak, trembling. I turned to face him, peered down at his phone—and the blood drained from my face. “That’s—I swear, I had nothing to do with that.”
I was upset—why the hell was I upset? I should be glad to see him in that state, I should be gloating. But I wasn’t, I was doing the exact opposite.
(Ah, good luck with your busy day)
I woke up to my phone ringing, and realized I had temporarily passed out in the pile of pillows. It took me a minute to register what was going on and actually reach over to grab it, fumbling clumsily and dropping it on my lap once or twice. I managed to answer it, smiling as I saw the picture on the screen. “Hey, buddy! What’s up?” I croaked, my voice raspy from sleep. I heard Mercutio sigh on the other end of the line.
“Are you okay? Where are you, Romeo? I need you to tell me.” Mercutio sounded extremely anxious. I smiled softly. This was some classic Mercutio. Always the stressed one out of the two of us.
“No clue. All patched up though, so that’s good. You should come visit. Pillows are soft.” I rambled, leaning back while I talked. “Is Juliet with you?” I added quietly, silently hoping that she was.
“Yeah. We’re in class.” I heard Mercutio’s begrudjng response. Before I could ask a question, Mercutio sighed in exasperation . “I’ll ask if she wants to talk to you.” He muttered, somewhat bitterly.
I listened in on the conversation, focusing on the snatches of Romeo’s voice audible from where I stood. What.. the fuck?? How had any of this happened?? What had he done to bring it upon himself?? And why wasn’t I happy about it?
I would have to be the one to do that to him one day. That was a fact. So I had to be prepared, I had to hone my hate and use it as a weapon.
What is wrong with me?
I looked over at Juliet, half listening to Romeo’s meaningless babbling. “Do you want to talk to him or not?” I held out the phone to her, slightly hoping she would decline. The last thing Romeo needed was for the Capulet to get inside his head while he was like this. “He might not be coherent. Just a warning.” I continued flatly, hoping she would back off.
Romeo wanted to talk to me? On the phone? While I was in the middle of fucking Biology class? I felt oddly torn—dangerously so. I couldn’t afford to be torn over a goddamn Montague. I couldn’t afford to be torn over Romeo. And I couldn’t afford to be heard speaking to him.
So, I mustered a vaguely disgusted expression and shook my head. “He has my number, if he wants to talk to me, he can just text me.” I turned back to my worksheet, shaking my head.
The rest of my conversation went pretty much exactly like this: “What did you think she said? No, Romeo the opposite. Fuck— don’t get upset. You’re fine. I’m on my way. I know, Christ, please leave the nurse alone. Yeah, dude, I know. I’m coming.” I stood up, grabbing my books and ignoring Juliet. “Yeah, can you read the sign in front of you then? What do you mean it’s blurry?” I picked up the pace, rushing out of the classroom with the teacher yelling after me. I knew I shouldn’t have let him do this…
I watched him go, maintaining a blank expression with much more difficulty than should have been possible. What the fuck has gotten into me? My knuckles were white as I gripped my pencil. I shouldn’t be worried about Rome fucking Montague. I should be happy he was hurt.
So why wasn’t I?