Once again, I stared at his message for much, much longer than necessary, my thumbs refusing to move until a few minutes later. I typed out a short text, them backspaced and deleted it all. Inhaling deeply, I tried again, hopelessly confused as to why this was so hard. Yet again, I deleted the whole thing. Roughly thirty seconds passed before I finally finished typing something out and hit the ‘send’ button.
JULIET: Promise.
I smiled softly at her reply. She was thinking carefully before each response. And then there was me, clumsily typing a clunky message as fast as possible, more eager to see her next messsge than focus on my own.
ROMEO: Hiding under the covers like a six year old. Everything hurts. And I have to use my dork goggles to text you. It’s humiliating.
This time, it only took me three minutes to hash out a fairly okay response and send it. I was weak all over, limbs aching even after the simple action of holding my phone up to text.
JULIET: Honestly, I think it’s safe to say that you deserve at least one night of hiding under the covers. And it’s fine, not like I can see the goggles anyways.
Juliet’s level of understanding shocked me, but immediately caused a comforting warm feeling to spread through my limbs. I knew what I had to type next, and I did so in a rush, misspelling a few words.
ROMEO: I dont reslly want to talk about this, but I wnted to say sorry for earlier. I didnt mean to pressure u. And then you kmow, cry. So I’m sorry. Really sorry.
The whole thing was typed and sent under a minute. Which is problem why my right hand butchered it so badly….
It took me ten full minutes to figure out what the hell I was supposed to say in response to that. The hopelessly confusing stew of thoughts and emotions only worsened, but something about his apology sent a very small, very subtle amount of warmth spreading through my chest.
JULIET: It’s fine. I’m going to be honest with you, I was panicking that whole time. But it’s fine now, you don’t need to apologize.
I waited, and waited, and waited. Just when I assumed she had either fallen asleep or quit talking to me, she responded again.
ROMEO: The roses are really pretty. I’ve been tracing them when I get stressed. Helps keep me calm.
I took five minutes this time, making sure I spelled everything correctly.
He took a full five, nerve-wracking minutes to respond. I stopped asking myself why I was doing any of this. I stopped telling myself how idiotic I was being. There was no point to it anymore, neither did I have the energy to keep yet another internal battle going.
JULIET: At least I did something right today.
I stared at her message feeling guilt pool in my stomach. I’m so sick of feeling scared and stressed and… and caged.
ROMEO: Cant stand feeling like shit anymore. Can we ask dumb questions and pretend we’re okay for a little while?
JULIET: As long as you go first.
I didn’t know what I was going anymore, neither did I care. I just sort of… went along with whatever Romeo was doing, whatever he was saying, hoping dazedly that come morning, I won’t have said anything exceedingly stupid.
I thought about it for a moment, trying to think of the dumbass questions Mercutio and I used to argue over when we were younger. Something dorky and stupid. Something she wouldn’t regret telling me.
ROMEO: If you could be any animal, which one would you want to be and why?
I rolled my eyes at my own question. It looked like it came off and icebreaker website.
JULIET: That was……. not what I was expecting.
But in all honesty, I had absolutely no idea. I bit my lip, allowing myself to become distracted by the strange question.
JULIET: Probably…. a tiger in the wild. Maybe no one would mess with me that way. You?
I smiled at her text. She reminded me a lot of a tiger already. Brave, fierce, and powerful. I didn’t voice this though.
ROMEO: This is going to sound lame, but a swan. Handsome, but people know to avoid them. Also the whole mate for life deal has stability I’d die for.
I pressed my nondominant hand to my mouth in order to stifle the quiet chuckle that I couldn’t contain——it was the first and only time I’d smiled all day. Maybe even in the past few days.
JULIET: You have a point.
ROMEO; Your turn to ask a dumb question.
I traced the roses on my cast, feeling my errant soul start to settle. Juliet make it easy to tune everything else out. The pain, stress, and fear fading from the forefront of my mind.
Normally, I would have made some comment like ‘I’ll try, but I don’t think I can be as dumb as you’, but tonight, my heart wasn’t in it.
JULIET: Would you rather age only from the neck up, or only from the neck down for the rest of your life?
I gasped at her question, a weak smile beginning to tug at my lips.
ROMEO: To take away my looks would be a sin, first of all.
I thought about it for another moment or two. A realization suddenly popped into my head.
ROMEO: Neck up. I’ll learn how to use makeup.
JULIET: More like a blessing. But yeah, good answer.
A tiny smirk found its way into my lips, my thumbs flying across the keyboard again.
JULIET: Maybe you could learn to do drag, too.
I actually had to stifle a laugh this time, shaking my head. I decided to play along with her, quickly typing up a reply.
ROMEO: I’ll get a massive wig. I think I’d make a hot blond. Maybe I’ll get some short shorts too. Shove a pillow under my shirt and everything.
JULIET: You’re scaring me
I almost considered sending a laughing emoji, but restrained myself. Emojis were for a while other level that we weren’t even close to achieving.
The things this girl could do to my heart were insane. My tired mind didn’t comprehend why my heart swelled at her words, which weren’t even complimentary in nature. But it did anyways, sending another wave of warmth through me.
ROMEO: My turn to ask a question now. Favorite food?
My reply was almost instant, something I didn’t even have to think about. But now that I was getting into the rhythm of this strange, new, nighttime reality, I found my body relaxing, unwinding. However strange, this was…… nice.
JULIET: Dark chocolate ice cream. And cherry ice cream. You?
ROMEO: If Im being honest, I didn’t even know there were flavors beyond chocolate and vanilla.
I reread her message, somewhat bewildered.
ROMEO: I was going to say fresh sugar cookies out of the oven. But they’re only really good when I make the dough and everything.
JULIET: You live in the country that invented gelato, how the fuck do know his little about ice cream???
It was basically the equivalent of a Frenchman asking what a croissant was. Or an American not knowing that McDonald’s existed. In other words, unheard of.
JULIET: But cookies are good.
A smirk formed on my lips out of amusement. My addiction to Juliet was certainly being fed into at the moment.
ROMEO: I’ve been on diets and shit since I was little. My parents wanted an athlete, not an ice cream connoisseur. I’m sort of sheltered when it comes to foods besides fancy protein diets and cafeteria pizza.
JULIET: I mean, I eat a shit ton of ice cream and I can still easily beat you in a fight
I paused, blinking at the text message he’d sent a second time.
JULIET: But still. Sheltered Canadians know what hockey is, so you should know more about gelato