(Sorry Topaz! I fell asleep early last night! And I love that idea omg)
By the time the lunch bell rang, I had mostly recovered from my outburst in drama. However I still warily avoided Juliet and Marina in any way I could. I got a slice of pizza from the lunch line and slunk over to an empty table, avoiding my other friends so I could talk to Mercutio.
“What did you do now?” He sighed, watching me fumble and stammer while I tried to explain the situation.
“Her friend knows!” I spoke in a low tone. Mercutio appeared to be a mix of annoyed and exasperated.
“Everyone knows, dude. You’re terrible at hiding your emotions.” He replied, starting to eat his lunch. I groaned quietly in embarrassment, suddenly losing my appetite.
(Dw about it, how’d you sleep?)
As usual, Marina and I seated ourselves at a large table in the corner with Joe and the gang. I was just filling her in on the details of Romeo’s priceless outburst when Matteo walked over, loudly slurping on a cup of icy slush.
Seizing the opportunity to tease him, I raised an eyebrow. “Any luck with your endeavours?” Immediately, the whole table exploded with wolf whistles and loud whoops.
“Pray tell, Matteo, what are these endeavours?” Joe asked, leaning forward with an impish grin that seemed out of place on his burly figure. Matteo groaned and shot me a glare in response.
“He’s looking over,” Marina stage-whispered, referring, of course, to Romeo, and immediately, Matteo winked and slid onto the bench beside me.
I looked away from Juliet, gritting my teeth. “So no boyfriend, huh? Doesn’t look like it.” I glared across the table at Mercutio. He sighed, joining me in looking over at Juliet.
“I just told you what I heard, Romeo.” Mercutio looked away, from Juliet’s table. “Can you at least be a little less obvious? You look like you’re trying to kill him with your mind.”
“What does he have that I don’t?” I complained, forcing myself to look away from from her table. It just wasn’t fair. I knew for a fact I was better than the nobody sitting next to her. “He’s not even that good looking.”
“Maybe she doesn’t have a death-wish like you do? Believed or not, most people aren’t willing to die for a high school crush.” I could tell Mercutio was messing with me now as he smirked at me from across the table.
(Not bad! Today is crazy busy though. How’re you?)
(I’m good, glad you slept well!)
Matteo turned his head and immediately burst out laughing. Joe, perplexed, craned his head to see what was going on, and soon joined in.
“What??” I asked, prodding Matteo’s shoulder. “Lover boy,” he gasped between peals of laughter, “Looks like he wants to murder me.” The answer caused a grin to overtake my lips, and before I knew what I was doing, I had leaned into Matteo’s side and slipped an arm around him.
Joe let out a low whistle. “She’s a player!” he chortled, which earned him a slap from me and another from Marina. Jamie, who was perched on the wide windowsill, snorted, as if this whole scene was unfolding hilariously before his eyes. “I bet that la ragazza del fuoco just has an extensive hit list of men, so she’s pretending to be with each of them until Montague shoots them in the chest.”
(Sorry my replies are shorter and lacking in vocabulary, I’m sort of rushing)
Mercutio reaches for a cup of pudding on the table, but I snatched it first, a rather terrible idea brewing in my head. “This means war.” I triumphantly opened the lid.
“What’re you— Romeo, wait!” Mercutio lunges across the table to stop me, but he was too late. I winged the opened pudding cup at Juliet’s boyfriend’s head, a viscous grin on my face.
(I’m rushing too lol, so my replies might be shorter for a bit)
(Kk 👍)
All nine of our heads turned just in time to see a glob of pudding splatter against Matteo’s shoulder. He jumped, startled and confused—and that’s when his eyes landed on Romeo. His caramel eyes darkened dangerously, clouded over, and after a subtle nod from Joe, he stood and drove his fist into Romeo’s face.
The whole lunch room had gone dead silent by now, save for the muffled chuckling of Marina, and as soon as Matteo resumed his earlier position next to me, I made a show of taking hold of his hand and inspecting it for bruises or scrapes.
After finding none, I shared a devilish grin with my ‘boyfriend’, practically brimming with uncontrolled glee, and leaned back to snap a quick picture of Romeo on the floor.
Blood poured from my nose as I was knocked onto my back. But this time I wasn’t fighting Juliet, and I aimed to injure. Instead of getting up, I lashed out with a kick to Mateo’s knees. As soon as he was on the ground I pounced ontop of him, wrestling furiously. I could vaguely hear Mercutio yelling, and felt him grab the back of my shirt, trying to pull me away from the fight.
“Whoah!” I jumped to my feet, grabbed the collar of Romeo’s shirt, and yanked him away from Matteo, slightly in shock. It didn’t take me long to regain both my fire and my composure, and I was soon backing Romeo into another table.
“What the fuck was that??” I demanded, voice coated in a burning layer of rage. No one, especially not a Montague, got to hurt my friends.
I groaned in pain as I was yanked up from the floor and dragged away from Juliet’s boyfriend. I figured Mercutio was behind this so I didn’t bother to fight him. However, as I regained my senses I realized it was Juliet just has she cornered me. The fire in her eyes made me stumble back a few steps. I cracked my knuckles and wiped away a little blood from my nose. “He punched me first.” I grumbled, refusing to meet her eyes.
Punching someone in a fight was one thing. Then, it was everyone for themselves, fight your own way to the top. But a random attack? In that case, I no longer believed in not fighting for other people.
I shoved Romeo against a wall, and would have driven my fist into his face had Joe not put a hand on my arm and gently tugged me back. “Not worth it,” he sneered, helping Matteo up. “He’ll suffer worse when the news gets back to Angelo.”
Every Montague knew two rules. Defend the family’s honor and fight for what you love. Granted, we were also supposed to love the family above all else. This wouldn’t be the first time my wayward heart got me into some trouble. Granted I couldn’t tell dad that this time or he was murder me. But saying Capulet had gotten under my skin should get me off with some scolding and maybe a light beating depending on if the Capulets chose to retaliate or not.
Having Juliet press me up against the wall was the opposite of a punishment. My eyes narrowed as soon as Mateo showed up. I lifted my head to glare at him. “I’d do it again.” I spat savagely, practically snarling at him.
Joseph cut in before I could react, intimidating even to us, and we were his friends. Towering over Romeo, he glared down at him, dark eyes narrowing dangerously. “Watch your fucking mouth,” he growled, “Or I’ll make you bleed.” With that, he grabbed both Matteo and I by the arms and pulled us out of the cafeteria, the rest of the gang following.
((I know it says "Private" but may I stalk?))
(Yes ofc! Private just means that no one else can join)
“You are so colossally fucking stupid.” Mercutio stormed over to me in the aftermath, looking furious. “Do you have any idea how much trouble you just got yourself in? What you’ve just done?” He hissed, grabbing me by the arm and dragging me out of the lunchroom to wash up. I didn’t bother to defend myself and trailed behind him in silence.
“She hates me now…” I whined, wetting some paper towels to clean my face with. Mercutio leaned against the back wall, glaring at me.
“I hate you too now! What the hell were you thinking? Do you honestly think Raffael is going to let this slip? Juliet is going to rat you out, dumbass!” Mercutio was raving in the back of the room. I ignored him, a headache building in my skull.
“My dad won’t care as long as I did some damage.” I shot back with a hiss. “She won’t rat me out either. I trust her.”
“You’re going to get us killed.” Mercutio stormed out of the room, leaving me to stare at myself in the mirror, wallowing in the silence.
We all gathered outside by the bunker, slipping beneath the safety of the cool shadows. I clenched my fist and drove it into the wall, my hands trembling with rage. “Whoah, whoah!” Joe grabbed hold of my wrists before Marina could. Matteo, wiping the blood from his lower lip, lay his hand on my shoulder. “Hey, it’s fine. I’m fine.”
I didn’t know why I was so angry. I felt like my emotions were spinning out of control, feeding the fire that was currently ripping through my body. “I’m sorry, I breathed, inhaling sharply. “Are you okay, Matt?”
((Yay! Thank you! This is absolutely amazing, btw))
I left the bathroom and went straight to my locker, shouldering my bag and grabbing the keys to my motorcycle. I needed out of here now. There was no way I was hanging around after that. Seeing myself in the mirror had been… unsettling. Cuts and scabs decorated my face. My jaw was red and swollen from where Juliet’s boyfriend had practically uppercutted me in the lunchroom. It like like I turned from teenage heartthrob into something more sinister.
As I walked towards the doors, I felt the cut on my head that Juliet, or technically, the brick wall, had given me. It had scabbed over, and was now itchy as all hell. “What the fuck has gotten into me?” I murmured softly, pushing open the doors. Would I have done this for Rosaline? My initial response would be to say yes, of course I would have. But the more I considered it, the more uncertain I became.
Skip? Sorry my replies are so short I’m in class)
(When should we skip to? And it’s totally fine!)
(Sorry again
Uh what about… what if they had to meet up to work on the project?)
(Sounds good, do you want to start? Or do you want me to?)
Would you mind? Sorry I have to go for a few minutes, maybe they agreed to sneak out and meet at the library so their parents wouldn’t chew them out?)
