Falling for Romeo (5 page)

Dinner was over hours ago, but the scent of roast, onions and garlic still hung in the warm air; comfort food that brought her no comfort tonight. The refrigerator was void of either item, and Jennifer slammed it shut with a perturbed sigh.

“How was rehearsal?” Her mother sat at the kitchen table organizing what looked to be hundreds of coupons.

Her sandy blond hair barely hung to her jaw and was tucked behind her ears. Jennifer thought the sassy style made her mother look younger. She didn’t dress old, either. Could have passed for a teenager herself, in fact, in her tight jeans and fitted sweater.

Jennifer looked over the scraps of newsprint.

“Rehearsal was crappy.” She never understood why her k

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mother went through the ritual of clipping coupons; she’d never seen her use one.

“What made it crappy?” Deftly, her mother stacked the cereal coupons in prearranged piles and reached for the forty-five ounce soda she religiously kept at her side.

“I don’t know.” Jennifer slumped into a chair.

Maggie Vienvu sipped, studying her daughter. “You know all your lines, right?”

Jennifer nodded. Cautiously she placed her elbows on the table so they didn’t disturb any of the well-placed stacks.

m,nHer mother set down her drink. “Problems with Chip?”

“No, of course not.” Jennifer noticed a stack of pet items and picked up a coupon for kitty litter. “We don’t have a cat.”

Her mother shrugged. “You never know. I was always bringing home stray dogs, cats. Fish.” Jennifer laughed and it felt good. “Fish?”

“From carnivals.” Her mother began to place her perfect piles inside the red Velcro coupon holder.

“John?” When her mother looked at her, Jennifer averted her eyes. “Just a guess.”

“I want to kill him.”

“I haven’t heard that for a long time.”

“Yeah, well, that’s because he’s been out of my life for a long time.”

“Jenn, he never was out. He lives next door.”

“Whose side are you on?” Jennifer reached over and grabbed her mother’s cup, pausing for approval before taking a drink. Her mother nodded.

“There are no sides. There’s you and him.”

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“You make it sound like something it’s not.”

“You mean like a couple?” Their eyes met. For a moment, Jennifer didn’t like the way her mom’s eyebrows lifted in a pleasant smirk. “You’re Romeo and Juliet,” she teased. Then she took the drink from Jennifer, sipped and handed it back.

Jennifer took a slurp before plopping the drink to the table. “He insulted me at rehearsal today. You wouldn’t believe what he said.”

“What did he say?”

“That I looked like an excited puppy.” A faint smile creased Maggie’s lips. “How cute.”

“Mom!” Jennifer’s insides burst. “That is so—so—”
So typical
. Her mother thought John could do no wrong.

Ever since they were children and he came over with his,

‘Yes ma’am, no ma’am, please, and, oh, thank you.’

“You’re just like everybody else when it comes to him. You think he’s perfect.”

Maggie quickly filed the coupons nearest Jennifer.

“He’s not perfect. But he is one of the nicest, most polite, conscientious boys I know. Trustworthy, honest, help—”

“And the rudest.” Jennifer crossed her arms, frowned.

“He was trying to be complimentary.”

“He was being critical and rude. You don’t know the context of the comment.”

“It was probably just his way of showing that he likes you.”

Jennifer’s face heated. She turned, resting her chin on her crossed arms so her mother couldn’t see. “He does
not
feel that way about me.”

“Oh, he’s liked you forever.”

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Because she couldn’t believe what her mother said, Jennifer lifted her head and looked at her. There was nothing telling in the way she gingerly filed away the last pile of coupons, except the smile on her face.

Standing, Jennifer took in a breath that warbled out with embarrassing contentment. She hoped her mother didn’t hear it. “I’m going to bed.” She turned, hearing her mother take another sip.

“Pleasant dreams,” her mother’s sing-song tone teased.

Jennifer let out a sarcastic growl and continued up stairs.

The light was on in John’s window, so Jennifer remained in the dark. From what she saw, he wasn’t in his room. But she heard his voice. Quietly, she unlocked her window, slowly cranking the shaft so it swung open.

“But soft! What light through yonder window
breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun. Arise, fair sun,
and kill the envious moon, who is already sick and pale
with grief. That thou, her amid, art far more fair than she.

Be not…be not…here…be…not her….”
Peering out over the ledge, Jennifer saw John down on the grass, looking up into his window. She squelched a giggle and stood back in the darkness so he wouldn’t see her.

His soothing voice salved the cold night air. When his voice first changed, she’d teased him about it. Then one day she noticed how calming, almost melodic the cadence was.

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She leaned against the wall, her hand over her heart, listening to him. Her lips curved into a smile.

“Be not her…”

Jennifer heard the line he stumbled on in her head and thought about whispering it out the window, but then she’d probably make him madder at her. He wasn’t one to hold a grudge, but they weren’t kids anymore.

The social stakes were higher. He was unnecessarily mean at rehearsal, pointing out her cheat to Chip. She almost closed her window, leaving him to his exasperating rehearsal alone.

He deserves it.

“Be not her…
crud.”

But how could every bitter and angry thought that had festered inside dissolve at just the sound of his voice?

She leaned out the window and looked down through the darkness at him.

Night brought a slight breeze into the valley. The shrubs and rose bushes sleeping alongside the Vienvu house rustled, as if refusing to wake from a winter dream.

John’s breath was soft, white, curling upward into the night.

“You have my lines down at least,” she said.

Startled, John turned and looked up at her. “Yours and everybody else’s but my own,” he said on a sigh.

“Thought you could use some prompting.”

“I could have used it this afternoon.” She should have frowned at the reminder of the unpleasant rehearsal, but he looked every bit the part of Romeo. She smiled. “Sorry about that.” The next moment warm wonder and promise seemed to be in the air, even with the biting temperature.

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A tree in the Vienvu back yard twined its leaves with a tree in the Michaels’ yard and the soft rustling was the only sound.

John took a step closer to the wall of her house. His gaze was intense. For a moment, Jennifer was afraid he was going to confront her about what she said about the kiss. She readied for a fight.

“It is my lady,”
he began, his voice smooth and rich as melting honey butter. “
Oh, it is my love. Oh, that she
knew she were! She speaks, yet she says nothing. What of
that?”

“Ay, me!”
Jennifer replied, keeping from breaking into a giggle. Her insides spun.

John took hold of the lattice her parents had attached to the house some thirteen years ago. Now, it was covered with some sort of ivy. During the summer the growth was dotted with fragrant red blooms. With the chill of winter, the small green leaves browned and crisped, petrified by frost.

“See how she leans her cheek upon her hand. Oh,
that I were a glove upon that hand. That I might touch
that cheek!”

John’s face glowed with the blue haze of a winter moon. He felt for a spot of security in the lattice with his foot. His hands dove deep into the growth without hesitation. He looked driven, eyes focused, body determined. He pulled himself up.

“O speak again, bright angel!”
he continued, slowly climbing. “
For thou art as glorious to this night, being o’er
my head, as a winged messenger of heaven.”
Jennifer reached out both arms to him, just like she did in the play.
“O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou

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Romeo? Deny thy father and refuse thy name. O if thou
wilt not, be but sworn my love, and I’ll no longer be a
Capulet.”

With each pull, John drew nearer. Jennifer’s heart fluttered. “Be careful,” she whispered on a laugh.

“Fear not, Juliet.” He grinned. “Not only am I Romeo, but I have been known to morph into Spiderman.”

Jennifer leaned out further, extending her hand to help. Then they both heard a snap, followed by a sharp crackle. John’s eyes shot wide. He slid and tumbled down, falling flat on the hard ground below.

Jennifer gasped and ran from her bedroom. Her mother was turning off the lights in the kitchen when she flew past.

“Jenn?”

“Be right back!” She was out the back door and around to the side of the house before she took another breath. The breath she sought choked in her throat. She stopped, the sight of him freezing her.

“John?” Her heart pounded. He lay like the dead, eyes closed, body still. His face, just moments ago a glow with the moon’s milky reflection, now looked pasty.

Dropping to her knees, she knelt over him, unsure of what to do. Her eyes blurred. She blinked fast, her throat burning. “I—John? Oh, no.” Gently, she reached out and touched his shoulder. “John? Are you okay? John?” She nudged him with both hands. “Come on, wake up. You can’t be hurt.”

His head moved a little and she sucked in a breath.

He grimaced, his dark lashes fluttered. Letting out a groan, he lifted his hands to his head for a moment k

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before they trembled back to his sides.

Panicked, Jennifer grabbed the hand closest to her and squeezed it to her breast. “Are you hurt?” She leaned over his face. “John?”

“My head.” He rolled toward her. “Something…my head…it’s…”

“What? John, talk to me.” She pressed her hand to his forehead and stroked the side of his cheek. “I better go get my mom.”

Snapping his hand around her wrist, John shot up with a laugh.

Jennifer fell back on her butt, her pounding heart robbing her voice. Fury and relief whirled inside of her.

She wanted to slap him and hug him. And yet the indescribable warmth of gladness caused tears to spring from her eyes.

“You should see your face.” His laughter died. He went perfectly still.

Unable to stop the cache of tears escaping her, Jennifer scrambled to her feet, ready to escape back to her house when he shot up next to her.

“Hey.” He set a hand on her shoulder. Comforting warmth shot down her arm, through her stomach and to her toes.

“That was so mean.”

“I know. Sorry. Really, I am. Are you okay?”

“No, you retard. You scared me.” His hand left her shoulder and she felt a chill. John lifted his arms for examination, looking at the dirty, leaf-infested sleeves of his student council jacket. “Oh, man.

Look at this. This thing costs fifteen bucks to dry clean.” Jennifer shoved at him lightly. Just touching him

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made her feel better. “You could have broken your neck.”

“Nah.” He looked up at her window. “If that wood wasn’t so old, I could climb up there anytime.” His eyes lowered to hers.

Jennifer took a deep breath. “Yeah, well, it is old and you need to keep your neck in one piece, Romeo.” The moon hid behind some stringy clouds and suddenly the night was very dark. Jennifer heard him breathe; smelled the faint scent that was uniquely his.

As children they spent hours out in the mysterious world of nighttime. Together they’d laced toilet paper over neighbor’s bushes, engaged in games of hide and seek, of chase. But tonight he looked entirely different than the boy she’d played games with under the moon’s watchful eye. Tonight he breathed erratically, not from the exertion of play, but from something that stirred her deep inside.

He took a step toward her. Afraid to move, she didn’t. She didn’t want anything to change. Nothing could stop what she hoped in her heart he was going to do. But it didn’t matter if he kissed her or not. She could stand there forever, just looking at him.

His arms moved, as if reaching out for her. They heard the crunch of grass.

“Jenn?” Her mother.

Jennifer whirled around. Her mother stood with her hands tightly clutching herself against the chilly air. “Oh, I didn’t see you, John.”

“Hi, Maggie.”

“You two okay?”

Jennifer nodded. A soft heat radiated into her k

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back. John. She hoped he wouldn’t move, that after her mother left, she’d turn around and everything, the moment, the moonlight, would all be as it was seconds ago.

“It’s eleven forty-five,” Maggie said, then turned.

“Just in case you thespians want to know.” Grass crunched under her feet as her mother disappeared around the corner of the house. The sound of the front door shutting was distant.

Jennifer turned back around and knew the moment was lost. Looking up into John’s face, she saw by his sober expression John knew it too.

“You sure you’re okay?” She took a chance and touched his head, just above his left ear. The softness of his hair brushed her fingertips. Then she tucked her hands into her arms and folded them across her chest.

The way he held her with that penetrating gaze of his mystified her. Don’t let it get to you, she thought.
It
doesn’t mean anything
. Neither spoke for a time until she finally took a step back. “See you tomorrow.”