Why Romeo Hates Juliet (5 page)

Fueled by her red hot anger, Juliet had reached their pool in two seconds flat before realizing that no one was there anymore. The backyard was deserted. Looking around, she could see that the sliding doors leading into the house were closed, but she could hear loud music still coming from inside.

She approached, knocked on the glass and waited. No one came. She knocked again, this time loudly pounding on the sliding door with her clenched fist. Again no one came. She couldn’t see into the house either because the curtains had been pulled over the window panes. She jiggled the door handle to see if it was open, but that too had been locked.

“Damn it!” Juliet huffed under her breath before marching along the side of the house towards the front. Just as she was rounding the corner, she saw one of the black SUVs pull out of the driveway and take off down the private road towards the highway. She could make out the silhouette of several people inside the truck. But the music was still blaring from inside the cottage, so she knew that someone had to be home.

She approached the front door and pounded loudly with her fist. The portal was yanked open and she came face-to-face with the bum she had nicknamed ‘the troublemaker.’ He was tall and lean with wild longish hair and a beard, and he had the bluest, most piercing eyes she’d ever seen on a man. Juliet could swear that they matched the brilliant blue color of the PEI skies, and as she continued to stare into them, her whole being was suddenly infused with an overwhelming pull, dragging her very essence, kicking and screaming, deep within them. They were so clear and hypnotizing that for a split second she forgot why she was there. Those eyes, in the span of a fingersnap, had taken her out of reality and into a space of no-thought, where she was frozen in time and captured in their grip. She felt an immediate and total attraction to this stranger - whoever he was - and she sensed her energy field going wild.

But the feeling lasted only a second and giving herself a slight shake, she came back down to earth. Her brain synapses started firing again and her anger returned, washing over her liked a tsunami. Juliet’s own eyes wandered up and down the troublemaker’s lean, tall frame, taking in his ripped khaki shorts, his oversized t-shirt with some beer advertisement emblazoned across it - and the stupidest, biggest smile she’d ever seen on a man.

As she had been appraising him, the troublemaker had also been appraising her. In the time it took to draw in a breath, his blue eyes had slowly and seductively traveled from Juliet’s face down the length of her simple white t-shirt, down her low-rise blue jeans covering her long legs, to her red-polished toes peeping out of her sandals and back up her body again where they lingered on her full breasts for a few seconds, before finally coming back up to her face. His smile grew wider, obviously liking what he saw.

Feeling like she’d just been mentally undressed by an experienced pervert, Juliet protectively crossed her arms in front of her chest and was just about to launch into her prepared tirade, when the jerk suddenly exclaimed, “Wow, you’re beautiful!” He had to shout out the words because the rock music, blaring from inside his house, was deafening.

Juliet’s eyes narrowed on his face. “Look, I’m…”

“I know who you are,” he interrupted, throwing her a slow, secret smile this time. “Tommy told me to expect you.”

“He did?” Her eyebrows shot up in confusion.

“Sure, he told me to expect the unexpected.” His gaze boldly raked the length of her body once more before his compelling eyes refocused on her face. “And you are definitely NOT what I was expecting. Come on in.” He gestured gall antly with his hand as if he was inviting in an honored guest.

Taken aback by his welcoming actions, Juliet was thrown off her game and she stood rooted to the spot, unsure of what was happening. And he’d said that ‘Tommy’ had told him to ‘expect’ her??? Of course - Tommy must have been one of the two morons who’d told her sister off earlier and he’d probably warned this third moron to ‘expect’ another visit from the neighbors tonight.

Romeo gave her a quick wink when she seemed to balk at his invitation. “Oh, come on now, don’t be shy. I won’t bite,” he laughed, before suddenly grabbing Juliet’s arm and pulling her across the threshold into his house.

Stunned and finding herself in the middle of a frat house-style living room, Juliet quickly spun around to face him, suddenly at a loss for words.

As Romeo watched her spin around, his heart was beating fast and he could feel himself getting hard already. Wow! Wow! And Triple Wow!!

She looked amazing, one of the most beautiful strippers he had ever seen in his life - and he had seen them all. She looked sweet and pure and real; none of that fake Holl ywood glitz that he’d been used to over the years. Examining her delicious body once again, he could tell there wasn’t one fake, plastic-surgery enhanced body part on that luscious frame of hers, and with that casual getup she had on, she was a total and refreshing surprise. Who would have thunk it? The sweet, ‘girl-next-door look’ type-of-stripper! He had to give Tommy his props. He sure knew what his friend liked in the female department and Romeo certainly liked this girll- a lot!

Juliet stared at his grinning face and her jaw clenched in anger. “Look, about your music…” she began, her voice trying to override the loud fracas still blaring from his stereo.

“What?” he shouted, “you like my music?”

“Noooo, I don’t! It’s too loud and…”

“No problem,” he announced, before quickly stepping over to the wall system and turning it off. Silence suddenly permeated the room. “Did you bring your own?” he continued, always with that stupid smile plastered on his face.

“Bring my own?” Juliet parroted in confusion. “Why would I do that?”

“Never mind.” He turned back to his system and put on a soft romantic melody, this time at a decent decibel. He grinned back at her. “Is that more to your liking?”

“I - I guess.” Juliet was taken aback that he would be so compliant and her anger suddenly deflated. Her carefully prepared speech - the one where she was going to give him a piece of her mind with both barrels - went out the window.

The troublemaker approached her again, still with that silly grin on his face. His cobalt blue eyes were even smiling, crinkling at the corners, and he looked liked a big, overgrown puppy waiting to be petted. His aura was radiating friendship and he was acting - well, really nice. This was NOT

what Juliet had been expecting and she didn’t know what to do next. She hadn’t prepared for ‘nice’. She’d steeled herself for a big fight and now that she wasn’t getting it, she didn’t quite know how to act.

“What’s your name?” he innocently asked.

“Juliet,” she responded warily.

He burst out laughing. “Juliet? Of course, you are! Who else would you be?”

Her ire flared, insulted that he was laughing at her name. “What’s so funny?” she steamed.

“You’re Juliet - and I’m Romeo. Romeo and Juliet! Get it? It’s perfect.” He shook his head and mumbled, “That Tommy, what a sense of humor on that guy.”

Juliet was completely dumbfounded. She had no idea what he was talking about or what ‘Tommy’ had to do with any of this, and frankly she didn’t care. All she was here for was his loud music and since he had been decent about it and turned it down, her job was now done.

“Look, Romeo…”

“Yes, Juliet?” he whispered back, as he leaned into her, immediately taking over her personal space.

Uncomfortable, she took a step away from him. “I’m glad that we’ve gotten the music situation straightened out.”

“Anything for you, sweetheart.” Suddenly, Romeo went down on one bended knee in front of her in an overly dramatic fashion, and grasping her right hand, brought it to his lips and kissed the back of it. Turning his eyes up at her, he started reciting, “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 maid, art far more fair than she.”

“Ex - excuse me?” Juliet squeaked, as she stood there staring down into his bottomless, blue eyes. She began to feel a warmth spreading from him into her hand, traveling up her arm and into her body, enlivening every nerve ending in her system. The lulling feeling continued to course up her spine and into her brain, drugging her senses into submission. It felt so good that all she wanted to do at that moment was to give into it, and give into him.

Slowly, uncoiling himself from his lowered position, Romeo stood up and invading her space even more, leaned into her ear and whispered softly, “O, speak again, bright angel! For thou art as glorious to this night, being o’er my head, as is a winged messenger of heaven.” Juliet felt his breath delicately feathering the contours of her ear and her heart skipped a beat, she swore it did. In fact, he was so close to her that his chest briefly skimmed hers and she felt one of his heartbeats. His magnetic aura was taking her over, wrapping around her like a warm blanket and a surge of excitement raced through her body. What the hell was happening to her?

Romeo bent slightly forward, his lips mere inches away and he smiled into her eyes. “It’s Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet from Mrs. Gilbert’s Grade 10 drama class. I played Romeo, of course.” He threw her a quick wink.

Romeo was having fun, loads of it. Of course, she would give herself the fake stripper name of ‘Juliet’, him being Romeo and all - and the sweet, confused, innocent act this hot babe was putting on for him was all part of the show Tommy and Chace had arranged. Maybe those two had even scripted the whole thing? He wouldn’t put it past them. But he was having fun and he was going to go along with whatever game this cutie wanted to play.

His eyes glanced across her face again. God - she was beautiful! Her shiny brown hair skimmed her shoulders in an easy casual style and she was only wearing a bit of mascara and lip gloss, none of that heavy makeup the girls in ll.A. always wore. Everything about her was fresh and new and exciting; and if she wanted to play Juliet to his Romeo, then he was all game. In fact, he was raring to go. But why would a girl who looked like mom’s apple pie and exuded that same vibe earn her living as a stripper? The thought suddenly blazed through his brain. Did she need the money?

Or did she do it for kicks? Was the wholesome apple pie charm an act or was this who she really was? Romeo’s conscience began to rear up and suddenly, he wasn’t thinking with his lower regions anymore as these thoughts began to seep through his mind.

In a flash, he was gripped with a frantic thought. Was this girl into drugs and maybe that’s why she was stripping - to pay for her habit? Was that it? Lots of strippers were into that and Romeo was not one to pass judgment, but for some reason, he just didn’t want this one to have that problem.

His mouth turned down at the corners as he took a step away from her, blurting out at the same time, “Are you using?” Baffled at his quick change in mood, Juliet snapped out of her stupor and stammered, “Using what?” His suspicious eyes narrowed on her face. “Drugs; you know - cocaine, crystal meth, heroin - what are you into?”

“Drugs? What drugs?” Juliet was flabbergasted and didn’t know which way was up or down in this conversation. One minute he was quoting Shakespeare and the next he was accusing her of doing drugs? What the hell …?

Romeo’s accusing eyes narrowed in even further on her face. Was she lying? Suddenly, he grabbed her right arm, flipped it over and started to closely examine the delicate skin on the underside.

“What are you doing?” Stunned, Juliet’s words rushed out.

“Looking for needle marks,” he responded, as he continued his close inspection.

“Needle marks? What is wrong with you?” she shouted, before snatching her arm out of his grasp and wanting to put space between herself and his overpowering presence, she, suddenly and without thinking, pushed at his chest with all her might, sending him sprawling backwards. But as Romeo fell back, his ankle caught on one of the coffee table legs and with his arms flailing wildly in the air, his back hit the flat screen TV against the wall, causing the glass to shatter into a spider’s web.

“Ohhhhh,” Romeo moaned, as he crumpled to the floor. For a micro-second, he just lay there and then a grimace of pain crossed his features.

“My back, my back,” he yelped, as his hands whipped around to massage his spine. He twisted his head around and saw the damage on his flat screen. “My God, my TV - look at what you did to the screen! You can’t fix that,” he shouted at her.

Juliet was frozen. She hadn’t meant to push him that hard; it had just happened - kind of. “I’m sorry.” She rushed over to him, bending down. “Let me help you.” She grabbed his arm and started pulling him upwards.

“Ohhhhh,” Romeo moaned even louder. “Stop it, you’re killing me! Oh my back…”

Juliet immediately stopped tugging at his arm. “Do you have a history of back problems?”

“No, not until you showed up and threw me into the TV!” he yelled sarcastically, as beads of sweat formed on his brow.

Juliet’s ire began to rise again. “I did not throw you anywhere, sir. It was an accident, one that would never have happened if you hadn’t accused me of doing drugs, which I still don’t know what that has to do with anything.”

“Alright already, maybe that was none of my business. I concede the point. Just help me up, okay - gently this time.” Juliet put her shoulder underneath his armpit and with her legs, tried to haul him up. But as she did that, spears of pain radiated through Romeo’s back and he began to moan again. “Ohhh, stop, stop, stop,” he shouted.

She instantly helped him crumple back onto the floor and carefully re-positioned him with his back against the wall. “I’m calling an ambulance,” she announced.

“Fuck the ambulance and get me a beer,” Romeo shouted.

“Gee, Romeo, is that a quote from Shakespeare too?”

Romeo turned sarcastic eyes up at her and gave her a fake smile. “Fuck the ambulance and get me a beer - please, Juliet,” he asked in a softer, sweeter tone.

She arched a skeptical eyebrow at him. “If you’re really in pain, you’d go to the hospital, but instead you want alcohol. Maybe you’re faking?” Romeo whipped his head around to glare at her. “Faking?”