"Hey!" Mara grinned as Mick joined her in the living room, a football balanced on his left hand. He dropped down into a seat and grinned also at his girlfriend. "So, Mick, would you like to get some lunch with me today?" Thinking she already knew the answer did not prepare her for what Mick was now about to say.
"I can't." Her smile faltered.
"Why not?"
"Because, I'm doing other stuff at lunch." He replied and bounced the ball up and down.
"But, I'm sure we can do it together, can't we?" He shook his head and looked her square in the eye.
"Mara I can't hang out with you at lunch, Alfie challenged me to a game of football." Mick moaned as Mara spoke to him from her spot on the sofa in the main room of Anubis house.
"Well I could come watch, couldn't I?" She pressed on. Mick sighed and dropped the ball he was balancing on his left hand and leaned forward.
"Look, babe, you know I love you and all but... I could just do with some guy time, know what I mean?" He asked and searched her face for a response. She nodded but didn't speak. He grinned broadly; clearly he was not good at reading the look of disappointment on her face. He stood up and planted a kiss on her cheek and rushed to his and Fabian's room to start some last minute homework.
Mara sighed and pulled out a book out of her bag: Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. This had been her favourite ever love story and sometimes she had longed for her life to be like those she had read between the exquisite bindings of these books she was so devoted to. She would lose herself in the world of lust and romance and sometimes for a brief moment she would forget her world and instead be one with the world etched out on the paper before her.
"Well, well, well. No Mick today I see." Mara looked up and saw Jerome leaning in the large doorway, his eyes danced around the room and then landed, lightly, on her. Mara smiled. Recently Jerome and her had been getting on brilliantly, it was odd because she remembered that just weeks earlier he had blackmailed her and she had called him a jerk, however, now it was as though they knew everything about each other, it felt... Unusual yet refreshing.
"He's finishing homework. Alfie wants him to play football later, it's no big deal." She sighed and looked back to her book. She could sense that he had walked around the sofa and was peering at her book over her shoulder.
"What're you reading?" He asked.
"Romeo and Juliet." She replied; he gave a quick smile that she could not see and moved around the sofa and stood by the fireplace.
"Ah, it's a change from Harry Potter then?" She laughed.
"Like you haven't read them."She said playfully and Jerome put a hand over his heart.
"They are the only books I have ever read!" He said defensively. She laughed.
"This is one of my favourite books, besides the Harry Potter ones of course." She added the last part on quickly and Jerome smiled.
"But soft, what light through yonder window break? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun!" Jerome recited every word perfectly and spoke it with such feeling that it was overwhelming for Mara to hear.
"I thought you never read any other book?" She questioned as she rose to her feet looking as though she had turned into Juliet herself. He grinned and moved closer.
"I lied." He whispered. There was a strange silence that flooded the room and suddenly Mara felt extremely awkward.
"Shouldn't you be with Alfie?" She asked.
"Nope," Said Jerome as though it was simply a common conversation. "To be honest, Mara, I came here to see you." He flashed her a smile that revealed his pearly white teeth and it made him look incredibly handsome, though Mara did not feel attracted to him in that particular way. Mara crossed her arms and walked to the opposite side of the fire placed and leaned on the wall, watching him carefully. He stared at her from his side of the fire place and waited for her to speak.
"OK, what did you want to see me for?" She asked casually. He pushed away from the wall and moved to stand in front of her; she pushed herself up against the wall. Feeling extremely uncomfortable. "Jerome, stop it, you're too close." He was so close that a simple movement could send them crashing down onto each other. She placed her hands on his chest and tried to push him back but he would not budge. "J-Jerome, stop it. I need some room!"
Without thinking, ignoring the fact that anyone could see them if they walked in, forgetting that Mara had boyfriend in the next room Jerome firmly planted his lips on top of hers before she could make any kind of objection. He felt powerful; like no-one could touch him and that nothing could hurt him. Many girls he had kissed before were nothing compared to this, absolutely nothing at all.
Mara was not kissing back, he noticed that she was still and so he opened his eyes to see that Mara was pale and that her eyes were open in shock and hurt. He pulled away slowly, savouring whatever last bit of heaven he could before he would lose it, possibly forever. Mara's hands had fallen from his chest and he looked down at her, she shook her head slowly and the hurt in her eyes was pure torture. He was about to apologize and then he would leave the room, or he was until a voice like a bull roared behind him.
"CLARKE!"
A/N: OK, I love the whole Jerome/Mara relationship and to be honest I don't think Mick's good for her, Jerome is so much better because he is a lot deeper than Mick and Mara knows him better than anyone else. This is just a first chapter. Keep a look out for the next one.
