A/N: So do you want to know my reason for not updating? It's pathetic, really…
…..I forgot….. sometimes real life just takes over, you know? But hopefully this will make up for it. It's double the amount of a normal chapter… Enjoy =)
Chapter 19- Dinner date and Drama
When people say a girl can never have enough dresses, I never really agreed with it until now. Ever since I had gotten home from school I had been searching for the perfect 'not-really-the-first-date-but-it-kinda-is' outfit. And it was proving more difficult than I thought it would, considering it was half six and Romeo would be here in about a half hour. This was the first time I was dressing up for him and I wanted to look perfect. The problem wasn't that I lacked clothes, in fact that would be the opposite. I had a rotating railing in my closet, and I was currently looking at all of my many dresses for the millionth time, but none of them seemed to be the right one. I let out a frustrated sigh and cast my eyes around the various piles of clothes around my room that I had already tried on and discarded. It was then that I saw a red wire handle sticking out from under my bed. I immediately recognised it as a bag from one of my favourite stores in the square, and I pulled it out from under my bed. I opened the bag and remembered buying the contents about a month ago. I must have come home and thrown all my bags by my bed and that particular one must have been pushed underneath. I emptied the bag out onto my bed and out fell a pair of white beach shorts, and a dress.
The dress was olive green and had a thin layer of black net over the top. It had thick X straps creating a cross effect at the back. It also had a black belt like band, before the dress flowed outwards.
I slipped the dress on and stood in front of the mirror. The dress came to just above my knee, not too long and not too short. It was perfect. The colour was unique and made my hazel eyes and chocolate coloured hair stand out. I looked over to the clock and saw I had about fifteen minutes to be out the door. In record time, I created loose natural looking waves in my hair using a curling iron and applied some light make up. I then selected a pair of Yves Saint Laurent black heels and finished my outfit with a simple black clutch. I opted not to take a jacket due to the still lingering immense heat, even at night. I smiled at my reflection, pleased with finding the right outfit and getting ready, all with five minutes to spare.
I threw my cell; some lip gloss, my keys, some money and gum in the clutch and headed downstairs. I walked into the kitchen and saw my family all inside which was a rare occurrence. It was unusual to see them together and in the kitchen of all places. My mother was sitting at the bar with a glass of red wine, and my Dad was reading some paperwork, whilst pacing the room with a glass of scotch. Timmy had just obviously come out of the pool and was half towelling his hair and half scanning the fridge for a snack. All in the middle of the silence was Ada, trying to cook dinner with everyone around her.
When I walked in nobody except Timmy, who gave me a nod, then continued in his search for food acknowledged me.
"So, I'll be back later," I told nobody in particular.
Both my parents looked up at me.
"Oh, Juliet. Where are you off to?" My Dad asked.
"I have a date," I said without thinking.
"Oh, you're going out with Paul, I'm glad you're finally seeing how lucky you are," my Mother said.
"Oh, I'm not going out with Paul," I said in a strong voice.
"Well why on earth not?" She said. She actually looked surprised.
I sighed and repeated a sentence I had been saying a lot recently, "because I don't like him" I was beginning to feel like a broken record.
She put down the glass in her hand and turned fully in her seat to face me.
"Look, I know you're not happy about the situation Juliet, but you need to do this for your father. For our family. You've been given everything you could possible want in your life and now it's time you showed some appreciation. And there is no need to forever be sulking and acting if though we have put you in a terrible predicament" She said in a stern voice, talking about my Father as if he wasn't in the room. In the background I heard Timmy choke on his apple and burst out with a laugh that he quickly contained.
"Timothy." She warned without actually turning around to look at him.
"Sorry," he muttered, but he was still smiling, behind my parents. Ada gently hit him on the arm and gave him a disciplining look.
I could not believe the nerve of that woman. Sure I'd grown up in a very wealthy family and pretty much gotten anything money could buy, like Romeo had said all those weeks ago, but I sure as hell never got what I wanted: a loving mother and father while I was growing up. After the family had come into our money I knew that I soon turned into an accessory to their perfect life. A prop in the fake image we were projecting to people. Up until now I'd been the perfect dutiful daughter, and done mostly everything they'd ever asked of me.
"Sweetie, our business needs this," she said in an emotive voice. I had been pretty calm on the outside until then but when she called me sweetie, it inflicted a different effect to when Ada did it.
I threw my clutch on the breakfast table next to me and erupted.
"Please mother! Would you just drop it! I'm probably going to end up doing what you want anyway! I'm going to college early so I can go and move in with a guy that I don't like, and eventually marry, just so you and Dad can make another dozen million that you don't need! It's not as if, if you don't get the business deal, we will be destitute! What else do you want from me! Forgive me for not wanting to be in a great mood all the time!" I yelled in an uncharacteristically aggressive manner. I had also been pretty quiet when it had come to my parents and vented in my head at the same time. I certainly never yelled at them.
The room was silent. Timmy's mouth was open and I could see a piece of apple resting on his tongue. Even Ada had stopped stirring. My dad even looked up from the paperwork. My mother gasped in surprise, and she certainly wouldn't stand for my tone but before she said something back to me, another voice beat her to it.
"How dare you talk to your mother like that young lady? I've sat back and watched you sulk about this for two months now, but I'm not going to stand for it anymore! You will eventually marry Paul, Juliet, and you will do it with a smile on your face, because that's what I'm telling you to do! You had better improve your attitude and fast because you will not embarrass me in front of the Prince family this weekend.
I was shocked when my father spoke up. I had almost forgotten he was in the room with us. As usual he had been occupied doing something else and seeming as though he was barely paying any attention to the conversation in the room. I didn't really want to deepen the hole I had already dug for myself, and I didn't want to create a bigger issue.
"I'm sorry Dad, I don't know what came over me, It won't happen again," I looked over to my mother who was now staring at her wine glass like it was the most fascinating thing in the world, "I'm sorry mother, I shouldn't have said those things to you."
She didn't bother to reply. She stubbornly looked anywhere but at me, and carried on with her wine.
"It's ok dear, we understand you need time, we just think you should accept this is one of the sacrifices you have to make in your life." My dad looked calm now, almost as if the last minute hadn't happened.
"Now you go on along to your dinner."
And like that I was dismissed from the room. I was surprised they actually let me go out on the date that wasn't with Paul.
I picked up my clutch from the table and gave Timmy a nod to say goodbye. The room was still too silent to talk. Timmy was still frozen in place from the shock of my outburst.
I walked out of the room and closed the door behind me. I let out a breath I had unconsciously been holding. The silent air out here was a lot more comforting that in there. Just then I felt my phone vibrate once. My signal to know Romeo was outside. I let myself out the house and walked down the long path, trying not to stumble on the gravel while wearing heels. I walked out the gates that were opened by security. One of the younger ones, working tonight looked me up and down and gave me a smile. I smiled back laughing to myself and walked out of the grounds. They were all too afraid of my parents to even contemplate talking to me or Timmy in fear wouldn't talk to the 'help'.
Just to the left I saw Romeo's car parked. He was standing outside leaning against the passenger side of the car watching the sunset. He was wearing dark blue jeans and a white shirt with the top two buttons undone, giving me a view of the start of his smooth chest. He looked casual yet smart. I already knew Romeo was good looking, but if I didn't, tonight would have confirmed any doubts. The way he was looking into the distance reminded me of an Abercrombie model.
"Wow," he said finally noticing me. I hadn't said anything up until now, not wanting to disturb his gazing of the sky.
"Hey, to you too," I said. On the inside I was bursting with pride.
"You look amazing," he said. The way he said it made me believe it was genuine and he really thought that, and it wasn't some mandatory line that went with a date.
"Thanks, "I said, sure I was blushing.
He suddenly remembered we had a place to go and he opened the car door for me. I sat down in the passenger seat while he walked around to his own seat.
"So did you buy that dress especially for me?" he said jokingly.
"You'd like that wouldn't you? That I went out and bought a dress especially for you," I said laughing.
"Yeah that would probably do a lot for my ego," he said.
"Well, too bad because I've had this dress ages, worn it for other guys, sorry you're not so special Montague."
"Well I think I am so special."
"Why's that?" I said.
He reached behind me, whilst still watch the road and pulled something off my dress. I reached to the back of my dress, thinking something had broken, but everything felt in place. I looked up and Romeo was dangling a clothes tag in front of me. Embarrassed, I quickly tore it out of his hands. He had a smug look on his face but didn't say anything.
"Ok, so I haven't worn it before, but I have had it ages."
Romeo just continued smiling. "Sure you have…"
X x x x x x
Juliet POV
When we arrived at the restaurant in Sandle Coast, the place was small but cosy and decorated with shells and bottles all fitting a beach theme, but it wasn't tacky like many other beachside restaurants. The restaurant had about twelve tables and only three of them were full so far, but it didn't feel awkward with the lack of people. We waited by the hostess's desk to be seated and a young girl, around our age walked up to the desk and picked up two menus.
"Ok, so for two?" she looked up then stopped in her tracks as she noticed Romeo. Her mannerisms suddenly changed and she flipped her hair over the other way and smiled at him. I was slightly annoyed to see him actually smile back.
"Hi, I'm Mandy, and I'll be your waitress tonight," she said in flirty voice.
I stepped up next to Romeo and took his hand. "Hi Mandy," I said in a cheery voice, but I was giving her a look that I hoped was staking out my territory to her.
She flipped around and started leading us to our table.
We both took our seats and she purposely leant across Romeo to pick up our wine glasses.
"So let me know if I can get you anything, anything at all," she said, completely ignoring me. I cannot believe her, she was obviously flirting with a guy who was on a date! The nerve of some people.
"I think we're good, thanks," Romeo said, and finally she walked away, sexily as if he was going to watch her walk away.
"So that was funny, you being jealous," he said laughing.
"I was not jealous!" I said lying.
"Oh come on! The hand holding! Not that I didn't love that, but it was hilarious!"
"You didn't have to encourage her!" I told him.
"So you admit it! And I wasn't encouraging her, I was being polite, what was I supposed to do? ignore her?" he said still amused.
"Ok fine, "I said giving and opening the menu.
We sat for a few minutes in silence, both of us reading our menus. We had spent so much time together over the last few weeks, but now being in this formal setting was making me feel nervous.
"So, the weather was nice today?" I said, and then mentally kicked myself for that being the best I could come up with.
Romeo peeked at me over the top of his menu with raised eyebrows.
"Are we really going to talk about the weather?" he asked.
X x x x x
I shouldn't have worried because before long it started to feel more normal and we couldn't stop talking. The date just sped by and we were already at the dessert stage.
We both gave our dessert orders to Mandy and then Romeo told her to pack them for us. I gave him a questioning look.
"Patience," he simply told me.
She soon came back with two plastic containers. One with my chocolate and strawberry tart and the other with Romeo's Vanilla and chocolate pie. She put two plastic forks on top and also put the bill on the table. Romeo put his black, limitless credit card on top and Mandy's eyes widened as she took it in. After he had gotten his receipt we both got up and Romeo picked up our dessert. As we started to walk out of the door Mandy said after us, "Hope to see you soon." I sighed under my breath but ignored her. Romeo had obviously heard me sigh because he grabbed my hand and stopped me walking further out of the restaurant and pulled me toward him and gave me a passionate kiss right there in front of everyone in the entrance of the restaurant. When he pulled away, I was out of breath and I was pretty sure I had stars in my eyes.
"Thanks for dinner," Romeo said to Mandy as if everything was normal and walked out of the door with me following him dazed.
When we got back to the car I said, "What was that!"
He shrugged, "oh common! She was one very small step away from asking me for my number in front of you! And it was obviously bugging you."
I smiled at his thoughtfulness.
"Oh it wasn't just for you, I wanted to show her I'm way out of her league," he said smirking then walked away from his car toward the beach.
I laughed and playfully hit him. "Oh please!" Was he trying to say that I was in his league?
"Where are we going?" I asked him. He ignored me and led me down to the beach. The beach was completely empty due to it being night time. He sat down on the sand and patted the spot next to him, and we began to eat our dessert in front of the stars.
X x x x x x x
"Seriously Jules, what's up with you being so AWOL lately?" Nala said.
I was too busy thinking about my date with Romeo the night before to be paying attention to the conversation. She waved her hand in front of my face.
"Sorry what did you say?" I asked.
"See! Like that! You're either too busy to hang out and when you are here, your mind isn't!" she said.
We were all spending the afternoon down on the beach. The guys had found some "foreign hotties" as they put it to play volleyball with and Sarah and Lily had gone to play too, to keep their boyfriends attention on them. I hadn't felt like going with Paul, in fact I encouraged his participation. That would work out perfectly for me, for Paul to fall head over heels for some European beauty and run away with her to elope, leaving me back in Verone with no way of marrying him. I could only hope!
Nala and I had stayed behind to work on our tans, or at least that was the excuse. Nala now claimed she tried to get me on her own to find out what was wrong with me. I had been lying there in the white canvas shorts I had found the day before in the bag with the dress and an orange bikini top, enjoying the sun for about five minutes before Nala had begun to quiz me.
"Nothing's wrong, I swear. I've just been busy lately, and I've had a lot on my mind with my parents and stuff," I told her.
"Then why do I feel like you're keeping something from me?" she whined, "we've been best friends for ten years, I can tell when something's up."
For a split second I thought about telling her how I thought I might be falling in love and tell her the whole story and explain why I've been so busy lately, but then I realised she would probably freak out and not in a good way. She secretly loved the whole Compton drama.
Timmy ran up to us and took a coke out of the ice box, and opened it, spilling some on the sand as he took a sip.
"So are you two having fun being boring?" he asked.
"Hey Tee" Nala said, "I was just trying to figure out why Jules over here has been acting weird all week, and if anything now is the time to be focused. We have the game and cheer off to be ready for"
Timmy nodded in agreement. He had already had a talk with me last night after I had gotten home after the date. At first he went off on one, applauding me for basically telling my parents to stick it, and then he went on to ask who my secret boyfriend was. When it was clear I wasn't going to let up, he dropped it. After that he had moved onto why I had been acting all weird and suspicious lately. Like I had done to Nala, I had also had to convince him that everything was cool. Thankfully he had written it off as me being upset over the Paul thing.
Before Nala and Timmy could gang up on me together, I got up and brushed the sand off my lap.
"Ok, I'm going to get my iPod from the car," I told them and took my sunglasses off my head and put them on.
"Don't think this is over!" Nala said as I began to walk away. Timmy sat down in my spot and started talking to Nala about something.
I walked through the beach and saw Romeo's house in the distance. Last time I had been there had been in the middle of the night. I wondered if he was home now and whether he was thinking about last night too.
I got to the car park and opened Timmy's car. I took my iPod out of the dash board and put the headphones in my ears and selected my relaxation playlist to begin. The beginning few sounds of an acoustic guitar filled my eyes as I started heading back to the beach. In the distance I could see that the whole gang had stopped playing volleyball and had all gathered back to where I was sitting earlier. They were all crowded around and I got a strange feeling that something was going on. When I got closer I noticed we weren't the only ones there. Ben, Rose and a few others from Compton were all having some sort of argument with us. What was strange though, they weren't all standing around Ben like usual, they were standing around someone else? When I finally reached them I saw that they were around Romeo, and he seemed to be leading the conversation. I pulled the headphones out of my eyes just in time to hear him say, "Oh common Timmy, don't look at me like that! Everybody knew Rose was screwing me the whole time you were together, not just that once like we said. She needed a REAL man, after being with you! Go on Andy, tell him how you knew."
I froze in my steps completely shocked. The Romeo that was standing in front of me was not the same guy who I had been going out with for the past month. This Romeo was hard and bold and I couldn't read the emotions on his face. I felt like I would burst in tears any second now for not believing the type of guy that he was. I felt ridiculous that only a few minutes before I had been thinking that I might be falling in love with him. I wanted to get out of here and run but I was stuck in my spot. After getting over my initial reaction I took in what he actually said and realised for completely different reasons I wasn't the only one who didn't know how to react. Nala wasn't too far from me and her mouth was open. From where I was standing I couldn't see Timmy's face but I was betting that he wasn't happy. Romeo stood there looking pleased with himself, and Andy was bright red and didn't quite know where to look. Was it actually true? Did Rose cheat on Timmy? And did Andy know about it the whole time?
Any second now I was expecting a fight to break out and Timmy to rush forward and give Romeo what he deserved, so I was completely surprised when he just shrugged, and turned around and walked away on his own toward his car. On the way he passed me but didn't look at me, I could tell what he was thinking either, and I could normally tell how he was feeling just from one look of his face but today I couldn't begin to even guess. Everybody else was just as surprised at Timmy and both sides were watching him walk away, which meant that, it was that moment when Romeo saw me standing there, since I hadn't been there at the start. As much as I tried to avoid looking at him, our eyes locked and I saw a glimpse of the guy I knew him to be, as I literally saw his change of personality just through his change of expression. He looked panicked to see me for a second and looked like he wanted to say something to me, but obviously couldn't because of all his friends standing around. Rose started laughing and was saying something to Romeo but he was ignoring her and was still watching me.
"What the hell?" Andy said to Romeo.
"Nal, can we go?" I asked in a quiet voice, sure that if we stayed a moment longer I actually would cry.
I could tell Nala wanted to stay and hear the end of the conversation between the two boys but she took one look at my face and nodded. I couldn't help looking up one last time and saw that even though Andy was talking to Romeo, he was still watching me.
I turned around and started walking back the way that I had just come, but this time with Nala and Lily behind me.
X x x x x x x x
Juliet POV
When I got home, I saw Timmy's car in the driveway and Michel about to get in to park it. I got out of Nala's car and promised I would call her later. She obviously wanted to know why I had been upset, but didn't press into it too much in the car, but I had managed to convince her I wanted to check on Timmy, which wasn't a complete lie, I had temporarily filed away my feelings about what happened with Romeo because I was genuinely concerned about Timmy. I had never seen him walk away from a fight before, and I knew from experience that when he is quiet, and doesn't react is when there is seriously something wrong.
I walked through the front door, and didn't see Timmy anywhere. I walked through to the kitchen and saw my parents in the room connected to the kitchen which had a home bar, discussing something, whilst in the actual kitchen, Timmy stood, acting completely normal, calmly making a sandwich.
"Are you ok Timmy?" I asked concerned.
"I'm fine, why wouldn't I be?" he said like there was nothing wrong.
"Well I just figured..."
"You mean because I just found out that Romeo didn't sleep with my girlfriend once, like they told me, but the whole time we were going out? And that Andy and everyone pretty much knew and nobody thought to tell me?"
"Well –"
"Yeah, I'd say I was pretty pissed." Timmy took a big bite out of his sandwich and stood there chewing. I didn't know what to say to him to make him feel better.
"Well are you sure people actually knew?" I asked him trying to look on the bright side.
"Well I'm guessing since nobody objected when he said it, yeah they actually did."
I sighed and sat down at the stool. "I'm sorry Tee. I guess this is why you and him stopped being friends."
"Part of the reason, yeah," he said.
There was more? I was curious to know but I knew he probably wouldn't tell me like the last time I had asked and I didn't want to ask right now because I didn't want Timmy to push me away too.
Just then, my Mother walked into the Kitchen side of the room whilst on the telephone.
"Ok, so we'll see you next weekend at the Montague's...Ok darling, bye bye now."
My ears perked up at the sound of Romeo's surname.
"See you where?" I burst out the second she put down the phone.
"That was the Michelle Prince, Paul's mother. We were just making arrangements about the Montague's barbeque next weekend."
"You're going to the Montague's barbeque? " I said completely shocked, "I thought you didn't like them."
"Of course we don't like them, but we must keep up appearances, how would it look if we don't go?" she looked at me like I had just said something ridiculous, "And it's not just me and your father, we're all going."
"All of us?" Timmy asked her. Both of us were probably thinking about having to see Romeo again.
"Yes, the four of us and Paul's family, we'll all be going together, hopefully to show them that we're already linked and not to try joining with the Prince's. Juliet, you and Paul will be going together of course."
Oh boy, next weekend was going to be interesting to say the least.
Can anyone say DRAMA?
That was my favourite chapter so far! It was so fun to write especially the date! Don't kill me about what Romeo did at the beach! But otherwise hope that wasn't too much of a cliffy….bbq anyone?
Would love to hear what you thought of that chapter!