TITLE: Fair Verona
SUMMARY: Juliet Swan was a tragedy in the making. What happens in Italy does not always stay in Italy.
A/N: I've been writing this story for the past six months but have I published anything? Nope. Either I do it now or chicken out. So is everybody going through a twilight-renaissance phase during quarantine or is just me? I'm not even sorry. Let me know what you think, I hope you guys enjoy it and are keeping safe in times like these!
Skype calls with Bella were infrequent but long.
Sometimes they didn't talk.
There were days a call was spent in silence because they just wanted each other's company. Usually, they went about their daily tasks on the video call. Juliet procrastinated whatever homework she'd been given and cracked out a new canvas to paint with, ignoring the half-used ones already scattered around her room. Bella had already completed her homework and would be halfway through her third book of the day, something she'd have picked up from the second-hand bookshop she raved about.
Then, there were days in which they had too many words and thoughts but not enough time. At the risk of sounding cliche, they didn't have twin-speak. Not really. It was a verbal short-hand which they understood clearly but to other people, it sounded like half-bitten sentences and random words. Very useful for making secret plans or talking shit about someone.
"So, you're coming up here?" Juliet hummed, a smear of charcoal curling underneath her jawline. It'd been there for the past hour but she hadn't noticed. Bella wasn't all too inclined to tell her. "What's up with that?"
"Phil wants to go on tour and mom wants to go with him," Bella said as she flicked through the same passage for the seventh time. The stress of her impending move to Forks and the fact that she loathed the mandatory reading for her English class that year wasn't helping. It was rare for Bella to hate a book, but at that point, she'd be more than happy to throw it on an open fire. "It's not fair to make her stay just for me. It seemed easier just moving in with you and Charlie to finish high school."
"Is that what you want though?" Juliet asked.
She finally looked up from her sketchbook and caught her image in the corner of the screen, noticing the dark mark on her skin with a grimace. Her attempts to wipe it away only managed to make a bigger mess, smearing it down her neck and over her chin. "Shit."
"Not really but," Bella shrugged. "It happens."
"So, you'd just… pick up where you left off? I mean, we'd go to school together," Bella glanced up from her book, and they began to pick out the silver linings. Optimism wasn't precisely a Swan trait though and Juliet heaved a sigh. "Y'know, you're going to be the talk of the town for a while, right? We haven't had any new kids since the Cullens a few years back."
"Fun," Bella griped. "I mean, better than shackling mom here."
"She'd never let you forget it either."
Sometimes, Bella thought that the only reason which Renée and Juliet didn't get along was that they were too similar. Flighty and creative, neither willing to sit still for too long. It didn't help that Renée hadn't won custody of both her little girls. Charlie had a stable job, a house over his head and in his name, a support network; the court agreed that Renée could probably handle one while Charlie would handle the other. A regular parent-trap situation.
They fought like cats and dogs when in the same room for too long, anything more than twenty-four hours and it became like a cage match. Both too stubborn to apologise and nearly seventeen years of unspoken bitterness to even try and mend those fences.
"Mom's not that bad."
"The fact you have to say that bad makes me think she is."
Bella didn't want to argue; she did what did best and changed the subject. "How's Charlie doing?"
"We started watching a cooking show together - angry British chef, can't remember his name - and now, he thinks he can cook," Juliet said and the two of them shared wary glances. The last time he was allowed in the kitchen unsupervised, the oven had gone up in flames and he'd had to call Forks tiny fire department begrudgingly.
Speak of the devil. There was a loud clatter from downstairs. Both glanced in the general direction. Bella couldn't see much other than her sister's exasperated look, both waiting until they heard Charlie's faint - "I'm fine!" before they turned back to stare at one another.
"Obviously that's going well." Bella couldn't help but comment.
"Shut up."
"Better than diner food."
"I will reach through this screen and hit you because nothing beats their lasagna," Juliet was quick to argue. Whole-heartedly defending the place she'd been eaten in at least once a week for her whole life. "I've been trying to get the recipe from Nancy for years."
"Just like how she's been trying to teach you to bake for years?"
"Everything I bake just seems to shrivel up and die," they had multiple horror stories, blackened fairy buns, soggy victoria sponge, rock-hard brownies. Juliet could cook up at a feast and Bella hoped that she'd make her favourite meals when she eventually got to Forks. Baking though, it just wasn't in her repertoire. "I think Nancy's slowly realising it's a lost cause."
"Finally."
They chatted on and off for another half an hour until their conversation came to a natural lull. Which was when Bella finally lost her patience, Juliet had been fidgeting for most of their video call. Guilty and wanting to ask something, she could tell the signs.
"Alright, spit it out," she sighed.
"Hm?" Juliet tilted her head innocently, a few loose locks spilling from her messy braid.
"You've been dying to ask me something for this entire call."
It was like it suddenly exploded out of her, Juliet suddenly leaning in until her face was all Bella could see on the computer. "Do you get car sick? Is that a thing for you?"
"Oh, god."
"All I'm saying is that it'd be cheaper for me to drive down and pick you up," Juliet shrugged like it was no big deal. "Better than wasting money on a one-way flight."
There was a pause.
"You just want another road trip."
Bella rolled her eyes. A small and knowing smile curled the corners of her mouth because Juliet would use any excuse for a trip out of Forks. The amount of time they'd spent as kids roaming through the forests and woodlands, looking for buried treasure and fairies and caves with mermaids. They explored every nook and cranny just to settle her sister's curiosity and wanderlust.
"I do," she admitted quickly, looking guilty for her need to escape. "I really do, exams and everything have me rattled, and this would help I think."
Bella eyed her suspiciously because her twin didn't just admit anything. "Jules."
"I may have already filled my tank, had dad change my tires and made a few CDs to listen to on the way down," she murmured, quiet enough that the microphone on her computer almost didn't pick it up. "I mean, just in case you said yes."
"...if you're gonna make me listen to Fleetwood Mac the entire trip-"
"Okay, look, just because you're uncultured-"
"Do you have your-"
"I've got my phone."
"Well, have you got your-"
"I've got my wallet."
Charlie stared his daughter down.
His hands were on his hips and he wore a sour look, the kind which could've curdled milk or cracked the toughest perps which Forks had to offer. Of course, usually, it was just some punk kid who thought shoplifting was cool… but that wasn't the point!
He stared her down like she'd crack and admit all the contraband she had on her person.
It was increasingly obvious, especially in the past few years, that maybe his daughter was a little too like her parents. As stubborn as they both were, a little wild thanks to Renee but he liked to think she was level-headed enough to keep herself out of trouble. Still a brat though, she just mimicked his posture and grinned back up at him.
It was a battle of wills, they were both headstrong when they thought they were in the right. Of course, Juliet was a little more sociable and free-spirited, stood next to her dad, it was almost like day and night. He couldn't keep her down, refused to trap her in one place for too long. It was the only reason he put up with her weekend trips, knowing that if he forbid them then she might end up as… as unhappy as Renée had been.
At least this time it was a trip he could approve of.
It'd take her a day and a half to get to Phoenix, she'd promised him that she wouldn't drive at night but he knew better than to trust her word. Bella had already promised to call as soon as Jules arrived, it'd slip her mind to let him know as soon as she got there. Not that he blamed her, it'd been a while since Juliet had seen them, they'd skipped their summer trip that year thanks to Phil and Renée's wedding.
Why on earth the woman thought it was a good idea to send her ex-husband an invitation, he'd never know.
"Be careful," he grunted.
"I'm always careful," Juliet insisted.
He didn't scoff but he did roll his eyes just like she rolled hers at his overprotective ways. It was how their relationship worked. Like clockwork, she stepped forward and wrapped her arms around him. The same hug she gave him before every trip. They weren't big on the whole affection and hugging or whatever, he still looked forward to those moments though. When he could tuck her under his chin and convince himself she was still his little girl.
She was still grinning when she pulled back, jabbing a finger into his chest. "You be careful and actually catch some fish this time-"
"Billy is a goddamn liar, I caught that-"
"Yeah yeah," same old story but then again, it was nice to know that some things would never change. "I'll be back late, you've got my number and I'll call you as soon as I make it."
"Any trouble-" Charlie was tempted to pull her back when she let go of him. Couldn't she be a kid for a little while longer? Playing in the mud, sitting with Rebecca on the porch as the older girl did her hair, running into his room in the middle of the night because there were monsters under her bed?
"I'll call you, straight away." Juliet leaned forward and booped him on the nose. From there on it was a flurry of activity, slinging her travel bag in the trunk of her car and triple-checking to make sure she had everything she needed.
"Call me when you get there!" Charlie hollered as she pulled out of the drive, waving her off.
Of course, she completely forgot to call.
By the time she pulled up outside of her mom's house, she had three missed calls; one from Bella, one from her dad and one from Leona in her Spanish class. It was a cute house, she remembered days being sat in the front room and wondering how people survived the heat. She'd been so close to melting.
The empty energy drink bottles rattled from the passenger seat and she began to tidy up a little, knowing Bella would comment if she saw them and only when she deemed her car tidy-ish enough did she go and knock on the door.
"Hi, mom," Juliet chimed.
"Jules!" The woman launched herself and Juliet physically struggled to keep them both upright, almost sending them both flying off the front steps. "Ohmygod! Bella didn't tell me you were coming to pick her up! I thought she was getting a flight!"
"I told you a few weeks ago, mom," Bella said quietly as she began to bring her boxes out, a lot of her stuff had been sent ahead of time but there were some essentials she'd needed until the day of the move. All of it neatly packed, nearly all of it being books. No doubt she had a few of her favourites in her small rucksack but Juliet didn't understand how she could read in a moving car - sometimes she got nauseous reading road signs. "It's why we didn't book the flight."
"Hey Juliet," Phil said with a small grin, brushing past them, also toting out a box no doubt full to the brim with books.
"Hey Phil," she croaked, still in her mother's chokehold.
"What! I thought we booked your flight to Seattle!" Renee released her other daughter and turned with a fretful expression. "Wait, we didn't book them?"
Ah, mom.
Never change.
"You ended up using the money for those oil paintings you wanted," Phil was quick to remind her, bussing a kiss against her cheek as he passed them, heaving the heavy box into the open trunk of her car. "The ones you ended up sending back and getting the replacement for because they didn't send you the right blue?"
"How can they get sapphire mixed up with lapiz?!"
Bella ambled over, throwing what seemed to be the lightest box of the bunch into the truck before folding herself against Juliet loosely. The same kind of one-armed hug which her dad had given her before she'd left. Maybe it sounded cliche but that was fine; with her sister, it felt like a puzzle-piece being put into place. One that had been missing.
"Hey."
"Hi," they watched their mom and Phil natter, arguing about paint colours. "Good trip?"
"Mhm," it was a nice and easy trip, she took the longer route and cut through Idaho. "Looking forward to going home though… what's with the cactus?"
"Don't even ask."
Inspired by "The Best of Times" by belisom, have some incorrect quotes for the chapter;
Juliet: I'm not out of control! I'm a law-abiding citizen!
Charlie: Oh yeah? Name one law.
Juliet: Don't kill people?
Charlie: That's on me. I set the bar too low.
...
Teacher: Juliet said a swear word in class.
Charlie: I'll talk to her about it.
Charlie, to Juliet in the car: What the fuck, dude.