Chapter 8. One Last Chance.
If Bella were smart, she would be at the dance studio within 3 hours. Unfortunately, Bella had proved herself to be an idiot. I knew I had time to prepare, time to make this as memorable as I wanted it to be. This allowed me to tour through her house and understand my victim, something I rarely had the chance to do. I wrote the number I wanted her to call on the whiteboard and went back into the living room.
On a table, a book was opened with a few sentences underlined. I picked up a book and found it to be J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye, a book I was never particularly interested in. *
"Well, I'm not too crazy about Romeo and Juliet," I said. "I mean I like them, but- I don't know. They get pretty annoying sometimes. I mean I felt much sorrier when old Mercutio got killed than when Romeo and Juliet did. The thing is, I never liked Romeo too much after Mercutio gets stabbed by that other man…" (Salinger 111)
I threw the book across the room, knocking over a lamp in the process. How could someone not like Romeo? That play is a classic, and this kid just went and mutilated it. Romeo is the most romantic, desirable man ever written in the English language. What a stupid man that J.D. Salinger was.
I picked up the movie that was in the VCR on the way out and picked up a video camera lying on the coffee table; it could come in handy somehow. I went over and retrieved that stupid book, in order to burn it of course. Next to the quote, something I had not read before, was some delicate hand writing stating her opinion, Bella's I assumed.
Romeo is a stupid jock who goes with any girl he is physically attracted to, even if he doesn't know them. Holden relates to Mercutio, he's compassionate and intelligent, not stupid like Romeo.**
Once again, the book was thrown across the room, this time putting a dent in the wall. I didn't even bother to pick it up, afraid of what I might see there.
I sprinted to the dance studio where I was to meet Bella. I put the video into the VCR at the dance studio and I waited. Bella would come, and then she would be no more.
*I actually love this book, and I feel bad disrespecting such a wonderful author.
Mr. Salinger, please don't be frustrated.
**These are my notes in my copy of The Catcher in the Rye. I did not plagiarize.