3. First Break:
"You're Juliet, the new girl right?" A girl with long red hair and dark brown eyes, wearing a very interesting outfit asked me the following Friday at school. I was at my locker getting ready for orchestra and trying not to make any sort of eye contact with Justin, who kept looking over at me.
"Sorry... um yes." I answered. I was still out of it. I had missed another day of school after my migraine, and I still had a residual headache and a few flashes of various visions going on. It had been hard for me to focus on anything these past few days.
"Harper Finkle." She said with a huge smile as she held out a hand to me.
"Nice to meet you." I said a moment later shaking her hand nervously. I couldn't help but feel like I was being watched, in a more than simply paranoia way, in a way that seemed real and scared me.
"I just wanted to know if you were going to the dance at school tomorrow, I'm on the committee, and we are trying to figure out how many people we will have because there are not tickets." Harper began. "It's a masquerade ball, everything is going to beautifully decorated, and there is a live band playing and everything. At midnight there's going to be an announcement and everyone is going to remove their masks and see who they are dancing with, it should be very fun." She finished with a huge smile on her face.
"I can't. Sorry." I said as nicely as I could. Took my violin in my hand, closed my locker and headed off to the orchestra room.
Once there, five minutes early, I let myself think of how much fun it would be to go to a masquerade. If I could just get Grandma'ma to bend the rules just this once, l could go. At a masquerade no one would know it was me, and as long as I left by midnight, no one would ever know it was me. The more I thought about it the more I wanted to go, and the more I knew that Grandma'ma would say no and refuse to bend the rules. When the bell rang signaling the beginning of class, I banished the thoughts of a night dancing away with a mysterious masked figure, and fleeing before midnight and focused completely on the music I was playing.
After school, instead of going straight to our brownstone, I headed to Manhattan, via a cab to visit my oldest brother. Othello has lived in the city for quite a few years now, he works as an actor on Law & Order, and found it easier to live in NYC full time as the show films here. Othello and I have never been super close as he is ten years older than me, but we have always been close enough. Having crazy fame obsessed celebrity parents, really helps with the sibling bonding.
"Do you want anything to drink Jules?" Othello asked. The two of us were sitting in his apartment's kitchen. Othello had gotten back from a shorter day of shooting the moment I had arrived at his door, and he was rushing around trying to find something to eat.
"Do you have any peppermint tea? My head's still bothering me." I asked.
"I'll start the water." Othello began putting a kettle on a burner of the stove and turning the burner on. "Grandma'ma called me about that, she said it was one of the worst you've had in awhile." He added sitting back down with left over Chinese food he had just gotten out of the microwave.
"It was really bad." I answered quietly. "You know what, forget about the tea, I think I'm just gonna go back to the house. I've got nothing better to do on a Friday night." I added. I knew what the next question that was going to come out of Othello's mouth was about what I had seen but I did not want to talk about it.
"You know you are welcome here anytime Jules." Othello said getting up and giving me a hug. I'm glad that he went along with me leaving abruptly, Benvolio would've argued with me about it for half an hour at the least.
"I know. Thanks 'thello." I replied giving him a hug, before grabbing my bag and exiting the apartment.
I made my way down to the lobby of Othello's apartment building and out on the street. I manged to catch a cab, and a thought entered my mind. I wanted some peppermint tea, but I didn't want to go home yet, because Grandma'ma would just ask me why I was back from Othello's so soon, and I just did not want to deal with that right now.
"Where to ma'am?" The cabbie asked me with a slight smile.
"The Waverly Sub Station please."
I walked into the small restaurant about twenty minutes later, traffic had been, to use a phrase, a bitch, on the way down here, the city was starting to get crowded, it's a Friday night which is when a lot of the tourists come down, and everyone is trying to get to their dinner reservations.
The place was crowded, it was a little after 5, and almost every table and sit at the bar was packed. I looked around for Justin and couldn't find him, I just wanted some peppermint tea to go, and he was the only person that worked there that I could recognize and order from.
"Oh you're Justin's friend. Juliet or something right? He will not stop talking about you." A woman said walking up to me, I recognized her in moments as Justin's mom, Mrs. Russo.
"We have a lot of classes together. I was just looking for someone to order from..." I answered. Trying to ignore the fact that Mrs. Russo had called Justin and I friends, I didn't have any friends other than my siblings, that was the way it always was, and the only way it could be for me, according to my parents stupid rules.
"You know what Juliet, go right up those spiral stairs over there, Justin's studying or doing his homework or something, and I'm sure he'd be glad to know you stopped by, and he'll get you whatever you need. Go on then." Mrs. Russo said with a kind smile that I couldn't say no to.
"Oh... okay." I said awkwardly as I made my way to the spiral staircase.
I have never liked spiral staircases, they always freak me out when I climb them, and I am always terrified that I am going to fall and hurt myself while climbing them up. Climbing a spiral staircase in heels, much worse.
"Justin? Justin? Justin? Is anyone up here?" I asked once I finished climbing the stairs.
I was standing in a cozy first floor area that had a kitchen, a small dining area, and a TV room like space. The whole area was very open and cozy, it felt so homey, more homey than I house I had ever lived in had ever felt.
"Juliet?" A voice asked in curious disbelief.
I turned to find where the voice had come from and saw that Justin was standing in front of the refrigerator holding a bowl of something that looked like pasta, I couldn't really tell.
"Hi... Your mom sent up here, I just wanted to order a cup of peppermint tea, but she saw me and told me to come up here. I couldn't exactly say no to her, she just has one of those faces. I mean I know I'm intruding, but I really just need some tea, and then I can be on my way." I answered awkwardly.
"Do you want peppermint tea, or do you want that headache remedy I gave you the other day? Or I think we have some peppermint oil somewhere rubbing that on temples helps headaches too." Justin replied, completely ignore the awkwardness I had shown and trying to be helpful. How he knew that I still had some remnants of my headache I had no idea, but he did.
"Peppermint tea and peppermint oil would be perfect. That hot chocolate stuff just made it worse sadly. How did you know that I still have a headache?" I asked him as he put his bowl of pasta down on the counter and put a kettle on the stove. After he put the kettle on the stove he started to fumble around the cabinets looking for a peppermint tea bag and peppermint oil.
"During Latin this morning when Cody accidentally dropped his book you flinched." Justin answered simply as he continued to rummage through the cabinets.
I remembered when that had happened this morning. It had taken all the energy I had to wake up and get out of bed this morning to get to school, and Latin is first block every other day. The remnants of my headache were much stronger then, and the simple dropping of a book had caused me to flinch and rub my temples.
"Here's the peppermint oil." Justin said hand me a small bottle with an eyedropper like lid.
"Thank you." I said with a small smile. "You are really observant of other people aren't you?"
"I guess. I never really thought about it that way."
Justin was putting a peppermint tea bag into a mug and waiting for the water. I had taken the dropper out of the peppermint oil bottle and dropped a bit of peppermint oil into the palm of my hand. I put my palm up to my left temple and rubbed it in, I then did the same with the other temple. The remnants of my headache were already getting smaller.
"You're tea will be ready in just a few minutes. It should help a bit." Justin replied with a smile as he watched the kettle with determination, almost as if he was ordering it to boil and steam already.
"Thank you so much Justin." I answered with a slight smile, rubbing the peppermint oil into my temples even more.
The two of us stayed in silence while the water boiled in the kettle and steamed. The silence wasn't awkward surprisingly it was just there, not floating around the room like silences tend to. It was actually comforting. For once someone wasn't asking me a ton of questions about my vision(s) that had caused the headache, because he didn't know about the visions. It was just so nice. Justin poured the hot water into the mug with the tea bag, moved the bag around a few times and handed it to me.
"Thank you." I said softly and started to drink the hot tea, which soothed my throat and somehow worked magic on my headache at the same time. "How do you know so much about headache cures?" I asked him curiously.
"My little sister Alex, when she was younger she used to get really bad headaches all the time, we found out later it was an allergy to carrots, but then we thought they were just random headaches, and I found all of these cures and stuff online and tried them until we found ones that worked really well. We keep everything on hand just in case someone gets a really bad headache so we can take care of it quickly before it gets worse." Justin answered with a soft smile as he went back to eating his bowl of pasta. "Juliet, this is a really random question, but how much have you seen of New York since you moved here?" Justin asked a few minutes later, after he had finished eating his pasta.
"Um..." I began sipping my tea faster than I had planned on. "Not very much. And when I see not very much, I mean we went to the Statue of Liberty once during the day a few weekends ago, and when I say we I mean Eliza and I." I answered nervously.
"Well there's no time like the present. Come on, let's go see the city." Justin said with a devilish smile.
"Oh I don't know Jusitn. I mean I should probably be heading home soon, I don't want Grandma'ma and Eliza to start worrying about me." I replied, starting to get slightly frantic. Going to the sub station to get peppermint tea and ending up in their house was one thing, but going around New York with Justin, that was something that could easily get me into a lot of trouble.
"Come on Juliet, on a night like this, the city is even more beautiful, plus I've lived here my whole life so I know where all the places are that tourists never go to. What have you got to lose?" Justin asked me.
"Fine." I said with a slight groan. All the while thinking, 'you have no idea'.
Justin was right, with so many people in the city it made it even more beautiful. He also knew the best cheap and good New York pizza joints, the best shops, the best spots in Central park, everything. We went to all of those places, walked up and down fifth avenue, went to Rockafellar plaza, and went ice skating. It was great and fun, and at the end of it he brought me to my brownstone.
"Thank you Justin, this was wonderful." I said with the biggest smile I had ever had on my face when talking to someone who wasn't Eliza.
"It's no problem, the city is truly beautiful and everyone deserves a chance to see it like this." He replied with a large smile himself.
"I agree wholeheartedly with that statement. I've got to go, Grandma'ma's probably worried sick, I wouldn't stay at Othello's this late and she knows it." I began with a slight laugh. I couldn't help but get that feeling as if I was being watched again, I tried to push it to the back of my mind, and write it off as obscure and random paranoia, but it wouldn't work. Instead I tried to focus on what I was saying to Justin. "Thank you again."
I walked over to the front door of the brownstone and put my hand on the door know. Justin grabbed my wrist lightly before I could turn the handle.
"Juliet, wait. I was wondering if you were going to the masquerade tomorrow?" He asked, stepping up right next to me on the front stoop.
"I don't think so. But maybe. If I do go, I'll be the one in the white mask." I answered remembering an old white mask that I had from when Mom and Dad had gone to Mardi Grais without us one year, and brought us all back antique masks to try and make themselves feel better. "Goodbye Justin." I added with a smile. Looking into his eyes for the first time. His eyes captivated me, and I had to remember that I needed to get inside immediately to pull me away from them. I could see myself easily getting lost in the those eyes, falling for those eyes.
"Goodbye Juliet." He said with the slightest tint of hope as I entered the brownstone.
I walked into the kitchen, planning on grabbing a bit of ice cream down here before heading up to Eliza's floor to prepare for our sure to ensue Friday night sleepover.
"Hello Juliet. Good to see you finally made it home after breaking the rules." Grandma'ma said in a surprisingly not that stern tone.
"Hello Grandma'ma." I answered obediently turning to face my grandmother.
"Oh sweetie, if it were up to me, you would not have to follow those stupid rules, those rules that only you have to follow. To go through life with no real friends for some stupid reason is terrible, who are you to have an adolescence, if you can't have any friends?" Grandma'ma asked me as she stroked the honey blonde hair that had started to fall out of my side french braid.
"Grandma'ma, what do you mean, the rules only I have to follow? I thought all of us kids had to follow those rules?" I asked her very curious.
Her saying this had made me realize that every time Dad had reminded us of the rules he had really reminded me, he never looked at my brothers or Eliza, always straight at me. I remembered Othello having a few girlfriends growing up and it had never been an issue. Eliza had been invited to a birthday party next weekend and I thought nothing of it when it was easily approved for her to go. Either I was being paranoid, Grandma'ma made a mistake in her speaking, or these rules were only for me for some reason.
"Honey, I can't explain it all, it isn't my place, but the rules are only for you, you are the only one that has to follow them, and it kills me." Grandma'ma replied.
"Grandma'ma, that makes no sense, why is it not your place?" I asked her confused utterly and completely.
"I can't explain it to you Juliet, sweetheart. There's a dance at your school tomorrow isn't there? That boy, I saw him ask if you were going. Go Juliet. I have an old dress you can use, you have a mask, have one night to be free, to be a normal teenager."
"Do you mean it?" I asked her with a nervous look on my face.
As much as I wanted to know what was going on, I couldn't help but to think of the vision that I had had a few days ago. The one of me dancing with just in a ball gown, I knew that that vision ended in my fainting, but to dance the night away with Justin sounded like the most wonderful thing in the world to me right now.
"Yes, Juliet. I do." Grandma'ma replied kissing me on the forehead.
a/n: well here is chapter 3! Sorry it took so long but I had to work on a few other fics before I got to this one now that I have an actual update schedule set up. Oh goodness, I love to write this story, there are all of these twists and turns that I didn't expect to happen, that are now in my head, and it is almost as if it is writing itself. This chapter actually has a dedication, other than to all of you marvelous reviewers out there, this is dedicated to my bestest friend Meg or IcePRincess013, to anyone that read her fic Life Is A Jungle Gym for BTR, somehow chatting with her on I'm while writing this helped me finish it just before midnight, and she just is always there for me, especially when I am dealing with crap like I was earlier. Thanks Meggy-Mooney for always being there! I love you wifey!
xoxo,
Lexi
4. Behind A Mask: