A/N: wow, I can't believe I made it to chapter 20!

Bit of a disappointment, in the last chapter, I wrote the longest one yet because I felt bad about not updating, and I only got one review, and it was one of my usual reviewers… so this chapter is for you, Miss Papillon

The bbq will be split into two chapters because I think putting it in one will be too much drama for you to handle!

Juliets dress for the bbq is on my profile! As well as her full outfit for the dinner date! Just look on the photobucket link on my profile, and I've posted them there.

Chapter 20- BBQ part 1

"Juliet, hurry up it's nearly midday!" I heard my Mom yell from downstairs. I checked my phone one more time before I put it into my purse, and sighed. I hadn't received any missed calls or messages all morning.

Ever since I heard what he said at the beach, Romeo had been constantly calling me and sending me messages, but I had ignored every one of his calls and only read a few of his texts before deleting them. He had apologised too many times to count and said he wanted to explain, and reassure me it wasn't what I thought. I had almost given in a couple of times and called him back to let him explain, but once I saw Timmy still sulking over what happened, I felt bad for him all over again, and felt my anger at Romeo resurface.

I know I wanted him to leave me alone and not call anymore, but now he actually had stopped, I wanted him to call. At least when he was constantly calling I knew he still cared, not that I was considering getting back together with him.

He had tried to get in touch with me twice during the week as well. I had seen him hanging around Slurpy's by himself in a corner, not showing himself to all of my friends. I just ignored him though and pretended like I never saw him. I was still confused over who he was. The guy who he is whenever we're together or the guy who was at the head of Compton's group, who said the things, he did to Timmy.

It was obvious that I would see him today whether I wanted to or not. I mean the barbeque was being held at his house after all. I was still slightly confused about why my parents wanted to go to this barbeque so much if they hated the Montague's but apparently they agreed with the 'keep your enemies close' approach, and also most of their mutual associates would also be there, and they didn't want to risk losing them to Montague Corporation. Last night after watching Timmy take a pack of beer to the pool house with him, I was sure I didn't want to see Romeo today, but not getting any calls this morning had made me curious to see him again. I wondered if he changed his mind and actually gave up. I felt like I was split down the middle, part of me wanted him to go away and I was mad at him but then the other part of me wanted to hear what excuse he could possible come up with that was good enough.

I groaned out load in frustration and got back into my unmade bed still wearing my summer dress, that I had already put on for the BBQ.

"So I take it you're dreading today too?" Timmy asked, appearing in my room, dressed for the barbeque in black pants and a white shirt, with his suit jacket in hand. Even though it was a barbeque at someone's house it was still a pretty formal thing, and if you turned up in casual clothes you would probably stick out like a sore thumb, not to mention be the talk of the town for a couple of weeks.

I groaned in response and Timmy got into the bed beside me, not caring about creasing his shirt.

I had been so busy thinking about seeing Romeo that I had forgotten how much worse it would be for Timmy. He had to go back and see the guy who told him all that stuff, who he hated all whilst being pleasant in his house. That had to suck.

"I would gladly go with Paul, if I could avoid seeing Romeo and Compton's lot," he said. He thought I was all upset about having to go to the event with Paul by my side, which I was but to tell the truth I hadn't had time to think about that.

"It will be ok Tee, I mean he can't exactly start anything in his house, in front of all our parents and stuff."

"It's not that, I don't care if he says anything to me, in fact I welcome it. It's just so embarrassing to see everyone there who heard."

"Oh common, don't worry about that, who gives a crap what Compton think? And our friends aren't exactly believe what he said, and you shouldn't believe it yourself"

The last week, Timmy had avoided most of our friends, barely hanging out with us, and especially not talking to Andy. Timmy was normally the centre of the group, not in a bad way, but in a 'he's the glue' sort of way. It felt weird to hang out without him. Andy had asked me how Timmy was doing, and I had told him, not too well, but had left it like that. I didn't really want to get involved. And since during the week he hadn't exactly pleaded his innocence, I think Romeo was right and Andy knew the whole time. But he obviously was upset that Timmy wasn't talking to him and I was starting to feel bad for him.

"Oh I don't believe it! I know I'm all man! And I know quite a few lucky ladies who could vouch for that too. I don't even give a crap about Romeo. I'm just mad at Andy and the situation."

"Ok ewww," I said pulling a face.

"I'm done feeling sorry for myself, I'm back"

"And Andy?" I asked.

"That's a different story," he said.

"But he's your friend, don't you think you should at least hear him out" I tried.

"It's not as easy as that, he broke the code."

I looked at him questioningly.

"You know the guy code? 'thou shall tell thou friend when his girlfriend is sleeping with another guy behind his back !"

I couldn't help but laugh.

"But seriously, what do you say we both just get through today, and then we can come home and pig out on pizza?"

"Sounds like a plan," I said smiling thinking of the heart attack my Mother would have to see me eating a delivered pizza, let alone what the neighbours would think about the delivery guy at the door.

Just then my Mother appeared in the doorway wearing a dark green knee length skirt and white blouse, and a huge green sun hat.

"What on earth are the pair of you doing in bed? There is no time to iron out creases in the schedule, and the Prince's will be here any minute!" she then walked off in a huff. Once she had gone, Timmy and I couldn't help but laugh.

"What do you say we wait another few minutes just to tick her off?"

"Sure, why not," I said shrugging.

After another five minutes we both got out of bed and went downstairs. My Dad was straightening his tie in the hallway mirror. My mother also walked into the hallway from the dining room.

"Now both of you, today requires your best behaviour. There is no room for mistakes," My Dad said.

My mother joined in with, "Juliet that means you will be the charming girl that the Prince's will want in their family, and you will look happy to be with Paul."

"And Timmy, I don't want any sort of ruckus to embarrass us today, in front of all our friends and business associates, and I especially don't want to see any problems with Benjamin or any other students at Compton Academy." My Dad finished. They obviously had planned their little speech. They both exchanged eye contact then began speaking again.

"If however today does not go as planned, there will be repercussions for everybody. Timothy, basketball will be out of the window, and Juliet, maybe we will see fit that it is improper to go to Yale with Paul without being married."

Under any circumstances I did not want to be married to Paul before Yale, as that would mean I would have to be married to him by next year and I would have even less of a chance of getting out of it. I swallowed and took in their threat, which was obviously going to work.

Before we could say anything the doorbell rang and I could see a few shadows behind the door. My Mother was standing right by the door, but hissed for Ada. Ada came hurrying into the room, and we all took our places. My parents stood in the dining room ready to walk in the same time as them, and me and Timmy stood without any imperfections by the stairs playing the role of the perfect children.

Ada opened the door and Paul and his parents were standing behind it. Paul, like Timmy was dressed up. He was wearing a grey suit, including wearing the jacket despite the heat. He was clearly one of those people that could pull off wearing a pink shirt, and he knew it, which I could tell from his confident stance.

"Clarissa, darling," Pauls mother said, walking in to air kiss my mother on both cheeks. Both the Dad's shook hands.

"Ah, there she is!" Paul's mother said, walking toward me like I was some prize. She walked over to me with her arms wide open and gave me a hug, but barely touching me. I had met his Dad before but not his mother. Maybe Paul's fake British accent wasn't so fake, because his Mother had a British accent too.

"Hello," I said putting all my energy into giving her a smile, knowing I was under my parents' watchful eye.

"What do you say; we get this show on the road?" Paul's dad said. My parents nodded and they all started to leave the house until it was Timmy, Paul and me left. I picked up my purse from the hallway table and Paul put his hand on my very lower back to guide me out, about a centimetre away from being indecent. I slapped his hand away.

"Hey Jules," he said smirking, unfazed by me pushing his hand away. I made a disgusted sound which he also ignored.

I looked over to Timmy to see if he had seen, so I could finally prove that Paul was not a good guy, but he was too busy checking something on his phone.

"Nice pink handkerchief," I said sarcastically to Paul, gesturing to his jacket pocket.

"It's not pink its salmon," Paul sneered. "and it matches my shirt!"

I rolled my eyes. He probably spent longer picking out his outfit than I did.

When we got outside Michel had already brought our cars around.

We all piled into two cars to go to the Montague's. When we arrived to the house, my first time in broad daylight, were all preparing to get out of the car and go inside when my Mother said, "Living in a beach house all year around, I've never heard of anything so barbaric."

Pauls Mother nodded, "I agree."

They were both obviously jealous of the beautiful stone structure in front of them. You could hardly call it a beach house let alone a second class home. I wanted to interrupt and tell them it was only while they were renovating their usual house, but I didn't want to explain how I had gotten that information.

"It will be wonderful to see the Montague's again, I used to know the wife very well, and we used to be at the country club together," Pauls Mother said. I saw my Mom give my Dad a look, which showed they were clearly annoyed the Prince's and the Montague's had any sort of relationship.

We rang the doorbell and one of the waitresses opened it. She told us everybody was outside. We walked slowly through the house to get to the backyard. The house was beautiful, and big, but the difference was between ours and this house, was that it was so homely and inviting. They also had lots of knickknacks around like art work the kids had made over time and pictures of them clearly having fun at various places. The only photographs we had downstairs in our house we portraits of the family that we had had taken.

There was already a large crowd gathered in their huge backyard. There was about ten waiting staff in uniform all roaming through the crowd with platters in their hands. Most of the guests were adults, but there were a fair share of their children hanging about in their own groups, half of who I recognised, the rest must go to Compton. Even though the two senior classes of our schools didn't get on very well, in this small town, most of our parents all socialised and worked with each other, so at events like these, the drama was usually kept to a minimum. There was no sign of Romeo yet but I could see Ben talking to a few others. One of the waitresses presented a tray of champagne, and all the adults all took a flute. Timmy picked one up too and winked at her, but my Dad who was next to him casually took it out of his hands and put it back on the tray. Just then the people I assumed were Romeo's parents appeared.

Romeo's dad was wearing cream trousers and a patterned shirt, standing out amongst the rest of the men dressed in suits. Romeo's Mom was wearing a casual summer dress.

"Oh Detona! How lovely to see you!" Pauls mother gushed, leaning forward to give her a hug.

"Oh Michelle, it's been too long!" Romeo's Mom said, "And Clarissa, I haven't seen you in a long time!"

Romeo's Mom went to hug my Mother too. She was clearly surprised. All of our parents started making light conversation, as if they had all been friends for a very long time.

"Why don't you kids go and find your friends, they're all around somewhere," Romeo's Mom said after a while.

Just before we were about to leave I heard a high pitched voice call my name, "Juliet!" I turned around and Isabel ran up to me giving me a hug around my waist. My parents looked alarmed and everybody was obviously confused as to how the little girl knew me. Timmy was also giving me a strange look. I froze, and looked at Izzie, trying to think of what to say. Thankfully the little girl was smart, and read my panicked expression.

"Oh I met Juliet at the park, when I got lost, she took me to the cafe to find my brother," she said sweetly.

"Ah, isn't that sweet, oh, this is my daughter, Isabel," Romeo's Mom, said introducing her to our parents. They all started talking about how much she had grown since the last time they had seen her. While they were still talking, Timmy gestured for us to leave and as the three of us started walking away Izzie gave me a discrete wink.

As soon as we had left our parents, Lily spotted us and left her parents and came on over.

"Hey guys," she said smiling, "Timmy, nice to see you around. Long time no see."

I saw Andy spot us across the backyard and start to make his way over.

"Oh, god, he won't leave me alone," She said pulling a face.

"So I guess I missed a lot in a week, last time I saw you guys, you were stuck at the lips," Timmy said, then grinned at his play on words.

"Yeah, I haven't talked to him since I found out he knew about the Romeo and Rose thing. I can't believe he didn't tell you this whole time, what kind of a friend does that! You must have been so upset, you poor baby" she said, patting his arm in a friendly way.

Timmy got a look on his face, one that I recognised as him coming up with a scheme. Andy was getting closer now and I could see he would be here any minute.

"Yeah, I have been pretty upset, but I'm trying to be strong, you know?" Timmy said, exaggerating his sadness by a mile, "Hey, why don't we go and grab some punch?"

Now I saw what he was doing, and didn't like it one bit. I know he was mad at Andy but moving in on his girlfriend who was completely oblivious to what he was trying to do, wasn't a good idea.

Just as Andy arrived and was about to say something to Timmy, Timmy blanked him and put his arm around Lily and they started walking off toward the refreshment table. As he passed me, I gave him a warning glare, which he chose to ignore.

Andy sighed. He said a quick hello to us, and then moved on to try and casually spy on them.

"What do you say we go and grab some drinks too?" Paul said. I had almost forgotten he was here.

"Why don't you go and grab some drinks and I'll go and find our friends," I said, trying to get a few moments of peace. He misread the reasons behind my suggestion and happily went off to the refreshments table.

I tried to casually scan the crowd looking to see if I could find Romeo, but I couldn't spot him anywhere. I saw Ben standing with a man who I knew as his father, talking to another man who was probably one of his father's business associates. It was obvious he was pretending to look interested; I could see him staring at something else on the other side though. I followed his gaze and saw Rose talking to a guy I didn't recognise. She was wearing what looked like a stylish cut up version of a maxi dress. It was composed of a crop top with a high waisted long flowy skirt. Leaving about an inch of skin exposed in between the two pieces of clothing. She was laughing at something the guy had said, obviously flirting. I felt nothing but annoyance and I looked at her, like I normally did, but this time I was more disgusted by her, knowing she had slept with Romeo. I started to feel a pang of jealousy but quickly reminded myself that I didn't want to be with Romeo anyway.

Across the back yard was a beautiful rustic looking stone archway, and there seemed to be some picnic tables and garden lights set up on the other side next to the pool. Last time I was here during the night, I vaguely remembered there being some outdoor guy equipment based there but they had obviously put it away for today. On that side of the arch is where most of the teenagers seemed to be based. I walked over and through the arch, scanning the crowd for my friends. I heard Nala before I saw her, which led me to see the table underneath a large willow tree. I could see Nala, Liam, Daniel and Andrea already sitting around it with drinks in their hands. Just when I was about to make my way over, Paul popped up behind me.

"Here you go, "he said handing me one of the Champagne glasses with a wedge of a strawberry on the edge filled with a yellow fruit punch inside, instead of the alcohol. I guessed it was the 'kiddy' version on offer.

"Thanks," I said taking it from him. Remembering what my parents had said, I figured there was no need to be unpleasant to him unless he did something to annoy me. "They're all over there," I told him, walking over to the table.

"Hey Jules, love your dress," Andrea said as we approached, looking at my simple yellow cotton summer dress, which was the first thing I had picked out of my wardrobe, in protest that I didn't want to come today.

"Thanks," I said sitting beside Daniel, leaving Paul to go and sit on the opposite side, next to Liam, who clearly didn't like him because of Nala. Finally one person who agreed with me.

X x x x x x x x x

RPOV

"Honey, the Capulets and the Prince's just arrived, we should go and say hello," my Mom called into the barbeque area, where I was giving my Dad a hand, who was telling the staff last minute things.

"Sure, I'm on my way," my Dad said to her, "Romeo, just tell the chef the timings for later, and then go and find your friends, enjoy yourself, it's a party!" he said, doing some embarrassing dad dance.

I nodded and proceeded to go and find the chef. It was then that I had finally absorbed what my Mom had said. She said the Capulet's had arrived. Since the only Capulet's I had ever heard of were Juliet's family, they must be who she was talking about. The last thing I expected was to see Juliet at the party, but I was glad she was here; maybe here I could finally get to speak to her without her ignoring me or pretending like she hadn't seen me.

Before what happened at the beach a week ago, I scanned her friends for her and she wasn't there, but after my little speech, I had seen her standing there staring at me in a way she had never looked at me before, and I didn't like it. It instantly felt wrong, after looking at her expression.

I didn't mean to say everything that I did, and even now when I look back I can see I was a little harsh. We had seen the Riverside lot down at the beach and Ben thought it had been a while since anything had happened so we should go talk to them. I had been coming up with reasons to avoid conflict for a couple of weeks because of Juliet, but it was only to a limit that I could convince Ben that I wanted to keep things calm because of our plan with her. But after seeing she wasn't at the beach, I didn't really have an excuse. Ben had started off, and Timmy wasn't very hard to provoke. Soon his friends had joined him, and Timmy had made some sort of comment at me about running away from my problems, which annoyed me, and I had been pulled along with the expectations of my friends, and before I knew it I had joined in too. I just wasn't expecting to see Juliet standing there afterward.

I had wanted to go over to her and apologise and explain, but I obviously couldn't in front of everyone, because her friends didn't know about us and out of mine only Ben and a couple of the guys knew about the plan with Juliet. At least the plan was my cover but it wasn't just a plan to me. Before I could do anything she was leaving and my old friend Andy was there having a go at me and I couldn't exactly leave.

I had been trying to call her, and I had sent her text messages but she ignored my calls and wouldn't reply to any texts. After our last date, we had agreed to meet at the park with Izzie the following day, but she had never showed. I was embarrassed to say I had actually tried to 'run into her', and I had gone to places like Slurpy's to see if she was there. I didn't really think my plan through because of course she would be there but she wasn't alone, and I couldn't just wonder up to her as 'Romeo Montague.' I had tried to get in touch with her at least every day, refusing to give up, but I had been too busy helping to set up for today, to call her this morning. I was planning to sneak away from the party scene and try calling her again after helping my Dad when my Mom mentioned she was here.

After hanging out with just my friends this week, I actually missed my random hours here and there with Juliet; it was my outlet away from my friends when being in the centre got too much.

I quickly found Antonio the chef for tonight, and told him what time my parents wanted each course, and then left to go and find Juliet. I walked into the grassy part of the backyard and saw my parents talking to two other couples, one of them I was guessing were Juliet's parents. I scanned the area looking for her. I caught sight of Timmy at the refreshments table talking to a petite blonde girl. I felt bad for a few seconds for what I had told him in front of everyone, but I was soon stuck talking to one of the guests who I didn't recognise but was talking about how much I had grown. Over the woman's shoulder I could see Andy glaring at me while he stood by a tree talking to another guy, who I vaguely remembered as Danny or Daniel or something. The guy left Andy and went onto the area of the yard we had converted into a picnic area, but Andy was still alternating glaring at me and staring at Timmy and the girl.

Finally the woman left and I carried on looking for Juliet. I couldn't see her anywhere; she was probably with her friends. Most of the teenagers were in the picnic area by the pool, and I was hoping she was there too. I walked through, and after a quick scan I couldn't see her, but I saw her friend Nala sitting at a table. Before I could look again, Ben walked over to me and dragged me to a table at the back. On the way I picked up a drink from the buffet.

Luke, Adam and Ted were already there along with Luke and Adams girlfriends. Adam was adding an unknown alcoholic substance from a silver flask into everyone's punch glasses.

"Ro! Man , where've you been?"

"Just helping out my parents and stuff," I said taking a seat at the table with my back to the archway, I held out my cup and Adam added some alcohol into it. I took a sip of it, and pulled a face.

"What the hell is that man?" I said pushing the cup away from me.

Luke's girlfriend Gabrielle started laughing, "See! I told you, there's something off about that!"

"You know there's something wrong with the alcohol when even Gabrielle notices it!" Ben said and she playfully leaned across the table to hit him with her purse, mumbling, "I'm not that bad!"

"What? I got it out my Dad's liquor cabinet!" Adam said, defending it.

"Whatever, I'll go get us some beers from the kitchen. Just be discrete." I told them, rolling my eyes, and coming to the rescue.

"Sweet," Ted said. I picked up some darkly coloured glasses to hide the content and started going toward the kitchen when I saw her walk in. Juliet walked through the archway and started looking around. As I was on the side, getting the glasses, she hadn't seen me yet. I felt like I had been deprived of seeing her and seeing her now all hit me at once. She was wearing a yellow summer dress which fell to about an inch above her knee, and had her dark hair loose in waves. Since all my friends were distracted I was ready to go and approach her, but before I could, a guy that I had seen a couple of times with her friends walked up to her with two glasses in his hand and handed her one. She said something to him, and then they both walked off to one of the tables. I resisted the urge to go and confront the guy with her. Here, I thought she was missing me too, but she had obviously moved on fast. I suddenly felt like idiot for moping about the last few days.

I walked the other way to the kitchen fuming inside about Juliet. I didn't blame her for being mad at me but I at least expected her to hear me out before she started dating someone and brought him to a party at my house. I came back from the kitchen and forced myself not to look over at the table that she was sitting at. I went back to our table and saw Rose in my seat.

"Oh hey, Ro, sorry I'm in your seat," she said while I passed out the drinks.

"It's ok, sit," I told her.

"I have a way, we can both sit," she said giggling. Then she got up and pushed me back into the seat then sat side ways on my lap with her arm around my neck to support herself.

Ben gave me a strange look but before I could read it, it was gone.

I was tempted to tell Rose that she could have the chair and I would just go and get a chair for myself but then I thought about Juliet and how I could move on too, and wrapped my arms around her waist, making sure we were both comfortable.

X x x x x x x x

A/N: Don't kill me with that chapter! I don't think it was really a cliff hanger, I don't think I'm being too mean!