A/N: Hey guys, enjoy this chapter. Really hope I get some feedback! Also this will attempt to shed some light on some questions you may have, but there are more answers to come. Let me know what you think about Timmy's behaviour and also do you like Ellie?, and also what you think of the ending….you'll know what I mean when you get there!

Chapter 22- Flashbacks and revelations

"This is the life!" Nala said sipping on a fruit cocktail Ada had just made for us. She lay back down on the sun lounger by the pool and peeled of the shirt she had put on over the top of her bikini.

The heat had its downsides, like being in stuffy classrooms and having to go through the school day, but it also had its upsides like now. Straight after school most of us had come back to my house. We were currently neglecting our school work and hanging out by the pool instead. Nala, Ellie and Daniel were all sitting in sun loungers while Andy was sitting by the side of the pool, with his legs in the water. I was sitting over the top of an inflatable rubber ring with a fruit cocktail in my hand. Handy for us, everyone pretty much carried swimwear with them in their cars, because we lived so close to the beach and we often made spur of the moment choices to hang out there or come here after school.

"Tell me about it," Daniel said spraying some more sun tan lotion on his chest.

"So does anybody know where Timmy is?" Ellie asked.

"He was right behind us when we left school, he should have gotten here around the same time as us," I said. By process of elimination I could work out who was probably with him and sighed at the same time as Andy who had probably just worked out the same. Just then as if on cue, Timmy walked through the door with Lily behind him.

"Where have you been!" I said in an angry tone.

"Alright Mom, calm down, we just got distracted by the new ice cream place next to that Chinese restaurant we all like," Timmy said in a jokey voice, ignoring my tone.

"It could actually be some competition for Slurpy's," Lily said taking a seat on the lounger next to Daniels. Timmy poured them both a cocktail from the jug and passed one to her and sat down on the edge of her lounger. Out the side of my eye I could see Andy glaring at them. Part of me wanted to yell at Timmy right now to end this ridiculous façade.

"Hey Timmy," Ellie said cautiously.

"Oh hey Ellie, didn't see you there," Timmy said, then turned his attention back to Lily. "Do you want to check out the new function on the hot tub?"

"Sure," lily said, taking off her skirt and top, to reveal her green bikini underneath. She picked up a towel from her sports bag and headed to the hot tub on the other side of the backyard with Timmy guiding her with his hand on her lower back.

I saw Ellie's eyes fixed on the spot where his hand was, and she looked like she was about to burst into tears any moment. I felt extremely bad even though none of this had anything to do with me. I understood that Timmy wanted to get back at Timmy, but even if he was going to do it in this immature way, there was no need for Ellie to get hurt in the process. I knew that Timmy had feelings for her, but he was just blinded by his need to get back at Andy.

As soon as they were out of hearing range, Ellie sat up and reached for her clothes.

"I think I should go," she said.

"Oh Ellie, don't!" I said swimming over to the edge and getting out of the pool. Ellie clearly thought she was being discarded like many of the other girls Timmy had been through, and I doubted she would believe me that he felt otherwise. Unlike how I felt about all the other girls, I actually enjoyed having Ellie around the group. People that we were all seeing didn't usually hang out with the group on a day to day basis unless it was a long term thing, one of the rules we had made through time. But Ellie had been quickly accepted. "It's not what it looks like." I glanced over at the hot tub and Timmy was helping Lily into the pool.

"What he's not trying to get with my girlfriend?" Andy said, the bitterness clearly showing in his voice.

"I can't exactly stay if he wants to be with Lily," Ellie said. She had now gathered her belongings and was taking her car keys out of her bag.

"He doesn't want to be with Lily, he's just trying to even with Andy for knowing about Rose!" I exclaimed, getting annoyed with myself for not stopping this earlier.

" I didn't think he was the type of guy to do something like that," She said with a quizzical look on her face, "Even then I still don't feel right about staying," she concluded shrugging. I hoped Timmy hadn't just lost Ellie forever over his inability to act like an adult.

"I'll probably see you guys around school?" Ellie said leaving, all of us knowing that if she wasn't going out with Timmy any more that would be the extent that we would see her, just passing through school. I thought I heard her voice break slightly at the end as she walked through the house to get out, and I groaned out loud in a strop, frustrated at everything.

"This is starting to get ridiculous!" Nala said, "Andy, what actually happened back then? Did you actually know about the whole affair like Romeo said?"

"Sort of…" Andy said going red.

"This is the time to come completely clean, if you don't tell us, then we can't possibly help you!" she said.

Andy looked like he was contemplating whether or not to tell us the whole story.

"Don't you want Lily back?" I asked him, trying to convince him.

"Ok fine," he said sighing. He stood up from his spot by the pool, and sat down sideways on the lounger that Ellie had been, facing us. He began talking in a quit tone, as if Timmy could hear us all the way from across the yard, when there was no way that he could. "It was during …."

Flashback

"Rose has seriously grown up lately," Ben said appreciatively as he stared at her from across the theme park, that their school's had organised as a joint field trip. Rose was standing by the ice cream stand, finishing off her ice lolly, wearing a pink flowery mini skirt and a white vest top.

"You're just realising that now? She has been going out with Timmy for like six months now," Liam said.

"Yeah, I know but she seems different somehow."

Just then Rose finished her ice lolly and threw the wooden stick in the trash can nearby, and wondered over.

"Hey Romeo," she said smiling sweetly, and then looked to everyone else. "Hey guys, what's up?"

All the boys all said hello at the same time in their various ways.

"So have you been on 'the twister' yet?" Liam said, referring to the parks biggest roller coaster, that's track currently ran above their heads.

"I want to but I'm way too scared! There's no way I'd be able to go by myself!" she said looking up at the track and pulling a scared face. "But I do really want to go…..Hey Romeo, why don't you come with me?" she said innocently.

"Me?" he asked, slightly apprehensively.

"Sure, I think I'd be ok, if I was with someone," she said.

"Why don't you get one of your girl friends to go with you?" he said.

"You know what they're like they'd never want to go on a ride like that! And plus I have no idea where they are right now, last time I saw them they were taking pictures with Billy the Badger," she said rolling her eyes, talking about the man going around dressed in a suit of the theme park mascot.

"Pretty please Ro!" she said putting her bottom lip out pretending to be sad.

"I don't know how Timmy will feel about that," Romeo said.

"He'll be glad you're protecting me."

Romeo considered it for a moment then nodded. "Ok, cool, join the queue, I'll just go throw this away, he said picking up his empty juice cup.

She smiled and flounced away toward the line for the ride, after waving goodbye to the rest of the boys.

"What was that?" Liam said.

"What?" Romeo asked confused.

"She was totally coming onto you man!" Ben said, getting excited and talking in a loud voice.

"What Rose? No she wasn't, she just wanted somebody to go with," Romeo said oblivious to her.

"Oh please, she was all like 'Hi Romeo' before she said a collective hi to the rest of us! Then she practically begged you to go with her!" Andy said.

"Well we are friends, that's probably why she said hello, and I was the first one she probably saw, before she saw any of you."

"You can't actually sit there and pretend you don't like her!" Liam said.

"I don't we're just friends! And common, she's going out with one of my best friends!"

"Take a look at her and tell me you don't think she is passably attractive?"

Romeo turned to look at Rose who was sitting on top of a railing that was on the side of the line for the ride.

"Well she is kinda cute I guess," He said shrugging

"I knew you wanted to sleep with her!" Ben said.

"What! How did you get that from me saying she was cute?" Romeo exclaimed.

"Romeo, get real, there's this girl who is totally into you, and I can't believe you are passing up the opportunity!"

"Ok look, I'm not going to lie, maybe it the situation was different, and she wasn't going out with Timmy then fine. But she is."

"Well Timmy isn't here right now, and he won't be back from visiting his Grandparents until next week." Liam said.

"That's just wrong man," Romeo said throwing his cup in the bin.

"It's not like they're married or anything! And don't tell me she wouldn't be completely up for it," Ben said.

Romeo turned to look at Rose again. She was still sitting on the railing only this time she was talking to two boys who were standing in the queue behind her.

"Well if you're going to be a loser about it, then there are other people who want to be in your position." Ben said shrugging and taking a sip of his coke.

"You're the one losing out man, "Andy said.

"Why are you guys pressing for me to do it so much? Why don't you just do it if you think it's such a good idea?"

"Because she obviously wants you," Ben said.

Romeo thought about it for a moment and almost as if Ben knew he just needed the slightest push, he said, "Timmy doesn't ever even need to know"

Romeo gave him a questioning look.

"Timmy's gone for the week, and there is no way she would want him to find out. If anything, you get the good end out of this, she isn't going to be asking for any sort of commitment. You're good to go. Not to mention you can add one of the hottest girls in your school to your list." Andy said, and Romeo thought about how she would be the only one on his 'list'.

Rose held on to one of the guys she was talking to, as he helped her get down.

"Ok, fine, we'll see how it goes," Romeo said.

"That's my man!" Ben said hitting him on the back, and Romeo walked over to join Rose, who smiled happily when she saw him and jumped onto him to give him a hug.

End flashback.

(JPOV)

Nala punched Andy in the arm, and he yelped in surprise. "What was that for!"

"For being an idiot! You practically convinced him to sleep with Rose!" Nala put on a deep voice to imitate him, "'you can add the hottest girl in school to your list'"

"It wasn't like that! You know how guys are, and they were all encouraging him! And you have to admit Rose is pretty hot," he said defending himself. This time I was the one to hit him.

"Oww!" he yelled again, "What is it with you girls hitting me"

"So what? That's it right? You were there when he decided to go after Rose, and then you kept it to yourself all this time?"

"Well I couldn't exactly randomly say 'Timmy remember three years ago when Romeo cheated on you, I knew about that' and I didn't think Romeo would ever be back in Verone!"

"Come on guys, don't be too hard on him, you know how it is around friends, and if you were in the same situation, you probably wouldn't have said anything either. Why hurt Timmy when Romeo had moved away?" Daniel said. Andy looked to him gratefully.

"Well then go talk to Timmy and tell him everything you just told us!" I said.

"Well that was how I knew about the first time."

"There's more?" I said in despair.

"Well it wasn't exactly the one time." I already knew this from what from what Romeo had told me last weekend at the party, but it was all new news for Nala, who didn't quite believe there was more than one time when Romeo said it at the beach.

"Seriously?" she said, getting excited at the gossip.

"Yeah it carried on even when Timmy was back in town, and obviously we would talk about—"

"We don't need to hear the details!" I said stopping him, not wanting to picture Rose and Romeo any more than I already had been the last couple of weeks. Nala gave me a look, showing me she wanted to hear the rest.

"Ok, I'm going to go get Timmy so you two can talk this out right now."

Andy got a nervous look on his face, "he doesn't want to talk to me, I already tried!"

"He doesn't have a choice," I said stepping into my skirt and walking over to the hot tub. Timmy and Lily were sitting at opposite ends talking about something that I couldn't quite catch.

"Can you guys come with me please?" I said sternly interrupting.

Timmy raised one of his eyebrows at me, "Ok Miss Bossy boots, where would you like us to go?"

I had had just about enough of his acting like I was being unreasonable.

"Come on Timmy," Lily said laughing, and getting out and wrapping her towel around herself. Timmy reluctantly followed, and I walked back over to where Andy, Nala and Daniel were sitting.

"What's up," Timmy said to Daniel and Nala as he took the seat in between them, lounging backwards, placing his sunglasses on his head.

"Now that you're back from that ice cream place—" I started to say, intent on making this conversation happen.

"Yeah at the ice cream place, something really weird happened," Timmy said.

"It was totally out of the blue," Lily said.

"What happened," Nala asked.

I picked up the cocktail glass I had put down earlier and took a long sip, waiting for them to finish their story so I could get on with fixing Timmy and Andy.

"We were waiting in line, then out of nowhere, Romeo Montague comes up to us, he was on his own, and randomly tells me that he exaggerated what he said at the beach and him and Rose hadn't been in a long affair."

In surprise, I spat out the juice I already had in my mouth and started coughing. Daniel started hitting my back and everyone was looking at me.

"Are you ok?" Timmy said giving me a funny look.

"I'm fine, "I said failing at acting completely normal. I was sure the blood had rushed to my face, and they would be able to tell any minute that something was up.

I hadn't spoken to Romeo ever since the barbeque last week. When he refused to apologise to Timmy, I knew he wasn't who I wanted him to be. All week I had been trying to ignore the fact that the last thing he had said to me was that he was falling in love with me. I doubted he would have said it if it wasn't true, but I had seen how upset Timmy was and couldn't just get back together with him because he said ' I love you' how stupid does he think I am? But why would he, now one week later, go and partly apologise to Timmy? Did he expect me to just come running to him, because he did what I wanted to do? Well he obviously doesn't know me that well if he thinks that what I will do. I needed to forget Romeo Montague and focus on something else.

"I can't believe he actually bothered to tell me that! I don't care what he says though, he's still going down!"

"Why? He apologised?" I blurted out.

Timmy looked at me as if I just asked the stupidest question ever. "Because he is an ass." He said as if that answered my question.

"But he just apologised, he didn't have the long affair with Rose that you thought he did."

"Jules, this isn't just about Rose. That was just the final straw in our friendship."

"D'you remember when you nearly got him suspended? That was hilarious!" Daniel said.

Timmy laughed, "That's a day to remember! I will never forget the look on his face when his Mom came to pick him up from the principal's office!"

"So wait—you got him in trouble for no reason?" I asked making sure I got my facts straight.

"It wasn't for no reason," Timmy said.

"But it was before you found out about him and Rose?"

"Yeah," Timmy said, calculating in his head, "Why the sudden interest?" he asked me suspiciously.

"No reason, just wanted to be included in the convo," I said smiling. "I'm actually going to pop out for a bit, I'll be back in a while."

That was the moment when I realised that Romeo was right, and it was a lot more complicated. It went back a long way with them, and it wasn't as simple as him just sleeping with Rose. I didn't doubt that Timmy hadn't done some stupid things too, and I could now see that he wasn't completely innocent either. All this time when I thought about Romeo and Timmy, I always saw Timmy as the victim.

"Are you ok?," Nala asked me concerned, "Shall I come with you?" I felt back for a second. I did owe her an explanation, and I could tell she was genuinely concerned for me. I had been leaving her without any explanations for a while, since I had been distracted with Romeo, and she had been my best friend for forever, and I had pretty much always told her everything in the past. But I knew I couldn't tell her about Romeo because she wouldn't understand and she would be just as judgemental as everyone else.

"Oh, don't worry! You stay and enjoy the sun, I'm just going to go run an errand," I said hoping that I sounded at least halfway convincing.

"If you're sure?" she said slowly, and cautiously.

I nodded. Everyone else had already gone back to their reminiscing about the past , and didn't notice me leave. I grabbed a t-shirt from my room and put it on top of my bikini top and skirt, and grabbed my car keys.

Timmy said that Romeo had approached him at the new ice cream place, so I headed into town, hoping he was still there. But I didn't need to go far because before I could get anywhere near The Square, I saw his car drive down a road opposite the one I was about to drive into. I turned the car around and went down the same road. He pulled into a driveway, of a house that was big, but not as big as either of ours. I knew it was Rose's house. I tried not to think about any reason why Romeo would be going to her house, even though I knew they were friends. There were at least five empty cars already parked in the driveway. I parked very badly on the road by the house, and got out the car to catch him before he went inside.

"Romeo!" I yelled as loudly as I could without getting noticed by anybody else.

He turned around, in response to hearing his name, but before he had a chance to say anything I ran up to him and kissed him hard. He stumbled backward with surprise but quickly got back in control and kissed me back with just as much passion. As much as I didn't want to, I pulled away after a few seconds.

"I'm still mad at you," I said in a stern voice.

"I know, "he said his smile dropping.

"But I also know that I don't always have the best perspective when it comes to you and Timmy, I know that a lot went down between the two of you, and it wasn't completely all your fault. And I know you didn't want to apologise to Timmy, but it means a lot that you did."

His smile slowly returned after hearing the end of my sentence.

"And I still don't like the person I saw you could be—"

"You won't see anything like that again I promise." He said interrupting.

"I better not," I said trying to sound firm but the smile that I couldn't stop appearing on my face gave me away. "Romeo, what you said last week about falling in love with me, I didn't say it back but I feel the same way," I said in a quieter voice, feeling embarrassed for some reason. "And I'm sorr—"

"I know now that I'm not falling in love with you," he said.

I stopped mid flow of my speech and froze. I could feel the blood rushing to my face and felt completely confused. I wondered how humiliating it would be to turn around and get into my car and drive away.

"I'm not falling in love with you anymore. I am in love with you." He said calmly. I had to replay the sentence in my head to make sure I had heard correctly. When I realised that I had, I felt ecstatic and annoyed he had sacred me like that for a second all at the same time.

"I love you too," I said in an almost whisper. I didn't think it was possible but his smile got even bigger. I realised after I said it that it was the complete truth. I did love Romeo, and being apart from him had made me realise it.

We both held eye contact for a few seconds, both of us clearly self-conscious, about admitting to be falling in love, and fully opening up to each other.

"Normally at a point like this I would say something sarcastic—"he started to break the silence.

"Shut up," I said laughing as I kissed him again. He held me tightly around the waist and I had my hands locked around his neck. I realised then how much I had missed having him around the last few weeks.

"Say it again," he mumbled against my lips.

"I love you too," I said repeated.

We were both whispering to each other, not because we thought someone might overhear us but because our words were 'forbidden' and we both knew it. Even though we loved each other I had no idea how this was going to work without hurting the people that we loved. I think he sensed my apprehension because he gently squeezed the hand that he had taken hold of during the kiss, relaying the silent message that everything would be ok. I squeezed back, having faith that he was right.

X x x x x x x x

RPOV

"Hey guys," I said walking into the back yard at Rose's house. I was sure I was radiating happiness, and as hard as I tried I couldn't stop smiling. Everyone said their own general hello's, and Rose got up and walked over to me wearing a different outfit from the one she had on earlier at school and gave me a hug. I gently untangled her arms from around me and placed them by her sides as nicely as I could.

"Why don't you come sit down?" she said.

"Actually I have to go."

"Go? You just got here," she complained.

"I know, but my Mom just rang and she's out right now and Isabel's at home with my Dad and he needs to go out so she needs me to babysit until she can get home," I told her hoping she would buy it.

"Don't you have people that work for you to do that sort of stuff?" she asked pulling a face

"Sure, but we like to do stuff like that ourselves, and plus I actually like spending time with my sister."

"Why?" She looked at me like I was crazy, obviously thinking of her own twelve year old sister who she had probably confined to her room while her friends were over.

"Oh Rosie," I said laughing, and I ruffled her hair in a friendly gesture. She reached upwards to fix the damage. "I'll call you later."

"Later dude," Ben called out from where he was sitting next to Luke and Tessa.

I waved bye to them and walked out of the house. I got in my car and drove out toward the park, after a few minutes looking in my rear-view mirror to see a Red shiny Ferrari California behind me. I smiled at the driver in the mirror and she smiled back.

X x x x x x x x x x

Rose POV

"Romeo is acting really weird," I said to everyone else, re-taking my seat after Romeo had left.

"What d'you mean? He's the same," Luke said.

"He keeps popping off without an explanation!" I said.

"He did have an explanation, he has to babysit," Adam said.

Just then the phone rang, I leaned over to the cordless which was on the table beside me and answered it.

"Hi, Honey, it's Detona, Romeo's Mom," she said.

"Oh, Hi Mrs Montague, My mother's actually out at the moment," I told her.

"Actually I wanted to speak to Romeo, he's not answering his cell," she said.

"Oh he left a few minutes ago actually," I told her.

"Oh, ok then, I'll have to wait until he decided to answer his phone. I was just in the middle of making dinner and wanted to know if he would be joining us, so I know how many steaks to make."

I was about to say something about how he would probably be back in time, then it registered what she had just said.

"Did you just say you were home making dinner?" I asked her making sure.

"Yes, I was hoping to have an early family dinner, but I can't seem to get hold of Romeo."

"So you don't need a babysitter for Isabel?"

"A babysitter? I don't see why we would, Carl and I are both home tonight," she said confused.

"I must have misheard Romeo earlier, don't worry," I said.

"If you hear from him, tell him to call home, won't you?"

"Sure, Mrs Montague." I said automatically, while my mind went over what she said.

After I hung up, I told the group what I had just heard.

"So he isn't actually going home to babysit?" Gabrielle asked.

"Obviously not, something is going on and I am going to find out what," I said out loud, but I was mostly telling myself.

A/N: Really hoped you like it! Especially the scene where Romeo and Juliet get back together! Let me know your thoughts! Push the Review button and you might just get a new chapter tomorrow! I really enjoyed proof reading this chapter, which shows how much fun it was to write, since I normally hate proof reading my own work!

Much love,

Flips,

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