A/N: Not too happy with this one but let's see what you guys think!

Chapter 23- Forgiveness and Families.

(Andy POV)

I walked through Timmy's house with the point of my mission in my mind. As I approached the pool house I could see some shadows of people inside. I burst through the doors without knocking, and saw Lily, Timmy and Daniel inside playing some video games. They all turned toward the door in surprise.

"Timmy, can I talk to you please?" I said, not taking no as an answer this time.

"There is nothing I want to say to you," He said putting his invisible mask on, hiding all his emotions.

"Fine we'll do it here," I said standing in front of the television screen.

"Maybe we should…." Daniel said, getting up and walking toward the door sensing that we would probably need some space in order to have this conversation. Lily followed him out not acknowledging me. It was hard to believe just a while ago we were amazingly happy together. It was just me and Timmy left in the room and he just carried on playing the game.

After not talking to Timmy for a few weeks, I decided I needed to sort this out. Me and Timmy had been best friends for years, and we had never gotten into a fight where we didn't talk. Even though I wanted Lily back, and this was also about her, Timmy's friendship meant a lot to me.

I turned off the TV, and Timmy finally looked me in the eye.

"What?" he said defensively.

"We need to talk about this," I said.

"Then talk," he said crossing his arms. I wasn't expecting him to listen to me so easily, so it threw me for a few seconds, having to fast forward the speech I had mentally prepared on the way over here.

"I knew when the guys were encouraging him to do it." I said. Timmy looked at me blankly, like he was waiting for me to carry on.

"And I heard him talk about it a couple of times afterwards."

"And you didn't think to tell me?" he said. Finally we were getting somewhere; at least he said something to me.

"By the time I thought I should, you already knew, and Romeo had left, and you were going through the other stuff you were at that time, I didn't think it would help you to add salt to the wound. You needed a friend at that time." I let out the breath I had been holding while I let out my whole speech.

Timmy looked at me for a few seconds, and then his expression changed.

"So you didn't want to hurt me more?" he asked.

"No I didn't, and I never thought Romeo would be back, and all this would be brought up again."

"But that's it right? Nothing else you want to tell me?" he said.

Was he going to forgive me? I didn't expect him to just forget it, even after my speech. The aim of today was just to explain myself.

Before I could say anything he said, "Because I don't want to hear any other shit about how you didn't tell me anything, because then that would be it."

"That's it, I swear," I said holding up my hands, in a surrendering position.

Timmy reached for the remote and turned the TV on again and started playing the game again. I was slightly confused as to what I was supposed to do next. I stepped out of the way of the TV awkwardly.

"So we're cool?" I asked cautiously. Timmy answered my question by throwing me the PlayStation control next to him. I sat down silently and began playing with him, not knowing what to say, but knowing this was our truce.

After a few minutes of silence, and twelve zombies later, I said, "About Lily….." then regretted it. I was just getting back into his good graces, I didn't want to push my luck.

"She's your girl man, nothing happened between us."

I smiled to myself , pleased to have the knowledge that nothing romantic happened between them.

"Cool." I said casually.

We then forgot all means of a heart to heart conversation and went back to discussing 'guy stuff'. I knew damage had been done, and it would take some time to go back to the way we were before but I was just glad we were partially friends again.

Lily and Daniel, stepped back into the room warily.

"We didn't hear anything for a while, so just came to make sure one of you didn't kill the other," Daniel said.

"We're cool." Timmy said casually as if we had never had a fight.

"Thank god!" Daniel said, " I was get sick of having to tip toe between you two!" Daniel walked over and started watching the game, while Lily stood silently by the door. I handed the control to Daniel and walked over to her.

"Can we talk?" I asked her. She nodded silently and we both walked outside the pool house and sat down by the pool.

"I'm sorry!" we both said at the exact same time, and then we smiled at the co-ordination.

"Look I'm sorry about not hearing you out, I guess I just got upset you would lie to your best friend like that," she said in a soft tone.

"I'm sorry for not telling him," I told her.

"I can see now that you just didn't want to hurt him, and I guess that says something about your friendship." She said.

"I missed you Lil."

"I missed you too. And about Timmy—"

"It's ok I know nothing happened," I told her.

She grinned and gave me a hug.

X x x x x x x x

(Timmy POV) (one week later)

"Mr Capulet!" I jumped out of my daze, at the sound of Mr Manning's voice. He had interrupted my very important task of counting down the minutes until his class was over, and I could catch up with Ellie. I could see the back of her head sitting in the front row paying attention and taking notes.

"Since you look so enthralled by my lesson, why don't you tell the class what year the French revolution began?"

"The French had a revolution?" I said arrogantly, knowing full well what the actual answer was. A few of my class mates sniggered, but were soon silenced by a stern look from our History teacher.

I could tell he was about to say something, but thankfully I was saved by the bell. He sighed and rolled his eyes as students began collecting their books and leaving the class. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Ellie leave the classroom and I was about to push through the crowd of students on their way out when Mr Manning called my name. Reluctantly I turned around.

"Mr Capulet, I don't know why you think just because you are Captain of the basketball team, and your Uncle is Michael Capulet, you can get away with your lack of focus?"

"Sir—"

"You do know even if only one teacher fails you on their class, you will be disqualified from extracurricular activities including basketball."

"But I'm not failing any classes sir," I told him, and it was true, in fact my grades were well over average.

"I know. That's my point, judging from all of your assignments, you are more than able. Then why do you insist on being the class clown?"

After listening to what I'm sure was supposed to be a 'life inspiring' lecture from Mr Manning, he finally let me leave, five minutes later.

Most of the class were in lunch right now, and I knew Ellie would be too, so I headed toward the cafeteria with a fast walk. I had been trying to catch up with her all day but this had been the first class I had with her, since she was practically in all the AP classes. Before I got there I spotted her transferring books into her locker from her bag. I took a moment to catch my breath, and then I walked over to her.

"Hey El," I said leaning against the locker next to hers. She looked up from what she was doing , then turned back to her mission of changing her books over.

"Oh, hey," she said, her attention not focused on me.

"So, um I haven't seen you around the last couple of days," I told her. The last time I had seen her was the same day Romeo had come up to me and randomly apologised. Since we had been going out for a while, she had recently been the 'newest addition' to our group, and had been hanging out with us a lot but I hadn't seen her for a while.

"Yeah, I've had stuff to do," she said without any feeling. She closed her locker and walked out of the school building and toward the parking lot. I caught up to her and walked beside her. "I didn't think you had noticed, being busy with Lily and all."

"Oh that didn't mean anything, it was just a thing between me and Andy, but it's over now," I reassured her.

"You mean how you had a fight with your best friend so decided to get with his girlfriend?" she said stopping beside her car and looking for her keys in her handbag.

"Well if you put it like that—"I started.

"Look Timmy, we had fun for a while, but I don't really think we're going to work out," she said shrugging. That was the last thing I had expected her to say. This was the first girl that I had had genuine feelings for in a long time, and yes I had been neglecting her for the last few weeks, but it was all over now and everything could go back to normal. It was also the first time a girl had ever given me the 'it's not working out' talk. That was normally my forte.

"Ellie, you don't mean that, Look, nothing even happened with Lily."

"Whether it happened or not, I'm not really into the type of guys that would do that to their best friend regardless of what happened. I mean it's not your fault, it's just who you are, I just don't go for guys like that. I guess I should have stayed toward my 'crowd' huh?" she said forcing a smile. She opened her car door and sat down inside the convertible, while I was dumbfounded.

"So it was nice spending time with you, but I doubt I'll see you around. Our friends don't really travel in the same circles," she said before reversing out. The weird thing was she said it casually like it was the most normal thing in the world and she wasn't just breaking up with me.

I stood in the parking lot speechless to what had just happened. Out of all the things I had expected Ellie to say, that wasn't it. Nobody had ever broken up with me before. Ellie was a breath of fresh air compared to the girls I usually went out with. I actually enjoyed spending time with her that didn't involve sex. It had been a long time since I had been able to connect with someone on that level before.

If it were any other girl I could just go find her and spread some of that charm I had, but this wasn't any girl, it was Ellie, and I didn't think she would be the type go for that.

For some reason I had a sinking feeling in my chest saying I had just lost my chance.

X x x x x x

Timmy POV

"Hey," Juliet said with a mouthful of chocolate chip muffin as I walked into the kitchen.

"Hey," I said back to her, taking a bite of her muffin as I passed her on the way to the fridge, then handing it back to her.

"I think Ellie just broke up with me, "I told her, still troubled about it.

"I want to sympathize with you, but frankly I don't blame her," she pouring herself a glass of milk.

"What?" I said.

"Oh common Timmy, you were practically flirting with Lilly whilst standing right next to her! Not to mention you were acting like she didn't exist! The poor girl probably thought you were done playing with her like all the other girls you go out with!"

"Hey, I don't 'play' with girls," I said defending myself, and sitting opposite her with my own muffin.

"Oh please! You go through girls like you go through underwear! Your relationship with Ellie was the most stable relationship you've been in, not to mention she was in the small minority of girls you've gone out with that actually had a brain."

"That's a bit of an exaggeration Jules," I said, knowing full well that there was some truth to what she was saying.

"Whatever, I'm just saying, you just lost something good," she said shrugging.

I haven't lost her yet, I told myself.

"So Nala told me about the change of date for the annual cheer off," she said changing the subject.

"Yeah, we got the date for the rematch against Compton today too," I said. Ever since the fire alarm had gone off on our original basketball game, we had all been awaiting the new date for the game, and our schools had finally agreed on four weeks' time.

"This time, Romeo is going down," I said, thinking about how it wasn't an option for our school to lose.

"There's nothing like a good clean game," Juliet said in a strange high pitched voice.

"I don't give a crap about the game, Romeo's been getting on my nerves for long enough," I told her. "Can you believe Ben and Romeo actually had the audacity to come and tell me about the rematch date as soon as they'd heard? They were waiting outside school. They're too confident for their own good, they need something to knock them down a few pegs," I said running schemes through my head.

"Don't you dare do anything stupid!" Juliet suddenly said.

"Jeez, calm down Jules, I won't get caught, I'll be careful," I told her, slightly confused about her off behaviour. She was obviously concerned about me getting caught and getting in trouble with Larko, and Uncle Mike again.

"It's just not necessary, don't you ever think you get on their nerves just as much as they get on yours?" she said.

I pretended to actually think about it then said, "No," snorting. "What is up with you today?" I asked her laughing. "You're being a weirdo."

She looked at me for a second then, shook her head. "Nothing," she said, like she stopped herself saying what she actually wanted to say. She got up and placed her empty glass by the sink.

Before I could stop myself I said, "Whose side are you on anyway?" I was getting sick of her defending Compton, and continually saying they didn't deserve whatever we did to them.

She froze in her tracks and turned around, "What's that supposed to mean?" she said

"Sorry, I didn't mean that. You just seem too adamant about not doing anything to Compton."

"I just think the way we see them is the way they see us, and all this crap can be avoided," she said crossing her arms.

"Juliet, remember this, Romeo Montague can't be trusted, and neither can any of his friends," I told her. Ever since the beginning, Juliet had always been opposed to any trouble with Compton, so her being negative now didn't shock me, but now that Romeo was back we had to be extra careful, and I don't know why but I had a sinking feeling that if any of us was going to get roped into their lies, and believing that they were the innocent ones, it would be her.

She sighed, "Ok, fine. Just don't do anything stupid without talking to the group." She obviously wanted to avoid a fight too.

I nodded. "So are you coming to Daniels?" I asked her.

"No, I have some errands to run," she said.

"Errands?" I asked her curiously. She wouldn't have any errands and chores like other teenagers, as we had people to do that sort of stuff, so the only other think I could think of was shopping. But surely that could wait, and all her friends, who would go shopping with her, were all going to be at Daniels. Recently it had felt like she wasn't around and she was always leaving to go and do something.

"Yeah, I have a calculus session after school."

"Calculus? But then wouldn't Nala and Daniel also be in that class too?" I asked her.

"Ok fine, you got it out of me, it's not a class it's a make-up test. I failed a quiz last week and I got a chance to retake it before grades get sent home next week."

"Oh, ok, good luck," I said to her. It was strange for Juliet to be failing a class, but she was probably just as preoccupied with cheerleading as I was with basketball the last few weeks.

Just then Aunt Clarissa walked into the room.

"Children, Ada needs to know numbers for dinner," she said.

"I'm out," I said.

"Me too," Juliet said.

"Very well, I'll inform Ada, it is just a meal for two. I would appreciate it if you could inform me if you are going to be absent from supper in advance, it's so stressful organising the evening meal," she said sighing, taking a pill out of a bottle of aspirin from the top shelf.

X x x x x x

(Juliet POV)

"I told him I had calculus," I told Romeo, as we drove over to his house.

"Ohh, calculus, is that my new name?" he asked smiling.

I laughed and playfully hit him on the arm, as he drove into his front drive.

"Oh, My Mom's home, "he said casually parking up next to a maroon Mercedes.

"What?" I said panicked. "You said that nobody would be home!" I ran a million scenarios through my head at the same time, all ending with his mother kicking me out of the house.

"Don't worry it will be ok," he said, obviously not seeing why I was worried. If the situation was the other way around and I was bringing Romeo home, while my parents were there it would probably start world war three. Even though our schools, as well as Timmy and Romeo had this petty rivalry thing going on, our parents were also business rivals and even though they were civil in public, I knew my parents wanted to drive the Montague's out of business. The last thing they would ever do is welcome their son into their house. Even though I had briefly met her at the barbeque, she was nice, but I didn't know if that was just in public. I also hoped she didn't remember me, because the last conversation she had had about me revolved around my close relationship with Paul, and the last thing I wanted was for her to think I was two timing her son.

"I'm still not sure this is a good idea," I told him being honest. "Won't she mind?"

He smirked, "I'm a big boy Juliet, I don't think she will mind I have a friend over to play, without warning her to plan the snacks first," he said laughing.

"You know that's not what I meant," I said raising my eyebrows.

"I know what you meant, and you don't have to worry about that either. Look just trust me?"

I thought about it for a second, and if Romeo thought it wasn't ok, it would end up badly for him too, so he was obviously pretty confident.

I nodded.

"Good," he said smiling before he kissed my cheek and got out of the car. Before I could undo my seatbelt, he was already on my side of the car, opening the door.

I took his hand as I got out of the car, and he led me toward the house. Considering the expense of the house, they didn't have that much security around the house. Only the one man by the gate, in comparison to our small security cabin always with someone watching the perimeter. The front door wasn't locked and Romeo just let us in, and led me toward the kitchen, from where some delicious smells were coming our way.

"Oh, hi sweetie," she said distractedly to Romeo, looking around a big cupboard for something. The kitchen was full of food, and Romeo's Mom was obviously in her element cooking, wearing black Capri pants and a casual shirt. I thought a woman like Mrs Capulet would be very much like my mother, and be less involved, let alone spend her afternoons cooking the evening meal, like the mother was supposed to. It was a few seconds later when she emerged with a big dish that she noticed me.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't even notice your friend," she said in a friendly tone.

"Hello," I said shyly.

"I know you…" she said trailing off thinking about where she recognised me from. I didn't know if I wanted her to remember so I didn't know if I should remind her or not.

"Juliet! You're Clarissa's daughter right?" she said.

"Yep, that's me. "

"Well it's nice to see you again," she said with a smile.

"You too, Mrs Capulet." I said relaxing a little.

"Oh please Sweetie, Mrs Capulet was my mother in law. Detona or Toni is just fine."

I smiled, thinking how ridiculous I was being thinking she would throw me out of her house.

"So what are your kids plans for the evening?" she asked.

"We were just going to hang out for a bit then go catch a bite to eat," Romeo told her.

"Oh, don't go out! I made tacos! Stay for dinner, then you can go out," she said.

"Oh, I don't want to put you out, "I said politely. "And I wouldn't want to impose."

"Oh, you're not imposing! Don't be silly, and there's plenty of food, you know me, I always cook enough in case the whole town turns up," she said laughing.

Romeo looked over and made eye contact with me, silently asking me what I wanted to do and if I would be ok with staying.

"If you're sure?" I said answered straight to his Mom, feeling bad if I said no. I felt like she genuinely wanted me to join them, and wasn't just asking out of politeness.

"Perfect!" she said happily.

"Um, do you need any help?" I asked her.

"Oh, you two don't worry, everything is nearly done, Your Dad will be down in a minute, he's in the shower, and Izzie is outside setting the table. Go take your seats."

Toni ushered us out of the kitchen before we could protest and pushed us out of the patio door. Outside, obviously all the barbeque things had long been cleared away, and there was a beautiful wooden table set for dinner, with coloured night lights with candles, which Izzie was hanging up around the table.

She turned when she heard us come out and squealed when she saw me.

"Juliet!" she said squeezing me around the waist.

"Hey Izzie, " I said smiling at the little girl.

Romeo faked a cough. "I'm here too you know Iz," he said joking.

Izzie giggled and jumped into his arms, he swivelled her around before putting her down.

"Ro, can you light the candles for me?" she asked standing on the chair to reach the lantern hanging on a wire.

"Sure," he said going inside to get some matches. Just as he walked back into the kitchen, Romeo's Dad walked through the main garden doors.

"Careful Princess," he said, picking up the standing Izzie from the chair and placing her on the floor.

I immediately got a sentimental feeling in my stomach, hearing him call her princess, remembering all those years that that was the nickname that my own father had called me when we were still close.

"Hi, there," he said to me in a welcoming voice. "I'm Carl."

"Juliet," I said shaking his hand.

"I'm glad that you could join us, it's been a while since my wife had had to force someone to eat her Mexican food," he said smiling, before Toni walked up behind him hitting him with a tea towel as she placed a dish of taco mixture on the table. "Just kidding," he said laughing, "My wife is the best cook in the whole wide world."

"Yeah, yeah, that's spreading it a little thickly dear," she said rolling her eyes.

He grabbed her wrist and gave her a quick sweet kiss.

Romeo came out of the kitchen with the matches in one had a platter of toppings for the Taco's in the other hand. "Ewww, we have a guest!" he said.

They both pulled away laughing. "Sorry," she said to me. I just smiled in response. You could literally feel the love radiating off them. I couldn't remember the last time I had seen my own parents act this way. I barely even saw them in the same room just enjoying each other's company.

We all took our places at the table. Me and Romeo sat opposite his parents and Izzie sat the head of the table.

They passed around the dishes of food around the table and they all worked like they knew each other so well, like Romeo adding salad to his plate then picking out the cucumbers from his plate and exchanging them for the tomatoes on Izzie's plate, and Detona slipping some green beans onto her husband's plate, muttering 'nice try'.

The conversation at the table wasn't anything special but you could tell this family was a genuine family, and they loved each other. They talked about everything and anything and they had all these inside jokes with each other. I hadn't experienced a meal like this in a long time. You could tell this family really meant a lot to each other, and they were there for each other. Throughout dinner they kept making the effort to involve me and include me in the conversation, and I was really glad that I had made the decision to stay. Thankfully, my parents didn't come into the topic at the table.

When dinner over, we all helped clear the table, and Detona wouldn't let us do anything else. She sent us back outside to where Izzie and her Dad were playing a card game on the wooden table.

"Feel like a walk?" Romeo asked me.

"Sure," I told him, "Just let me say good bye to your family first."

I walked through to the kitchen and said goodbye and thanked his mother, who welcomed me back anytime, then I said goodbye to Romeo's dad and sister. They were both happily playing their card game as we left.

Romeo led me through the private entrance to the beach from his back yard, and took my hand. It had just gone past sunset, and there was still an orange tint to the sky. It seemed like many people were out enjoying the coolest part of the day so far, as families, and people of all ages were spread out along the beach.

"Sorry for making you sit through a meal with my family," Romeo said apologetically.

"Don't be sorry, it was great!" I told him honestly. "I haven't had a family dinner like that in god knows how long."

"Ice cream?" Romeo asked, pointing to an ice cream cart in the centre of the beach.

"Sure."

Romeo bought a chocolate cone for himself and a strawberry cup for me, and we sat on the sand and joined the rest of the crowd to watch the rest of the sunset.

"I'm glad we're back together," Romeo said to me.

"Me too," I smiled back at him. The last week since we had been back together, we had spent it doing random things together, just getting to know each other better. We spent a lot of time at the park or the beach, or at the track and avoided public places, not because we were scared to run into anybody we knew but we were perfectly content in our own little world. He leaned in and I expected him to kiss me on the lips but I was surprised to feel him gently kiss my cheek. The quick kiss on my cheek meant a lot more to me than he could have realised. It was another time that reminded me that we were comfortable in our 'relationship' and we were harbouring real feelings for each other. In the week since we had been back together we had been more real to each other and if anything we had grown closer, since I think the idea of losing each other had hit us both.

I was just thinking about how we hadn't run into anybody we recognised yet when I saw Ben standing by the ice cream stand watching us. As soon as I made eye contact with him he looked away and began intently staring at the selections of ice cream flavours. I tensed, waiting for him to come over and confront us, but once he had his ice cream, he just turned around and walked the other way.

"Wasn't that Ben?" I asked Romeo.

"Where?" he said surprised.

I pointed out the retreating figure and Romeo mumbled, "maybe, not sure."

"But he saw us," I told him, searching for an explanation as to why he didn't react. I knew for a fact that if any of my friends saw us they wouldn't just walk away, and I knew Ben pretty well through the years and he wasn't the type to just walk away either.

"Are you sure?" he asked.

"He looked right at me," I told him, getting stressed out.

"I wouldn't worry about it, if he saw us then he would have come over, so I guess we're safe," Romeo said.

"I guess," I said to Romeo even though my mind was still confused.

"Look at the sun," Romeo said to me and I looked away to look at where he was pointing.

X x x x x x

Romeo POV

"So I saw you guys on the beach tonight," Ben told me through the phone as I got ready for bed.

"Yeah I know, Juliet saw you, I had to distract her," I told him.

"You did know we were all hanging out tonight right?" he said.

"Yeah I know, but then I ended up going out with Juliet."

"Look, Ro, I know we made this plan and stuff, and don't get me wrong, I love how dedicated you are, but it's like a side game. There's no need for you to miss out on other stuff because you have to be with her, " Ben said. I thought about how it was actually the opposite and when I was them I felt like I was missing out being with her.

"I know, it's cool don't worry," I told him trying to sound like I was taking one for the team.

"I'm just saying dude, you're neglecting your friends to hang out with her."

"I know I guess I just got caught up in what will be the outcome," I told him, feeling bad for even saying it even if it was a lie.

"That's why I think we should end it now," he said.

"Huh?"

"Well the whole point was to date her for a bit then drop her, and you've dated her for a bit, and now it's time to drop her."

My stomach clenched at the thought of breaking up with Juliet. We had just gotten back together, and the thought of losing her again made me feel physically sick, however lame that made me sound.

"I'm just saying we have other important stuff to worry about this year, don't waste it all on her," he said, "sure it will be worth it when Timmy gets pissed, but now is a good time to do it."

"I think we can push it a little more," I said to Ben hoping he wouldn't push me to end it now.

"You do?" he asked.

"Sure I mean, it will be better when we can say it's been going on for longer right?"

"I guess you're right," he said, and I sighed in relief. "Just don't ditch us too much, we've barely seen you around dude."

"Sure man, so I'll see you tomorrow right?"

"Yeah, later Ro."

I switched off the phone and sighed as I collapsed on my bed wondering if and how much longer I could possibly prolong breaking up with Juliet and hurting her.

Don't forget to tell me what you thought! My aim for this chapter was to show the contrast between both family lives and both mothers, and also to show it all isn't going to be an easy ride from now on, the plan will eventually have to bite someone on the ass.