A/N: Sorry for taking a while. I had an economics exam this week, and it was a real one that goes toward my A level results, and needless to say I've been very busy revising….even though it did not go well today! I know I will have to retake it in the summer.

Some reviews would really cheer me up…..hint hint.

Chapter 30-New friends and reverting to old ways

"Well if you told Nala to tell him, then why are you obsessing so much?" Paul said.

"Because I haven't spoken to him! I don't know if he even understood what I was trying to say in the message, it was pretty vague." I said.

"Trust me, after hearing you tell me about your last conversation about ten times, your message was anything but vague! He got what you meant!"

"But even if he did, I still don't know what to do!" I said whining in frustration that I was no closer to unscrambling my thoughts over my future with Romeo.

"I'm just saying, if you really like him, what's stopping you?" Paul said rolling the dice, and moving his chosen Monopoly piece, a navy ship, four spaces. Yes, this is what our days had been reduced to, trying to finish a Monopoly game that we had started three days ago.

"It's just too hard! And I'm so confused. I want to be with him, I do, but I can honestly say I have no vision of the future, or how we will ever be accepted," I whined, lying on my back, staring up at the ceiling.

"I think you're just being over dramatic, it's not that hard. If your friends don't accept your relationship, then who cares? It just means they were never your friends anyway."

"What about my parents?" I said sitting up and taking my turn.

"Oh, they'll be furious for sure," he said.

"Thanks, you're really helping," I said rolling my eyes.

"They'll just be disappointed a hot, sexy guy like me won't be joining your family," he said cockily.

"Talking of that, none of this matters, if we don't get out of what our parents have planned for us," I said.

Paul sat up and sighed, and began talking in a more serious tone, leaving the jokes behind. "Well, I was thinking, and I think I finally have an idea."

"Really?" I said getting my hopes up.

"Well, first we have to make out—" he started.

"Why do all of your plans start like that!" I said annoyed, really thinking he was onto something.

"I'm just kidding! But seriously, I do have an idea. We talked about the consequences if we say no to them. Both of our parents threatened to cut us off and kick us out right?"

I nodded; getting upset all over again at my Dad's final words. I couldn't believe that he had actually told me if I didn't go through with this, I had no place in our family anymore. When he said it, he seemed like a different person, not my Daddy who I had been so close to when I was young.

"Now, you don't have any money saved up right?" he asked me, and I shook my head. There had never been any need to save any money before. I had everything I needed at the other end of my American Express card.

"And if they kicked you out, do you have any place to live?" he asked. I shook my head again. Even though I could stay at Nala's for a while, or at any of my other friends places for a few days, I couldn't look at that as a stable long term solution. And plus, I still had school, and I had to think about after I graduate what would I do. I assume me being cut off included college tuition.

"I could probably crash at one of my parents houses for a few weeks, without them realising until I found something. And as far as money goes, I can figure something out. I have some collectables that I could probably sell to get some quick cash," he said.

"What are you saying?" I said confused. As far as I could tell he was just pointing out the bleak situation that we would both be in.

"I'm saying, I could tell my parents it was my idea and I don't want to go through with it. That way your parents can't be mad at you, because it wasn't your fault and only one of us goes down."

"Paul, I can't let you do that for me!" I said. He would be losing just as much as I would be in the same situation.

"It's ok, I would be better off than you if you got cut off—"

"Yeah, for about a few weeks, then what do you do when your parents find out you're staying in one of their properties? And that money isn't going to last you forever."

"But Juliet, you'd have literally nothing. We have no other way to get out of this!"

"Paul, I think it's really sweet of you to offer, but I can't let you do that. We're in this together, and we'll get out of this together." I said reaching over and squeezing his hand.

When we had left for this trip, I had been dreading spending all that time with Paul. Even after we made a sort of truce at the party, I wasn't naïve enough to believe everything would be peachy. I at least expected some awkward silences and endless time on our hands. Endless time on our hands, yes there was, but there weren't many awkward silences. Strangely, me and Paul had a lot in common, and I found it easy to talk him, which reminded me of Timmy, and made me miss him all the more. After the first two days, the arrogance, and cockiness that usually was Paul fell away, and we started to make the most of a difficult situation. We had even had discussions about me and Romeo. He didn't judge me how Nala and Timmy had but actually gave me advice. He was turning out to be an ok friend. If anybody had told me last month that me and Paul would be friends, I would have told you that there must have been a gun pointed to my head.

"Are you sure?" he asked.

"I am."

"Thank god! What you see right here," he said gesturing to himself, "This doesn't just happen! There's no way I'd be able to look this great on a budget!" But I knew he was only kidding around and meant what he said.

"Shut up! I said laughing.

"Well, the offer still stands," he said in a serious tone, giving me a weak smile.

"Hey Paul?" I said looking through the discarded boxes of games on the floor, having had enough of Monopoly for the day.

"Yeah?"

"If you ever wanted to call me Jules, that would be ok," I said.

"Oh really?" he said laughing, "I knew you would give in! I recall you saying only people you stand can call you that, does that mean I pass the test?"

"Don't push it!"

There was a soft knock on the big wooden door, and we put our banter aside to see Bernard, the elderly Butler, one of the only living people besides us and the cook for miles, walk into the room.

"There are guests, wishing to speak with you both. They're in the drawing room."

"Guests?" Paul and I both said at the same time, surprised. In the two weeks that we had been here, we hadn't heard from anybody.

Paul stood up, and straightened his clothes. "I guess we should go see," he said.

I nodded and got up, intrigued. As much as I hoped it was somebody from back home, I don't think my parents would give our location away to any of my friends, let alone Romeo. But there was a small chance, Timmy wasn't mad at me anymore and they would let him come and see me. I still felt terrible about the way we had left things, and wished I had apologised again before we had left, instead of letting him continue ignoring me.

We walked into the room opposite the one we had been in, and saw the guests. Needless to say, it wasn't Timmy.

X x x x x x x

Romeo POV

"Where the hell have you been all day?" My Dad yelled bursting through the living room doors before I could even close the front door.

"Carl! Just wait, at least give him a chance to—" My Mom said running after him.

"Ok, fine," he said crossing his arms, "Where did you spend your day son?" he said in a strained angry voice.

"I had a few beers on the beach," I said like it was no big deal, and choosing not to hide the fact I hadn't been to school.

"You were drinking!," My mom said, no longer keeping calm and adding her own anger to my Dad's pot. "And is that cigarette smoke I smell?"

"Yeah," I said shrugging. I took of my jacket and hung it up in the hall and started up the stairs.

"Romeo, don't walk away when we're talking to you. I thought we were done with all of this! Why on earth would you start smoking again, and thinking drinking alcohol was ok?" she said. I saw the hurt in her eyes, that were a permanent feature back in New York, and I felt bad for a nano second, but any thoughts of remorse were quickly pushed away.

"Since I decided it was my life and I could do whatever the hell I wanted," I said without any emotion.

"Don't speak to your mother like that!" My Dad shouted.

"Whatever," I muttered.

"Look, sweetie whatever you're going through we can talk about this. I thought we were through with all of this. Your school called today to say you weren't in school—" she said, choosing to ignore my rudeness.

"Technically I did go to school," I said correcting her.

"Yes, but you walked out of your English class without a word!" My Dad said.

"Actually I did say 'screw this' before I walked out," I calmly. I didn't see any reason to stay. I knew i would get into the university that was 'suitable' with my surname alone, and as long as i got in, I doubted anyway actually gave a crap how I did it.

My Mom said something incoherent before sinking onto one of the steps, giving up. It hurt me to see her like this but I had learnt in the last couple of weeks that people hurt each other all the time, it was the way the world worked. If nobody else gave a crap, why should I?

My Dad walked over to comfort her, "Carl, what have we done wrong? I don't understand, I thought everything would be ok, once we moved here, and it was.," she said as if I wasn't even in the room.

He led her into the living room, and closed the door behind her, then turned back to me.

"I don't even know what to say to you," he said, in a completely calm tone, with no anger at all. "Romeo, don't you see how much this is affecting your mother? How much it's affecting your whole family? After you snapped at Izzie yesterday, she didn't even come downstairs this morning until you had left for school! You were doing so well since we've moved back to Verone! I thought you understood—"

I couldn't listen to this anymore. The mention of me upsetting Izzie yesterday had brought on a wave of guilt. She had come into my room, to see if I wanted to play on the Wii with her and I had yelled at her to get out because she was wasting my time. I had never spoken to her like that, even when I went through a bad phase toward the end of the first time we were living in Verone and in New York. Izzie was my soft spot, and I always made time for her. Her big eyes just filled with tears and she left the room. I hadn't seen her since last night. I didn't want to think she was purposefully avoiding me.

I walked back down the stairs and picked out my car keys.

"Don't go anywhere! We need to talk about this!" he said, but I completely ignored him, walking out the front door and to my car, not forgetting to slam the door on my way out.

At first I didn't know where to go. I drove to an empty parking lot and lit up a cigarette. By the time, it was finished I knew exactly where to go. I drove to my destination and got out of the car and up to the front door, ringing the doorbell insistently.

The door flew open and the person behind it looked surprised. I hadn't seen them for weeks, ever since the night of the joint Compton-Riverdale party at my house.

"Oh….Hi," They said cautiously.

I responded by crashing my lips to Rose's hungrily. She was still, in shock not kissing me back yet. She pushed my shoulders away and looked at me with confusion.

"I don't understand?" she said.

Instead of making any attempt to say anything I kissed her again. She quickly caught on and stopped asking any questions and kissed me back just as enthusiastically, pulling me further into the house, and kicking the door shut behind us.

A/N: Don't kill me for the last bit! Tell me what you think!