We Don't Have to be a Tragedy

Juliet’s Point of View

I scanned through my playlists, after loading Panic At The Disco onto Romeo’s iPod. I couldn’t resist picking my All American Rejects one, since I’ve been humming Move Along ever since his phone went off.

“I knew you had to be a fan of them, too,” he chuckled as it came on. “You’ve been humming it since Mom called.”

I kind of flushed, and said, “So what?”

That was before I nearly fell off my chair in a squeal for one of my favorites.

“Your subtleties
They strangle me,
I can’t explain myself at all
And all the wants
And all the needs
All I don’t want to need at all

The walls start breathing,
My mind’s unweaving
Maybe it’s best you leave me alone
A weight is lifted
On this evening
I give the final blow

When darkness turns to light,
It ends tonight, it ends tonight.

A falling star
At least I fall alone…what are you laughing at?!”

I stopped abruptly.

“D’you know all the words to every song on there?” he chuckled, playing solitaire on his phone.

“Most of them. But I can’t know all of them, there’s, like, over a thousand! I don’t have enough room in my head for all of that.”

“What, with all that Shakespeare crammed in as well?”

We laughed, then I got an idea.

“Speaking of Shakespeare…” I turned on something from a Harry Potter movie.

“That’s in Harry Potter,” he said curiously, “what’s it got to do with Shakespeare?”

“It’s originally from Macbeth.” I said in a ‘duh’ tone of voice. He laughed.

“I never knew.”

“Obviously.”

“Haven’t you heard that I’m th---” started playing and I sighed.

“Just a minute,” I said to him, flipping open my phone with a “Hello” at the ready.

“JULIET!!!”

“Taylor!”

“Bin-go! What’s going on? How was your first week? Mine was a little dull, but okay. I met this girl, she’s like, just like you! Well, she doesn’t look the same or anything, but you two act sooo much alike! She likes the bands that you do and stuff, the same style of clothes and---”

She’d long since been on speakerphone.

“Taylor,” I said over her. “You’re on speaker.”

“Oh, does it matter? No one’s there, are they? Aren’t you in your dorm room? Classes should be over for the day.”

“Yeah, I’m in my room. I was actually talking to one of my new friends, though. Say hi,” I beckoned to him.

“Hi, Taylor, is it? I’m Romeo. Nice to, um, talk to you?”

“Romeo? As in, your name is literally Romeo? Hey---wait! What are you doing in a girl’s room?”

I started laughing when she said that.

“Um…I’m getting some songs for my iPod…”

“Oh. Okay. That’s cool, then.” Taylor’s voice paused, then she cried, “Juliet!! Why didn’t you tell me you had a friend?! A friend that’s a guy! Geez, girl! Is he cute?”

“I guess he might be,” I laughed as he let out a really huge laugh. “And he’s still right here.”

“So? Hey, Romeo, are you cute?”

“Taylor!”

“What? I’m not getting a good enough answer from you!”

“What, am I supposed to say, ‘oh, Taylor, he’s a drop-dead gorgeous sexy man beast!!!’ Huh?”

“Exactly! It’s good to hear that! You heard too, right Romeo? Jules thinks you’re a drop-dead gorgeous sexy man beast!”

He was too busy drowning in laughter.

“Oh, crap. It’s almost six-thirty, I’ve gotta go,” Taylor said.

“Six-thirty?!” Romeo broke off and we yelled at the same time. “Crap!”

“What?”

“Well…you know my parents are professors here. So are his, and we agreed to go out to dinner with them tonight!!!”

“Oh, then bye!”

“Bye, Tay, I’ll talk to you later!”

As soon as we’d hung up, I looked at Romeo and said, “What’re you waiting for?”

“Um…You?”

“Good enough, let’s go!”

I snagged his wrist as I ran by, heading for the restaurant. Walking would probably take twenty minutes, but we only had like, three.

“We’re not gonna be on time,” He cried, “You know that, right?”

“Yeah,” I replied.

“Then walk, unless you want all this sticky August heat to make you a living, breathing, running waterfall by the time we get there!”

I sighed and stopped running, almost causing him to run into me. “Baby,” I joked. He took it all good-naturedly and laughed.

And so, that’s how Romeo and I showed up fifteen minutes late to dinner with our parents.

Romeo’s Point of View

“Where’ve you been?” Mom demanded. “We were about to order without you!”

“Sorry, Mom.” I began, but then Juliet started.

“Sorry, it’s my fault. My friend Taylor called and I put her on speaker,” she explained. “We didn’t realize we were late until she said it was almost six-thirty and she had to go.”

“Oh, Taylor called?” her mom asked in interest. “How is she?”

“She’s fine, she swears she met a girl who acts just like me.” Juliet shrugged, taking the empty seat by her mother, and across from the only other empty seat, by Dad. I took it with a grin.

“Just what the world needs, another Juliet,” I teased.

“Gee, thanks loads.” she pretended to roll her eyes.

“Now, now, hush up and find out what you want to eat!” Mom said playfully. “We don’t know about you, but we’re pretty hungry.”

“Sorry,” Juliet and I said simultaneously, picking up menus and looking through them. I couldn’t help but peek up at her every now and then, how she kind of bit her lip in indecision, or how she was twirling a curl around her finger while she read the choices.

“Well, hello,” a voice said, making me look up at the waitress, “a new addition since I last came over. What can I get you to dr---”

“That’s two new additions, sorry to burst your bubble,” Juliet said, her eyes still scanning the menu. “And I’ll have lemonade, please.”

“Oh, I’m sorry! Okay, and you, sir?”

I could tell she wasn’t sorry in the least. “Just some water, thanks.”

“Alright. Anyone ready to order?”

“We’ll wait until you’re back with their drinks, please.” Juliet’s mom said politely.

“Alright, then. I’ll be back just as soon as I can.”

It was kind of sickening to see her do the same thing as the girl at the student run café on campus. This lady had to be about twenty-seven, and definitely, definitely, not the type of woman I enjoyed the company of.

“She’s doing that thing,” Juliet hissed in disgust.

“I know. I think I’ve lost my appetite.” I whispered, and she looked up in shock.

“I didn’t think you’d hear.”

“Ah, then I can pretend I didn’t.” I leaned back in my chair with a wink at her.

“Juliet!” her dad said suddenly. “That was a rude way to get her attention!”

“Well, she wasn’t going to notice me any other way. She was too busy making googly eyes at this kind young man across from me,” Juliet rolled her eyes.

“Juliet---” her mother began, but stopped when I started laughing.

“S-sorry, Professor Capula,” I laughed, “Googly? ‘Googly’? Is that even a word?”

“It is now,” Juliet said with a twinkle in her blue eyes.

“It’s just Joan, Romeo,” Juliet’s mother sighed, “And it’s quite alright.”

The rest of the adults joined in the laughter and Dad kind of patted my shoulder with a broad grin on his face. I didn’t have to ask him to know what he was thinking. After all, he has brilliant hearing and I’m almost positive he would’ve heard mine and Juliet’s whispered conversation. I pointedly rolled my eyes at him, which caused his grin to grow.

“Here are the drinks,” the waitress was back, I thought in dismay. “Lemonade for you, miss, and your water, sir.”

“Thanks,” Juliet said, with a big, false grin.

“Thanks,” I muttered, holding in a chuckle. Juliet flashed me a look, then looked down so she wouldn’t laugh.

“Are you all ready to order now, or would you like me to come back?”

“I would like the six ounce steak,” Mom said, “well done, with a baked potato and a Caesar salad.”

“I’d like the same, only instead of the Caesar, I’d like green beans.” Joan said soon after.

“The barbeque ribs, please,” Dad said, “And some fries.”

“I’ll just have your tenderloin, with mayonnaise, and fries.” Juliet’s dad said.

I looked expectantly at her, but she motioned for me to go on.

“I’ll have the spaghetti, please.” I said, reading off the first thing my eyes landed on.

“Yeah, I think I’ll go the same,” I heard Juliet say, and I looked to see her flashing the waitress another false smile. The waitress gave her the same type of smile back.

“We’ll have that to you as soon as we can. I’ll bring you some dinner rolls while you wait.”

I laughed softly at Juliet’s small noise of disgust when the waitress walked away. She stuck her tongue out at me, to a scolding from her mother, but I couldn’t care less. This was one of the most priceless reactions I’d ever seen to the hopeless flirtatious things these waitresses did. By no means did I like the waitresses doing it, it was absolutely revolting, but I loved teasing Juliet about it.

After the waitress brought out our food, she made a point of walking by me several more times, making sure everything was satisfactory, to Juliet’s immense dislike, and my disgust. The fifth time, I finally said, quite sharply, “Everything is quite alright, and if you don’t mind, I’m trying to eat it in peace.” to which Juliet snorted into her spaghetti and her mother just sighed and continued to eat.