We Don't Have to be a Tragedy

Juliet’s Point of View

The last night.

It was finally here: it was Friday, the lights were being trained on the stage, and we were all getting powdered up and ‘beautified’. I was wearing the first dress for the final time, and I fingered it with mild regret, but also reverence.

“Here we go,” Romeo whispered in my ear, and I nodded silently. I wasn’t extremely nervous, but I was kind of sad that it was all going to be over after two hours. I could only hope that what Romeo and I had developed could remain for longer than the play, and obviously longer than the Romeo and Juliet that the play described.

I might actually grow to miss these lights, I thought idly to myself as I was onstage. Even if I never forget these lines, I will miss them. I’ll miss saying them to an audience, knowing them completely by heart and saying them without a second thought exactly when they need to be said. I’ll never know why I never tried plays in my high school days, but now I know that I can’t give up without trying ever again, simply because I loved the feeling of being onstage.

I felt a little odd after most of the play, but we still had a few scenes to go, so I stuck it out.

And then…

It was over.

Done.

Finite.

We had successfully completed Romeo and Juliet for the third and final time of the year. Maybe even the last time in our lives, unless we were to have get-togethers ever few years and have a re-creation of the play. That would be kind of fun, now that I think on it.

“Just as amazing as last time!” Romeo cried gleefully, and he did the ‘celebrating’ hug again, twirling me around on the spot backstage, to which Taylor - who had just rounded the corner and slipped backstage - awed at.

“You two are just too cute,” she sighed, in exactly the same way she had when she found out about us on Monday - not even thirty minutes after he’d asked me out.

“Gee, thanks,” I said, with a grin. Todd smirked from behind her as he slipped into the area.

“She’s a keeper, man,” he remarked to Romeo, who rolled his eyes.

“That’s exactly what Tim said.”

Todd laughed, and Taylor kind of grinned.

“Attention, please!” Mom called out.

The cast went quiet, and then Cathy continued, “Tomorrow night we’re having a celebratory party at my home, and you’ll be invited to bring a guest apiece! Just to warn you, and now…have fun! Even go out and have your own little party if you want to, just don’t tire yourself out!”

There was laughter, and then we were dismissed, but most of us still needed to change, so we did just that, and then Rob organized for all of us - or most of us - to go out to dinner at…you might have guessed it.

Whitney’s.

Romeo agreed, and so did I, so Romeo called in and asked for a reservation for a group of around fifteen…including Todd and Taylor.

“Okay, we’ll have…what do you guys think?” Rob asked us as we sat in our large group around three tables pushed together.

“Some of the barbecued chicken,” someone suggested.

“A platter of spaghetti,” Taylor tossed in, glancing at me, then at Romeo. “Or maybe just one for two people.”

“Hey,” I scolded good-naturedly, “be nice!”

The majority of the people laughed, and Rob nodded to Tim, who had the unfortunate task of being the whole group’s waiter.

“We’ll just get a plethora of things,” Rob joked. “That way we know we’ve got something that everyone likes!”

This was met by laughter, and then the party commenced.

Romeo’s Point of View

The party at my house wasn’t really big, kind of like our Whitney’s party, to tell the truth. We ordered a bunch of pizza, some breadsticks, Dad went out and bought six 24 packs of different sodas, and we rigged up Rock Band.

For the most part, we trapped Juliet with the microphone, and Rob was guitar. I played bass, and a girl named Marianne played the drums. We - pardon the pun - rocked Rock Band.

That was pretty much the most exciting part. We traded off after every song, and we rotated people in and out and everything, and then after a while, Guitar Hero World Tour was put in to the same routine, and then they got tired of that and we threw in a Naruto fighting game just for the heck of it. Then it was a sprint cars game, then it was turning the gaming system off and moving the furniture to the edge of the living room and pumping the music in.

This was when Juliet looked really alive - not that she hadn’t in Rock Band, but this was more her element. There was more variety on the radio, and she knew most of them by heart. Even, around nine, a song by an artist called Cascada, who very few of us had heard of. The song was called Every Time we Touch.

“I still hear your voice when you sleep next to me
I still feel your touch in my dreams
Forgive me my weakness, but I don’t know why
Without you it’s hard to survive

‘Cause every time we touch, I get this feeling
And every time we kiss, I swear I could fly
Can’t you feel my heart beat fast
I want this to last
I need you by my side

‘Cause every time we touch, I feel the static
And every time we kiss, I reach for the sky
Can’t you feel my heart beat slow
I can’t let you go
I want you in my life.”

There was an instrumental break here.

“Your arms are my castle, your heart is my sky
They wipe away tears that I cry
The good and the bad times, we’ve been through them all
You make me rise when I fall

‘Cause every time we touch, I get this feeling
And every time we kiss, I swear I could fly
Can’t you feel my heart beat fast
I want this to last
I need you by my side

‘Cause every time we touch, I feel the static
And every time we kiss, I reach for the sky
Can’t you feel my heart beat slow
I can’t let you go
I want you in my life

‘Cause every time we touch, I get this feeling
And every time we kiss, I swear I could fly
Can’t you feel my heart beat fast
I want this to last
I need you by my side.”

Little did she know, I decided, that the song described exactly how I felt about her.

Juliet’s Point of View

I wondered idly after I’d sung along with the radio rather…animatedly…if Romeo felt the way I did, because the way I felt about him was exactly what the song says…

I need you by my side.