A Dustland Fairytale

“She’s holding on my heart like a hand grenade.” – Green Day

As the days passed, I couldn’t bring myself to talk to Juliet. I pushed her out of my mind, hanging out with some of the new friends I’d made here and looking for a suitable garage where I could work on my bike. It ran perfectly, but being around cars – the smell of gasoline and exhaust, the greasy feeling of oil and the sound of sputtering motors – had always been something that calmed me down.

On Friday afternoon, I had planned on continuing my search. I was talking to Kyle’s friend Zack, whose father was a mechanic. “My dad knows about a lot of shops around here,” he said, pushing his brown curly hair out of his face. “I really don’t know much about them, but I could talk to him about it for you.”

“That would be great,” I said, smiling. “This probably sounds crazy, but being around cars just calms me down.”

Zack laughed, his teeth straight and shockingly white against his dark skin. “My dad actually says that all the time, so I don’t think it sounds crazy at all.” He shook his head. “You know, everybody here thought you were some creepy murderer when you first moved.” The corner of my lip curled upwards; I really wasn’t all that surprised by this statement. “But you’re a really cool guy, Dean,” Zack said. “All the girls are always talking about you.”

At this comment, I laughed. “Are they really?”

“Yeah,” he said. “Especially Charity – she’s so hot. You’re pretty lucky.” I shook my head. I couldn’t even remember her name. She just wasn’t the girl on my mind. “What, you’ve got your eye on someone else?”

We both looked up and I saw Juliet walking out of the school doors with Poppy. “Yeah,” I responded. “Sort of.”

Zack followed my gaze and grinned. “Good luck,” he said, hitting my shoulder. “I’ll talk to my dad about those shops.”

“Thanks,” I said, walking towards my bike. By the time I had crossed the parking lot, I realized I’d parked next to Juliet’s red BMW again. I noticed she was standing next to her car, but I decided not to say anything. She’d been rude enough to kick me out of her house, and I had retaliated (rather childishly) by completely ignoring her.

“I’m sorry I kicked you out of my house,” she said, walking around her car so that she was standing between her red BMW and my bike.

“Why’s that, princess?” I asked. My voice was harsh and cold – not like my usual joking tone. Juliet noticed; an expression of surprise crossed her face, mixed with what I thought was hurt.

She shrugged, causing her long blond hair to fall behind her shoulders. She glanced at the ground before saying, “I just feel bad about it. It was a pretty harsh reaction.”

“No kidding,” I said, picking my helmet up and sitting down on my bike. “You can’t just apologize and win me back, though. I tried to be nice to you. Maybe you should return the favor.” I had pulled the keys out of my pocket and was about to put them in the ignition when Juliet stepped forward, putting her hands over mine.

“Wait,” she said. “Do you want to do something tomorrow afternoon?” I blinked and looked up at her, surprised. A small smile crossed my face as I realized I had been right in thinking Juliet had been thinking about me. Her blue eyes were bright and her expression was hopeful. She obviously cared about me – at least a little bit. “I mean,” she began talking again, the hopeful expression gone from her face. “I’ve gotta go shopping with my mom in the morning, but I should be free in the afternoon.”

A slow smile drew across my face. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that Hunter kid leaning against his ridiculously expensive car. Over the past few days, I’d noticed he was hanging around Juliet much more often, almost protectively. “Sure,” I said, allowing the smile to grow into an almost wicked grin. “Make it tomorrow night. That band I wanted to take you to see is playing again, in a little place outside of town.” Rosie would be surprised that I’d come to see her; I’d hardly talked to her since we moved to California, and I was beginning to feel guilty. “Actually, can I come and pick you up?”

She pressed her pink lips together, considering the consequences of that action. “Yeah. I’ll tell my parents we’re working on our English project.”

Holding back a laugh, I smirked. No parent in his right mind would believe his child was working on a school project on a Saturday night. “Your parents would have to be really dumb to believe that.” From what I’d seen of Juliet’s parents, I knew they were not at all stupid people.

She shook her head, her body leaning sideways against the shiny red side of her car. “Not dumb, just distant from my life. As long as I don’t get into trouble and besmirch their reputation they don’t care what I do.”

Juliet’s blue eyes were sad as she said that, and I realized even if my dad had moved my family across the country and married a girl young enough to be my sister, he still cared about me and about my sister. Rosie had run away three years ago, and Dad had never given up trying to contact her. If Juliet ran away, I doubted her parents would even call to see where she’d gone or what was wrong. They would probably claim they’d sent her to boarding school or something.

“Besmirch?” I asked, smirking, trying to keep the conversation light. “Alright, I’ll see you tomorrow.” She smiled at me, watching as I drove out of the parking lot. I smiled too, knowing Juliet would still be thinking about me even. As I glanced in my rearview, I noticed Hunter walking across the parking lot. My smile turned to a frown and the familiar feeling of jealousy flooded my veins. I didn’t care who he was – there was no way I was losing whatever hold I had on Juliet.

I sighed and shook my head, trying to shake away the jealousy. I was not going to turn into Othello – I was not going to kill Desdemona because of some idiot with a pretty face. I smiled, realizing the Shakespeare comparison was a bit extreme and began to wonder what I could do Saturday night to make sure Juliet would never forget me.