"Love is helpless,
I did not intend this,
Yet our eyes kiss,
In the dead of night the touch of your gaze do I miss."

***

The rain had stopped but the clouds still lurked overhead, stubbornly blocking the twinkle of the stars. The wet edges of the cliff sprinkled my hands in particles of sand as I sat down, my feet dangling over the edge not caring if the heels slip off. The dress was probably ruined too but I didn't care.

It was just a crush.

It was just a crush.

Romeo was just a crush.

The night was quiet, the complete opposite of the chaos reeling in my mind. Juliet. The name played its horrific tune like a broken record in the recesses of my mind. Juliet. The waves roared against the rocky shore, their sound a cacophony of mockery. Juliet. The sun kissed a burning hole in my heart, leaving it empty and broken.

I remember that first day he had called me that, I admit I had loved it. Even the L-word had somehow maneuvered its way to camp right at the edges of my eyes. But it was just a crush. I might have played along with what I was feeling but it was just that. I didn't know this could happen. I didn't know this would happen. It happened.

"Juliet." A voice called in the dead silence of the night, the croaking of a frog echoing beneath at the bank of the river, sending faint sounds up to the cliff.

I didn't turn around when a presence hovered above me. Instead my hands tightened gripping the edge of the cliff.

"You could fall, you know." Romeo voiced his concerns as he sat beside me, too close for my liking at the moment. His shoulder playfully bumped into me in an attempt to lighten the mood but it didn't work.

"I would if you bumped into me again like that." I referred to his comment on me falling into the river or most probably on the bank and breaking my bones and dying.

He scoffed.

A wind had started to blow, the rustling of leaves mixing with the croaking frog turning the night into a beautiful melody. My hair danced with the wind, leaving my face bare to the earthy after-smell of rain.

I heard Romeo take a deep breath which made me look over at him, his lips were turned down, eyes screwed shut as if he was reminiscing a moment he couldn't bear to remember. My hand involuntarily reached out to smoothen the frown on his forehead.

His eyes opened but he didn't look at me.

Romeo turned to me, taking my hand in his and pulling it down to his lap. The blue of his eyes was striking against the night sky. I had to look away, if I hadn't I would've lost myself in them.

"Don't call me that." I remembered why I was at the cliff in the first place.

"Don't call you what?" He asked.

"Juliet." Was my simple answer.

"Why?", this made me turn away from gazing off into the distance and shoot him a glare I most definitely reserved for Danny.

"Because..." I voiced but didn't know how to say it. Would he think I was crazy? Hell, I was crazy. "Because-" I stopped again.

"Juliet, if you don't tell me how would I understand?" He intertwined our hands and I felt a box of butterflies being let loose in the pits of my stomach. Holy shit.

"I told you not to call me that!"

"Again...why?"

"Because you called her that." I looked away from him, back to that point in the distance I was admiring like Romeo admired that white wall in Mr. Hugh's class.

It took a moment for him to realize who I was talking about. His eyes widened in realization, the hand holding mine loosened. Romeo sat up straighter.

"You mean Mendoza?" He asked, his voice surprisingly monotonous, something I had never heard him use.

"Yes Mendoza! Ivy Mendoza!" I exclaimed.

"It was because of the play, Juliet." He said, his hand still holding mine but his eyes were turned away from me, finding a new spot to stare at.

"I know that. I just didn't like it." I timidly replied. Not only did I not like him calling her Juliet, I also did not like how they conversed in the middle of the dance. I was jealous. I had no intention of denying it. If I was jealous, I was jealous, I couldn't control it. Period.

He took in a deep breath, his chest moving up with the action, "Don't say that." His voice had turned quiet.

"Don't say what?"

"Don't say you didn't like it."

"Well what else am I supposed to say when I don't like it, you dumbass?" I tried to lighten the heavy shift in the air.

His lips tugged up at my attempt, not quite reaching his eyes. He sighed, letting go of my hand. When he turned to look at me, his eyes that once had reminded me of a lively sea were now blank as if the water had drained into nothingness, "I'm not worth it."

"What is that supposed to me?" I incredulously asked.

"I have baggage I don't want anyone else to handle except me. I want to get through this on my own." He answered, honestly.

"Is that why you left New York?"

"Yes. Partly."

He wasn't oblivious to what he was doing and neither was I. I might have looked at him that first day and internally swooned at his beautiful appearance but it was him who started whatever it was he was saying he wasn't worth over.

I looked him dead in the eyes hoping that my eyes conveyed what I was about to say more than the words, "You can not be named Romeo then call a girl Juliet and expect she's going to let it slide as something light." I confronted him, my eyes boring into his. I saw it, the splash of water in his eyes. Life. Before it disappeared, masked by his denial.

"I... I don't-" I could see what he was trying to say was difficult for him. "I don't call you Juliet just because I feel like it." He finished.

That and what he was about to say which I knew would be coming made my heart swell with... with something I couldn't decipher or something I didn't want to decipher. This time I grabbed his hand from his lap, intertwined our fingers and placed it in my lap.

Romeo looked down at our hands, a faint tint appearing in his cheeks.

"That first day..." He started and I squeezed his hand, urging him to spit it out already. "The first day of school outside the principal's office," he continued. That day reminded me of the prank I had pulled on him which made me think of his warning about him pulling a prank on me which he hadn't... yet.

"You came out of the office and I was waiting for you because," he tried to smile but something was holding him back, "I was angry. It was my first day and I had already gone to the principal's office which was what I was trying to avoid. I wanted to and still do, as you said, keep a low profile." He explained and I kept nodding at everything to indicate my understanding.

I remembered the little incident outside Tony's office. It was the first time I had really looked into his eyes and for a second I had been transported to a place where there was happiness. Nothing else.

"You came out of the office and turned around, I remember how your eyes went a little wide but soon recovered though what you didn't recover from was staring at me." He smirked and I felt the tension break. Finally.

"Hey! It wasn't you I was staring at, it was your eyes." I corrected and he raised an eyebrow.

"So you admit you were staring into my eyes?" He questioned, amusement taking over his features.

My first instinct was to deny this because everyone else would but what was the use? Did I not just say exactly what I was about to deny, "You were right there, in my face. Of course I was staring in your eyes." I scoffed.

"Because that's what normal people do. Stare in strangers' eyes." He remarked.

"Mister you better watch yourself before another bucket of slime drops on you. Except I might replace the slime with a cat's pee." I countered, the playful way we were talking in made a warm feeling spread throughout my body. My hand subconsciously tightened around his.

He chuckled, "If anyone's pranking someone anytime soon it's going to be me." He proclaimed in an authoritative voice I had for the first time heard him use. It left no space for arguments. I liked it.

"Yeah yeah now continue with your reminiscing about how I stared at you outside Tony's office." I smiled at him.

"Tony?" He asked, his eyebrows drawing together in a frown.

Oops.

Tony's going to kill me.

It was a rule. No one finds out I was Tony's goddaughter. The board knew it which already kept Tony under strict surveillance. The student body or staff could not find out.

"Uh I meant the Principal's office." I tried to reprimand the situation but of course he was smarter than that.

"No." He dragged the word out, "You said Tony. As in Principal Anthony Nixon."

"Did I? Or is the wind just messing with your hearing?" I looked him straight in the eyes.

He looked at the little space between us, "No I think that's what I heard."

I sighed, "Fine! Tony's my godfather."

"See! I knew it." He let go of my hand to fist bump his other hand as if he had just solved a mystery he had been trying to for the past two years.

My hand felt empty without his and my fingers itched to grab it again, "Knew what?" I narrowed my eyes at him.

"I mean c'mon what principal would allow a prank to slide and instead focus on a guy mistakenly entering the girls' bathroom."

"Some would, lover boy, some would."

"Yeah. Tony." He deadpanned.

"Alright alright let's not talk about Tony," I did exactly what my fingers were screaming at me to do, I grabbed his hand again, taking him by surprise. "Continue." I tried to command.

He recovered quicker than I would have though his eyes kept stealing glances at our hands in my lap before I snapped my fingers in front of his face to make him look at me.

The blue of his eyes was alive again, "You stood there for a solid ten seconds which I don't think you realized," he was right. I thought it was just a second. I internally face-palmed myself, "and just stared at me, your doe-like brown eyes staring into mine as if they were seeing something in them I had never seen... so I stared back at you. I let you look at me while I looked at you. I don't think you ever realized that too."

"I didn't." I said, our eyes locked just as they always were. I was mesmerized, unable to think to even form a coherent sentence before curiosity took over, "What did you see in my eyes?"

"You."

One word.

Three letters.

One simple word yet the perfect answer.

"Cecily," He whispered and I could almost put a finger on what I was feeling, my heart on the verge of exploding, the butterflies in my stomach flapping their wings as if they had sniffed cocaine.

Cecily.

I had never thought of my name as anything special. It was just a word I heard over and over again being directed at me whenever someone called me.

Right now it felt special. This was the first time he had called me by my name. The beat of my heart was melodic to my ears, as if it had broken out in a song.

Oblivious to what I was feeling Romeo continued, "The reason I call you Juliet is because my-" he gulped, "My dad used to say 'One day, Romeo would find his Juliet and he'd know just by looking at her that it's her. It's Romeo's Juliet'."

The next words were whispered and even the wind had stopped as if anticipating what he was about to say, "When I looked at you, my first thought was what my dad had said. You're Romeo's Juliet."

***

I know for a fact this chapter is the shit!

Hell yeah I love this! The one chapter in this book I am proudly proud of 🤩

I don't know yet but I think the next chapter will come sooner so be ready 💛