"O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?" I bellow, sticking my head out of Jackson's room. I look around his room and find one of Jackson's boxers that are laying on the floor. Closing my eyes, I wave it out the window like a handkerchief. I then place the back of my hand on my forehead and let out a dramatic sigh.

After school we decided to head over to Cold Stone to get some ice cream. We ended up staying there a couple hours longer because the damn counter lady wouldn't stop trying to flirt with Jack. It seems that she didn't understand the meaning of 'I don't like you, just give us our ice cream.' Then afterwards we decided to head over to his house to start the project. When we got out of Jack's car his house keys fell from his hand and I grabbed them and locked him out of the house. Now an hour later he's still looking up at his window at me, waiting for me to let him in. "Deny thy father and refuse thy name; Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, And I'll no longer be a Capulet."

"Juliet, O Juliet! If thy doesn't let me in, I'll kick thous assth!" He yells up at me, crossing his arms.

I stood there for a second pretending to think. Jackson looks about ready to break the front door down. He then opened his backpack and dumped everything onto the floor. Before I knew it a book was being thrown at my head. I duck behind the windowsill and watch as all of Jack's school supplies fly into the window.

"Let me in!" He screamed, finally throwing his backpack.

"Not with that attitude." I reply, poking my head out the window.

"I swear to god if you don't let me in, I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow this goddamn house in." He crosses his arms with a grin. I can't help but start laughing. When we were around 8 years old we would build huge pillow forts and play The Three Little Pigs. He was the wolf and I was the pigs, by the time he huffed and puffed we ended up just pretending we were Godzilla destroying a city.

Deciding that he's been outside long enough, I close the window and start making my way downstairs. On the way down I pass by some of the pictures on the wall. Most of them were pictures of Jackson and his little brother Chris. There was also one with the 3 of us dressed up for Halloween, it was taken when me and Jack were still in elementary school. Jackson and I dressed up as Jasmine and Aladdin while Chris wanted to dressed up as the rug. He was only 6 at the time, now he's 12 and he's the most outgoing, down to earth kid you will ever meet. He likes going to charity conventions, he goes to the hospitals around the city to help out part time, and he's planning to become a children's doctor. This kid will do great things when he gets older, I mean look at what he's doing now.

When I open the front door Jackson's know where to be seen. He's going to murder me and hide my body under the house, I just know it.

"Romeo?" I call out. I sound like a little girl that's lost looking for her mother, that's how scared I am. Reluctantly I walk out of the door and onto the lawn. The sun's just about to set which means I don't have much time to work with Jack on our project. I turn around towards the house and see that there's a giant grey cloud rolling over the house. Great it'll be storming soon too.

"Jackson, where the hell are you? It's going to rain soon and we still need to start our project." I call out spinning around and walking a little bit towards the side of the house where his window is. The slamming of the front door makes me run back to the front of the house. I quickly walk up to the door and pull on the handle. It's locked. Karma, you bitch. "Jackson open the damn door!"

I made the mistake of leaving the house keys upstairs. Why am I so stupid?

"I'm sorry Juliet, did you say something?" Jack yells out from his room window. I run round the house and find him with a shit eating grin plastered onto his face. That handsome bastard.

"Jackson Michael Roberts you open that door right this instant." I'm very close to the point of shaving his head while he's asleep.

"You look a little young to be my mother, my sweet Juliet." He tries to say in between laughs. I open my mouth to say something but stop when I feel water hit my head. Looking up, rain begins to pour down. You have got to be fucking kidding me. All I can hear while steam's blowing out of my ears is rain hitting the ground and Jackson's laughter. If I could I would go full on She-Hulk on his ass.

I'm not sure how long I've been standing out here in the rain but it's long enough that I can already fell the pneumonia seeping into my skin. So far I've thought of 20 different ways to kill Jack and where to hide the body. I'm 95% sure no one will find it.

I'm still standing under his window staring at the ground shivering. The sun set awhile ago and it was now pitch black outside. Jack closed his window and curtains about 20 minutes ago, probably playing video games. I sigh and walk back to the front of the house. Unlike most of the houses in the neighborhood, this one doesn't have a porch. Walking up the steps, I'm about to knock on the door but it already opens. Jack appears through the doorway grinning but it soon disappears. He immediately wraps his arms around my shoulders and leads me into the house.

"I'm such a fucking idiot." He mumbles to himself. You got that right buddy. I can tell he feels guilty but I'm too pissed off to tell him that this was fine, because it wasn't. He deserves to wallow in guilt for a little bit.

Leading me up the stairs, Jack continues mumbling things to himself. My body's still shivering and my teeth begin to chatter. Every step I take I can hear the water in my shoes making a soft squishy sound. It's not the best feeling in the world. I remember walking home from school when I was little, jumping in puddles and how much fun it was to get water in my shoes. Now I'd rather eat a soft grape, okay not a soft grape maybe a slightly rotten apple. Never mind that's disgusting.

When we finally got up to Jack's room he immediately starts looking for clothes I can change into. I watch him for awhile until he finds a pair of sweat pants I left here last week and his old rugby shirt. Taking the clothes from his hands I start to make my way towards his bathroom. Before I make it to the door he grabs my arm and pulls me into his chest. Jack rests his chin on my head and starts rubbing my shoulders and back to warm me up. I can feel the water on me soaking into his shirt but he didn't seem to care. Finally he kisses my head and walks out of the room.

I peel off my wet clothes and slip on the dry ones Jack gave me. Walking into his bathroom I place my wet clothes into the sink. I'll just leave them here so his mom can wash it. I pull the shirt that's beginning to stick to my still wet bra from my chest. It's too bad most of my clothes aren't here anymore. Jack's room use to be filled with my them from all the years of us having sleepovers. It was almost to the point where we had to buy my own dresser to put in his room, but then the girls he'd bring home would always ask questions about all the girly clothes that was all over his floor. Eventually he asked me to just take all my clothes back home because I was messing up his game.

Looking down, I find Jack's hair brush on the sink and decide to brush my hair out since it's beginning to get really stiff and frizzy. Pulling out my ponytail I attempt to brush out all the knots, but soon give up and just tie it into a messy bun. The water on my glasses are almost dry and are starting to form little water marks. I wipe them off and finally head out of the bathroom.

I don't feel like going downstairs because Im still pissed at Jack but I know he feels really bad about what happened. Well I guess he's felt guilty long enough.

Making my way downstairs I can smell freshly made pancakes. When I reach the kitchen the sight's almost as good as the smell. Jack's at the stove, wearing his jeans but no shirt, and making pancakes. Those are two things I like, shirtless guys and pancakes. I'm not saying I like Jackson, I'm just simply acknowledging how attractive he is. You would have to be blind not to.

"You didn't have to make me pancakes." I walk up next to him, trying my damn hardest not to let my eyes wander downward. Its not an easy thing to do. Ugh, now I'm acting like those girls that ogle him at school.

"Are you kidding? I feel like I should buy you a puppy or something. Or an entire fucking zoo." He mumbles, placing the last batch of pancakes on a plate. "How could I have just left you out there in the rain for almost an hour?" Jack says more to himself. In the mean time I grab a bottle of syrup and two plates. We both go into the living room and place everything onto the coffee table. Picking up the remote, I turn on the tv.

"Jack, it's fine. We've played in the rain plenty of times." I reassure him while he hands me a plate and a pancake that's shaped like a dinosaur. I like my pancakes to look like dinosaurs and he likes them as trucks. It's something we never really grew out of it.

"I know, but I left you out there while I sat inside playing video games like a fucking dumbass." I knew it. Jack leans back into the sofa and shoves an entire pancake into his mouth, pouting like a baby. Shouldn't I be the one pouting and giving him a hard time?

"Alright Prince Pouty, suck it up. I'm fine, see." I stand up in front of him and spread my arms out. Jack then takes the opportunity to begin looking me up and down scrutinizing every inch of my body, making sure I really was fine. I start to squirm under his stare feeling a little self conscious. Right when I'm about to put my arms down and sit back on the couch, I let out a sneeze so loud I'm pretty sure all of Virginia Beach heard it.

"Yeah you're definitely fine." He rolls his eyes, standing up and walking to the kitchen. I plop back down onto the couch and begin eating my pancakes, now I'm the one pouting. Out of nowhere I start coughing uncontrollably. This is not going to be a fun night. Finally Jack comes back with some tea.

"Dad use to make this for us when we got sick." He says quietly. I take a sip of tea and try my hardest not to spit it out. Holy shit, that's disgusting!

"Oh yeah, this is so good." I try to smile. I take another sip and almost gag. God it taste like ginger.

"I know you hate ginger, but it'll help with your throat." He laughs. Closing my eyes I chug down the rest of the tea, covering my mouth so I don't throw up. Might as well get it over with. "Well that's one way to do it."

For the next couple hours all we really did was watch reruns of I Love Lucy. Jack's asleep facing the t.v. with his head leaning to the side on top of mine and I'm curled up next to him. 10:30 Jack fell asleep and I was about to as well, but the sound of the front door opening made me sit up. All the lights were off in the house except for the t.v., and the storm outside wasn't making this situation any better. I stand up, being very careful not to wake up Jack, and grab the closest thing to me, which was a long statue of a giraffe. I walk over to the front door and see it's closed. I turn the light that's above the front door on and look around. Maybe it was just the t.v. I lower the giraffe and turn around.

"What are you doing?" I scream and swing the statue. "Hey watch it, what are you trying to do kill me?"

Opening my eyes I see Chris looking at me like I'm a complete psycho, dripping with water from head to toe. He still has his backpack and school uniform on.

"Sorry, you just scared me. I thought you were staying over at a friends house tonight to work on your science fair project." I set the statue down and walk Chris upstairs to his room. He puts his backpack on the ground and falls backwards onto his bed. I can kind of make out a red mark on his cheek and some blood on his lip.

"I was, but we kind of disagreed on some things. I was only pointing out that fungi build their walls out of chitin but he didn't agree with me, next thing you know we're fighting. I was winning, but then he got his older brother to kick my ass." He rolls his eyes. "Peter could never finish his own fights. I decided enough was enough and just left."

Chris didn't look mad or even slightly pissed off, he looked calm. Which is weird. If I were him I'd be breaking things and plotting my revenge.

"How old is his brother?" I ask sitting down next to him. Anger was slowly starting to build in my chest. When it comes to Chris I get extremely protective. I've known him since he was four, he's the younger brother I've always wanted. If I'm mad, depressed, sad, bored, or even super hyper, Chris is always there if Jack isn't.

"Almost 18, he goes to your school. His name is Bradley Parks." Chris then rubs his eyes and yawns. "Don't tell Jack, he'll flip."

"I won't, now go to sleep you have school tomorrow." I give him a hug and get up to leave. "Night kiddo."

"Night." He calls back. I close his door and walk back downstairs.

Bradley Parks. Yup I know the guy. He was on my dodge ball team in gym class one time in freshmen year and ended up throwing a dodge ball at my face, sending me to the nurses office. Afterwards Jack got all the boys in the locker room to throw dodge balls at him while he was butt naked.

I won't tell Jack, because I'm going to deal with that no good bastard myself. I mean who beats up a 12 year old? But how am I going to get him back, I'll have to plan this out carefully. Asshole won't expect a thing.

When I get back down to the living room I pick up the plates we left on the coffee table and syrup bottle, taking it to the kitchen. I quickly wash them and put them to dry on the dish rack. It's almost 11 so I text my mom telling her I'm spending the night at Jack's. His mom's not home but it's not an unusual thing.

Since Jack's dad left, his mom had to get another job to support them. So she's never really home. Jack didn't want his mom working so many hours so he got a job at a car repair shop. He only works on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays, but it helps pay the bills.

Walking back to the living room I notice that Jack's now sprawled along the couch like a starfish. I shake his shoulder to wake him up but he doesn't budge. An idea then pops into my head making me grin. I kneel down, facing Jack, and poke his face.

"Jack wake up or else I'll jump on you." I whisper. He turns his face away with a grunt. "Fine, but I warned you."

I climb onto the arm rest of the couch where his feet are and let myself fall back on top of him. I end up sitting on his stomach while he yells out in pain.

"Holy shit Vini, get your fat ass off of me!" He screams trying to throw me off. I just shake my head and lean all the way back. "Your hair's in my mouth." He complains, making a spitting sound.

"Then get up." I cross my arms. After a while he gives up and just lays there. "You know what, I'm actually really comfortable."

"How am I suppose to get up when you're laying on me?" Jack asks in frustration. Well he does have a point.

As I sit up he grunts in pain and tries to push me off. When I'm finally off of him he stands up and pushes me back down on the couch. I then feel something really heaving sitting on my chest.

"Doesn't feel good does it?" Jack grins. He leans all the way back like I did and closes his eyes pretending to sleep.

"Okay I get it, now get the hell off of me." I plead. Jack doesn't make a sound and I could feel his shoulders slowly rising and falling. He better not be asleep. "Jack." I whine.

"You know I like when you say my name like that." He smirks. I place my hands on either sides of his stomach and squeeze. Jack lets out a high pitched squeal and I quickly push him to the floor.

"Lavinia." Jack says with a grunt, rubbing his arm that hit the edge of the coffee table.

"You know I like when you say my name like that." I smirk back at him. He looks back at me with a deadpan expression, then his mouth turns up into a sneer. Uh oh.

I quickly get up and run to the stairs. Turning my head, I see Jack close behind me. Lavinia don't you dare fall while running up the stairs like a dumb girl in a horror movie. You're smarter than that. Son of a bitch I fell.

Thankfully I recover fairly well and continue up the stairs. I spot Jack's room and run in, but he's too close behind me for me to turn around and close the door. When I finally thought I lost, he closes the door and turns the light off. I'm going to die. I didn't even get to try out that new taco place they opened up last week.

"Um, Jack? I know you want to kill me and all but can we just go to sleep and finish this-" I was cut off by someone tackling me down onto the bed and straddling my waist. Their hands went straight to my sides and started tickling me. All I can do is scream and kick my legs. This is torture, tickle torture. "Stop please I'm begging you, oh the agony. Jack!"

"I like it when you beg, say my name again." He snickers as he continues to tickle me, he is literally the spawn of satan.

"Get off you fat lard." I try to say between wheezes and laughter. That just makes him dig his fingers more into my stomach. My hands are attached to his arms with a death grip and I'm trying to dig my nails as deep as I can so he'd get off. But it doesn't seem to faze him. I'm running out of options. His legs are pinning my legs down so I can't knee him in the balls. I'm trying not to squirm under him because it would just make this situation extremely awkward. But I of course do exactly what I didn't want to do. My back then arches up from the bed making my hips connect with his. Jack lets out a strangled moan and we both immediately stop. You can practically hear the air conditioner blowing it was so quiet. Me and Jack aren't even breathing anymore. I feel Jack slowly get up from the bed and walk to the door to turn the lights back on. As soon as they come on we can't even look at each other.

"Um, we should go to sleep now. It's pretty late." Jack says scratching the back of his head.

"Finally, you guys are so damn loud." Chris yells from his room. Me and Jack both begin to blush. Trying not to make things weirder than they already are, I climb under the covers on my side of Jack's bed and lay down. After a while Jack turns the lights back off and does the same. When he lays down next to me I can practically feel his body heat and I'm doing everything I can not to scoot closer to him, so I can be wrapped in his arms. I always had this sense of security whenever I was around Jack, because I knew he would never hurt me on purpose. He would protect me at school when no one else would. At the same time I'd get angry when he'd stand up for me because I always felt that I wasn't strong enough to do it myself. But this year's going to be different. I'm going to graduate with the satisfaction of not letting people push me around and downgrade me. I know it doesn't seem like I'm strong enough, but I know I am now. I just need the right push, and I think Jack can help me with that. He believes that I can stand up for myself, he always has.

Everything from his smile, to the gleam in his eyes, to the way he speaks to me tells me that he knows I'm strong enough to fix my own problems. From now on I won't depend on Jack to fight my battles, because one day he won't be there. As hard as that is to except.

After graduation we'll be going our separate ways. I don't know what he's going to do but I know I'll miss him. I'll miss his laugh, his blue eyes, his dark brown hair, the scar I gave him above his eyebrow, his stupid smirk, his hands the way they can go from fixing cars to carefully helping me fix my hair before school, I'll even miss his rambling of how much better at school he is than I am. I'll also miss the way he-

Well fuck, I think I'm falling for my best friend.

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