Silence reigned for about a good two minutes before Aimee cleared her throat. "So... shall we begin?"

My eyes snapped up to hers. "O- of course! Why wouldn't we?"

"Right!" She gave a shaky laugh. "I mean, apart from the... kissing part, there's really not much difference between this and any other scene."

"True!"

"And besides, so what about the kiss scene? It's not like it'll be the first kiss for either of us, right? It's honestly not a big deal!"

I forced a laugh past my lips. "I honestly couldn't agree with you more!"

My face grew warm- well, warmer, as that lie left my lips. Don't get it twisted though, it wasn't my agreement with the fact that it wouldn't have been my first kiss that was a lie - I'd given that away about two years earlier to some girl Hans had introduced me to at one of his parties.

What was a lie was my agreement that it wasn't a big deal, because it was! Sure, I'd had sexual encounters with other girls, but not with any that I had to see on a regular basis, and certainly none with any I'd actually had a real emotional connection with!

Standing up, Aimee asked, "So, you ready?"

Gingerly, I nodded.

At that moment, I began regretting the fact that we weren't postponing the rehearsal for that scene until we got to it in Miss Delane's rehearsals. At least then I'd have been able to use the parts of the scene prior to Romeo finding Juliet's body to mentally prepare myself for the kiss.

(That thought dissipated once it occurred to me that if that had happened, I'd eventually have had to still kiss Aimee anyways - to make matters worse, in front of a whole crowd of people).

However, seeing as the other actors weren't present, Aimee and I had to skip straight to the scene where Romeo discovered Juliet's body.

Honestly, I'm not sure the way I ran through Romeo's monologue then was even convincing. As much as I tried to become Romeo and envision Juliet lying before me, I just couldn't. All I could see was Aimee laying on the carpet before me, with her eyes closed.

And I was about to kiss her.

Despite my mental state, my body clearly had no problem with the idea. My eyes brought my attention down to her lips when I neared the part of the speech I was meant to kiss her at, taking in their plump, pink forms.

In spite of my reluctance, I couldn't take my eyes off them.

And so when the time came for me to kiss her, I leaned forward. Her Jasmine perfume wafted into my nose as the distance between us lessened. I could feel my heartbeat increasing as butterflies began to flutter about in my stomach, and something began to stir-

"Wait!"

I jerked back the instant that word left Aimee's lips, barely dodging her head as it came flying up. "Wh- what is it?"

"I- I just remembered that you- you're meant to drink poison, right? So, um, you should... you should have a cup near you! So that, you know, you g- get more into character!"

Was that a flimsy excuse?

Well, of course!

However, I certainly had no intention of pointing that out to her then! Besides, I felt a bit better knowing that I wasn't the only one feeling hesitant about the situation (if her excuse hadn't already shown that, then the red color staining her cheeks certainly would have).

Quickly, I nodded. "O- of course. So are you going to get one, or sh- should I?"

Aimee didn't reply to that. In fact, her face seemed to get even redder than it had already been before then.

I frowned. "Hey, did you-"

My voice caught in my throat when I finally realized what her eyes were fixated upon. Heat rushed over my face the instant her reaction suddenly began making perfect sense to me.

Let's just say that I regret having worn tight sweatpants that day.

An eternity seemed to pass between us before I finally choked out, "I... I haven't done anything sexual with anyone for a few months now."

"Angelo-"

"M- matter of fact, the- the last time I jerked off was a few weeks ago-"

"Please stop talking."

"Okay."

We both averted our eyes from each other then. A certain part of me... calmed down, but by then the damage had already been done.

I really wished the ground would open and swallow me up.

"You know what?"

Clearing my throat, I looked back at Aimee, whose eyes were fixated elsewhere. "Wh- what?"

"Well... do we even need to practice this scene now? I- I mean, we both know how to kiss, right? Why... we can just do that part on stage, and substitute that for a hug or-or something else during rehearsals. That sounds good to you?"

"Y- yeah! Of course, sounds good!"

Regardless of the fact we had come to that decision, the silence that fell upon us after my agreement didn't feel any less awkward than the last. Most likely, I wasn't the only one who felt that way.

So I did us both a favor by blurting out, "Uh, I should- I should go apologies to your brother. I mean, for strangling-"

"Of course, that's a great idea!"

Nodding, I scrambled off the floor and quickly walked out of the room, avoiding her eyes as I walked past her. It was only when my feet had already begun flying up the stairway that it occurred to me I had no idea which bedroom belonged to Tim. But since I had no intention of walking back into the living room then, I decided to just knock on random doors and try my luck.

Luckily for me, when I got to the first floor I could hear music floating out from one of the rooms, so I headed in that direction. For a while, I just stood in front of the room when I got to it, contemplating whether to even bother knocking. After all, it wasn't like I was particularly eager to talk to Tim. However, the thought of Aimee meeting me in the hallway pushed me to raise a hand up and rap it sharply against the door severally.

A few moments later, Tim opened his door, bristling once he saw me. "Oh, it's you. What do you want?"

I gave him a smile that probably looked more forced than anything else. "Hey. Can I come in?"

"I suppose you're going to try choking me to death again if I don't say yes?"

Wincing, I let out a dry laugh. "Careful, you just might tempt me to do so."

Tim didn't even so much as smile at my attempt at humor, but he walked back into his room shortly after, leaving the door open behind him. I followed after him, scanning my eyes across the large room after I had walked into it.

To my surprise, it looked rather neat. The walls were covered in nothing other than their cream paint job. A soft carpet covered the entire floor, upon which stood a large bed, closet, two tables, and a couch. A TV hung on the wall facing his bed, and it was displaying the pause menu of a game on its screen.

Dropping down onto his bed, he once again focused a glare at me. "So, what is it?"

"Hmm? Oh, right. I'm here to- well, that is to say... maybe I went too far by... you know."

He scoffed. "Yeah, no kidding."

Rubbing my neck, I sheepishly grinned. "I definitely could have handled that situation better. So, I guess what I'm trying to say is... I mean... we're good now, right?"

His lips remained tightly pressed together as he held my gaze. When he finally looked away, he sighed, then grumbled, "Well, at least you have the decency to apologize."

It doesn't take a genius to understand the meaning behind those words.

Cautiously, I walked towards the couch and sat down. "I assume you're still pissed at your sister?"

"Why wouldn't I be? She's the one who betrayed me!"

"Hmm... you know, she isn't going to tell your dad about your gambling-"

His eyes burned as they flashed up to mine. "She told you about that? Why am I not surprised!"

"Well she did, but-"

"I told her that in confidence, you know? I didn't even have to tell her honestly, I could have just lied to her that my school's holding their midterm break early. It's not like she'd have found out I was lying, considering how much of a fuck her or my dad give about my life anyway!"

Suddenly, I began to get what I suspect to have been an inkling of an idea behind Tim's reason for acting out.

As I thought about the possibility, Tim carried on. "I mean, who is she to lecture me about school behavior anyways? She's the one who got fucking expelled from school, so what right does she have to judge me just because I got suspended? Besides, it's not like this is my first time doing it, I just, unfortunately, happened to get caught now!"

When Tim paused in order to suck in angry breaths, I asked, "By the way, if you don't mind me asking, how did you get caught?"

"I don't know." He huffed, settling back on the bed. "Someone must have snitched because it's not like a teacher caught us doing so directly."

"I see. And so you think that because you got snitched on, and you weren't caught in the act, that makes your situation somehow better?"

"Right!"

"Actually, wrong."

He stiffened. "What?"

"Regardless of whether you caught in the act or not, the fact remains that you got caught. So now, you have to face the consequences."

"Oh, I see what's going on now! My sister put you up to this, didn't she?"

I could see him closing off from me as he said that, preparing himself into a defensive position.

After doing some quick thinking, I barked out a laugh. "Put me up to this? Heavens no!"

Just as I expected, my denial didn't reassure him. So, leaning forward, I lowered my voice. "In fact, she might not be too happy about what I'm about to tell you."

He narrowed his eyes. "Really?"

"Yup. See, I'm not going to pretend that I'm a saint, because I'm not. Neither am I going to take back what I said about you deserving whatever consequences you may get because you do. Now, I'm not encouraging you to break school rules, but if you are... at least have the common sense not to get caught doing it!"

Yep, I indeed said that. What can I say, I never pretended to be a great role model!

Tim's eyes widened, then he hissed, "I told you-"

I shook my head. "Ah ah ah, no excuses! You say someone snitched on you? Well, then you should have covered your tracks better! Did your principal have any proof against you?"

He was silent for a bit, but his cheeks flushed.

I smirked. "My thoughts exactly. So, since we've established the fact that clearly you only have yourself to blame for the situation you're in, do you still believe that you don't deserve to face the repercussions of your actions?"

"Th- that's not the point! My point is that regardless of whether I deserve it or not, Aimee still- she still doesn't have the right to punish me for it when she's done much worse herself!"

"You still don't get it, do you?" Shaking my head, I sighed. "Aimee isn't punishing you because of what you did, she's punishing you because you got caught doing it!"

Tim's mouth dropped open, but no words came out of it. Then a few seconds later, he choked out, "W- wait, seriously? She told you that?"

I nodded. "Mhm."

I watched as my lie penetrated his defenses, weakening the guard he had built up with every passing second.

"Ooh. I didn't think about it that way."

"Well, at least now you know. So, what lesson have you learned today?"

"Th- that I shouldn't get caught next time?"

"Actually, it's more that you should be ready to face consequences if you do, but whatever." Shrugging, I got up from the couch, then began to walk towards his room door.

Before I left his room, I looked back at him. "Oh yeah, don't mention the lesson to Aimee, alright? I doubt she'd appreciate the fact I told you about the real reasoning behind her actions. She still has to play the big sister role, you know."

Looking back at me, Tim grinned. "Ohh, of course! I got you."

I shot him a wink before I stepped out of the room, barely managing to close the door behind me before the first of the sniggers broke out of my lips.
. . .

As I stared at the TV screen, I realized that I had been a fool.

I should have known that bout of happiness wouldn't last.

Even when I think about it today, I still marvel at how quickly the situation had changed. How my swagger had slowed down until it had come to a stop when I'd seen Aimee's face in the living room. How my befuddlement at her wide eyes had turned into shock when I'd turned my attention towards the scene playing out on the TV...

'....reported just after 8 pm... the woman was found with a gunshot wound... authorities rushed her to a hospital as soon as they arrived at the scene-'

Of course, it hadn't been the reporter's words that had sent me into a state of shock.

It was the fact that the scene being shown on the screen looked a lot like the area around Dylan's house.
. . .

What did you think of this chapter? Leave your thoughts in comments, and please don't forget to vote if you enjoyed it!

Till next time!

(P.S. I'm gonna go hide from some of y'all who are out for my head because I didn't give you the kiss 😥🏃💨)