Rome & Julie

Chapter 25

Hey guys! I really appreciate you reading this story, since it's been my baby for a few years now.  I'm trying to get updates in as soon as I can, but my classes are a bit rigorous this semester.  So we'll see how it goes.  Also, if you could do me a HUGE favor and vote for this, because it is entered in the Watty Awards.  Tell your friends! Vote, comment, let me know what you think. And thank you again for reading.

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Why?  Why would Mrs. Madden do this?  It didn’t make any sense.  After all of her pushing, all of her persistence, and she was finally ready to let us alone… except now things were different.  Rome and I were… a thing.  And I never minded marrying him, but I sure as hell never wanted Cecilia to marry him.  Cecilia?!  What the hell?

The thought of Cecilia ever kissing Rome, let alone marrying him literally made me nauseous.  I couldn’t let that happen.  I didn’t care what I had to do or say to Elizabeth Madden; I’d fight her every step of the way.  Rome was mine.

Wiping my tears away from my face, I stared myself down in the mirror, straight into my icy eyes.

“You can do this,” I told my reflection, noting that I looked like a complete mess.  My hair looked clearly slept on, its previously pin straight style now a bit frizzled.  My face was splotchy; a product of my sudden bawl.  I remembered that I still hadn’t checked the time, on account of me finding that my world was in danger of falling apart.  Everything I’d grown up with, everything in my life, all of it… could change, just because Mrs. Madden was an arctic bitch.

After washing my face, I quietly padded across the plush, beige carpet, back out into the bedroom, and picked up Rome’s phone to look at the time. It read 6:12, and I calculated that Rome and I had been asleep for about two hours.  I placed Rome’s phone back where I had found it, knowing that he’d see the message was shown as read anyway.  I wasn’t sure if he would bring it up with me however, since he’d tried so hard to keep me out of the loop.

Rome had mentioned that our reservations were at 8:00, so I had some time to get ready.  Still quite a bit shaken, I took a hot shower, attempting to wash away my troubles.  Safe to say that didn’t work.  While I was getting ready, I couldn’t get the idea of Rome and me not getting married out of my mind.  The prospect had never occurred that it would happen.  I assumed that it was a done deal, and not something to be changed just because Mrs. Madden thought Rome was getting distracted by me or something.

While I was curling my last section of hair with the thick curling iron I’d brought with me, Rome drug himself into the bathroom, rubbing his eyes sleepily.  The sight of him caused my heart to squeeze painfully.  Would there be a day—maybe even a day in the near future—that I would look at Rome and not be able to call him mine?

“What’s wrong?” I snapped out of my gloomy thoughts and locked gazes with Rome in the mirror.  I let the hair wrapped around the styling iron fall off, and looked away from Rome to watch it plummet gracefully over my shoulder.  The curls were perfect; loose, large, and beautiful.  I wished that I could feel beautiful.  “Hey...” Rome’s voice softened and I felt his hand on my shoulder, probing me to turn and face him.  I placed the curling iron on the counter by the sink, and allowed him to turn me around.  “Jules?  What’s the matter?”

And for reasons I couldn’t explain, the tears came back, and this time with a renewed vigor.  Rome pulled me to his chest and held me there, close to his heart, and I wished that everything could be alright.  I had thought it was bad when Mrs. Madden wanted Rome and I together, and now we were.  But for her to want us separated… could she manage to do that,too?  And there was also another question plaguing my thoughts, and driving my tears to intensify.