Rome & Julie

Chapter 21

~Rome~

I ran outside, the feeling of Julie’s sobs shaking my body still crawling on my skin.  I never wanted to have to hold her again because she was truly crying.  The feeling was haunting.

Jeremy sat in his car, holding the steering wheel with one hand, other holding the icepack to his face, and staring straight ahead.  I wanted to hit him, and/or kill him.  He didn’t deserve to have Julie cry over him.  He manipulated her, making her feel bad, even though he and I both knew she did absolutely nothing wrong.  I should’ve killed him.  But I decided that I wouldn’t put Julie through that.

I walked cautiously over to Jeremy’s car, standing outside the driver’s side door, waiting.  For a while, Jeremy didn’t acknowledge my presence and that I was waiting for him.  But then, finally, he rolled down the window.  I decided, for Julie’s sake, to start out with a mature approach.

“I’m sorry for breaking your nose, man,” I said, looking down at him.  I couldn’t help but notice Jeremy’s jaw clench.

“No, you’re not,” He sneered, and turned his head to glare at me.  I knew he was right.  I wasn’t sorry.  He’d kissed my Julie.  That was unforgivable.

“For Julie’s sake, yeah, I am.  Because I care about her enough to put my feelings aside and think about her.  How she feels.  That’s more than you can say.”

“Well you know what, Rome?  I love her.  I love Julie.  Do you?  Huh?  Do you love Julie?”  Jeremy pressed, striking me silent.  Did I love her?  I had just figured out that I had more-than-friend feelings for her not so long ago.  “See?  You don’t,” Jeremy muttered after my stunned silence.

“Don’t tell me how I feel about Jules.  That’s none of your concern,” I said in a low voice, hearing the clear anger lacing my words.

“Your being defensive only shows that you know I’m right.  And you and I both know that if you weren’t in the picture, Julie would be with me,” Jeremy stated, glaring at me with pure loathing.

“I doubt that.”  I crossed my arms over my chest, wishing more than anything that Jeremy would leave Julie alone, and be satisfied that she only loved him as a brother.  But it was Jeremy we were talking about.  He liked to make things as difficult as possible for everyone else if he wasn’t getting his way.  And no matter what, I was going to make sure that in the end, he didn’t get his way.  Because that meant getting Julie.

“Rome, you don’t understand,” Jeremy said, sounding vulnerable for the first time in our conversation.  I didn’t say anything, and just waited for him to continue.  “You got her, Rome.  You can’t see it from my view, because you got her.”  His voice was so soft, that I could hardly hear the words brushing past his lips.  “Just imagine, her picking me.  How would that make you feel?  How would that make you feel?”  I was silent still, unable to speak.  I didn’t want to imagine Jules picking Jeremy.  I knew she never would, since she and I had been engaged her whole life.  Not to mention that Julie wasn’t exactly a sucker for love.  “Can you blame me for trying, Rome?  Honestly?”  Jeremy said, looking more crestfallen and less like a prick the more words that came from his mouth.

“No, Jeremy.  I don’t.  But you could’ve used your words to try, rather than kissing her.  You had to have known that that wasn’t going to go over well with her.  And then you make her feel bad, even though she did nothing wrong.”

“She deserves to feel bad!  If she didn’t before, then that would’ve been a little heartless, don’t you think?”

“No, I don’t.  She can’t help that she doesn’t love you, so she shouldn’t feel bad for something she cannot control.  Even though she told you that, you still couldn’t respect her enough to just back off,” I pointed out, watching as Jeremy’s expression fall, and realization that he was wrong come over him.