Ro (A Cyberpunk Retelling of Romeo and Juliet)

18

Sin from thy lips? O trespass sweetly urged!

Give me my sin again.

***

JULES CAPULET

"I'm telling you, they're totally undressing you with their eyes. You have been mauled by that stranger's oh-so-delightfully-dangerous staring, like mm—."

I blush, heating up so much I can feel the rose petals on my dress withering. I elbow Nutrix in the ribs, and he curses at me.

"What?" He sputters.

"Stop exaggerating. We just made eye contact is all." I mumble. "You know who the focus of the night is."

I can feel Jack Paris's mesmeric presence behind me, though he doesn't spare me much of a glance. He's just glad I look drop-dead gorgeous in this outfit. What I say doesn't much matter.

I content myself with the image of the muscular stranger with the dead-intense eyes. Dressed in blood-red with an ominous, almost skull-like mask. They're awfully attractive.

I try to busy myself with my outfit, maybe strike a pose or two for the paparazzi. I think I've forgotten entirely about the sensual stranger, when they ruin my plans by barreling towards me through the crowd.

How rude.

They take me gently by the arm and steer me away. The guards detach from the walls to secure me, but I fake a smile through gritted teeth, pretending I'm talking to a friend.

See, because the stranger's mask is askew. And it's the face of the cruelly clever stranger from my dream. The one who saved me from that freakish storm in the dream.

"We should speak in private." And with that, I whisk them into the house, scanning us into a Capulet house access-only corridor. I dim the lights on the digi-crystal interface. An unused ballroom of glass and mirrors, reflecting a thousand different faces back at us. Our shoes click against the marble, or at least mine do. The stranger's boots hush, like the pad of a predator against the forest floor.

"How did you enter my Eye-Lens interface. Are you a hacker?"

She turns to me with those melting eyes, and I forget to take a breath. Dammit. I've bedded half of New Verona and it's this total, weapon-wielding, hacker nobody who gets to me! Their grip on my arm is firm, confident. It takes a lot of skill to steer someone like this. Someone who knows how to lead on more than just a dance floor.

But those eyes, when the mask was askew. The slightly broken nose from brawls. The split lip that was healing. The bloodshot grin that was just a little too casual.

They're dangerous. Literally someone I should be running from, not towards.

But, of course, if there's an attractive, dangerous stranger, I must engage with them. It's what all the stories have taught me. A thrilling affair before signing on as a contract worker to Jack Paris. One last, forbidden fling before—.

"Your dress is..." she flushes, turning her eyes semi-respectfully away, "glitching."

"What?" I look down, panicking. Nutrix had to construct the torso portion of my dress last-minute through holograms. Incredibly realistic, but unreal, none-the-less. With the rate plants are dying in this city, and the horrible pollution of the gardens down south, the skirt alone was exorbitant. But now the torso is disappearing. Embarrassed, I take their proffered blood-red cloak. They look away from me, but not before smirking, glancing up and down.

The cloak is warm when I drape it around me. It smells like cinnamon, like a kitchen from old-times. Here, all my clothes are synthetic washed, and hardly ever worn twice.

"I don't know why I entered your dream domain." She murmurs, soft and low. I wrap myself up in the cloak, resting my head against the shoulders. Her plain shirt stretches over muscles and broad shoulders. I wince, seeing the bio-tech weapon barely hidden in her waistband. "Perhaps it was meant to be." She notices my nervous stare, glancing bemusedly at the bio-tech. "What, are you afraid of me, fair, rosy noble?"

"Nothing about me is fair." I snort.

She grins, gesturing at the weapon before tucking it away. "Same for me."

A pause. Suddenly the crystal lights dim. Suddenly, I want a scandal without the watching eyes. I want abandon without any ulterior motives. For once, I want someone to like me. Not seduction for the sake of pissing off my parents or the populace.

No, I want her to like me. I want the person who saved me in a dream and somehow found me at a wild party to like me. Like a stupid crush of a schoolchild, I'm not certain. Nothing about this moment is certain.

She looks at me through the mask, and I wear her cloak to hide my bare stomach and torso. Nestling, I move closer.

"Can I kiss you?" I ask her.

She smiles. "Naturalmente."

I move closer, bending to meet my mouth to hers. "Besas como un perro."

She laughs, then moves to kiss me again. "Guau, guau."

***

Hey, it's Ro Montague here. Don't forget to vote and comment... or else.

Your daily wisdom for the day?

Everything is natural, until it isn't.