Rosemary and Juliet

Confusion

Juliet

"Julietwillyougooutwithme?" Alexis had uttered something, but in between Jocelyn, Rosemary, Jennifer, and Andrea talking around her, Juliet had totally missed what she said.

"I'm sorry, Alexis, what was that?" she asked, noticing that as the words left her lips, Rosemary tensed up.

Everyone else seemed to have been equally confused as they all shut up and looked at Alexis. Well, everyone skip maybe Jocelyn and Rose. Rosemary laid a hand on their friend's arm as she repeated, "Juliet, will you go out with me?"

No one talked. Juliet blinked at Alexis, attempting to process it. What did she say? I mean, I know what she said, obviously I heard that. But, no . . . I misheard her. No. That did NOT just happen! Rosemary moved over to her and put an arm around her, shocking her senses back into reality.

"Uh . . . this is my I am a sociopath face . . ." Juliet said quietly. "Can we talk about this later?" Urgency had built up in her voice. The others were staring at them. Oh god, she thought. They know. They know I'm gay. I came out as bisexual but they know I'm gay. Alexis knows; I told her, of course she knows. But oh god.

When she made the move to tell Alexis that she was bisexual, it was for the need to share that with someone, and someone who it wouldn't affect too heavily. Something about telling Rosemary just seemed like the wrong move.

"Alexis, how did you know . . . that you weren't straight?" she'd asked her.

"Well, I guess I sort of always knew, deep down, but I couldn't deny it anymore when I started to like Allie. It just totally overwhelmed me, and there wasn't any use trying to convince myself that it wasn't true. Why do you ask?"

"Because . . . I think I'm bisexual." Even though it was only a half truth, it was the closest to honest that she'd been.

Now, though, she was noticing the error of her choice. It wasn't just that Alexis asked her out, or even that it was in front of everyone. It was that Rosemary was in total encouragement of it, it seemed. Why did that bother Juliet . . . ? It wasn't like she . . . No. Of course she didn't.

Anyways, rehearsal was starting soon, and she needed to pull herself together to play her part. She walked with Rosemary into the auditorium. They were in Hairspray together, and Juliet had the lead. Rosemary was in the ensemble, back up singing every song. Her enthusiasm made Juliet think that she could've easily passed for Penny, but then again, Aadarsh was Seaweed, and he had a crush on Rosey... That may not have panned out very well, in the end. STAY AWAY FROM ROSE, she demanded silently of her fellow cast member.

"I am a sociopath. A heterosexual sociopath," she pleaded with Rosemary. "Alexis knows that! Why did she ask me out?!?"

"Jocelyn told her to. She'll do anything her best friend says," Rosemary reasoned. "Besides, she told me she likes you 6/10. She isn't the only girl, either . . ."

What was that supposed to mean?! "Well, I'll be damned. I'm just a lesbian magnet. Who is the other girl, anyways?"

Rosemary turned red and looked away. "No one. Just someone. It's not like it matters. Plus, she isn't out of the closet." She didn't say anything for a moment before whispering, "By the way, I like how you did your hair today," and then walked away.

Rosemary has been acting different lately. She has always had moments of being shy around me, but this past week has been weird. I wonder if. . . Well, no, she didn't wonder. She had a fair amount of certainty that Rosemary definitely did.

She wasn't blind, and she wasn't stupid. It didn't exactly take a genius to decipher Rosemary's code around Juliet, especially as of late. There was a spark between them pretty much instantly when they first met, and ever since then, Juliet had been watching the change happen. It was almost like falling in reverse, the way that Rosemary started out so comfortable around her, but later became progressively more shy and cautious about her words.

It wasn't super obvious initially, but there came a point when Juliet could no longer deny it. That point was on the first day that Rose had ever been to Mr. Capulet's house.

"I forgot to tell you about a sort of . . . thing that happened this summer," Juliet began, leading her down the sidewalk.

"Ooh, do share!" Rosemary replied, falling into step with her.

"Well, you remember that guy I told you about last year?" Rosemary's smile wavered a bit, but she nodded. "Okay. We hung out a bit this summer, and he was just really nice and it was kind of cute and..." She realized she wasn't even sure how she was trying to tell the story. It was true that there had been some sort of moment between them, but the way she was saying it just made it feel stupid. She almost felt reluctant to tell Rosemary about it, for whatever reason.

Not that she seemed to be complaining that the story was over so quickly, though. "Well, that's good. I know how you almost never see him, so that's good. Man, I really hope things work for you two!"