Rosemary and Juliet

The Start of Summertime

Juliet

"I'd hug you, but I'll see you in like, two hours! I'll see you later, Juliet!" Rosemary bounded outside, hoping to say goodbye to her boyfriend, leaving Juliet to go home.

They were going to have one last day to hang out before Rosey went to her dad's house: watch The Fault in Our Stars in theaters, then have a sleepover and do random crap until Rosey had to pack.

****

The past month had been strange, to say the very least. Sure, once the Aadarsh situation started to heat up, they all knew that David was going to start realizing how absent from his relationship he had been all those months, but... this was just ridiculous.

He walked her to lunch, for starts.

There was a time that Juliet and Jennifer would meet up with Rosemary in the hallway and they'd all walk together to the cafeteria. Previous to this, the only time they'd ever walked down to David's locker together was the time of the Abraham Lincoln inside joke.

"Holy shit, I thought that was a person," Juliet gasped, laughing to realize it was just Lincoln's face.

"The... cardboard cutout of Lincoln in that door?" Rosemary asked.

"Yeah, wow, I really need to start paying attention."

"Because the image of an Abraham Lincoln becomes in it of itself an Abraham Lincoln..."

Rose's sarcasm was one of Juliet's favorite things about her, but the verbal irony mixed with a Doctor Who reference was almost too much, too perfect.

After that day, though? No. They didn't do that. Except now, he met her at her locker, and walked her to his, and then walked her to the cafeteria, leaving Juliet and Jennifer out. Not that Juliet was jealous, just very concerned about the way things were changing.

What concerned her the most, probably, was the fact that she knew he wasn't even fighting so hard because he loved her. He just felt threatened, and acted like fighting for her was the only way to feel like he was in control of the situation. God, how stereotypical and "masculine" of him to be doing. The entire relationship was just a pissing contest, and what sickened Juliet the most was that it was almost an undeniable fact that Rosemary knew, and she found it funny, so she just went with it. How could anyone be so amused with their own objectification? It was anti-feminist is what it was. Straight up disgusting, awful. Juliet was appalled.

But when Rosemary wasn't with David anymore, when it was just the two of them . . .

Juliet was in love.

It was ridiculous. She knew it was the truth and all, but it was ridiculous nonetheless. All she wanted was to protect Rosey from everything that was happening, but in the time she spent caring so violently for her, she managed to fall in love.

How could she not? They were best friends, so start with that. Rosemary was so clumsy and cute, awkward but confident in her ability to be in control of a situation. The way she knew she had nothing to worry about, knew she wasn't going to get hurt because at the end of the day, even if Aadarsh and David were jerks, she owned their asses. And she knew it. Juliet could tell, because of the sly little smirk that made its way onto her face whenever she was talking about it. And on top of that, Rosemary was smart, and talented, and she owned every bit of her identity.

As Juliet stood by, watching their lives unfold, she just felt herself falling so in love with Rosemary Montague.

She wondered if that was how Rosemary once felt falling in love with her.