Rosemary and Juliet

Derek

Rosemary

It was so weird to think that just a year and a half ago, she hated Caleb so much. Now, after just a week of talking, they had become so close. Seeing him at the football game was fun, and he certainly gave Blondie and his minions a bit of a scare.

The hatred for him stemmed from a seventh grade version of herself, who had been friends with Ember. It started when Ember admitted to Rose once that she liked Caleb. At the time, she didn't have the faintest clue who that was. She only knew what Ember told her . . .

"I mean, yeah, we like each other, but it's never going to go anywhere, you know? We're just best friends. We couldn't ever date, that would totally be absurd."

"Right, yeah," Rosemary would say, pretending to understand. She had no experience being in love with her best friend, yet, though. She had no clue the sort of decision that Ember was facing.

It didn't take too long for her to decide, though. Pretty soon after that conversation, Ember was dating Caleb, and Rosemary found out just who he was. They were holding hands after school one day, so she approached them, making the friendship threats that she had to make to any of the guys her friends dated.

"If you hurt her, I'll kill you," Rosemary promised him.

"You're like three feet tall," he laughed. "Em, she's not serious, is she?"

"She'd probably give kicking your ass her best shot," Ember shrugged.

Sure enough, a few weeks later, something was different. They weren't holding hands as they walked out of the school. They were on opposite sides of the sidewalk from each other, and even from roughly fifteen feet away, Rosemary could sense the all too familiar awkwardness. They'd broken up. She herself knew that first hand after her breakup with Nathan.

"Em, what happened?" she asked on the bus.

"It's really fine. Dating your best friend just isn't always the smartest choice."

"Tell me about it. I wish I didn't have to break up with Nathan," Rosemary empathized.

"You and Nathan weren't really in love, though. You'll figure that part out in time, I'm sure."

Of course, a year later, Rosemary learned that Nathan had been as gay as she was all along. Things not working out between Ember and Caleb wasn't really the full reason of her old hate for him, though . . .

"Rose? I heard that you got back with Nathan, what the fuck? Don't you know that this is just going to fuck him up?" Ember tried to explain over the phone.

"Um, no? And you're sure one to talk, didn't you just get back with Caleb?" Rosemary shot back accusingly.

"That's different," Ember insisted.

"Really? Is it?" Rose demanded.

"Yes! I love the guy."

Then, they broke up again. So did she and Nathan. She had adored Ember for a time, seeing her get her heart broken by the same guy twice was so frustrating. That wasn't even the end of it, though.

"Rose, did you actually kiss Nathan?" Ember sighed.

"You are back with Caleb for like the millionth time! At least Nathan and I had a platonic arrangement here, Em. Why do you keep getting back with him?"

That was their last breakup, and after that, apparently Caleb had mellowed way the heck out. After all of that, Rosemary just had no reason to not like him.