Rosemary and Juliet

Everything Stops...

Juliet

She shouldn't have really been surprised or anything to hear that Rosemary was pale for Ryan. He was practically all she talked about, anyways. But it didn't stop her from feeling quadratically locked out to her best friend. Every day, Rosemary got closer and closer to Ryan and both of the Seths, and it made her feel like they were drifting farther and farther apart, especially since the whole Germany thing happened.

As December rolled in, Juliet noticed how their locker smelled less and less like pumpkin pie and more and more like cinnamon. Rosemary must have put one of her damned air freshener things in there . . .

"Rosemary, get your cinnamon shit out of our locker," Juliet requested.

"What? But it's Christmastime, Jules!!" she insisted. "Cinnamon is the smell of Christmas!"

"You look like a walking candy cane, Rosey." Juliet shook her head and walked away, going to her first hour class.

Maybe a year ago, the infatuation with becoming the season would've presented itself to Juliet as being adorable, but for some reason, it just really pissed her off. Like, when she first met Rosey, she was so perfect in her eyes, no flaws at all. Then, she saw the flaws, but didn't really care that much. Finally, the flaws were just starting to annoy her.

Some days, she shut her out completely, not a single word to one another except for helping on math homework. Other days, she acted as though the summer never happened, and then there were the times she acted like the summer never ended.

It was all childish and overwhelming, honestly. Juliet didn't understand what was going on with her. Were they even best friends anymore? It was like Rose was trying to rewrite their history, some days it was erasing, other days it was filling in the margins. Their story wasn't a book that needed editing, though. It wasn't something that spellcheck could fix.

Juliet was coming to accept that it had ended a long time ago. It was just a matter of waiting for Rosemary to catch up.

****

Then, there was the week that Caleb went to the hospital.

"Rosemary, are you okay?" she asked her friend gently. Rosemary seemed particularly upset that morning, and Juliet didn't know why.

"Yes, I just . . ." Rose would stop and stare at nothing for a moment before continuing. "Caleb tried to kill himself last night. He charged me with telling one of his friends that he was okay. He had time to text one person, and he texted me. Why me?"

Juliet sighed. This seemed to keep happening to Rosemary, seeing someone she'd taken under her wing try to hurt themselves. It was almost as if she attracted that sort of problem. "He's going to be alright, though, right? He just wanted you to be the first to know that he was getting help."

"Why did he choose to tell me to make sure that everyone knew he was going to be okay? Why not anyone else? He trusted me, Juliet." It was the closest Rose had been to crying since the night they thought Alec died.

"You two have a weird and special bond that no one can possibly comprehend. It's probably what he wished you'd have done, honestly." That was certainly what Juliet wished Rosemary would have done.

"I'm just so worried about him. I know that is the opposite effect he wanted to have, but I don't care. I'm worried."

"I know."

That was Tuesday. Wednesday through Friday, she shut everyone out and stayed home sick.

****