9
She has to be fucking doing that on purpose.
Romeo clutches the pencil in his hand, automatically breaking it in half. Zipping open his binder viciously, he throws the 7th pencil today he’s broken into the garbage, grabbing a new one.
All week Juliette has ignored Astrid, Noah, and Romeo. She’s been hanging out with Dustin. Hasn’t even glanced at them. And now, she has the nerve, to sit with Dustin in math class. Only that’s not what’s pissing Romeo off.
Dustin’s got his arm around her shoulders, as the two take the test that was distributed twenty minutes ago. Every few minutes he’ll whisper something in her ear, making her either smile or laugh. And the teacher is oblivious to it, burying her nose in a book. So she sits there, making Romeo extremely pissed off and jealous.
Astrid, on the other hand, is sitting next to Romeo. Noah isn’t in this class, so she sat here. “Do you think she’s mad at me?” She whispers to Noah, eyes never leaving her best friend.
He already told Astrid what happened last week. “I don’t know. Knowing her, she’s probably afraid.”
Narrowing her eyes to slits, she turns to him. “Know her? You’ve never took the chance to know her. And don’t give me that bullshit where you can read her mind. You still should have took the time to get to know her.”
Slumping in his seat, he sighs. She’s the only one in his pack that doesn’t listen to him and fights back. “I don’t know what to do. She’s driving me crazy, Astrid. I mean, look at her for crying out loud!” He shoves a hand in their direction, which is in front of them both.
The two lovebirds sit in the corner near the window, bubbling in answers for the test. Seeing this makes Astrid’s head hurt. “I’m suppose to be there for her, ask how good he kisses and-”
“Not. Helping.”
Grinning, she swats him away, then very loudly, whispers, “Psst! Hey, Julie, hey! Julie, psst! Hey, Julie!” Juliette goes rigid in her seat. In a very gangster like voice, Astrid yells across the room, “YO, JU-LIE!”
“That is enough, Miss Dime! Detention!” The cranky teacher snaps. She points at Juliette, “You too!”
“W-what? What did I do?” Jules asks, looking like she’s never got detention in her whole life. That’s probably true.
The teacher doesn’t answer, just huffs and sits back down. A huge light bulb goes off in the back of his head. “Astrid, text Noah and ask him to purposely get detention.”
“Why?”
“Just do it.”
Huffing, she whips her phone out from under the desk and quickly sends him the message. “Don’t see why you couldn’t do this yourself…”
Romeo jumps up from his seat, nearly knocking the chair over. He grasps onto a piece of homework that was due today, and with the teacher looking, rips it in half. “Yeah, that’s right. I ripped up my homework, what now!”
What. The. Hell.
He ignores Juliette’s thoughts, and looks smugly at the teacher, who’s scowling. “Detention for you too!”
He punches the air excitedly, but then realizes his mistake. “Uh, I mean, uh, boo.” Quietly, he sits back down, also ignoring Astrid’s mini fit of laughter.
“Noah’s got detention,” Astrid whispers, still with her shoulders shaking from the laughter.
An evil grin sketches itself into his face. “Perfect.”
Cue evil laughter.
_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
Noah grumpily strolls into the detention room, which just so happens to be Mr. Swan’s classroom, and plops down in the first row. Mr. Swan, being a horrible teacher, didn’t even show up for detention. “You guys fucking suck.”
Astrid giggles, latching onto his arm. “What did you do to get detention? Romeo ripped his homework up.” That alone sends her into a fit of laughter.
“I didn’t do anything. I pulled my phone out right at the exact moment my stupid teacher decided to stroll on by.”
Romeo can’t help but smirk at that. “You do always have bad luck.”
“No I don’t!”
Chuckling, he shakes his head. “Here’s the plan. When Juliette comes in here, don’t corner her. Just let her sit down, then Astrid, because you know her the best, try to talk to her.”
“Then what?”
“I have no fucking idea. I just wanted to see her without that Dust kid.”
“Dustin,” She corrects, “and he’s not that bad. A really nice guy, with the hottest lips ever-”
“Shut up, Astrid!” Both boys chorus, glaring at her. She gives them an amused smirk.
Because detention is held by Mr. Swan, you can talk, draw, you could even leave if you want. That’s why nobody ever really shows up at detention, because Mr. Swan doesn’t even take one glance at the kids.
But little Juliette, being the goody two shoes she is, will stay here for the whole hour. Just as everything get’s quiet, Juliette bounces into the doorway. Her blonde curls are on her shoulders, the bag she always carries around on her shoulder. She’s in a white skirt that to her thighs, showing off her tan skin. But you can barely see the skirt, just the edges, because a long green tunic covers it.
As soon as she sees who is in the room, she gulps. Maybe I can run-
“Can’t do that, sweet pea. We’re faster than you.”
Shit.
Noah sends her a wide grin. “Come on down, you’re the next contestant on the Price is Right!” Noah yells in a Bob Barker voice.
Astrid shoves him in the gut, and then practically runs over to Julie, dragging her in the room. She closes the door gently, not wanting to attract teachers.
Julie sits on one of the desks, gulping again as she watches every move of the three in front of her. Astrid sees this, and scowls. “Can’t you guys leave? You’re making her nervous, especially you, Romeo. Practically scarring the poor girl.”
Romeo narrows his eyes, “Even if we do leave, we’ll be able to hear every word you guys say. Might as well just stay here.”
“Well then go sit in the corner, or something. We need to do some girl talk. Don’t give me that face, Noah! Get the hell in that corner!”
Glaring daggers, both boys reluctantly get out of their seats and go over to the corner. Arms crossed and jaws set, they keep glaring. Astrid makes a motion with her hand to turn around. Cursing, they both turn around, and a smile fits her face.
“Now,” Astrid looks back over to her scared friend, “where have you been, missy? Mars?”
“More like Dustin World. 24/7.”
Romeo doesn’t hide the jealous tone in his voice, in fact, makes it clear. Astrid growls over at him, “Shut up. I’m talking to her, not you.”
Juliette bites her lip, not sure what to do. “I-I…just…I’m taking this all in. I’m not use to it. At all. Astrid, you tell me everything. I tell you everything. But apparently you’ve left out this really big secret.”
“I’m sorry, Julie. I wasn’t allowed to tell anybody! I still can’t tell anybody! My parents sprang this on me too. They were all like, ‘oh, you need to go to this big ass place to be turned into a wolf‘. And I was like, ‘we need to get you to this big ass place called the insane ward’. Trust me, I was as freaked out as you were. Maybe even a little more.”
Smiling a little bit, Jules shakes her head. “How old were you?”
“13. I was so confused, and you know all those days were we couldn’t hang out? I kept making up all these weird diseases and sicknesses? Well, truth is, I was training to get into a pack.” She nods over at the sulking boys in the corner. “Romeo took me in. That’s were I met Noah.”
“Yeah, and look how you treat me,” Noah pouts, tapping the wall in front of him.
Astrid smiles, but otherwise ignores him. “So I’m really sorry for not telling any of this to you.”
“No, I’m sorry for ignoring you this whole week!” Julie blurts out, tears ready to come out of her eyes. “I-I was just so confused, a-and scared, and I didn’t know what to do!”
Astrid chuckles, pulling her into a hug. “Don’t cry.” She pulls her back a little. “Are we friends again?”
“No. We’re best friends,” Julie sniffs, smiling a little bit.
“Are we done with this little sappy moment here, because,” Noah pretends to start crying, “I’m just so happy for you guys.”
Astrid smiles, “You can come back over here, guys.”
The two come out of their corner, sitting back on the desks. “Finally. I was going to go insane if I had to look at those puke orange walls one more time.”
Laughing, Astrid tugs on Noah’s shirt. She doesn’t say anything, but raises her eyebrows and gives him a smile. Noah groans and rolls his eyes, but otherwise nods. Huh. Mate connection thing. I wonder why I never noticed that before.
Astrid jumps off the desk, along with Noah, casually (not) running over towards the door. “We’re just going to leave you guys alone…okay bye!” She gets out quickly before slamming the door shut.
So now Romeo stands there, not sure what to do, as Jules sits on the desk, kicking her legs back and forth.
Okay…not awkward at all…
A smile tugs to Romeo’s face. “I heard that.”
“Are you seriously saying that you can hear every single thought that’s going on inside my head?” She asks in disbelief.
“Uh-huh. I like it, you’re thoughts are amusing.”
“When exactly did this though thing start?”
“Right after I kissed you, that’s why I did it. I needed to see if you were my mate, Jules.”
Jules snaps her fingers. “That’s why you dumped Kass!” Realizing what she just said, she says it more sadly. “That’s why you dumped Kass. Oh my god, she’s probably so upset.”
Romeo frowns, thinking about how calm and relaxed she was when he broke up with her. “You know, I haven’t seen her around school. I don’t know where she is.”
“Weird.”
Before an awkward silence can settle in, Romeo asks, “So, are we dating now?”
Sighing, she runs a hand through her hair. “I don’t know, Romeo. I have Dustin. I can’t just dump him and come running to you. He’s sweet and charming, a really nice guy. I really like him.”
Jealousy and anger course through his veins, but he remains calm. “But-”
“And you dyed your hair and changed you’re wardrobe just to get me to notice you and to like you.” She sends him a a flat look. “Really? I like guys who be themselves. Like Dustin.”
Dustin this, Dustin that. How about I go smash Dustin’s face in? “Well I’m not Dustin. I’m Romeo, you’re mate. You’re mine. I’m yours. That’s how it works.”
“No, it doesn’t, Romeo. I don’t care if you’re my mate, I’m not a werewolf. I don’t follow that. I like Dustin, and I’m currently dating him. You have to live with that.”
“I can’t live with that, Jules!” He walks over to her, grabbing her hand. Tingles shoot up both their arms, Julie’s eyes wide. “Feel that? That’s the connection. We’re suppose to be together.”
Staring at her hand, she shakes her head. “No. No! I-I can’t…” She stops when she realizes how close they are. Romeo notices too, and gazes down at her lips. Because she’s sitting on the desk, he partially has to bend down.
His lips graze hers, ever so slightly. Something explodes deep in her stomach, making butterflies soar around her head and stomach. She leans closer, without noticing, neither does Romeo. He presses himself closer to her, liking the taste of her chocolate flavored lip balm.
But then he feels wind, his eyes still closed. He opens them to see Julie shaking her head. “No, Romeo. I can’t do this. I’m dating Dustin now. Sorry.”
She rushes out of the room, slamming the door in the process. Romeo sits down, hanging his head in his hands.
Now all he can think about is the lingering taste of chocolate on his lips.
_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
“My name’s Juliette and I’ll be you’re server for tonight. What can I start you off with?”
Juliette holds her little notepad and pencil in hand, jabbing down sloppily the orders for drinks. She’s dressed in the normal uniform for girls-a light blue dress that flows out above the knees, a button down design in the front. She has a blue headband in, keeping her hair out of her eyes.
It’s always busy at the Howling Werewolf on Friday nights. She comes spinning around, through the employee’s only door, and starts pouring the drinks.
Bobby grins at her. “Tough day?”
“You have no idea.”
“Ah, I think I do,” He winks. “Werewolf troubles?”
Sucking in a breath, she looks over at him. “How do you know that?”
He shrugs, pouring a smoothie for a customer. “I’m in Romeo’s pack. Everybody’s talking about you, you know.”
“Great. Just what I’ve always wanted.” She rolls her eyes, swinging through the door again. She glides with grace over to the customer’s table, setting the glasses down gently.
She glances over at the new comers who just walked in, sounded by the bell. Great. Just who I wanted to see.
Romeo and his gang slide into their normal large booth, big enough for all six guys. It’s Romeo and some other guys she’s seen around school. Usually Kass would be with them, but because she’s not dating Romeo anymore, she’s gone.
Quickly, she ducks her head down and dashes back into the employee’s only room. “Bobby!” She drags his name out in a complaint.
“No can do, sweetheart. Go face him yourself.”’
“How did you know…?”
“He comes here every Friday,” He gives her a flat look. “It was bound to happen that you would come in here and ask me to serve that table. Go get em’ girl!” He smacks her lightly on the butt, a push to get her out there on the busy night.
Grumbling, she slowly makes her way over to the table. On her way there, she talks to daily customers and waitresses, not wanting to face Romeo. Only he’s got his eyes locked on her face, but she doesn’t realize it.
She gracefully and elegantly stops at their table. Previous chatter stops to stare at their alpha’s mate-who wants no part in any of this. “I’m Juliette, I’ll be your server for tonight. What can I start you off with?” This time, she doesn’t say it in her usually chipper and bubbly tone. She says it in a monotone and dull voice, giving a flat look.
“I’ll have a Sprite,” Romeo states slowly, eyes locking with Juliette.
She clears her throat, nodding. “The usual for you guys too?”
The guys also snap out of their trance and nod, murmuring their agreements. They all come here so often, she’s memorized the drinks and dishes they order.
As she’s getting the drinks, she glances over at Bobby, who’s also filling up drinks. “I can’t do this, Bobby. He won’t stop staring at me!”
Chuckling, he fills up another glass. “I think it’s hilarious.”
“Only you would think this is hilarious, Bob,” She rolls her eyes, placing the drinks on the round silver plate. “I’ll be back, if he doesn’t kill me with his eyes.”
She leaves the room with the lingering sound of Bobby’s chuckles, swaying towards Romeo’s table. She gently sets the drinks down, forcing a smile at each wolf.
“Would you like any appetizers-”
“Jules can I talk to you?” Romeo cuts her off, shooting up from the booth. His pack erupts into knowing grins and silent chuckles once the words leave his mouth.
She shifts uncomfortably on her feet, “No, I’m working.”
“Please?”
“No.”
“Pretty please?”
“I said no Ross, what do you not understand about that word?!” Then she smiles wryly at the pack. “I can see you need a few more minutes deciding. I’ll be back.”
With that, she marches back into the empty employee’s only room. The kitchen is on the other door, and Bobby’s out serving costumers. But Julie doesn’t realize that Romeo follows her right through the door.
“Juliette Reed, I need to talk to you.”
She jumps when he barges through the door, but then gives him a flat look. “What? You think using my full name is going to make me give all my attention to you?”
“I wish.”
“Well, sorry, you’re wish isn’t coming true. Now get out of the employee only room. From what I’ve seen, you’re not an employee,” She points out smugly, putting down the silver plate.
An idea pops into his head. “Not for long. Where’s your dad?”
Horror fills her face.
But before she can do anything about it, he’s out the door, running to find her dad. He finds him at the cashier section, giving change to the last costumer in line. When his eyes meet Romeo’s, they lighten up. “Romeo! What a pleasure to see you again!”
“Hi Mr-I mean Eddie.”
“What can I do for you, boy?”
“Well, I was thinking if I could apply for a job. You see, I want to start saving up for college and-”
Eddie cuts him off with a laugh. “Of course you can get a job here!” He sees Julie coming towards them, a glare set on her face, so he nods towards her. “Juliette here can show you the ropes. You two can have the same hours.”
Romeo grins, “Thank you so much.”
“No problem.”
The dad excuses himself, heading towards the direction of the kitchen. Julie heard the last part of the conversation, and by the wicked smile on Romeo’s face, she can tell he just got a job.
“He gave you a job here?”
“Yep. If I can’t be your boyfriend, I’m going to spend every freaking second possible with you.”
Just then, Dustin comes strolling in. He brightens when he sees Juliette, walking towards her. He wraps his arms around the side of her waist, planting a kiss on her cheek. “Hey, Juliette.”
“Dustin! What are you doing here?” She turns and gives him a peck on the lips. Obviously she doesn’t see Romeo standing there with his teeth gritted.
“I just thought I come and swing by. And to see my girlfriend. But I don’t see her here,” He jokes, his eyes scanning around playfully.
She rolls her eyes, turning back around to face Romeo. She’s taken aback by the look on his face; yeah, she’s seen it before. But it’s usually for Kass, his-er, was-mate when he sees her with a guy.
It’s pure jealousy.
Her stomach turns, not liking the look on his face or the feeling she has for him right now. “Um,” She clears her throat, “You remember Romeo, right Dustin?”
Dustin nods, sending him a flash of pearly whites. “Hey, Romeo.”
Does he greet every human being like that? It’s annoying. “Hi, Dustin,” He grits through his teeth, curling his fists up at his sides. That’s suppose to be me. Not him. I’m suppose to be her first boyfriend. Just like I was her first kiss.
“Well,” She untangles herself from Dustin’s arms. “I have to get back to work.”
Dustin frowns teasingly, “But can’t you stay? For me?”
Holy shit. Kill me now.
Juliette giggles, shaking her head. “Sorry, I have to go. I’ll text you late, okay?”
Dustin pulls her in for a lingering kiss, then pulls back. “Okay,” He murmurs, kissing her forehead. “Bye, Juliette.”
She waves, heading back into the employee’s only room. Romeo glares him down for a moment. “You know,” he starts off, “if you do, I’m not saying you will, but just if you do break her heart, she’s got a dad. And a brother. And me. And I have friends. Big friends. So watch yourself, Dustin.”
With that, he brushes past him rudely, back to his table.