Shakespeare got it wrong chapter 15 Theo POV
I stare at the polished metal in front of me, not believing what I just did. I grab my hair, ruffling up my neat gelled hair and pulling at the roots, begging for the pain that matches the pain consuming my body. Rage encircles me tingling with a sorrow so deep that tears me apart inside. What did I just do?
A strong hand comes to rest on my shoulder, pulling me away from the elevator, James steers me towards the staff lockers, his firm hand practically pushing me through the aisles while I stare stunned. I can’t believe I just let her go, I can’t believe I told her to leave, I can’t believe I hurt her when I told her I never would. I said I would make things work between us, but instead I ruined it, I ruined everything, I have ruined myself.
I slam my hands into the staff locker room, the silver metal door slams open and I stalk into the room, James comes in after me, his footsteps echoing behind me. I sit myself down on the cushioned bench in the middle of a row of lockers; the soft black leather gives way to my massive weight.
“Dude. What the Hell?” James bursts out, coming to sit beside me on the couch, I hold my head in my hands, tears stream down my face in endless rivers, my insides shake as my vision blurs. “You were totally in to Juliet, she was cool, I liked her, what the heck just happened?” he asks, inching his face forward to look my in the eye. Great, he sees me crying, I will never be able to forget this now, guys are not meant to cry.
“ I just broke her heart” I whisper, the realisation coming sharp to mind, I was right though, I am bad for her, I was only trying to protect her.
“Um yeah well I got that from her distressed state and your Hollywood sobbing, seriously dude, take a few breaths and calm down, you’ll get fired otherwise if someone catches us in here.” James runs a hand through his styled blonde hair, his eyes keep flicking towards the door, keeping alert while I break down.
I stand up and walk towards my blue locker, I flip the dial of numbers and shed the lock. I open my locker and stare at my backpack, I can’t work like this. My shift was almost over anyways, James can cover the last half hour for me.
“You going? I’ll cover for you mate, don’t sweat about it?” James tries to act casual but I see his awkward stance, he doesn’t know what to do. Well we aren’t like girls I just can’t go up and start hugging him and crying into his shoulder, that would be awkward. So I stand a little straighter and shoulder my back pack, saving the sorrow for later.
“That would be good thanks” I turn and face him, keeping my eyes on the floor I lean against my locker. “And maybe later you and Ben could come over, we could watch the football” I say, trying to bring things back to normal, even though I am dying inside, dying to touch her again, wishing I could go back in time and change that moment in the storeroom.
“Yeah sure dude, look forward to it” He flashes me a toothy grin as he stuffs his hands in his pockets. I push open the locker room door, the florescent lights of the men’s clothing section biting at my teary eyes.
“Oh and Theo?” James rushes. I turn to look at him “Whatever you think justifies what you just did as helping Juliet, I am telling you know that it was the worst mistake of your life and hers”. He nods, pushing past me into the lobby immediately getting to work.
His words linger in my mind. He is right. Juliet’s mother doesn’t control me and she might as well not control Juliet, she is an idiot who thinks she can double cross me so her daughter will always stay miserable and an object of family disappointment. Her mother craves attention and if Juliet lives a better life than her it will kill her.
Courageousness swells in my body, my heart pounds as my tears drain away. I know what I must do. I am getting Juliet back, and once I do I will never let her go again.
**** hours later******
I pour myself my fourth cup of vodka and 7UP for the night, my mind starting to grow numb with fuzziness. My courageousness and sudden burst of strength that got me home from work wore off and now here I am. Sitting on my bed with the television playing some stupid animal documentary. A half empty bottle of Vodka sits on my bedside table along with my magazines and my alarm clock which reads 1:00 pm.
I stare at the tv, watching but not really listening, to be honest I couldn’t really care less about the ‘Animals of the Cold’ but the show was on when I turned the tv on, and I can’t be bothered to change it.
My mind swirls with images of Juliet. Juliet in my arms. Juliet’s soft rounded face as she looks up at me, her arms wrapped around my waist. Just Juliet. My Juliet. That’s all I can see. I tried calling her, none of which she answered. I have probably left around 30 voicemails in the past 2 hours. I just want to tell her, tell her I was wrong, that I wasn’t thinking straight. Tell her that when I saw her in my store with her sister I couldn’t help but recall her mother’s threat. I have seen what some parents can do to their children; I have experienced it with my dad. I have no doubt that Juliet’s mother is capable of destroying her child from the outside in.
The program finishes and a film comes on, a romantic movie with a beautiful girl and a normal everyday boy. Juliet is my beautiful girl, with her my life was like this movie.
Determined I set down my cup and whip out my laptop, open up my Facebook and scroll through my friends list. Ben’s goofy profile picture pops up on the screen.
“Hey” he writes. I can tell he has been waiting for me to come online, just making sure I’m okay.
“Hey man, I need your help” I type back.
“What with?”
“Are you still close with Remy, Juliet’s friend?”
“Dude it was one date, we aren’t at that level yet…”
“I don’t care what level you’re at I just want to know if you still speak with her?” I huff out, not really in the mood for Ben’s love life.
“Yeah we talk, actually I am taking her out tomorrow.”
“I need you to ask her something for me”
“Ask her yourself”
“I can’t I tried but she won’t answer and neither will Juliet”
“Okay….”
“I’m gonna make things better, I have to, Juliet’s birthday is coming up I need you to get some information for me” I type.
Ben and I chat way into the morning, organising and planning. I tell him stuff, like deep stuff, that guys don’t normally tell each other. He says he understands but I seriously doubt it. Nobody can feel what I feel for Juliet. She was my life and with her away from me I am dead. Finally I set my cup down, my vision too blurred, my mind too slow to think. I lay down, not even bothering to get out of my clothes or get under the sheets; I fold my arms over my chest and stare at the ceiling until the state of drunkenness takes me away.
**** the next day******
“ Dude are you okay?” Ben claps me on the shoulder, tilting me sideways as I walk. Normally I would not react to this, normally I am ready for the blow, but today I take it. I deserve everything I get.
“Well now my shoulder hurts so, no I’m not okay.” I snap back, sending him a dirty look. The smile wipes off his face and he looks over to James, who walks quietly beside me on our way to our football game. James offers a slight shake of his head in Bens direction, which I am grateful for, I know Ben knows that I stuffed things up with Juliet and I know he is trying to make me feel better but seriously sometimes he is a real dumbass.
“Sorry man” Ben mumbles his green eyes darting to the ground as he bounces a football skilfully along the path leading to the field.
We walk in uncomfortable silence, everyone scared to say something around me that might tick me off.
“I broke up with Juliet” I moan, letting my gaze slide over my friends who are awkwardly walking beside me, not sure how to comfort me. I keep my head down, my hair shielding my eyes so they can’t see.
“I’m really sorry about that dude” he bites his lip. “Tell you what tonight the bands got a gig on, there will be plenty of girls there why don’t you come along and check it out?”
Anger rises up inside of me. I don’t want any girl. I want Juliet.
“It doesn’t matter, I’m gonna get her back. “ I say lifting my head and staring him straight in the eye.
He gives me a small smile.
“If you had said otherwise I would have punched you in the face” Ben chuckles, and for an instant I let a small smile slip on my face, small but it’s still there.
We walk in silence to the change rooms, our footsteps echoing off the cool concrete tunnel that leads us to the locker rooms under the stadium seats. I hear the team’s voices echoing off the walls as I walk nearer, they are all stretching and warming up already. I round the corner and sure enough, there they all are, in our customary red jerseys and black shorts with the long red and black stripped socks hiding their extra strong protection knee guards.
I stroll to my locker and flip the dial, opening the cool metal door to reveal my uniform. I stuff my bag inside and start taking off my casual clothes. Normally on a game day I would be here earlier but today I was finding it very hard to get motivated.
James comes up to his locker to the left of mine and pops his lock, giving the door a few shoves till the old hinges pop open revealing his uniform and an array of cologne spread out along his top shelf. James considers himself a ladies man, so one of the main reasons he even plays football is for the girls, I swear almost every other week he walks out with a different girl hanging off his arm- hence the different ‘manly scents’ as he prefers to call them.
“Man I swear you got to stop the whole ‘kill me now before I kill myself ‘thing you got going on” He says causally his eyes sliding over to me as he slides off his t-shirt and replaces it with his jersey.
“It’s not a ‘thing’” I reply grumpily putting my own uniform on and pulling out my football boots. I sit down on the small wooden bench that runs straight down the middle of the rows of lockers. James plops down next to me and starts doing up his boots.
“I know that what you guys had was special, I mean dude, I was so envious of what you had. But it has only been a day, which means if you are going to get her back you have to do it now, otherwise you’re going to chicken out and just mope around for the rest of the week and complain about what a terrible person you are.” He huffs.
“Wow that was deep coming from you” I say, knotting my last shoe, I stand and stretch my legs.
“Hey, don’t be an ass okay?, what I meant was that your misery is making the boys nervous, Ben really likes this chick called Remy but you’re making him feel bad about dating her because she is Juliet’s best friend, so what I am saying is that you need to man up, get over you mistakes and hurry about fixing them.”
I stop and stare at him, I hadn’t even realised that maybe I was making my friends miserable. Juliet wouldn’t want me back if I stopped Remy and Ben getting together, and I mean seriously even I wouldn’t want to get back with me if I was in the state I was in. I roll my shoulders, releasing the knot of tension building between my shoulder blades.
“You know for a player, you seem to know a lot about these types of things” I raise my eyebrow at him, he smirks, his eyes lighting up. He flexes his muscles as he stands.
“Look Theo all I am basically saying is, get your head outta your ass cause we have a game today and if you let your team down I will personally escort you to Juliet’s house and make you sing loves songs till your dignity falls off along with your balls.”
“My balls are perfectly secured thanks” I grunt out as I stumble past him, making my way to the door, already I could smell the hot food stands serving their food and hear the crowd cheering as the opposition team jogs out onto the field.
“Atta boy” James yells as he slaps me on the shoulder.
I stand on the bench next to the door and look down on my team. Even though we are only high schoolers football is very important in this part of town, many people count it like the big league, and many of the boys on this team are aiming to become pro when they leave high school. I look at the spattering of red jerseys, strong muscles rippling underneath as the nerves build. This game is important and I will not be the one to let my emotions get the better of me, I suck in a deep breath, feeling stronger by the minute. Why am I so worried? I know I’m getting Juliet back, so starting from now I am the old strong Theo again, the one that Juliet fell in love with.
I cup my hands around my mouth.
“Alright boys listen up” I yell. The room instantly falls quiet, all faces turn towards me, they look to their captain.
“Now I want you to go out there today and work your asses off, this is the last game that will get us into the semi-finals, win today you can practically see the championship trophy in a cabinet, you can practically see the coach writing your reference letter to get you into the big league. So as your captain I’m here to tell you to crush the other team like a beetle, but to do it properly. No dirty play because the old fart of a reff is on today and he will call you for it. Now I wanna see sweat dripping off you when we win and I’ll promise you a party like never before. So get out there and Crush!” I yell.
“CRUSH CRUSH CRUSH!” the boys all scream, their voices all choking out in husky laughter, then they all bolt for the door, pumped and ready to rumble.
Ben stops beside me as I jump down from the bench.
“Nice one Captain Montague” he says in his smartass voice, wrapping his arm around my shoulders, bringing his fist up to punch my stomach. I block him and swipe his head instead, smiling as I see him squirm, he is shorter than me and much dumber but I swear he is always trying to attack me. I think it’s his way of comforting me in a weird way.
“Anyways I just wanted to talk to you quickly” he says, slowing his pace so we can talk behind the others, James gives us a questioning look but shrugs and walks away.
“I thought I would just give you the heads up that Remy’s watching me today and I’m going out with her afterwards, so do your best to make me look good okay bro?” I smile as he punches me in the arm, slamming open the door and running out into the bright sunlight.
The stands are packed and the crowd cheers as we jog onto the grassy field. The crowds mostly filled with local high school students and families enjoying the sunny day. My head clears, this is my place, and the field is where I can let everything out. I scan the crowd, still hoping I would see Juliet there, her beautiful face beaming at me from the sidelines. But no I screwed that up.
I walk to my position, ready to play the ball. The sun beats down on my back and sweat already begins to pour off my face. I glance up quickly to wipe the sweat off my brow. And it’s in that moment that I see her. The golden brown curly hair frames the round face of the girl I love; she stares back at me, turns then pushes through the crowd. Leaving me staring after her.