"A glooming peace this morning with it brings.
The sun, for sorrow, will not show his head.
Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things.
Some shall be pardoned, and some punishèd.
For never was a story of more woe
Than this of Juliet and her Romeo."
. . .
"Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight! For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night," I said, casually standing beside Brynn as she rummaged through her locker.
"Where did the insult- loving jerk disappear to today?" She asked, not sparing me a glance. In so many ways, she reminded me of the girl she used to be. And in so many others, she'd surprised me.
"There's an old saying that applies to me: you can't lose a game if you don't play the game," I said, rambling off all the Romeo and Juliet lines I could remember at the top of my head.
"Oh, but you are playing the game, my chivalrous Romeo. And judging from the smitten look on your face, it looks like I've won," she said, placing her hand on her cheek as if to say what a shame.
She was referring to the bet we'd placed in the debate club. Truth be told, I'd completely forgotten about it till that moment, but it didn't matter anymore. What was I going to lose? My pride? That didn't matter anymore. She was right- I was smitten.
"See how she leans her cheek upon her hand, O that I were a glove upon that hand that I might touch that cheek!" I broke out, earning a chuckle from her.
"And here I thought you hated me," she said simply, turning back to her locker.
"My only love sprung from my only hate! Too early seen unknown, and known too late! Prodigious birth of love it is to me, that I must love a loathed enemy," I smiled. I noticed her cheeks tinge with a rosy pink.
I wasn't going to lie- this was a regular move of mine. How else would all the girls have fallen for me? Some old fluffy Shakespeare quotes coupled with my swoon-worthy smile and I could get anyone I wanted. What caught me off-guard was how much I wanted her too. Alas, I knew that as long as Will was in the picture, our romance was only saved for the stage.
And it was then that it dawned on me that the debate club bet wasn't the only bet that had slipped my mind.
"Meet me in the parking lot after school?" I asked, inching away from her. She closed her locker and turned to face me.
"Draven, about last-"
"Don't worry about it," I said, saving her the trouble of apologising. I had too much ego to stand there and listen to her tell me she was in love with someone else. All I wanted was to call off the bet so that I could stop trying and we could resort to a strictly professional relationship as actors.
"No, listen to me," she said authoritatively. She was willing to challenge me. I liked that about her. Cassandra was like that too.
"I don't think that kiss was a mistake. I think leaving early, however, was," she said. She sounded shy, nervous- so unlike herself that for a second I was worried that I'd approached the wrong alter.
"Is this your way of professing your undying love for me, Mills?" I smirked, and she quickly replaced her nervous facade with her easygoing, cocky grin.
"Away, you three-inch fool!" she ordered.
"Good night, good night! parting is such sweet sorrow, that I shall say good night till it be morrow," I chirped. I could still hear her laughter behind me as I walked down the halls with a new mission at the top of my agenda: find Veronica and call off the bet.
I knew I had a lot at stake; I could lose my reputation and my respect from the drama club. However, it was a meagre sacrifice in comparison to what I could gain.
Again, there was a lot that could go wrong. Knowing Veronica, she would no doubt wreck my plans with Brynn anyway by showing her the voice recording of our conversation. She was evil like that. Brynn had to have had some dirt on Veronica, else she wouldn't have gone to such lengths to get back at her. After calling off the bet, I had to make sure to get to Brynn before Veronica to explain myself. So long as I put my feelings and my secrets out in the open, Brynn would be on my side. Together, we could easily take on Veronica.
I surveyed the corridor for her flaming red hair, until finally, my eyes settled on her figure leaning against the wall, scrolling through her phone absentmindedly.
"I'm calling it off," I said plainly, staring her down.
"Hmm?" She gazed up from her phone tiredly.
"The bet. It's over," I shrugged. When she showed no interest, I turned to walk away. Suddenly, she spoke. "I knew this would happen. I didn't buy any of your 'love is bullshit' crap for even a second. It was clear you loved her even before you took on the bet, so God knows why you agreed to do it anyway."
"You know exactly why I agreed to do it," I said, recalling her threat to tell everyone the secret I'd kept locked up for so long.
"Lucky for me, I'm one step ahead of you," she said, giving me a sickly sweet smile. She opened up the voice recording on her phone and brought it close for me to see.
"I'm two steps ahead of you," I retorted, pacing back two steps for emphasis. "Because I don't care what information you hold against me. In fact," I looked around the sea of students scrambling to get to their next classes, then cleared my throat. "Can I have your attention, please? I said loudly, addressing the corridor. Several students peered at me in curiosity, including Brynn. "It's the last week of school, so I figured I have nothing to lose. I have a confession to make." People drew in closer, enveloping me in a loose circle of sorts.
"I am the son of Mr. Todd and Miss Violet." There were a number of audible gasps. I couldn't help but grin.
"You're kidding," Brynn choked, bursting into laughter. I smiled. I was expecting that reaction from her. It was the rest of the drama club that I feared.
The rumour mill had conjured up a number of possible reasons as to why I had been cast male lead for every single one of the school's plays; everyone else had caught the flu the day of the auditions, I'd bribed the school, I'd flirted with the director, to name a few. It was rarely considered that I'd gotten in through merit, irrespective of how well-versed I was with my lines or how charismatic I was on stage. None of it mattered. When people were envious, they'd go through all the trouble they could to make you feel like you didn't deserve to be where you were.
This was no doubt going to give them a better reason to explain why I didn't deserve it.
"Do you know how much we shipped them? And all this time they've been married. How?!" a girl from my English class said.
"So that's where all the talent comes from," someone muttered good naturedly. All good so far. I just had to mentally prepare myself for the storm.
"I'm three steps ahead of you," Veronica whispered in my ear, and I looked down at her phone to see that she'd sent Brynn the voice recording. I felt panic rise in my chest. She couldn't hear that. No, not until I'd explained myself. Not until I'd given her my side of the story.
"Veronica, don't do this," I heard a familiar voice from the end of the hallway. I turned to see a mop of bubblegum-pink hair. Too late for that, I thought darkly.
"I don't know what your ulterior motive is, but you have to stop," a voice piped up from beside her. Instantly, I made eye contact with Brynn. Just then, the bell rang, and students slowly began shuffling to their classes, leaving the hallway empty, save for our little group.
"Will," she muttered, so quietly that I thought it was my imagination. But, sure enough, a large grin was spreading on her face.
"Cassandra," I said, smiling back, remembering the night we first met. Both of us had been avoiding confrontations by using each other as our decoys. Now, we were doing the exact same thing, but I couldn't help but marvel at how much had changed since that night at the party.
I turned to face Veronica. "Looks like I'm four steps ahead of you," I said smoothly, then took exactly four steps towards Brynn and planted a firm kiss on her lips. She didn't even look surprised. It's like she was waiting for this moment to happen all along.
"YOU'VE RUINED EVERYTHING," I heard Veronica shout.
"Finally!" Cassandra cheered happily.
"You have no idea what you've done," came Thea's voice from beside Veronica.
"What do you mean? What's wrong?" asked Ted.
"I'm happy for her," Will said absently, trying his hardest to fake a smile.
Amidst the chaos around us, I found my melody in her. Staring deep into her eyes, I whispered, "You win the bet. True love does exist because I found it with you."
And just as I said that, something flickered in her eyes. The moment was lost. She shoved me away from her and gave out a muffled cry. "What are you doing?" she asked, walking backwards. "Where's Will?"
Will instantly rushed to her side, and I struggled to make sense of the situation.
"She's gone," Veronica stated blankly, her voice laced with a trace of anger mixed with despair.
"What do you mean she's gone?" I whispered, glancing back at her being comforted by Will.
"Brynn's trigger was insecurity. She was strongest when she self deprecated, as paradoxical as that may sound. When you gave her the ultimate validation, she died with a flicker," Thea said, with no hint of remorse. It sounded to me like she'd given up entirely. She'd seen this happen so many times with so many alters that she was now numb to the pain.
I swallowed back the tears, refusing to cry in front of them. "We were on your side," Veronica concluded, wiping a tear as swiftly as it fell. "Our goal was to show her the recording because we knew it would crack her heart in two and shrivel her self esteem. It was all we needed to keep Brynn chained to Holly's mind."
"Why didn't you just tell me?" I whispered, afraid that if I spoke any louder, I wouldn't be able to control the tears. "WHY DIDN'T YOU JUST BLOODY TELL ME?" I shouted, channeling the grief into anger. I was an actor. I could control my feelings. I could control. I could control. I could control.
"Holly, it's okay," Will whispered, massaging her shoulder. "You're okay."
"Not once did you stop to think that maybe you'd be impacting me too," I said bitterly. I was an actor. I could control. I could control. I could control.
But I couldn't stay on stage forever. As my tears fell, I let the curtains fall too.
"There is no such thing as teen love," I said, through angry tears. "No such thing."
I won the bet. I was right. But never had I wished harder to be wrong.
It was ironic, wasn't it, that we'd placed a bet on a love story that ended just as tragically as ours had.
I took my final bow and blew my final kiss, as the lights faded to black, marking the end.
. . .
A/N Goodbye, Braven.