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❛ ᴏᴄᴇᴀɴ ᴇʏᴇꜱ. ❜ ° . ༄
- ͙۪۪˚ ▎❛ 𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐄 ❜ ▎˚ ͙۪۪̥◌
»»————- ꒰ ᴛʜᴇ ʟᴀsᴛ ᴛᴇᴍᴘᴛᴀᴛɪᴏɴ
ᴏғ ᴄᴏʀʏ ( & ᴊᴀᴄᴋ ) ꒱
❝ I'M SORRY, JULIET ❞
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Cory was talking to Topanga over the phone. "Topanga, how could you be sick? I mean, you said you'd never catch a cold as long as you were taking that trout fluid."
"Fish oil," Juliet provided helpfully. The boy ignored her and continued to talk to his girlfriend.
"I miss you so much and I'll call you after next period. . . Topy." Everyone nearby 'awwed' him, causing the boy to snap, "oh, drop dead. We're in love."
Shawn, who was standing next to the redhead, motioned between Cory and himself. "Not us," he clarified, narrowing his eyes at his best friend. "Do that again and I'll hurt you."
"I thought her nickname was Tippy," the girl added.
"I wasn't going to call her something her dad did, Ocean Eyes," he added mockingly, causing the girl to flush and shift uncomfortably.
"Her eyes are blue, so what?" Shawn asked with irritation in his tone as he huffed at the nickname Jack used.
"Anyways, I'm not embarrassed about it. I mean, Topanga and I are serious. We do everything together."
A girl approached Cory. "Hi, Cory. Love that shirt."
"Hey, thanks. Underneath it I'm half-naked," the boy joked.
Once she walked away, Shawn gave him a look. "You and Topanga do everything together, huh? Even flirt with Libby Harper?"
"Flirt?" the boy asked, "I was just being friendly. And besides, girls like Libby Harper don't flirt with me."
"That was before. Now you have 'the scent.'"
"Not this again," Juliet sighed. Shawn had gone in-depth before about his theory for girls being attracted to taken guys as he tried to convince her that Jack would fall for it one of these days. In their current relationship, Juliet wouldn't be surprised.
"Well, what exactly is 'the scent?'" Cory asked.
"I'll tell you about 'the scent.'"
The curly-haired boy pushed Shawn's hands down to prevent him from making air quotes. "Alright, stop."
"It means the women want you," the redhead explained flatly.
"Why?"
"Because they can't have you," Shawn explained, "you're with Topanga. They think you're unavailable, ergo, they want you."
"Shawn thinks that Jack's being swayed by other girls," Juliet added.
"I've seen a few of them approach him," the boy protested, "they're on the trail!"
"You're batty," Cory decided, "so one girl may have flirted with me. You're making it sound like all girls. . . I don't know, Missy Robinson are gonna come over and make small talk."
Wordlessly, Juliet pointed to where the blonde was approaching. "Cory?"
"Yes Missy?"
"Did you know the sun sets today at six fifty-two?"
"I did not know that," he turned to look at his friends, "guys. . ."
"Shawn's theory may have some merit," the redhead allowed with a shrug.
🌎🌎🌎
At lunch, Jack approached their usual table to find Juliet already sitting down. He set his tray carefully next to her and took the unoccupied seat. "Hey."
"Hi," she answered. Her gaze stayed focused on her lunch.
"Um, about Saturday—"
"Feeny's project?" she guessed.
Jack stared at her in surprise. "How'd you know?"
The redhead finally turned to look at him and rolled her eyes. "I have him as a teacher too, y'know."
"Right. Well, I'm going to work on it Saturday with my partner—"
"But I thought we had plans?" the girl said, frowning slightly (not that she would mind the cancellation.)
The boy sighed exasperatedly. "That's why I'm telling you, so you know they're cancelled."
"Oh," she tried to feel some sort of disappointment but came up empty. "Well, I guess I could just ask Shawn to come over so we can get started working on it."
"Hunter's your partner?" the blond asked with a disbelieving snort.
"Yeah, so? Is there something you'd like to say?"
"He's not going to be of much help, is he?"
She ignored the dryness of his tone. "It'll work out. Besides, I'm used to doing most of the project."
The boy eyed her suspiciously. "This isn't you trying to make me jealous is it?"
Juliet stopped chewing to give him a blank look. "Uh, no?"
"Libby Harper's my partner," he informed her. She tried to feel bothered by it (really, she did) but she just shrugged.
"Good for you." She swallowed back the retort she would've liked to say: two blonds on a project? Good luck getting an A— but she knew Jack was smarter than most 'dumb blonde' quips showed.
🌎🌎🌎
Jack stopped and stared as Cory met him on the front step of Missy's house. "Matthews?"
"Jack?"
"What are you doing here?" the two boys asked at the same time. They gave each other awkward smiles.
"I'm here for the party," Cory said.
"I'm here to work on a project," Jack explained.
They both shrugged and entered the house and headed down to the basement where Libby greeted them. "Hi guys."
Jack frowned. "Are we dividing and conquering on this project or something?"
"No, it's for a different project," Missy answered.
"Is this for the health class project then?" Cory asked.
"In a way," Libby said.
The curly-haired boy laughed nervously. "Come on. What's going on? Why's Jack here?"
"Jack's my partner," Libby explained as she smiled charmingly at him. "Hopefully in more ways than one."
"That's right. I'm hoping you'll be my partner too, Cory," Missy said to the other boy.
Libby was pretty and she did have nice blue eyes, Jack thought. The words that came out of his mouth were: "you take Missy, I'll take Libby."
"No, no, I have a girlfriend. You have girlfriend. She's my best friend. Juliet Capelwood, remember?"
A slightly guilty look crossed Jack's face. "Rright, Ocean Eyes. I love her." (It seemed as if he were convincing himself of this fact.)
Libby approached the blond boy and trailed a finger down his chest. "I just love your shirt."
Jack gave her a polite smile but pushed her hand away. "Thanks, it rhymes with your skirt."
"Alright, look. Easy way out of this, you and me. We stick together, side by side. Two pillars of strength," Cory told Jack.
Libby came up to the blond and pushed up on her toes to reach his ear, whispering. . . suggestive things into it. The boy relaxed. "Oh, wow. A-a-ah," he sighed at the thought before he mentally smacked himself. Juliet Capelwood! "Libby, look. I gotta go—"
He started up the steps only to be stopped by the blonde who put her hand flat on his chest. "But you just got here," she said sweetly.
"Well— I love someone—" (For some reason, it still sounded like he was trying to convince himself.)
"I don't see her," Libby said as she moved closer to press herself against his side. "And besides, she doesn't love you, does she?"
"I— well," he started. His eyes became fixed on the girl's pretty blue ones— they were very nearly the same shade as Juliet's, just a bit darker.
The girl didn't let him finish as she leaned against him to press her lips to his. He automatically kissed her back. It was nice to have someone willing to kiss him again. He'd sensed Juliet's reluctance for several weeks now though he'd made no move to talk about it with her. As he kissed Libby, he remembered what it had been like to kiss Juliet in their first few weeks of dating. There'd been a spark, then, and she'd been happy kissing him. Maybe, if he tried a little harder, they could get back to that happy phase where they'd started.
As the thought entered his mind the boy pushed the girl gently away. She pulled back with a smile. "Well?"
"I think. . ." he trailed off, "I'm crazy about a girl." (This time it sounded more genuine.)
"And?"
"And," Jack took a breath as he remembered how pretty Juliet's eyes were when she was happy and the beautiful, flaming hair that framed her face. "Her name is Juliet Capelwood and I've made a mistake. I'm sorry. You're cool and all, but I am in love with her. We may be going through a rough patch right now but we'll be able to work it out. She's my girlfriend."
"I don't know, Jack. Once she finds out about how we kissed I don't think she's going to be your girlfriend for much longer," Libby said with a smirk.
The blond scoffed and returned to the basement to fetch Cory. "That's it, I'm leaving."
A horn sounded from outside. "Good idea. Missy's dad is here. She's not allowed to have boys over."
"Great," Jack sighed as he ran his fingers through his blond hair.
He went back to where he'd last seen the curly-haired boy and tapped him on the shoulder. "Don't shoot, please!" he exclaimed before he turned around. "Oh, it's you. Shawn's gonna knock your head off for kissing Libby, you know."
"We don't have time for that," Jack said shortly. He turned to Missy. "How do we get out?"
"Back stairs, through the garage, over the fence. You'll land in some shrubs and it's a thirty-yard dash to the highway, go!" Missy exclaimed. The blond grabbed Cory's arm and dragged him out without a second thought.
🌎🌎🌎
"Wow, we made it here in ten minutes," Jack huffed as they entered Chubbie's. "I'm never working on a history project again."
"Good thing we took the highway. Listen, I gotta get the ice cream and get to Topanga's. Do you have any cash? The tollbooth guy wiped me out."
Jack dug around in his pocket before he produced some dollar bills. He walked with the other boy up to the counter as Cory called, "you, counterman, give me a quart of your finest Chunky Monkey Double Fudge."
"And add a quart of Mint Chocolate Chip to that, too," the blond added.
The Cory sighed and turned to the boy next to him once he'd handed over the money. "Why did I do it, Jack? Why did I kiss Missy Robinson?"
"The better question is why are you telling everyone at Chubbie's?" the boy asked, looking pointedly at everyone who was staring at them. The other boy laughed nervously.
"What a wild imagination I have, huh? But you kissed Libby Harper!" he added in a whisper, "you do know Shawn's been itching to have it out with you, right?"
Jack let out a breath and ran his fingers through his hair again in an exasperated gesture. "Yeah, I know. He's terrible at hiding his feelings. I'm lucky Juliet's so oblivious. She won't miss this, though."
"What are we gonna do?" the curly-haired boy asked.
"Tell them," he answered simply.
The boy's eyes widened. "Do you know how killed we're gonna be?"
"It's better to be dead telling the truth than alive liars," Jack shrugged. "Besides, if they really care, they'll listen to our side and won't blame us. We could get away with it," his eyes flicked over to the stairs as he watched Topanga come down and join them. "Hello, Topanga."
"Oh, that is so not even funny because if she. . ." Cory trailed off as he turned around.
Jack's eyes moved behind the girl to fall on Shawn and Juliet, who'd entered after her. "Jack?" the redhead asked curiously, "what about your project?"
The boy ignored Cory's sudden outburst of song as he met his girlfriend's eyes. "There was no project," he told her honestly, "it was a set up. Libby wanted to— well, she wanted to seduce me," he tried to ignore Hunter's narrowed eyes. "And it kind of worked."
"What?"
To his surprise, it was not Juliet who said this but the boy next to her, who practically snarled the word out. He took an aggressive step forward until he was almost nose-to-nose with the blond. "What are you saying, Montacute?"
The redhead grasped Shawn's hand quickly and tugged on his arm. "Shawn, please don't make a scene. Calm down."
The dark-haired boy turned to her with angry eyes (though he wasn't mad at the girl). "He cheated on you, Julie. Do you really think I'm going to let— let this cheater get away with that?" he demanded furiously.
"Let him explain," she pleaded, still insistently tugging on his arm to get him to back down. "Really, just hear him out."
The boy didn't budge from his spot as he turned to glare at the blond again. "Well?"
"I accidentally kissed Libby Harper," Jack admitted. He ignored the dark-haired boy in favor of focusing on the redhead.
"Accidentally?" Shawn snapped, "how do kiss someone accidentally?"
The blond remained unbothered by the other boy's anger. "You should calm down, Hunter," he advised, "you're more worked up than Juliet is and she's my girlfriend." He couldn't help but smirk as he said 'my' and was pleased when the other boy's fierce expression faltered. He turned back to the red-haired girl. "I didn't mean to kiss her. I just—"
"It just happened," Juliet finished quietly.
"Um, yeah. I'm sorry, Juliet," he said seriously.
The redhead looked up into the boy's pained face and felt herself soften. He'd apologized and he looked like he truly meant it. The logical part of her brain (the tiny, muted voice in the back of her head that she didn't want to listen to) was telling her to take this as a sign that they weren't working. They'd been arguing more frequently since school started and this was just another item to add to the pile. The louder, more. . . romantic? (no, that wasn't quite right) part of her that spoke over the quiet voice said you don't want to be alone, do you?
It was this voice she listened to.
"I. . ." she paused, her brows furrowing slightly as she came to her decision. "I forgive you."
"What?" her best friend spoke the word incredulously, as if he couldn't believe it was her saying this. Jack spoke at the same time, though his tone was laced with amazed disbelief.
"Julie—"
"I forgive you," the redhead repeated. Her voice came out more strongly as she lifted a finger to point it in the blond's face. "As long as you never do something like this again. As they say, fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me, and I will not have that blame. Do you understand?"
Jack's blue eyes were very wide as she spoke to him sternly. It was almost comical, with their nearly whole head of height difference, to see the shorter redhead telling off the very guilty-looking blond. Still, he took her at her word and gave a firm nod. "I won't, I promise. I'll make it up to you, I sw—" he cut himself off and practically leapt towards the counter to scoop up the pint of ice cream he'd ordered for the girl. "Look, I got this for you."
She raised an eyebrow. "You thought this would make me forgive you?"
"I thought you would be busy enough eating to give me time to explain," he admitted, causing a faint smile to flicker across her face. "And then it would be part of my apology."
"Julie, you can't be serious," Shawn finally got a word in edgewise, looking stunned, "you're smarter than this—"
The redhead rounded on him and her eyes narrowed. "I think I know how to handle my own relationships. I'd appreciate it if you'd butt out of my business, thank you very much."
Still holding on tightly to her pint of ice cream, Juliet followed Cory and Topanga's path outside to head for home. Jack's gaze followed the girl up the flight of stairs until she disappeared from view.
"She's amazing," he said quietly, still unable to believe that she'd forgiven him. He had a second chance and he wasn't going to squander it. The blonde startled as he felt his back suddenly be pressed up against the nearest wall and his blue eyes went wide as he looked into a similar pair of angry ones.
"Look, Montacute," Shawn started, his voice low and quiet. "I know Juliet's forgiven you and I don't know why, but the point is, I haven't and I never will. I'll be watching you even more closely now and if you even so much as slip up, you'd better be sure that I'm going to tell her right away because Juliet deserves better than either of us. Do you understand?"
It was in this moment that Jack thought he and Shawn would be very good friends were it not for their warring affections. Instead of saying anything about that, however, he gave a single nod. "Loud and clear."
The dark-haired boy released him and gave him a condescending pat on the shoulder as he left. "Good talk."
[written dec. 2020]
[edited may 2022]