The next afternoon in the campus garden, Felix had to go early to get to the location where the club had to showcase their short film and assisted in carrying the heavy equipment. 

Gage watched him from the distance, being happy, still feeling bad about their fight. Even though Felix saw him, he just ignored him.

Still, Gage decided to approach him before he leaves. "Hey, man," he said to him with a friendly smile. "Can we talk?"

Felix put on a cold expression. "I'm busy," he responded and just continued to do what he did.

"Dude, come on. I'm sorry. Can't we work this out?"

"Didn't I made myself clear enough for you yesterday? I'm done with you. Especially, Courtney. You guys can have each other as best friends or whatever for all I care."

Gage could see his roommate was serious. "Felix, you're my best friend too."

Oddey and Rita came since they were coming along to watch with the film club. They caught that there were tension between the two guys.

"What kind of best friend am I when I lied to you and hanging out with your faker ex-girlfriend?" Felix replied bluntly.

"I..." Gage uttered.

"What's going on?" Rita interrupted while Oddey looking quietly at them with concern. "Is everything okay here?"

The guys stopped, not wanting to show that they had problem. "Yeah," Felix lied to his girlfriend. "Everything is fine."

The girls wasn't convince, yet just brushed it off. "Okay. Are you coming with us, Gage?" Rita asked him.

"No," Felix answered quickly. "He's not. Also, he's just leaving. Right?"

Gage was wide-eyed that he was being shunned away. "Ahem... yeah," he stammered. "See you later... buddy."

From that last part, that five letter word, it touched a nerve to Felix, but remained to seem that he was unnaffected. "Mmmkay," he mumbled and got back to helping lifting equipment.

----

Later, Gage just spent all his day walking around campus, dwelling on what was going on with his life. He felt he was betrayed by the girl he loves and on top of that, he lost his best friend.

Out of all places, he decided to go to the auditorium. It was so quiet without the noises of the actors rehearsing or chattering anywhere that you could hear echoes of his footsteps.

Gage never wanted to be in that club in the first place, though the silence made him feel empty, and it wasn't because there were no people there. He gazed at the backdrop for the balcony scene that Oddey designed and made.

After that, there were boxes full of flowers made of used paper, that he remembered giving her a making them. It was the first time Oddey helped him practice. Her soft voice instructed him that it was okay to make mistakes and instructed him not to act like Romeo and just how he felt.

Every practice with her made Gage understand what Romeo truly felt and express it by acting. The same feeling that he had towards Oddey, his Juliet. However, those were all ruined by a betraying reality that caused him to lose his trust in her, yet why did it still feel wrong?

"Mr. Munro?" He heard a voice call out to him. Startled, the guy immediately turned around and saw that Madame Vestia was there glancing at him with her brow lifted. "What are you doing here?"

"Uhm... I lost my jacket, and I think I left it here," Gage lied. "But... I think it's not here."

"I see..."

"Ahem... what brings you here, Madame Vestia?"

The professor looked up to the set. "No particular reason, I just love admiring the backdrops. Ms. Empirio has an exquisite eye for visual art. I know I shouldn't have favorites, but she's mine."

Gage gazed over to the backdrops on the stage, "Yeah, I guess she does," he replied dryly.

"Oh, sorry, I forgot. Didn't mean to bring that up."

"No, that's alright. I'm okay."

Madame Vestia had this unconvinced expression on her face. "You don't look okay."

"I... I'm just stressed," the architect student claimed. "Loads of workload ahead after the play."

"Or perhaps conflicted? This has something to do with Ms. Empirio, isn't it?"

"Is it that obvious?"

"Not to pry, but I did hear it from the grapevine. I just find it very surprising how the events that you and Ms. Empirio are in are similar to the Shakespearean star-crossed lover," the professor expressed.

"Except Juliet didn't lie to Romeo that she's a Capulet. She's the daughter of a man who ruined my Dad's life."

"Have you learned nothing from the play, my boy?" The professor scolded him. "Your love for each other has nothing to do with both of your parents being enemies."

"I get that, but she lied to me. I thought all those times together were real until I found out who she was." The architect student realized that he rambled his problems to a professor. "Sorry, I didn't mean to unload..."

"No, that's alright," Madame Vestia assured him. "We're not in class or in the middle of rehearsal. You know, a good way to solve a problem is to talk about it. So, go on... unloading."

Gage found it odd though out of respect, he reluctantly continued the conversation. "I just lost one of my best friends of hers, and I was the one being played," he expressed. "I don't know what to believe anymore. I'm not even sure if she loves me."

"Well, I believe she did love you."

"You think so?"

"I know so. If she didn't, then Odette should be playing the role of Juliet, and not Courtney."

"I can't tell anymore," the heartbroken guy exasperated.

The professor could see the pain in his eyes. "I'm going to tell you a story," she exhaled, then gestured for him to sit on one of the auditorium seats. "Come, sit down. It's a long story."

"Oookay." Gage just did as he was told while she took another seat from the side.

Madame Vestia sat down, preparing herself to tell him her story from her past. "When I was a teenage boy named Darius Vito, it was awfully hard to express who I am. My family expects me to play sports, run their Autoshop business, and have a wife. That was their ideal son, not me."

"That must have been rough."

"Not entirely. I would say it's useful because I learned how to fix my car. Anyhow, every weekend, I would wear women's clothes and wigs whenever I wanted to get out of the house, and I named myself Destiny Rose Vestia. Rose, for short. And, I make a very pretty girl."

Gage just chuckled softly.

"One day, I bumped into a dashing athlete named Brams Talon. He was tall and strong, with a killer smile that made plenty of girls, including me, melt. Although he went to a different school, his little sister went to the same school as me. That was how I knew him."

The professor took a deep breath since she could feel there was a lump in her throat because the memories from the event overwhelmed her. "I was young and in love that I wanted to have him. It wasn't hard that Brams fell for me, as me. He was such a prince. Giving me flowers and taking me dancing. I did everything to hide the truth from him."

"But I think you know that the truth will find its way to come out. I don't know how in the world he found out. We met in our special place in the woods. I remember how enraged he looked when I arrived. He just grabbed my wig and then took it off my head. He was shouting and yelling about how I lied to him. To be honest, I don't blame him, especially when he beat me up unrecognizable and left me lying on the dirt."

The architect student was disturbed by Madame Vestia's experience. "He beat you up? That's... terrible," he responded. "Did you report it?"

"And tell them what? I was assaulted because he discovered that I was not a female. Of course, he wouldn't dare to confide that to his fellows either. Moreover, I did lie to Brams."

"Well, I think that's not the same as what Oddey did to me," Gage replied.

"You know what I think? I think there's more to the story than meets the eye. Yes, she lied to you. I don't know what it is, but I know it wasn't intended to hurt you."

The Romeo began considering it in his mind. "Maybe. Still... I don't know if I can forgive her."

"Silly boy." Madame Vestia quietly laughed and shook her head at him. "Ask yourself these questions first: Do you not find yourself leering at her every chance you get? Do you ever find yourself searching for her presence when she's absent? Do you ever find yourself yearning for her comfort? Do you find yourself annoyed that she's smiling at the wrong gentleman?"

Gage began contemplating those questions one by one in his mind like they were surveys. From first to last, he looked back at how he caught a glance at Oddey whenever she was nearby, and when she was not around, he would look for her until he saw her. Also, he did miss her sweet way of encouraging him.

"And lastly, if you can't forgive her, are you ready to lose her forever?" The hopeless romantic professor added. "If not, then you're right. You are over her. Anywho, you don't have to answer that now. Sooner or later, you will know that yourself."

That one last question haunted Gage. That was admittedly the most difficult question to answer. A lot more difficult than solving differential equations in calculus class. "I don't know..." he mumbled under his breath.

"Find that out then, and when you do, listen to your heart," Madame Vestia advised him.

Gage just nodded in acknowledgment. "By the way, can I ask you something?"

"Go ahead."

"Whatever happened to Brams?"

The older woman shrugged. "Last time I checked, he joined the army right after he graduated high school. Why'd you ask?"

"Just wondering," Gage claimed.

"If you're also wondering that I forgave him, then yes, I did. I was surprised that he went home one Christmas after my transition and apologized to me. He was sorry about how he reacted, beating, and leaving me in the woods when he did not have to."

"Did you?"

"Certainly, I was in the wrong anyway. I didn't give him a chance to accept who I am, and I bet, that's how you felt about Oddey, am I right? Do you wish that she had given you a choice earlier?"

"Yes," the Romeo said softly.

"Oh, my dear boy." Madame Vestia patted her student's back. "Someday you will find it in your heart to forgive her even if it means losing her."

Gage flinched from that last part. He knew that forgiveness comes from the heart, but the thought of having Oddey not in his life was not what he wanted. "No, I know what I need to do," he said, then stood up. "And that's not losing Oddey just because our family is at war. I have to fix this now. Not only her, but with Felix too."

The professor smiled that the Romeo finally opened his heart. "Then go fix it, darling."

"Thanks, Madame Vestia, for listening."

"I'm always here to listen. Now go before a Paris takes your Juliet."

Gage nodded, and rushed out of the auditorium.