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❛ ᴏᴄᴇᴀɴ ᴇʏᴇꜱ​​​​​​​​​​. ❜ ° . ༄
- ͙۪۪˚   ▎❛ 𝐅𝐈𝐅𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍 ❜   ▎˚ ͙۪۪̥◌
»»————- ꒰ ᴍʏ ʙᴀʙʏ ᴠᴀʟᴇɴᴛɪɴᴇ ꒱　


❝ YOU CAN'T SPELL
ROMEO WITHOUT 'EMO' ❞

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"'Are you ready for your first night of your audiobook?'" Shawn asked as he called promptly at nine p.m. the day after they'd separated.

Juliet smiled softly up at the ceiling. She was lying flat on her back on one of the Student Union's couches. The main room was mostly empty at this hour and so it didn't feel rude to talk on the phone. (Alright, so maybe she'd lied to force her best friend to accept her gift: she'd had her father get a second cell phone so she could talk to him anywhere; it hadn't actually been a birthday present.) She chuckled. "Audiobook?"

"'Well, yeah. I thought I could keep my promise and read all the books you got me but to you. What do you say?'"

Touched that he'd followed through, her expression became fond. "That's one of the best ideas you've ever had, Shawnie."

"'That's not saying much,'" he joked lightly. "'Since we're starting from the beginning, tonight's book is Romeo and Juliet.'"

"Ugh, really? Shakespeare's Juliet is so stupid."

"'Sorry, Julie. We've gotta get through all of them.'" He began with the synopsis: "'the prologue of Romeo and Juliet calls the title characters "star crossed lovers"—and the stars do seem to conspire against these young lovers.' So that's what 'star crossed' means. I always thought that it meant they were fated."

"Well, they definitely aren't. Can't you just skip to the end?"

"'No way, so if you don't complain this will go faster. 'Romeo is a Montague and Juliet a Capulet. Their families are enmeshed in a feud but the moment they meet— when Romeo and his friends attend a party at Juliet's house in disguise— the two fall in love and quickly decide that they want to be married. . .'"

Juliet closed her eyes as she listened to him read and tried to imagine her best friend miles away on his own surrounded by. . . something. She didn't have a full picture of what the scene was so she made a mental note to ask him the next night to describe where he was reading. Instead, she focused on the steady, comforting cadence of his voice. She giggled as he pitched it higher to imitate Juliet as he tried to do different voices for the characters.

"'God, this Romeo guy sucks,'" Shawn remarked after a while, having used Daly's (as Juliet had been too young back then) annotations to understand the translation from middle English to modern. "'Now I get why you were always so against having 'a Romeo.''"

"Thank you," Juliet exclaimed. "Everyone always thinks it's so romantic but they're just idiots. He's so emotional and angsty it's annoying."

"'Well, you know what they say: you can't spell Romeo without 'emo.''" Juliet burst into a fit of giggles at that, causing him to smile in the middle-of-nowhere, Pennsylvania. "'He's worse than I ever was when it comes to dating.'"

"Well, yeah. You never caused anyone to kill themselves."

"'I certainly hope not!'"

🌎🌎🌎

"'Hey, Julie.'"

"Hi Shawnie," she replied happily as she occupied the same exact couch the next night. "What's up?"

"'The sky,'" he answered, earning a laugh. "'No, really. You should see it out here. It's beautiful.'"

"Where are you?"

"'Ohio. I'm not sure what the closest town is. What about you?'"

After she'd described her setting, she asked, "where are you right now? Like, where are you reading?"

"'Outside on top of the trailer. I pulled off into a cornfield a few hours ago. I don't think they'll mind. There's hardly anyone around except for a car every thirty-plus minutes. The country is so different from the city, Julie. You can see so many stars and there's all sorts of animal noises,'" Shawn explained.

"Well, don't let any of them eat you," she joked.

"'No chance of that. I bet I'm the biggest threat there is.'"

"Uh-huh. Sure."

"'It's true!'"

"Okay."

She heard him huff. "'Do you want me to read or not?'" When she didn't reply, he continued: "'that's what I thought. Okay, last night we stopped halfway through act one. . .'"

🌎🌎🌎

"'Hey, Julie.'"

"Hi, Shawnie," she greeted him the same way as she had the previous night. "How far did you get today?"

"'I'm still in Ohio. I really hate corn.'"

She giggled at that. "I guess you could say it's stalking you."

"'Ugh. Julie, don't you start—'"

"What, you don't want me to give you an earful?"

"'Julie—'"

"Are you thinking 'this shucks?'"

"'Where on earth do to you come up with these?'" Shawn wondered, clearly exasperated. He froze. "'No, don't answer that—'"

"I can't tell you. That's cornfidential," Juliet said with a smirk.

"'Are you done?'"

"C'mon, Shawnie, it takes a lot of corn-centration to come up with these." She paused. "Alright, I'm done."

"'Thank God.'"

"Hey, you love my puns!"

"'Speak for yourself. They're terrible.'"

"I think you mean—"

"'You've used that one already,'" he reminded her. "'Let's move on before you can make another one. Right then. We almost finished act one yesterday. . .'"

🌎🌎🌎

"'Hey, Julie.'"

"Hi Shawnie. What's up?" Then she added, "the sky, I know."

He grinned. "'I think you know me too well. How is everyone?'"

"Pretty good. Cory's excited about Valentine's Day despite the fact that January's only just ended. Topanga's not making that big of a deal about it and I've just been doing stuff."

"'What kind of stuff?'"

"Schoolwork, homework—"

"'Aren't those the same thing?'"

"One's done in class and one's done at home. There's a difference. Anyway, not much."

"'Come on, Julie,'" Shawn insisted. "'Give me something. I have no idea what's going on over there.'"

She sighed. "I've been practicing."

"'Practicing?'"

"My Violin."

"'Your Violin?'"

"What are you, a parrot? Yes, my Violin."

"'Since when do you play the Violin?'" he demanded. "'Why haven't you told me?'"

"I started a few days after we went to the art museum at the beginning of the semester," the redhead responded, "and it never came up."

"'At the risk of sounding like a parrot, 'it never came up?' What does that mean? You could've just said so!'" Juliet hesitated, not wanting to admit that she'd thought they wouldn't care. "'Julie?'"

"Well, you guys were just so busy with. . . with everything—" That weird love triangle thing we had going on. "—so it didn't seem important."

"'Of course it's important!'" he exclaimed. "'It's something you like to do! When's your first concert? I'll be there.'"

She felt her face warm at his vehemence and felt guilty for thinking that it didn't matter. "I'm not that good yet. I'm gonna try to audition for the orchestra this spring so after that, if I get in—"

"'Of course you will. Hey—'" Shawn paused as things suddenly fell into place. "'Is that where you disappeared to?'"

"Oh. Um, yeah," Juliet confirmed awkwardly. "How'd you know?"

This time, Shawn hesitated because it felt too. . . personal to tell her that he'd noticed her absence every time she hadn't been a part of the group. "'Er, just a guess.'"

". . .Right."

"'You will let me know when you're performing, right? 'Cause I meant it when I said that I want to be there.'"

"Of course," she promised as she smiled slightly.

🌎🌎🌎

"'Hey, Julie.'"

"Hi Shawnie," the redhead replied. He'd been gone almost two weeks now and she missed him more than ever, especially with it being Valentine's day tomorrow.

"'Ready to finish Romeo and Juliet tonight?'"

"Definitely," Juliet declared emphatically. "I hate this book with a passion."

"'I'm sorry it's taken us so long to get through it—'"

"You don't have to apologize," she interrupted him gently. "It's okay. Seriously, Shawnie. I'm impressed that you're even reading it."

"'Right,'" he answered and he was sure that she could pick up on his embarrassment. "'Anyway, here we go. . .'"

It was nearly two in the morning when they were wrapping up their call, both because they'd wanted to finish the book and they'd gotten sidetracked by talking. Juliet realized with surprise that it was the fourteenth and she wondered if it would be weird to make any kind of remark about it. To test it out, she tentatively pointed out, "hey, it's tomorrow already."

Shawn seemed to pick up on it right away. "'The fourteenth, right?'"

"Yeah."

"'You know I don't like making a big deal about this stupid holiday, right?'"

"I know," she agreed quietly.

There was a moment of silence over the line until he spoke again: "'but Cory's already gonna go all out so what the heck. Happy Valentine's Day, Julie.'"

She smiled brightly despite the fact that he couldn't see her. "Happy Valentine's day, Shawnie."

🌎🌎🌎

Her day had taken a turn for the worse as, after she'd slept through Mrs. Matthews' baby shower (to which she was grateful for after hearing Topanga's account of it), she got the call that the older woman had gone into labor and was in the hospital. She made her way there as fast as she could and ran over to the family once she'd entered the waiting room.

"What's going on?"

"We got her in just in time," Topanga told her. "She's in C-section right now and we're waiting to hear more."

"Okay," the redhead breathed out. "Okay. How's Cory?" Her gaze fell on her best friend who had remained in his chair.

"He's. . . coping," the blonde replied uncertainly.

Not long after, Mr. Matthews came out of the sectioned off hallway with a somber look on his face as he pulled off his mask. He approached them heavily. "Uh. . . I only got to hold him for a second. He's. . . not breathing on his own. They've got him on a respirator and, uh, they. . . uh, they don't know if. . ." His voice cracked. "He's just so small, so helpless." He looked over at his children. "I don't know how I'm going to tell your mother." 

[written oct. 2021]
[edited jun. 2022]