Chapter 07: Wrong Romeo For a while, I had forgotten about Jake. He went to NYC for a week and... a lot has happened since then. He looked even better than I remembered though. Fresh faced with his scruffy hair and tattoos. His finger drummed against the desk absentmindedly and it drew my attention to his open notebook. Lyrics were written across the page in beautiful handwriting. Jake was a songwriter and I blushed as I remembered the song he'd written about me: She don't realize How those eyes hypnotize And those lips never tell lies It's funny really, because Luke usually calls my eyes demonic. Except this weekend, when he called them beautiful. "Nothing changes around here, does it?" Jake mumbled to me in a quiet voice, as the teacher droned on. Well, Luke and I started seeing each other. I found out that Julia slept with my ex while we were still together. And I tried to get the police to stop my blackmailer. "Yeah," I agreed, "Nothing changes." Ms. Hathaway asked us to turn to Act IV in the play we were reading. He'd forgotten his copy again. I tried not to overthink it when he moved his chair closer to mine so we could share. I also hoped he didn't notice the ketchup stain on the bottom left page. That ketchup was meant to go on my crispy fries last night. I'd create 100 ketchup stains to relive those fries right now – but I digress. Someone from the class was reading out an excerpt from Taming of the Shrew in a super dramatic way. It made many laugh. "So, uh... you never answered my question," Jake whispered under the laughter. We were sitting closer now, and his whisper was perfectly clear in my ears. "Luke and I went on a date this weekend," I said, "And it went well." His eyes remained glued to the page. He said, "I hadn't heard." "Luke didn't mention it?" That shady- I couldn't hear any emotion in Jake's voice. But I could see he was disappointed. He was a better singer than he was an actor. "What?" Jake asked me. "Luke didn't mention it?" I repeated. What's Luke playing at? They were brothers. "We aren't exactly on speaking terms." The teacher began to walk through the classroom and we immediately went silent. Last thing we wanted was to be picked on to answer a question we clearly hadn't been paying attention to. I slid my phone under my notebook. "Then my text to you was bad timing, huh?" he said, appearing to focus on the play while Mrs Hathaway passed by. I blushed. Oh, the text when you said you wouldn't give up and wanted to change my mind? "It wasn't ideal," I said, "But Luke and I are v-" "Alright, you two lovebirds!" Mrs Hathaway popped up behind us, catching us mid-speech, "Since you're so chatty, why don't you read out the next scene together?" Why does she have to do me like this? The next scene was Act IV, end of Part I – Petruchio's declaration of love. I'm sure Mrs Hathaway thinks of us as her personal Netflix show. Teachers can be sneaky when they meddle in our love lives. A confused Cupid matching me with the wrong Romeo. "I have a sore throat," I excused myself. "Not sore enough to keep quiet during my class," she retorted, "So give it a go. And try to be as committed as Geoffrey was when he read out the last scene." Geoffrey. "He's lucky Game of Thrones resurrected his name," Jake muttered. My mouth almost dropped. Jake firing shots. "We don't have all day now," Mrs Hathaway urged us to get started. I grumpily glanced at the clock to see if we were anywhere near the end of class. "Class started fifteen minutes ago, Millie, so you have no chance of getting out of this," Mrs Hathaway said, pointing me to page 120 of the play, "You can begin. First line is Katharina's." While the class sniggered, I said, "OK, but let's not assume. Uh... Jake? Do you want to be Petruchio or Katharina?" Yes, I was stalling. And yes, I was also proving a point. Jake said, "I'll take Katharina." Some more people sniggered. I looked around while Jake geared up for his first line. Lexi and Yoona were sitting in the front. I hadn't seen them since Cearra snapped at them at lunchtime. They used to be a tight group of friends called 'LUCKY' and now... What's LUCKY without the C? Luke-y "Husband, let's follow, to see the end of this ado," Jake declared to me. I almost jumped at the sound of him calling me husband. I read ahead at my next line and internally gawked at it. I reluctantly said, "First kiss me, Kate, and we will." "What, in the midst of the street?" "What, art thou ashamed of me?" "No, sir, God forbid, but ashamed to kiss." Jake played the part of Katharina very well. I was a bit stiff in my role as Petruchio but I'm not trying to win any Oscars here. I glanced up sheepishly to the front of the class. Mrs Hathaway was watching us with a huge smile on her face. In front of her, I saw a phone being lowered. I think Lexi was filming us. ** I know I haven't handled the Jake-Luke drama well in the past. I know that. I tend to close off rather than express my feelings... Which doesn't work well now that I'm seeing Luke. Apparently, being part of a relationship requires 'honesty' and 'open communication' and all those things mature people say. It also requires patience. Because I've made mistakes before and I'm sure I'll make them again. As will he. "Luke," I spoke into my phone, "Are you still at school? Let's talk about your brother. He's back from New York now and we should figure out how best to do this." There was a silence before deep voice echoed through the phone, "Do what?" "Do... life?" Why am I like this? When I open up, I need to actually make sense. Not just spew out whatever comes to my mind. "I think we're doing life, Millie," Luke said, "And Jake is doing his." Touché. "But Jake and I get along and you obviously have a very complicated relationship with him. We can't just ignore him. Also, hetextedmewhenwewereonourdate," I said the last part as quickly as I could. I heard background noises on Luke's side of the phone. Then I heard the clicks as he increased the volume to hear me better. "Whenever you stop making sense, it's either adorable or bad news," Luke said. I didn't say anything. "I'm going to murder him." I guess Luke took that as the bad news option. "What?" I exclaimed, "No! It's not that bad." "Well, it's good you told me. If my own brother is going behind my back, we got issues. I'm at practice now, but I'll call you later." "Luke! Please, please don't do anything rash." "I won't," he said, "But I'll do something." ** I wish I could monitor Luke after school, or tackle my increasingly messy social life. Buut I had to work. I work part-time at Lola Rae, where the dresses are so expensive that it's my excuse for bad fashion sense. I can't afford it. "Who works here?" a guy shouted, walking into the store with a dress in his hand. Since there was no one else in the store, it was pointless to raise my hand. He walked towards me and flung the dress at me. "My sister needs this in a size six. Someone gave this to her in a size four," he said. His sister was with him. I smelt her perfume before I saw her... and I immediately recognized her. Bianca Rodriguez. The senior even the freshmen knew about. She was notorious for her beauty and – cruelty. Her dark haired curls were tied up in a ponytail. She was in a sports bra and leggings. "Fetch the dress," her brother said, "We don't have all day." Bianca was glued to her phone. She approached the counter and her eyes trailed judgingly from my employee badge up to my face... where she suddenly recoiled. Bianca recognized me. A few months ago, she would never have known I existed. But now, I'd say we go way back. "I won't fetch the dress," I told her brother, "But you could try the pet store." "Don't give me attitude. Where's the manager? I'm going to-" Bianca interrupted him, "Please, let's not argue. I know her and she knows..." Bianca stopped short of saying his name. She hesitated before continuing, "She knows... someone. We have friends in common that I don't want to annoy." "Whatever, sis. You hurry up and sort this out. I'll wait outside," her brother pulled his own phone out and walked off. "Do you have the receipt?" I asked Bianca quietly, while I inwardly calmed down from how aggressive her brother had been towards me. Bianca nodded and handed it over. Her eyes stayed glued on me, surprised to see me work here. She leaned over and whispered, "Is it true? Did you really go on a date with him?" I looked up, "With who?" "Don't play innocent." "Luke?" "Who else?" she snapped, "Did he actually take you on a date this weekend? He isn't known for doing that, so I have my doubts. Might even be a rumor you started yourself." "Yeah, I have fun doing that," I said sarcastically, checking the computer to see if we had any size six dresses in stock. "B!" her aggressive brother came running back, "Isn't that the guy you like? He's out there." "Luke?" she exclaimed. "Luke?!" I equally exclaimed. Awkward that she just called out my boyfriend's name as the guy she likes. Also awkward that I had no idea he was here. We glanced at each other before all three of us ran to the front of the store. There was Luke... And Austin... And Chad... And a couple guys from the basketball team I didn't really know. Why were they hanging out at the mall? They must have come here after practice. Was Luke waiting for me to finish? The boys were seated outside a fast food chain, with drinks and food on their table. Luke had gotten up and yelled across the mall. "JAKE!" It was a lot for me to process. First, it was surprising to see Luke and his friends here, but we've covered that. Second, it was hearing the name he called. I followed everyone else's gaze and... Sure enough, coming out of the guitar store, was Jake Dawson. Brother-on-brother. Oh brother. Jake looked up and saw his brother on the second floor of the mall. Along with a bunch of other people staring down at him. Jake raised his middle finger. Luke jumped over the railing of the fast food chain and took the escalator down to Jake's level. He had waited weeks to confront him. This is about me, isn't it? I couldn't let this erupt. I ran out of the store to take the escalator down as well and almost bumped into Austin, who was carrying three boxes of french fries, while chasing after Luke. "Millie!" he exclaimed, a few stray french fries flying out of his arms, "Want a fry?"