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Those fuckers should’ve known by now not to fuck with Pip, but I worried anyway.
It bothered me. I tried to never get attached to anyone. Not that I was attached to Pip, but I felt responsible for him.
I was definitely getting attached to Juliet.
Today, there was no one waiting in her driveway. I walked her to the back door and gave her a quick kiss before jogging back to the home.
For a brief moment, in the midst of the chaos that was my life, I’d found peace.
Fifteen
Juliet
Days and weeks melted into one another. Roman and I were inseparable. We never had as much time as we wanted together but the moments we had were intense.
Half the time we ended up making out in the park, other times we stole a few moments in the photography lab. Mr. Broom seemed oblivious, which worked in our favor.
Roman somehow had his gym class switched to mine. The days the boys and girls were grouped together were my favorite.
Even if it was something idiotic like teaching us ballroom dancing. We lived in a poor, rural area. The likelihood of anyone in this class ever using ballroom dancing skills was pretty slim.
It might have been a silly, frivolous thing to teach us, but I secretly loved the lessons. Especially the way Roman made it clear to every boy in our class that I was off-limits. And the way he let every girl in class know he wasn’t available as a dance partner.
Yeah, his new-guy-with-the-violent-temper reputation commanded the interest of every single girl in our school. They seemed to be caught up in some fantasy of “fixing” the bad boy.
Only I knew the truth. Roman wasn’t bad. He was angry—but he had plenty of valid reasons to be angry. He didn’t need fixing, he needed someone to see his goodness.
I was happy to be that someone.
“Lift your head, Juliet,” the teacher shouted. “Feel where he leads.”
“I feel where you lead all the time,” I mumbled.
Roman rumbled with laughter. I loved making him laugh and seemed to be the only capable of teasing a smile onto his oh-so-serious face. Occasionally, some wacky thing that came out of Vienna’s mouth would make him chuckle, but I always had the impression he was laughing at her more than with her.
I never felt that way when he laughed at my jokes. Roman was the first person he truly got my quirky sense of humor and appreciated it instead of thinking I was a weirdo.
“Sometimes I’m not sure who leads who.” Roman winked and spun me around.
That was ridiculous. I was so under his spell, it wasn’t funny. He pulled me in and I pressed myself up against his chest for a brief moment—even though we were supposed to remain at arm’s length.
Besides giving me an opportunity to publicly touch my boyfriend for a solid forty-five minutes without fear of getting in trouble, the dance lessons were great because we didn’t have to change into our dorky, inappropriately-sized gym uniforms. Today, I’d worn a short, floaty chiffon dress Vienna had given me for Christmas. It was frilly, with layers that fanned out each time Roman spun me around, making me feel like a modern Disney princess.
We finished and Roman gave me a quick peck on the lips before I dashed off to the locker room with Vienna. I didn’t need to change, but I did need to collect my backpack for our next class.
“Girl, the way that boy looks at you,” Vienna said. “I get goosebumps”
“He’s kinda ew, like doesn’t he live in a detention center or something?” One of my cattier classmates—Diane—said without looking at me.
“You didn’t seem to think so when you asked him to take you to prom,” I said sweetly.
Vienna laughed. “Don’t be such a bitter bitch, Diane, it’ll give you wrinkles.”
More nastiness came out of her, but I’d stopped caring about what my shallow classmates thought of me a long time ago.
I grabbed my stuff and hugged Vienna before taking off to meet up with Roman.
Except he wasn’t in the hallway waiting for me like he normally was.
A sick feeling settled in my stomach.
Doug and his friends had been increasing the verbal attacks on Roman whenever they could get away with it. So far, Roman ignored verbal abuse, but I didn’t doubt if one of them laid a hand on him, he’d hit back. Hard.
Finally, he emerged from the gym, smiling when he saw me. A whoosh of relief passed my lips and I took his outstretched hand. “Were you waiting long?”
“Is everything okay?” I blurted out.
“Mr. Dawson wanted to talk to me about trying out for baseball.”
“Isn’t it too late in the season?”
He shrugged. “They’re down a player. I know zip about baseball, except that it looks boring as fuck.”
“I hope you didn’t say that to him.” I snort-giggled and covered my mouth.
“Nah, I just said I didn’t have time and I don’t think I could get permission from Pine Bluff.” He peered down at me. “Would you rather be dating a baseball player?”
I almost laughed again. As if any other boy in this school could compare to Roman. Yet, I sensed a hint of seriousness in his voice and wanted to reassure him. “Only if it’s you.”
“If I’m doing anything after school, it’s finding a job.”
“I hear that,” I mumbled.
He raised an eyebrow. “What did you have in mind?”
“Maybe the ice cream shop connected to the drive-in theater for the summer? That could be fun.” Fun and keep me out of the house until late.
“Fun huh?” He slipped his arm around my shoulders and I soaked up his warmth.
We strolled into art class a few minutes before the bell and sat in our usual spots. Chloe and Jameson another couple in our grade sat across from us, eagerly discussing their prom plans. I shifted uncomfortably. I hadn’t brought up prom because I figured there was no way Roman could afford to go and I didn’t want to make him feel bad.
Under the table, he found my hand and twined our fingers together. He leaned over and whispered in my ear, “Do you have a date for prom?”
“What? No.” How could he ask me that?
Then I looked into his laughing green eyes and knew he was only teasing. He winked, but didn’t get to add anything to our conversation because Mr. Broom started class.
Naturally Roman and I had worked on our photography projects together. He’d taken an embarrassingly large amount of photos of me for his assignment.
He also had a talent for capturing breathtaking landscapes and pretty much anything else he turned his lens on.
After the introductory lecture, Roman leaned over. “How do you feel about sticking around after class?”
A tingle of excitement zipped through me. “Sounds good. Are you allowed to?” I whispered back, making sure to keep my voice low. Enough rumors about Roman had been spread around the school without me adding to them.
“I have special permission for this project,” he assured me.
That Roman sought out permission from the counselors—when I knew how much he hated asking anyone for anything—just to spend time with me meant a lot.
Mr. Broom seemed oblivious to why maybe two teenagers shouldn’t be left alone in a darkroom together without supervision, but yet, he did.
Not just us either.
A couple kids would use the space to get high. Roman and I had no interest.
We were too high on each other.
