The Hynes and L/n families have been in a feud for over a decade, and they do whatever it takes to make sure that their children don't ever cross paths. But when Y/n L/n auditions for the Romeo and Juliet play, she falls in love with Louis Hynes.
Ev...
It almost brought tears to my eyes when I watched the scene of Romeo getting banished from Verona. It put a thought in my head and I couldn't stop asking myself, What if this plan doesn't work? What if our parents don't end the feud and they find out we've been sneaking around behind their backs? Surely they'll send me away to some private school! All of those thoughts stopped coming at me when the sound of applause came from the crowd and they got prepared for the scene of Juliet and Romeo saying goodbye.
During intermission, I had changed into my Juliet nightgown and I couldn't stop touching the silky material.
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"You look beautiful, angel," Louis whispered before the curtain rose and the sound effect of birds chirping started playing. Louis and I sat up at the same time and I kept eye contact with him while I said my lines. "Must you be gone? It is not yet near day. It was the nightingale and not the lark, That pierced the fearful hollow of thine ear. Believe me, love, it was the nightingale," Louis leaned in slightly and kissed my nose.
"It was the lark, the herald of the morn, no nightingale. Night's candles are burnt out, and jocund day stands tiptoe on the misty mountaintops. I must be gone and live, or stay and die," He recited. I held back the tears as the rest of the scene continued, and when Juliet learned that her father planned for her to marry Count Paris, those tears weren't fake. They were real. I already imagined that scene if the plan didn't work out.
Part of me was getting anxious to get to the end of the play so I could learn about my parent's reaction to the ending. "Look to't, think on't, I do not use to jest. Thursday is near; lay hand on heart, advise: an you be mine, I'll give you to my friend. And you be not, hang, beg, starve, die in the streets!" The actor, playing my father recited. The scene with Friar Laurence was next and all the emotions came pouring out of me like water from an open floodgate.
The part of Romeo finding out Juliet was "dead" was also emotional for me, because of what was soon to come. But with this happier ending, I cried happy tears instead of sad ones behind the curtains. "What's this, a letter from Friar Laurence? What doth he want?" Louis said, opening one of the prop letters. I could see people in the audience were confused. They probably weren't expecting this scene. Mr. Robertson told the cast and crew that we needed to keep the happier ending a secret because people expected it to be sad with Romeo and Juliet killing themselves. But little did they know they were getting a happier ending.
Thank god the school disagreed with the ending. "My Juliet is in fair sleep in the Capulet tomb? I must go there and wake her," Louis recited before running offstage. The curtain went down once again, and the crew got the tomb scene laid out. Like the original play, Romeo would have to kill Paris, but he didn't go to the apothecary and purchase the poison. I had looked forward to rehearsing this scene and now we were finally going to present it to the entire auditorium. I just hoped that they would like it.
"Juliet, get on here!" One of the crew whispered shouted. I quickly ran over to the mattress and laid down on it as placed fake flowers on the mattress. "Is that you, Tybalt? Lying there in thy bloody sheet? Forgive me, cousin," Louis said, looking over at Tybalt's "body" I could hear Louis walk towards me and bend down next to the mattress. I felt him take a silky see-through sheet off me, and his fingers softly stroked my cheek.
"My wife, I will wake thee with a smooth but tender kiss," Louis said before I felt him crash his lips onto mine. It took everything inside me not to kiss him back in that moment, as I was still acting like I was unconscious. After a few seconds, I slowly sat up and looked Louis in the eye. "Romeo? My love, Friar Laurence said you would be here," I recited. "He did, and I am here my love," I felt Louis wrap an arm around me as he cradled me in his arms for a moment before letting me stand up and get off the mattress.
"Come on my dear, to Mantua where we'll spend the rest of our lives together," Louis said, pointing offstage. We ran off the stage together and we heard the auditorium boom with applause, louder than ever before. "Amazing performance you two!" Malina smiled before we went on stage with the rest of the actors and took a bow. My parents and brother were clapping for us, and so were Louis's parents and siblings.
I had a feeling that we did it. I had a feeling that we brought the feud to an end once and for all.
