Romeo & Juelz ✔

A Dreadful Realisation

<3

🪼-☀️-🪼-☀️-🪼-☀️-🪼-☀️-🪼-☀️-🪼-☀️-🪼

~

"If I break my ass, I'm pressing charges."

Romeo laughed, tightly coiling his fingers around the willow's branches. "I'll keep that in mind, then. But I think the knots are strong enough!"  

Juelz pursed his lips, shooting Romeo a deathly glare when he almost toppled over. 

Romeo and Juelz had spent their morning crafting a swing out of the willow's wispy branches, tying various ends together until it seemed stable enough. After a heated match of rock, paper, scissors, Juelz was promoted to test subject.

"I'm seriously going to die, and it's your fault," Juelz hissed with an accusing finger pointed at Romeo, who carefully pushed the swing forward. As the minutes ticked by, a spark of hope ignited in Romeo's head that their creation might actually be functional. However, this exciting newfound hope didn't last long when the leaves above them began to rustle, creaking sounds travelling through the branches. Before anyone could say or do anything, the entire structure came crashing down, dropping the both of them to the ground in a tangled mess of limbs and branches.

Squawking out a scream, Juelz clutched onto Romeo for dear life, digging his dark blue nails into Romeo's skin. "Told you so," he muttered. 

Romeo let out a groan, writhing his arms around to find freedom. Unfortunately, all he found was a lack of oxygen and Juelz's body on top of him. "Sunshine, you're crushing me," he made out in a muffled voice, laughing through the pain when Juelz didn't move a muscle.

"Serves you right," he huffed, shifting his position until his head rested on Romeo's stomach. 

Still covered in branches and strokes of sunlight tickling his face, Romeo found himself smiling. The grass was still wet from the morning dew, water droplets pressing into his back and the sun had barely reached past the mountains, the smell of summer in the air. It was a little past 9 am, no sign of human life to be found anywhere. 

But, when your main goal is to forget certain things, silence is deadly. Thus, Romeo spoke. "How's Lola doing?"

Juelz hummed, staring up at the kaleidoscope of leaves and sunlight above them. "Same as always. Still don't understand how the fuck she managed to escape."

And back were the memories Romeo was trying so hard to forget. Suddenly, he felt oddly aware of Juelz's head on his stomach. Nonetheless, he plastered on a smile. "Yeah, she's a little escape artist."

"Mhm," Juelz hummed again, folding his hands underneath his head. "You're pan, right?"

Romeo furrowed his brows. "Yeah, why?"

Pursing his lips, Juelz craned his neck, glancing up at Romeo. "Do you like Ella?"

"What? Why would you think that?" Romeo shook his head with a chuckle. He couldn't imagine ever dating Ella, no matter how bad he felt for her. It just didn't feel right. Still, he wondered why Juelz thought otherwise.

Juelz just shrugged, avoiding eye contact. "Dunno. It just looked that way." 

The air around Romeo suddenly felt tight, crawling up against his skin. Afraid the air would completely solidify, he attempted a grin. "Don't worry sunshine, Ella's just a friend. I'm all yours."

Juelz remained silent, his eyes fixed on the sky. He reduced his voice to a frustrated whisper. "Don't say things that aren't true."

White-hot ropes tied themselves around Romeo's stomach. What's happening?!  "I wasn't—