This is not about Juliet

The beginning: London, present

And then everything was fine for some generations, and ties were strengthend, and there was hope for children because they assumed that if two bloodlines flowed into one, the folding empires would merge and bring never before seen wealth.But the children never came. They  kept on hoping until the fifth Lord Montague after the prophecy murdered The fourth Lord Capulet, almost ending our bloodline. But Lady Capulet escaped to her sister in the countryside, not knowing she was pregnant. And about seven months later, she gave birth to a beautiful baby boy. Count Leonardo Capulet restored wealth and then land and titles, which were stolen by various nobles. The Capulet family flourished again and would continue flourishing evermore. It cut all ties with the Montague family, and that shall also continue forever.

22/08

Blah blah blah. Grandma continued for a little while, but I zoned out. That was like centuries ago. Why does it matter anyway? Even though I was dissociating, I kept on my gentlest of smiles and a perfectly acceptable active listening face. I looked down at my food. This was the third main course. A giant stuffed turkey sat in front of me at the table. It was half eaten. I looked down at my plate, a beautifully painted plate with swans. I was eating mostly potato salad. I was never one for turkey. She did this every year. She had four birthday dinners. One with the rich people in the neighborhood, except for the Montagues, she had learned that lesson some years ago. I pushed an unwanted flashback further to the back of my head. One with a group of close friends. One with our family and one alone, she used to take those dinners with grandpa. This was the third dinner, only one more to go, the saddest indubitably. But I'm straying off path. She tells this stupid story every year, and it's starting to bother me. Just a little though, she cared for us and loved us. The least i could do was listen to a story very important to our family. I loved her to death, as some might say. It might have even influenced my choice to play the Viola, grandmama's favorite instrument, which was one of my most proficient skills. She liked hearing it and liked seeing her happy. After Juliet, I was pulled out of school, given a private tutor, and some days practiced up to seven hours, honing my skill. I realized the table had fallen silent. But it was a comfortable silence. A new course was being served, desert. I had a massive sweet tooth, making desert my favorite course. And during this course, we, her grandchildren, told her what we'd accomplished in the past year. Well, not Livia, of course. She was barely six. She still had plenty of time to figure out what she liked. But starting from Marco, who was ten, we'd tell her about our interests and hobbies, our accomplishments, and our trophies. Grandma loved a good shiny trophy. All non-participation trophies were stalled out in a glass case in the hallway. Everybody had several. We were a winning family. We didn't like losing in something we were proficient in. My cousin Martha could lose all the art competitions she'd like, as long as she won her running competitions. And the opposite was true for me. I was never very athletic, but very artsy. Everything about art really, but it was mostly drawing and painting, apart from my Viola, of course.

I was just beginning the first dessert, after which there would be a small buffet on the side, when grandmother started. "Marco dear, how are the dinosaurs going?" "Well those are off the table now, grandmama. I switched to birds. In fact, I'm going birdwatching next week with the neighbors kid, Hector." " Hector Bianchi, Marco?"my mother asked. Well, that would be great, no. I mean, after Juliet, strengthening ties with the Bianchi family again would be amazing. Maybe she'd set someone else up with Paris this time. Antonia, perhaps Rosalind was too old for him right now, maybe in five years, when their ages wouldn't really matter anymore.
My younger cousin nodded. And
apparently, my grandmother must've thought about the same as I did. She smiled that gentle smile of hers that had comforted me from so many bad dreams and said : "That's amazing, Marco. I'm glad you're making friends. What about you, Chiara?" "Well the economics tutor is teaching me a lot, and so is my dad, I still really like learning about business." My younger cousin Chiara was only twelve, but pretty confident in her business ability, I didn't know if that was justified though, I couldn't figure out economics and stuff for the life of me. Right now, my oldest cousin, Rosalind, was set to take over the creative part of the company, but there would be plenty of places for Chiara, and grandma only really demanded one family member was in the company, so she could just as well take Wall Street by storm. I think. I don't really know what Wall Street is, but there's a series about it, I believe.

She then proceeded to ask my 13 year old sister Elena, and then it was my turn. I excitedly told her about my progress on the Viola and my artwork. Then the rest of my family went, my cousins Martha, Leo, and Rosalind. We used to be nine, now we were seven. But it was a happy occasion. There is no need to dwell on the past.

Everyone was going to their rooms, and as I was about to do the same, I was stopped by my grandmother. "We need to talk dear, let's go to my office," she said.