Runaways: A Romeo & Juliet Story

Chapter 4

"Ah-ha, I fear less with you

I fear less with you on the passenger side

Ah-ha, I fear less with

I fear less with you on the passenger side"

- fear less by Fred again.. and Sampha

JULIET

It's not that I didn't want to get to the bottom of that conversation with Romeo but this guy on the road caught my eye. I felt bad ignoring him. I haven't seen another car in a while. And we could use some good karma, right?

We pull over and as we're getting closer I realize how good looking this hitchhiker is. I blush a little and hope that Romeo hasn't noticed. I look over at Romeo and his eyes were definitely on me when I noticed this handsome stranger.

I roll the window down.

"Where are you heading?" Romeo asks, across me.

"Hey there, thanks for stopping. Just heading south as far as you can take me."

Romeo looks at me and I try to have a neutral look now, not sure it's working.

"One second." He reaches across and rolls the window back up. "If anyone is looking for us, they're looking for a couple, not three people. Maybe he's a good cover?"

"I love the way your brain works." I say and he smiles this dangerously hot smile.

He puts the window down once again. "Get in." Romeo says.

The hitchhiker excitedly grabs his duffle and jumps in the back seat.

"Y'all are really nice to give me a ride. The name's Lysander." We each shake his hand.

He's a truly handsome man. Unlike anyone I've seen in Verona. Long, luscious blonde hair tied in a haphazard ponytail at the back.

"What should I call you two?" He asks.

I freeze. What do we say?

"I'm ...Robin and she's..." he blanks.

"Jessica." I jump in.

He's satisfied by this and relaxes into the backseat.

I'm afraid to ask him anything in case he asks us a follow up question. We didn't come up with a story...I really should have thought of that before suggesting we pull over for him.

"So where are y'all from?" Lysander asks.

I look over to Romeo and neither of us are ready for this.

"Can I be honest with you?" I ask

"Sure." Lysander says, leaning forward.

"We're kinda private and we're out here because we don't like being in other people's business and vice versa."

I can see Romeo smirking from the corner of my eye. He looks out his window to avoid Lysander's gaze.

"Wow. Well, I can respect that. Let's keep things on a need-to-know basis."

"Exactly." I say, satisfied with myself.

"I just figured you were that teenage couple that went on the run. It was all over the news."

The car slows down as Romeo looks across at me.

"Well that's not us. We're not even a couple." I lie.

"Oh I was clearly getting the wrong vibe." He says, flirtatiously.

Romeo is no longer smirking. He focuses on the road ahead. "We must have missed that story. What did they say happened?" Romeo asks.

I eye the speedometer and Romeo notices that he's slowed down. He picks up speed but not before Lysander's interest in us is piqued.

"Crazy story about the two high school kids. 17 or something." Lysander shares, "They eloped and then I guess she faked her death. Now they're on the run. There's some guy they killed or almost killed. I didn't catch it all, it was on the news this morning. Y'all look kinda like them."

Romeo tries not to look over at me– I can tell he wants to. I wish I could reach across and reassure him. I wish he could reassure me if we're being honest.

"So where are you headed to? You said south?" Romeo asks, cautiously.

"There's a lake town where I have some old friends. They're letting me stay with them."

"Lake town. Cool." I say.

I glance over at Romeo again. He shakes his head. He already regrets picking this guy up.

"What's that you got there?" Lysander points to the magazine. "Anything interesting? I've read everything in my bag five times already."

I pass him the magazine. "Oh I love these. There's always a great quiz to get to know your man or rate how good in bed you are." He laughs.

I blush. Romeo enjoys my embarrassment. He relaxes for a moment.

"Okay let's see, oh we should do this 'Dream Job for a Diva' quiz. Do you have a pen so we can keep score?"

I scrounge around and open the glove compartment. A bag comes rolling out... is that marijuana? I gasp and quickly close it. Lysander's too busy reading the magazine but Romeo saw everything.

"What was that?" Romeo whispers.

I shake my head. Whose car did we take? Is this Baltazar's stash? Does Romeo smoke?

I find a pen in the car door and hand it to Lysander.

"Ok let's see. What's most important to you A) Family B) Money C) Love?"

Neither of us speak.

"Hello?" Lysander sings.

We both snap out of it. "What was it again?" I ask.

"What's most important to you A) Family B) Money C) Love?" Lysander repeats.

"C) Love." Romeo and I both say. We laugh and Lysander surely suspects us the way we're making eyes at each other.

"For me it's gotta be A) Family." He says, scribbling our answers down.

"Is your preferred environment A) Desert B) Woods C) Beach?"

"Woods" Romeo says as I say "Beach." I look over at him, surprised.

"What? Well, we're heading to the woods." He says.

"Next question." I say.

Romeo looks a bit rattled and keeps adjusting his grip on the wheel. He puts his window down and lets the wind smack him in the face.

"Do you consider yourself A) Leader B) Passionate Follower C) Outsider."

I was a Passionate Follower my whole life and I guess I'm passionately following Romeo across the country now.

"Outsider." Romeo says as he puts the window up. I look over at him, surprised. "Did you feel that way before... before we met?" I ask.

Romeo is about to say something but then remembers Lysander's presence. "What about you?" Romeo asks.

"I'm usually a Passionate Follower, maybe I'm also a little Outsider now." I say as I turn the radio up, over this quiz. I sing along to a song and Lysander takes the hint and puts the magazine away. He settles into his spot and closes his eyes.

"Wake me at the state border, will you?" he asks.

"You got it." I say, looking back to see him falling asleep.

When I'm sure Lysander's out, I reach across and hold Romeo's hand. He pulls my hand to his mouth and kisses it and I know it's going to work out.

It has to workout, right?