The Divided Rose

Chapter 8 (Juliette)

“Now old desire doth in his deathbed lie,

And young affection gapes to be his heir.

That fair for which he groaned for and would die

With tender Juliet matched, is now not fair.”

(Romeo and Juliet, 2.Prologue.1-4)

            Apparently someone had noticed my absence, and that someone was my mother. As soon as I walked through the back door I could hear my mother asking people if they had seen me. I hastened across the room to tap her on the shoulder. “Madam, I am here. What do you want?”

            “Juliette! Where have you been? I have been looking everywhere for you,” my mother’s face was flushed from dancing and her eyes were stern with annoyance.

            “I simply stepped outside to get a breath of fresh air.” When your best friend spends her nights sneaking out of the house to perform mischief, you learn that speaking smoothly is the key to executing a believable lie.

            “Hmph. Well don’t be gone so long next time, and at your own party!” Tybia had obviously taught me well, my mother didn’t suspect a thing.

            “I’m sorry, mother. It won’t happen again.”

            “No matter. Why don’t you take Tybia up to your room and change into nightclothes? The guests will be leaving soon.”

            “All right mother.” It was a tradition for the best friend of the girl who was coming of age, to spend the night with her after the party. So I made my way towards Tybia who was standing against the far wall with her back to me, talking to some of our old friends from grade school.

            “Come on Tybia, please come upstairs with me, the guests are leaving soon.”

            “Sure Julie.” I winced at the use of her nickname for me. I had always liked my full name best.

            Linking arms, we shoved our way through the crowd to the foot of the grand staircase. Once inside my room, we slipped into comfortable nightclothes, and relieved our aching scalps from the diamond encrusted pins that held up our hair.

            “What a wonderful party,” commented Tybia. “Nina sure knows how to choose champagne. That stuff was excellent!”

            Giggling, we collapsed onto the bed, pulling the silken covers up around our chins. “Tybia, I went to the wall tonight. And I met someone.” I felt hesitant in telling Tybia about Romayo.

            “It’s about time. Was he just as horrid as you imagined? Though I have crossed the great wall many times and seen the faces of many men, I have yet to come across one even remotely decent. All males are villains, for it was Romeo who killed himself first, was it not?”

            “Come on, Tybs, not all men can be evil. There has to be some decent ones out there. Maybe this whole feud business has been a misunderstanding. Since we don’t converse with each other, how do we know that all men are bad? They think the same of us, right? We are all blinded by hatred and so we don’t even stop to examine the personality of the other.” I sighed and glanced at Tybia, only to be taken aback. She was staring at me as if I had walked up to her and proclaimed that Jesus was really a gorilla in disguise.

            “Maybe you are too naïve to grasp this concept, Julie, but all men are entirely rude and thoughtless, not to mention dangerous. They accuse us of things that are their fault, start riots with our people, and insult the nuns in the church! How could you possibly come to the conclusion that any one of the male species is nice?”

            Shocked, I was startled into guiltily agreeing with her. I would pray to God and ask for his forgiveness in my lying later. “I guess you are right. I don’t know what made that despicable thought cross my mind! The man that I met was a complete scoundrel, and I think nothing but bad thoughts about him.”

            “Thank heavens! Promise me that you won’t go trying to make friends with a man. Someday soon I will take you with me on one of my nightly escapades, as long as you don’t tell your mother.”

            “All right, Tybs. Goodnight.”

            “Goodnight, Julie. Oh, and by the way, congratulations.” Tybia yawned, and we both fell asleep, me fantasizing about my next meeting with Romayo, and hoping beyond hope that the feud would end.