Romeo vs Juliet ✓

1. The Call

Chapter 1

Serena's POV

It's been ages since we all partied! Or even met each other! And I miss all of them! So finally today I somehow convinced Oliver to call all of us over for a little party of our own...his Dad is out of town for the week and his Mom barely ever gets angry...and she is fond of all of us especially Zara..so she won't mind us partying at her place! 

I don't know what to wear as usual! I might as well call up Sara and ask.

'Hey, Zara!' I chimed as she picked up the phone.

'Hey you!' came the chirpy reply, but she sounded as if she was forcing her chirpiness. 

'Sup?' I asked ignoring her disinterested reply, 'coz possibly I was just imagining it all. After all, I do have a tendency to overthink if that is a word.

Plus, my cluelessness about what to wear was something she was familiar with and it annoyed her because every time I was confused, I would call her up and bug her till the time my clothes weren’t decided.

'I was just wondering that how come you didn't call to ask what to wear for the party?' came her reply with a suppressed giggle.  

I could literally hear her smirk through the phone! That Evil Byotch.

 I grinned into the phone. 

'Umm....help me! I got nothing to wear!' I said sheepishly.

She shouted her usual reply that I got a whole closet full of clothes to wear so how can I possibly have nothing to wear. 

'I know! I know! But, I'm hell confused! You always say this, but you know I just can’t decide anything until I eat your head about it!’ It almost sounded like I was pleading to her while kneeling on my knees.

I guess, even Zara felt the same about the pleading part. So, she finally gave in and suggested that I wear the green top that I had bought from Levi’s when I had gone shopping with her last week. I had totally forgotten about the top. But then I had a general tendency to forget about all the things that I possessed. Zara always said that it was a side effect of owning so much stuff and somehow I did agree with her on this.

I jumped off my bed and started looking for the top in my closet with my phone stuck in between my right ear and shoulder as I busied my hands in rummaging through my messy closet. It was a wonder how all the things didn’t topple over me!

'So what are you wearing?' I asked, my mind lost in the different sections of my closet as I searched through it.

'Umm...I am not coming.'

Now she sounded sheepish. Her reply had immediately caught my attention. I almost screamed into the phone. 'What?! Why aren’t you coming!????'

'I need to go for umm...a family dinner at my Nana's.' Her skeptical reply stunned me. She never mentioned anything about this family dinner to me before. And any dinner at Nana’s was something she would happily tell me about as soon as she could because her Nana was the person dearest to her and even I adored her. As a kid, I always used to tell my Mom that I wish she had a mom just like Nana. It’s not that I hate my granny or something like that, I love her a lot. But, it’s just that Nana was the best company for everyone. She never scolded, always understood us and even helped us with our problems.

Zara’s previously disinterested mood came back to my mind and I snapped at her, almost ripping the clothes out of their shelves, more due to anxiety that I felt than the need to find the green top. 

'Since when did you start skipping parties and that too Oliver's! He'll be so upset! And so will the rest of them! And I'll also get bored without you! C'mon! What's wrong with you! You are joking, right?' I finally asked with a lot of hopes. 

'I hope I was Hon, but I seriously can't make it...and trust me no one will miss me..especially not Oliver...and you won't get bored with Josh there! I know how you will be busy perving on him!' She sounded almost amused...almost. But something in her tone told me she was dead serious and hiding something. It felt as if she was trying to keep me at bay so that she doesn’t have to face me or anything.

'Hmm. You are right but, still I will miss you and so will your lover boy Oliver. Sorrry, your best friend Oliver. I’ll text you once I am back! Say hi to Nana from my side!' I finally exclaimed with a sigh. 

'Sure, I’ll. Bye, enjoy!' 

'You too! Bye!'

Her distant tone made me wonder what was wrong with Zara, 'coz whatever she might say, I knew there definitely was something troubling her & that she was trying really hard to hide it from me, from all of us, trying really, really hard or maybe I was overthinking like always. It’s possible that she really did want to come to the party but couldn't & was actually going over to dine at Nana's. and that she had simply forgotten to mention it to me.

I finally found the green top and started getting ready, but my mind was still thinking about Zara's distracted tone of voice.

A little voice inside my head told me that I wasn’t overthinking and that I should try and find out what’s wrong with her as soon as possible.

Usually I would have ignored that little voice, but for once I was more than just sure that my intuition was bang on right.

I took a quick shower and shampooed my hair. I wore the green top and my all time favourite black jeans with a pair of black pencil wedge heels. I had put on some eyeliner and eye shadow to highlight my brown eyes and a little bit of clear lip gloss.

My hair was its usual poker straight self. It reached down to the end of my waist. Curling it, was a futile effort as it would get back to its straight shape almost as soon as I would remove the curling tongs so, I tied it up in a side braid for a different look and was set to go.

I took my purse, went downstairs and was about to leave as I saw Mom get down from her Chevy. My Mom was a curator at the local museum and would come home only after the museum was shut down for the day.

I went and hugged her tight. I had already called her up and told her about the party so instead of that, I told her about Zara’s weird behavior. My Mom was the world’s best listener. She heard me out and then asked me to go and ask Oliver about Zara as she knew how close they were.

I helped her bring in the grocery that she had bought and then kissed her goodbye. I quietly closed the door behind me and left.

When I left the house, I had two missions in my mind.

One was to enjoy the beginning of the holidays with this party and second was to find out what was wrong with Zara.

 And yeah, perv on Josh...sheesh Zara was right about that I guess.