Star Crossed Actors

Chapter Eleven: Jack

My bike crashed onto the grass in front of the football fields at school, and ran inside to meet Caroline.

I bumped into her when I ran into the auditorium, and she handed me half a stack of invites.

"I spoke with Principal Oliver, he said we can have a small moment to mention this," she said, looking very frazzled.

I kissed her forehead, and said, "Alright, he's motioning to us to come onto the stage. Let's go!"

We dashed onto the stage just as Principal Oliver was saying, "Caroline and Jack have a fun idea they've planned for the night before Halloween! Let's give a round of applause for Caroline and Jack."

All the parents clapped, and Caroline approached the microphone.

"Um, hi. Well, as you all know, Halloween is coming up, and Jack and I thought it would be fun to host a masquerade ball here next Friday, on Halloween night. We made invites for all of the kids, and we really hope you pass these on to your kids! It's dress code will be dresses no higher than the ankle, we'd like it to be a traditional ball, like in the days of Yore. Oh, one more thing. This is a surprise for Augustus and Reese, so make sure you do not mention anything to them. That's our job. Thank you for listening, Jack and I will be by the refreshments if you have any questions!"

She stepped away from the microphone, and the parents applauded.

I led us off the stage, and made a beeline for the refreshments.

"You want anything?" I asked Caroline.

"Some soda, please."

A woman walked up to us, and said, "Hello, I've got a freshman, a junior and a senior here, and would love an invitation for them! The three of them are very interested in this kind of thing."

Caroline smiled, and said, "Of course! Here you go, I hope they come!"

The woman smiled, said her thanks, and walked away.

More parents kept coming up to us, and before we knew it, all but three of our invitations were gone.

"Here you go," Caroline said to a parent.

"Yes, it's next Friday, and you have to wear a long dress or a suit. It's an older style of a party." I said to a mother who was asking for her sophomore twins.

"Wow, I didn't expect so many parents to grab these!" I said, shocked. I fanned myself with an invite as I munched on a chocolate chip cookie.

Caroline nodded. "I didn't either, believe me. But this is good! This should work. Ooh pass me a brownie."

I really hoped so. If it didn't, Cupid would take our wings away and leave us to rot in Hades domain.

<________>

A week had passed, and the news of the dance was buzzing around school.

Thankfully, Reese and Augustus were too caught up in their own little worlds to worry about drama in school.

I caught up with Caroline on Friday after school ended, and said, "So, Augustus is coming over to my house tonight, I'm telling him I'm taking him to a fancy restaurant to get his mind off of Reese."

"Ooh, smart," Caroline said. "I'll do that too."

"Jack, dude, you coming?" I heard Augustus say.

"Yea, let's go," I said, kissing Caroline before jogging off to my car. (I was actually 17, but Cupid made it so I was held back a few years. Same for Caroline.)

"Dude, I know you've been feeling terrible about Reese and everything, so I came up with a fun idea to make you feel better."

"Like what?" Augustus asked, curious.

"I'm taking you out for a fancy dinner! We'll go to this nice place across town, meet some ladies....it'll be fun!" I lied, knowing full well that I'd take him straight to the school to fall in love with Reese all over again.

Augustus grinned. "Sounds great, man, thanks for this. You're the best."

I gave him a weak nod, and said, "I picked out a tux. By the way, this restaurant's kind of strange, the policy is you have to wear a mask. It's like a masquerade kind of restaurant?"

Augustus furrowed his brows, and said, "That's odd...could be fun though, I'm in."

I breathed a sigh of relief.

'Perfect,' I thought to myself.

We drove to my house as the song My Blood by Twenty One Pilots came on the radio.

I hummed the tune of the song, and Augustus drummed on his legs.

"So, what actually happened with you and Reese?" I asked. Caroline had told me, but I wasn't paying that much attention.

Augustus wrung his hands together, hesitating to tell me.

"Dude, c'mon, I'm your best friend. You can tell me anything," I said, trying to sound supportive.

He sighed, then turned down the song. "Well, we were talking about what we thought Romeo and Juliet was about, and we got into this huge argument."

"Augustus, you mean you got into a fight with your crush because of a PLAY?"

"Yes, that's what I'm saying," he said, dead serious.

"Alright, just confirming," I said, not believing that mine and Caroline's life was in danger by Hades because of my numbskull best friend who I love and cherish. (He's reading this, isn't he?)

Augustus sighed, and said, "I thought that it was a beautiful tragedy about poisonous hatred conquered by love...makes sense, right?"

I nodded, not sure how to respond. "Yea, that makes some sense. Her opinion?"

"She said it was a cautionary tale about the stupidity of youth and shallow lust. I mean, honestly, both make sense...in hindsight, it was a stupid argument....."

"So you'll apologize to her?" I asked.

"Not a chance! She roped my mom, who was fighting lung cancer AND anxiety, into our argument! If anything, she should apologize to me!"

I exhaled, unaware I'd been holding my breath.

"Well, maybe she'll apologize to you...you never know what's going on inside a girls head, eh?"

Augustus nodded, saying, "Yea, I guess so."

He turned the volume back up on the radio, just in time for an ad.

My favorite song, Geico insurance.