Wherefore Art Thou Romeo? ✓

eight

winter 2017 / eight [ unedited ]

"WHAT DO YOU think you're doing?"

Since the whirlwind of drama that picked up a couple of days ago, Romeo had been expecting some kind of confrontation from Olivia, but he still sighed when she approached him. Of course, every time she had been looking for him he had managed to successfully avoid her, but when he was in school early and thought he was safe, she waltzed into the library by complete coincidence and spotted him immediately, bee lining towards him.

"I could ask you the same thing," he replied flatly, staring at her as she pulled out the chair next to his.

She narrowed her eyes at him, brow furrowed. "This isn't about me," she hissed, leaning forward with her arms folded on the table. "This is about you starting those bullshit rumors."

Romeo glanced up from his laptop. He'd been working on an essay for his history class for half an hour in peace and still had another half hour to go before he had to leave for homeroom and then, soon after, first period. "I didn't start those," he said evenly.

"You didn't start them?" She echoed, brow furrowing deeper. "So one of your friends started them then."

"Sure," he shrugged, his gaze locked on his laptop screen as he continued typing.

There was no reason for him to have gone into school as early as he had, but Rodney had asked to see him around seven that morning (which was when Olivia walked in) and Romeo figured he might as well take the opportunity to get some work done. The night before had been restless, endless tossing and turning; waking up and trying desperately to fall back asleep, and he was happy to have something to work on that he could lose himself in and be submerged by, even if it wasn't due for another week.

"Romeo, this isn't funny," she warned, placing her right palm on the back of his laptop and pushing the screen down just enough for his eyes to meet hers.

"I never said it was," he replied coolly, lifting the screen back up, "but I think it's interesting that you only think it's not funny when it's happening to you."

"It was a joke," she scowled.

"Then so is this," he said.

"Going around and telling everyone that I was off earlier this week because I was getting an abortion isn't a joke," she snapped. "And it's even less funny when I hear people claiming that the 'father' of my apparent baby is a thirty seven year old man."

The corner of Romeo's lip curved into a smile and he cleared his throat, biting the inside of his cheek hard as he tried desperately to maintain a blank expression. "I heard he was forty two," he replied, his smooth voice wavering with amusement.

"Fuck you," she said.

"You've already had your turn," he shrugged, clicking onto one of the open tabs he was using for research and skimming it until he found what he was looking for. "I'll pass."

He wondered if he should warn her that Rodney would be arriving soon— it was already three minutes past seven— because it might make her leave him alone faster, but he decided that it would be more fun to surprise her instead, even if just to see the look on her face when she connected the dots. Anyway, he wanted to get it over with.