Why Romeo Hates Juliet (15 page)

Later that morning, the debacle had hit the mainstream press. There were articles in print, on the internet and on some of the early morning talk shows, which all showed some of the Youtube clips of the catfight from the night before.

Gossip World, which had a website in addition to their weekly supermarket tabloid magazine, had an in-depth article posted on their site which

‘revealed’ that author Juliet Soma was Romeo’s new girlfriend, replacing Carrie Ann, and that the fight at the hospital had happened because the blonde had found out about their affair and gone wild. The posting also reported that Romeo and Juliet, the new ‘it’ couple of the moment, had had to go to the emergency because of some ‘rough sex play’ that had gone wrong between them, but details about what that sexual game had actually been were still unknown.

When Juliet had read that, she cursed under her breath at how her name was now being dragged through the Romeo Boyd mud. But she and her sister hadn’t had much time to moan about it, because the phone calls had started coming in fast and furious. In between fielding calls from the press for comment, they’d also had to take calls from their relatives and their friends back home in British Columbia all demanding explanations.

Sara’s husband, Rob, had called immediately wanting to know what had happened and if they were alright, as had Faith and Brad.

Faith had also told them that Tommy had placed a huge food order with them that morning, which her husband was on his way to deliver right now. Apparently, Romeo was having a huge beach party that afternoon for a lot of people and had even paid extra for the quick delivery service.

On finishing her conversation with her friend, Juliet repeated the latest news to Sara and added, “So it looks like he wasn’t lying when he said he was throwing a huge party today. It’s all just to spite me, you know that, right?” Her sister nodded. “Don’t let him get to you, Juliet; that’s what he wants.”

* * *

The loud rock music started blaring at high noon. The barbeque gril was fired up, the beer started flowing and the partiers began arriving. They were all people that Romeo, Tommy and the girls had met at the PEI nightclubs that they’d frequented while they’d been on the island.

Wearing a pair of black Ray-Ban sunglasses to cover up his two black eyes, a pair of floppy shorts, an open Hawaiian shirt and holding a beer bottle in his hand, Romeo surveyed his domain from the patio. Oh yeah - if there was one thing he knew how to do well, it was to throw a wild party.

He surveyed his little kingdom as over fifty people were already there, laughing, eating, drinking, swimming in the pool and in the ocean and generally having a blast. Sure, this crowd consisted of mainly users and hangers-on mooching off of his Holl ywood dime, but he didn’t care. He needed them to make as much ruckus as possible to piss off the big bitch next door.

When they’d gotten home last night, Romeo had been able to calm Carrie Ann down by telling her what had really happened to him and Juliet.

She seemed to have accepted his story, but he did get the feeling that she hadn’t believed him completely. She’d certainly had some harsh, descriptive things to say about the writer, all ending with the word ‘slut’; and Romeo gleaned that she was still very suspicious of their next door neighbor’s ‘romantic’ intentions towards him.

That morning Romeo had also had to field a whole bunch of calls from people wanting details about the catfight, and he’d gotten so fed up with his constantly ringing cell phone that he’d turned it off and let the calls go to his voicemail.

The paparazzi sharks, after having had their taste of blood the night before, were now positioned again at the top of their private road, but far away enough from their house that they couldn’t be seen. Romeo had asked Tommy to man that spot up the road and act as a bouncer to let in the people that had actually been invited today and to keep the press from sneaking in.

Romeo took a long swig of his beer. Oh yeah, this was going to be some wild party, he thought, as his gaze wandered to the beach house next door. Wonder when the big bitch would break?

* * *

The big bitch broke at exactly 4 p.m.

As she eyeballed the huge crowd next door from her living room window, Juliet easily counted over one hundred people, all laughing and having a great time at a high decibel. Some of them had already jumped naked in the pool, another bunch was playing touch football on the sand by the ocean, some of them were dancing on the patio, and she’d spotted Romeo reigning over it all like their royal king.

“That’s it, Sara!” Juliet exploded. “I’m not going to stay in this house all day, hiding out like some prisoner. I’m going for a walk on the beach.

Wanna come?”

Sara shook her head no. “Rob’s calling me back in five minutes and I won’t be able to hear him with all that noise going on.” Juliet nodded and went out back. Striding through their property, she headed towards the ocean and started walking along the beach.

Romeo had spotted her the minute she’d stepped outside. She was wearing a pair of jeans that accentuated every curve of her sexy hips and long legs, a hot pink t-shirt that did wonders for her full breasts, her hair was tied back in a loose ponytail and a pair of dark sunglasses shaded her eyes. He watched her as she gracefully walked the beach with her bare feet sinking in the sand. She was gazing out over the ocean, staring at who knew what and doing her valiant best to ignore the noise from next door. Man, she looked smokin’ hot, he thought to himself. She definitely was a nasty piece of ass, as he’d called her last night, but ‘nasty’ in a good way.

Someone else had also noticed Juliet and was watching her like a hawk - Carrie Ann. The blonde had been one of the girls playing touch football in the sand with some of the guys, and the minute she’d spotted the slut from next door emerging from her house, her narrowed eyes had scanned the party for signs of Romeo. She’d spotted him immediately on the patio, with beer in hand, and sure enough, with his gaze fixated on the bitch.

Pea-green with jealousy, her focus came back to the game she was playing. Making more of an effort than usual, she managed to catch the football and, ran with it as close as she could get to Juliet, who had her back turned away from her. With one powerful pass, she threw the ball right at the other woman, hitting her square in the back. Juliet had not seen the football coming at her and the impact sent her sprawling face forward into the sand. She grunted as she forcefully hit the beach and Carrie Ann ran back to her friends, laughing all the way.

“Juliet!” Romeo shouted, as he dropped his beer and came running over to her. “Are you alright?” He bent down to help her up, but as his hand came to rest on her arm, Juliet threw it off. “Don’t touch me,” she gritted, as she quickly stood up by her own effort. She then picked up the football from the sand and faced him.

“Keep to your side of the property, please,” she enunciated forcefully, as she threw the ball at his stomach, which he quickly caught. She then proceeded to brush the sand off from the front of her clothes.

Romeo just stood there, holding the football and transfixed by the movement of her hands as they grazed down the length of her luscious body, wiping the dirt away. The second she had started touching herself like that, his brain had stopped working.

The spell for him was broken by Carrie Ann, who suddenly approached him and latched onto his arm. She addressed Juliet, “Sorry about that, honey,” she laughed mockingly, not the least bit sorry at all.

Juliet’s teeth clenched together as she faced Romeo again, ignoring the blonde. “Get off my property now.” Romeo stared into her beautiful eyes and smiled, “You’re welcome to join my party anytime, Juliet,” and both Juliet and Carrie Ann simultaneously got the impression that he meant more in that statement than what he’d just said.

Juliet answered him coldly with a “No thanks” before turning and marching back towards her own house.

Romeo smirked and shouted after her, “Well, if you don’t want to come today, you can come to my party tomorrow or the one I’m having after that or the one after that too.”

Juliet stopped in her tracks and turned back to them. Carrie Ann was still hanging onto his arm like a desperate, pathetic girlfriend and he was twirling the football in his hands and laughing at Juliet, making fun of her - at least that’s what it looked like to her.

Giving him an ominous glare, Juliet turned away again and continued her walk back up to the house. It was obvious from what he’d just said that he was going to continue partying up a storm everyday just to get under her skin, and he wouldn’t stop until he achieved his objective, which was to probably make her and Sara leave PEI so that he could have the property all to himself.

He was waging war and the battle was on, but she’d be damned if she left! No, if somebody was going to leave the island, it was going to be him and his stupid friends. And if he was going to come up with ways of annoying the hell out of her, then it was time for her to come up with her own plans on how to annoy the hell out of him. And Juliet had a brilliant idea of how to do exactly that.

~ ~ ~

“No! No way. Absolutely not!” Sara shouted.

“But why? It’s a great idea,” Juliet asked.

“Because we’re leaving on Friday and that’s only a couple of days away, so we’ll just put up with the party for now and not make any more waves.”

“I’ve thought about it and I’m not leaving here until he leaves first, Sara! We’re not going to run away like two frightened crybabies and let him win. That’s what he wants and I’m not giving it to him.”

The two sisters were sitting at their kitchen table having an early supper. Juliet could still feel the spot in her back smarting from where the football had hit her only a couple of hours ago. The wild party was still going strong next door, and even sitting here in this part of the house which was more to the front of their property, they could still hear all of the commotion coming through the walls.

Sara put her fork down and stared at her sister with reproachful eyes. “Juliet, guns are dangerous.”

“They are if you’re unsupervised, but Faith said that there’s this person she knows, his name is Eddie and he’s a licensed instructor. He’s willing to come tomorrow morning and teach me skeet on our property.”

“But you don’t have a gun license.”

“That’s the beauty of it. I don’t need one if I’m not going to own a gun. Eddie is licensed and that’s all that matters. I’m allowed to fire his guns as long as he’s there with me to supervise. And you’ve told me yourself that our property has special rights which allow this and the skeet shooting machine is already setup anyway, so what do you say?”

Sara frowned at her sister. “I just don’t like this.”

“If you want to go home, Sara, you can, but I’m staying.”

Sara took in Juliet’s determined face. “Right, like I’m going to leave you here by yourself. Who’s going to help you when this new scheme -

pardon the pun - ‘blows up’ in your face?”

Juliet burst out laughing. “You’re the best, Sara.”

Sara sighed. “You’re only doing this to spite Romeo.”

“Yeah, so what’s wrong with that?” Juliet teased slyly. If Romeo Boyd wanted to play the ‘noise’ game then she was in. She knew that her neighbors always liked to sleep in, having to recover from their debauched nights before and that would be a perfect time for her to take a few skeet shooting lessons. Bright and early, at 6 a.m. tomorrow, Juliet had every intention of shooting a shotgun and waking the hell out of everybody.

And then she’d take more lessons the morning after that and then the next morning after that one, and so on and so on, until Romeo Boyd got in his private jet and flew back to ll.A. or wherever demon pit he came from. Two could play his childish, stupid game.

Sara put her fork down. “Might I remind you that every one of your little plans has so far backfired?” Juliet chuckled. “Minor technicalities, one and all.”

“And what about the paparazzi? They’re still out there, waiting like vultures for their latest instal ment to this soap opera between you and him.”

“I’m taking these private lessons on my property which they can’t come onto. This has nothing to do with them.” Sara relented. “Fine, do what you want, but nothing better go wrong or else I’ll really be mad this time.” Juliet gave her sister a big hug as she got up from the table. “Thanks, sis! And don’t worry. Nothing’s going to happen except maybe having to deal with a grumpy Sleeping Beauty from next door. In fact, I can’t wait to see his face when he finds out what I’m to. Do you think I can make a vein pop out of his forehead?” she giggled impishly, crossing her fingers for luck.

Sara frowned at her sister’s antics as a dull ache of foreboding assailed her. Juliet had a hard, stubborn streak to her and when she made up her mind to do something, there was no dissuading her. Sure, Sara could have put up a really big stink about this whole thing and absolutely refused to be any part of it, but sooner or later Juliet would have wheedled her own way somehow. She was hell bent on continuing the war with Romeo Boyd and if Sara had said no to this plan, Juliet would have come up with some other cockamamie idea to get at him.

But really - why was this guy making her sister so crazy? The question had been hammering at her for the past few days. She’d never seen Juliet act this way before. What was it about Romeo Boyd that was making her wild? It wasn’t his star power because Juliet had been talking nonstop about him before she even knew who he was. Sara knew that her sister was under a lot of pressure with trying to write her book to stave off the bankruptcy. Was that it? Was she going insane with stress and blowing her war with Boyd all out of proportion because of it? Or was it something else? Was Juliet interested in the movie star on some other level besides as an annoying neighbor to fight with? Was she attracted to him - sexually? Was she falling for him in that way? What was it that everybody said? That love and hate were the flip side of the same coin. Did Juliet have the hots for Romeo Boyd?

Sara sighed. She was going to have to look into this some more. But if Juliet was attracted to him, her sister should be going out on a date with him, not trying to come up with another crazy scheme to irritate the hell out of him. Yeah, she had to admit that gunshots in the early morning dawn would certainly piss off Romeo and company; and yeah it was a good way to get even with him, but guns just scared her.

~ ~ ~