Romeo and Juliet: Love and the Mafia

Chapter 1: Strife

The streets of Verona, although the sky was dark, were vibrant with life. The various restuarants, casinos and clubs, which the East End was known for were lit up with dazzling colours. Taxis and cars zipped past, trying to avoid the ever changing traffic lights and skip the traffic while the pedestrians hollered at one another from across the streets. Three teenage boys exited a high end restuarant and took to the streets, laughing and messing around as they ususally did.

"Man, that was good. We should come here more often",  one boy said, sucking his finger.

"You mean as long as Ben is paying", another said, giving his friend a hard shove.

"Well we aren't all as rich as Ben now are we?", he grumbled, shoving the other boy back.

"That's enough now guys. I don't mind eating out with you two or paying as long as you stop embarrassing me", Ben replied, splitting his friends apart. He walked in between them and put his arms around both of their shoulders. "Where to now my lads?" 

"Ooh, check it out!" the first boy cried.

"What is it Sammy?" Ben asked. 

"Those Capulet dogs", he snarled, pointing at a red, opened top Jaguar which was coming towards them. The licence plate read 'T CAPULET' and inside were three, casually, but well dressed, boys who were blasting music from the radio.

"Check this out", Sammy whispered. He made eye contact with the driver and scratched his nose with his middle finger. His friend, Greg, started to laugh but Ben pinched his brow with his fingers. He knew what was going to come next.

The car skidded to a halt and the three boys jumped out of the car, slamming the doors behind them. The driver marched straight up to Sammy and grabbed his polo shirt collar. 

"What was the meaning of that eh?" he yelled. He wore a white top beneath a black blazer, black jeans and combat boots. A silver earing dangled from his ear and he had a matching silver and watch, which probably cost more than his car.

"Nothing Tybalt. I was just scratching my nose. It gets itchy around this time of year", Sammy replied, coyly.

"Don't play dumb with me", he growled, upper cutting Sammy so that he fell to the ground.

"Hey! There's no need for that!" Ben cried but Greg had already jumped in to defend his fallen friend by swinging a punch at Tybalt. Tybalt caught his fist and kneed him in the stomach. Greg fell to his knees, howling and each of Tybalt's henchmen took to stomping on both boys. 

"That's enough!" Ben cried out again attempting to help his friends but Tybalt grabbed him by his hood and threw him against a wall.

"You're mine, Montague. Let's settle this", he said, putting his fists up to fight. Ben, who'd now run out of patience, hit Tybalt with a right hook. Tybalt fought back almost instantly. Slowly, a crowd began to form around them, screaming and egging on the fight. The sound of police sirens caused the crowd to disperse and all six boys were shoved into police cars.

"Hey! Do you know who I am? Don't you dare touch me, else I'll get the president on you!" Tybalt screamed as he was apprehended.

"Sorry, but we've been given direct orders from the authorities", an officer responded.

Rather than being driven to the police station, the six were taken to the mayor's white mansion. The boys' confusion had made it easier for the police to bring them out of the cars than it had been taking them in. They were brought to a lavish conference room, where the mayor was seated on a large chair at the far end of a long table, accompanied by Tybalt and Ben's parents, aunts and uncles. He shook his grey head as the boys were escorted into the room.

"I've had enough of this. How long are you going to keep fighting? You are distrupting the peace of this city. Our tourism industry has taken a dive because of it and foreign investors are starting to leave. Our GDP has decreased which means that I'll have to increase people's taxes. Do you realise how much civil unrest this will cause?" he barked. His wrinkled fists were clenched and his dark brown eyes swept angrily over the boys. "If anything like this happens again, the consequences will be very severe. Do you all understand?!"

"Yes Sir", everyone in the room, except the police officers chorused.

"Good. Now all of you, get out!" he yelled. As they were leaving, he called, "Oh but not you, Mr Capulet. I need to speak with you and your brother."

The Capulets and the Montagues didn't say a word to each other as they were escorted out of the premises and went their seperate ways. When Ben had reached his parent's car, his mother wiped his wounds with alcohol-free wipes.

"What happened Ben? Who started the fight?" his uncle asked.

"Sammy provoked them but it was a harmless joke. Tybalt and his friends started attacking us", Ben explained.  He looked over at his two friends who were waiting for a taxi. Sammy didn't look up at anyone but only stared at the pavement. Ben guessed that getting beaten up had hurt his pride. Perceiving this, Ben's uncle rolled his eyes.

"Well, I'm glad you're ok", said Ben's aunt, "but have you spoken to my son recently?"

"Romeo? No, I haven't. He's been keeping to himself recently"

"Well, I'm worried about him. While he isn't exactly the outgoing type, his behaviour has been so strange. He doesn't talk or laugh anymore, he hides away in his room, listening to depressing songs and sometimes when I see him, his eyes are red as though he'd been crying."

"I didn't realise that it was that bad. Do you know what's wrong Uncle?"

"No, I don't", he replied.

"Well you know how sensitive Romeo is about everything", Ben's dad retorted.

"Well that doesn't mean that I shouldn't care about him", Ben's uncle snapped. 

"Alright", Ben's dad said, raising his hands. His brother scowled at him before turning back to Ben. "Well speak to him when you can, alright?"

"I will uncle. Actually, I can drop by tomorrow for breakfast."

"But you're hurt. You should stay home", his mother insisted, cupping his face into her hand.

"Ben will be fine. He's a man", his dad said, slapping his son on the back, "Now let's go. How long are we going to stand here chatting?"

"Alright. We'll see you two soon", Ben's mother sighed, turning to the car. Ben and his father followed while Mr and Mrs Montague entered their own black Range Rover. 

And thus, they all drove off into the night.