Until I Met You

11 | "why am i not surprised?"

The following day in English we finally begin reading Romeo and Juliet.

Luke seems to be in an exceptionally good mood, and I know exactly why. If only I could feel as confident and assured about what Luke and I are doing to Liam as Luke seems to, because so far all I feel is immense guilt. I know what I've agreed to do is wrong, and yet I'm doing it anyway, all because some boy I don't even like asked me to.

I want to turn around in my seat right now and tell Luke that I'm calling his stupid plan off. I want to explain how Liam has been nothing but sweet since I've started talking to him, and that if he is the one to become lacrosse captain he deserves the spot, and Luke will just have to get over it. I fantasize about saying these words to the point where I feel as if I've actually spoken them. That's when I realize that I could be telling all of this to Luke, though the second I go to turn around, Ms. Edwards enters the room.

"Today is the day you've all been waiting for." Ms. Edwards offers the class a knowing smile, eyes gleaming as she raises her copy of Romeo and Juliet up in the air, causing the class to simultaneously groan.

"Oh, stop with the goat noises," Ms. Edwards chides, rolling her eyes. "I promise it won't be as bad as you all think it will be. In fact, I think a lot of you are going to enjoy this section of the course. And if not, we can always go back to taking tests instead of performing skits for a grade."

To this, the class quickly falls silent. Ms. Edwards instructs us to grab our own copies of the play, which she handed out the previous day, and I bend over to reach for my book under my desk.

"I'm kind of excited," Emma whispers to me, almost sheepishly. "I love Shakespeare."

"No offense, but I'm the opposite," I admit to Emma with a shrug. "I can't stand old English because it confuses me. Plus, romance just makes me want to vomit."

"But Romeo and Juliet is a classic," I hear Luke's voice counter, joining my conversation with Emma. I'm slightly startled, as Luke almost never chimes in when the two of us are talking. I'm sure the only reason he interrupts now is because he can't pass up an opportunity to argue with me. "You can't deny that it's one of the most prized pieces in literature."

I turn around in my seat to face Luke, noticing that his glasses are set on the edge of his desk, perched atop the book he's been reading for days now. I risk a quick glance at the title, reading: To Kill A Mockingbird.

With a coy smirk, I gesture to Luke's book. "Yeah. You'd know."

Luke merely raises an eyebrow at my comment. "Of course you'd think classic American literature is lame."

"Because it is," I say. "Reading isn't really my thing. Unless we're talking about Percy Jackson."

Luke rolls his eyes. "Why am I not surprised?"