Wherefore Art Thou Romeo? ✓

twenty

TW: mentions of drug use, overdose, and violence/abuse. and their other toxicity as per usual.

late spring 2018

THE WEEKS WERE flying by faster than Romeo was comfortable with and the end of senior year was looming over him, always getting closer; it felt like driving into a storm.

He spent most of his time alone, locked up in his room and studying in silence, poring over textbooks and completing any final assignments with cramped hands and heavy, red eyes.

Everyone else was in the same boat; the same storm. They had all put their lives on hold and were focusing all of their energy on ending their high-school careers on a high note. People who never spoke much before were nervously joking about college and graduation together, studying in the library and running through flashcards, testing each other on the way to class and wishing each other good luck.

College and the end of summer were still forbidden topics when it came to Rodney, though. To Romeo's surprise, Rodney had actually been studying and making notes and showing up to all of his classes. One of the most frustrating things about him— as frustrating as he was regardless— was that he was intelligent, but never applied himself. He passed most of his tests and exams even if all he did was crack open the textbook once and his preferred method of studying was cramming— which had never failed him. His brain was like a sponge.

Rodney wasn't worried at all about his grades and he didn't have any reason to be. He, like most students, had applied to college and was leaving, moving out of state, in the fall. Romeo only knew because Iris— the only friend of Rodney's that he could stand to be around— had mentioned that he was moving onto campus, but she hadn't spared him any other details before she was whisked away by their other friends— the ones that made Romeo's skin crawl and probably hadn't even given the end of high school a single thought. Not that it would make a difference to most of them; they barely ever showed up anyway. Next to them, Rodney was a star student.

But Romeo didn't care about any of Rodney's friends, even the more tolerable ones. He only cared about Rodney and where he would be when fall came around.

The problem was that Rodney refused to acknowledge that Romeo and leaving for college existed within the same universe, and insisted on keeping them separate from each other. He was so adamant that Romeo was beginning to believe that Rodney really thought he could somehow follow his path into the future while simultaneously existing inside of senior year forever.

Every time that Romeo tried to broach the subject, Rodney curtly dismissed him, groaned and begged him to leave it alone, ignored him entirely and acted like he hadn't heard anything or, at his worst times, scowled and glared coldly before pushing Romeo away from him.

It was proving to be a hurdle that seemed impossible to jump over, even if he had jumped greater heights for their relationship, and he was growing more and more frustrated with Rodney's childishness and refusal to accept that they would be parting— he hadn't asked Romeo even once about what his college plans were— and the most recent time that he had brought it up had ended disastrously.

They had been locked up in Romeo's room together while Romeo scrupulously scrutinised and reviewed his notes and Rodney whistled, flipping through a textbook with great disinterest. Instead, he was focused on the movie— Mysterious Skin— that he had already seen a thousand times (Romeo had watched it with him already, too) and had insisted on playing for 'background noise' even though he was barely paying any attention to his work.

When Romeo asked him to shut up he made a point of whistling louder and when Romeo turned around in his desk chair and threw something at him— some form of stationary or notebook— Rodney only grinned, irritatingly pleased with himself, and kept it, sometimes using whatever had been thrown as a way to be more annoying; excessively flipping pages back and forth, clicking pens, bending and flicking rulers, all while he continued to enjoy his movie, undisturbed.