R & J

My name is Rosemary Montague, Monty for friends, and this is my last confession. I'm not much of a story-teller, nor a writer, so I record this as I remember it. Apologies for all illogical or fragmented order of things, the fault for that is mine. My story, our story, deserves to be told and that need compels me.
My greatest, truest crime was love.

"Monty, come on! The only proper cure for heartbreak is a wild party... ...and I know where to find one."
I believed a friend.
We went to a ridiculous masquerade in a house my father always told me to stay away from.
Maybe it was to do with my dad being a thief and the owner of the house was the Captain of the police force.
Maybe they wouldn't have liked each other regardless of the circumstance. Who knows.
I dressed up as a man, with a fake moustache, a terrible wannabe musketeer hat, reminiscence of a Halloween costume from years ago, and a jacket borrowed from my cousin, Benny.
Stupid, kind Benny... Had he been a girl, I'd hated him and his restless effort to make people like him. But for some reason, we got along handsomely.
We had a friend, Mark.  Mark was open to everything. And I mean everything. There were girls and boys and everything in between in his bed. But I don't think he ever loved anyone. And they didn't love him. They had an eye for him that's for sure, though.
The three of us roamed the streets, crashed any and all party we could find and avoided, not always successfully, the police

Where was I?
Oh, right. The party.
My heart was broken. So much happened at the same time. Mum found out I liked other girls and wasn't happy about it. The prettiest girl I had met so far didn't like me back. Thinking of her now, I can't even remember her name.
But that was all forgotten soon as I saw Her.
The party had already gotten out of hand, everywhere there were drunk people dancing, kissing or shagging and yet hardly noticing each other. The music was the kind of loud it messed with your heartbeat.
In the middle of it all was her. She was spinning around to the loud beat of the music. She was wearing a really feminine dress and army boots. Her shoulder length hair was on a tight bundle like a ballet dancer would have.
Around and around again she went, like no one else was there.
I went over to her and bowed sweeping the floor with my hat. She smiled and curtseyed. And we danced.
She moved so beautifully I felt clumsy. She had the bluest eyes I'd ever seen and they glittered with excitement and a deep passion I desperately wanted to find more about.
"It's Daft Punk!" She shouted to my ear. I had no idea what that meant. "The music! I'm Jewel." She replied before I had a chance to ask.
And before the song ended we kissed.

Eventually, a neighbour called the police to break the party.
Jewel helped Benny, Mark and me out of the back door just before her father arrived. The Captain did not approve.
She was grounded and anyone who was still there was taken to custody, conscious or not.
I hid in a tree outside her window.
"If you do anything like this again, we'll send you to your aunts. Do you understand, Julie?" Her father was shouting at her. "There were criminals here!"
"Oops," I thought feeling guilty for getting her in trouble. I'd found a good hiding place in a tree outside her bedroom window. I watched her fall down after the Captain left and locked her door. She actually fell to her knees, crying.  I never realised people really did that. Fall down in despair.
I wanted to hold her. All I wanted was to hold her.
She got up and opened the french balcony doors. She leant to the parapet, gasping for air. I reached out my hand trying to touch her.
"What have I done?", she whispered into the night.
"Don't cry," I said without knowing I said it out loud.
She raised her head sharply, looked right at me and gasped: "You!"
I pressed a finger to my lips and she waved me in silently.
As soon as I was in we wrapped our arms tight around each other.
"Father will be leaving soon," she muttered in my ear.
I just smiled and held her a bit tighter.

From there, things got out of hand.
Soon there was only skin against skin and all I could feel was warm and tingly. My head was buzzing with lust and love. For it was love. I knew it, just as I knew the sky was blue and the morning dew was cold.
We made all kinds of vows that night. I can't remember anymore.

And then someone walked in. The door was unlocked and we were oblivious to the world.
That someone was Jewels Mother.
She looked at me and then her in fury and disgust.
I gathered my clothes and run out, butt naked and got dressed in the dark shadows behind the fence.
I could hear her Mother shouting horrifying things to her. "Deviant!" and "Wrong!" and "Sick!". I couldn't listen to it anymore, for those were the same words I'd heard and escaped.
How could I save her?
I ran home holding back tears
Mark tried asking what was wrong but I shut him out like the rest of the world.

Here and there I heard rumours. The Captains' daughter was to be sent away. That she had fallen ill. Even one that said she was dying. Whatever the case no one saw her outside the house.
I had to see her again.

One night I went to the house again. All the lights were out, but an instinct told me she was there.
To be honest, I'd had more than a few drinks.
Just as I entered the yard I heard a car start. It drove off fast. I ran after it.
She was driving it, I glimpsed her in the corner.
There was a loud crashing noise. Two cars had collided in way too high speed.
Benny had flown half through the windshield. He'd followed me, worried of course. Idiot. Hadn't worn his seatbelt, which made him even more of an idiot. He had died straight away. And I hated him for that. Leaving me here like that.
Jewel had hurt her head.
She was unconscious then and she still is.

I come to visit her when her parents aren't here. They aren't that much, to be honest. That's how much they wanted her to be what they wanted.
The doctors said she won't live for very long. One of them said she's dead already. That this is just a shell they keep alive.
But I can feel her. Her spirit. Her soul.
I'm going to go with her.
I stole something that had the poison mark on the label. I don't even know what it is. I don't want to know. I just hope it doesn't taste too bad.
Can you imagine? That's what I'm worried about... ...the taste.

My name is Rosemary Montague and I'm in love a jewel amongst men. ...well, women.
So.
May I propose a toast? To everlasting love.



And as Rosemary lifted the vial to her lips and drank the poisonous liquid Juliet's spirit left her body.
Together they rose up, up on to the spirit world, to meet others like them. Others who'd lived and loved before them, some who were yet to be born and a few who'll never see the light of day. 
And there they loved each other. For eternity.