Point of clarification about the title: I understand that the original line of 'Wherefore art thou Romeo?' means 'Why, Romeo?' (or something along that line - I apologise if I'm mistaken! I dropped English Lit eons ago and I've never analysed Shakespearean plays before -winces-). Let it be a pun on the entire putting-up-discarded-scenes scenario, as dear Listerine puts it. :)

Hola! I guess most of you are wondering what this is about! Well, in the course of writing They Call it a Cliché, there were some parts that I wrote out of the story. With that, I’m putting up a few scenes (or five, really, hence a few) here that didn’t make it. They will not change the original storyline whatsoever -I threw them out because I felt that they wouldn’t fit in with my plans- so bear that in mind when reading. Kind of like DVD extras ;) I’ve had several readers email/IM me or comment that they miss the characters from TCC (P.S. I do too, with all my heart and my soul and my mass and my body and… erm) so I thought I’d put this up! All the scenes end kind of abruptly, mostly because I decided to discard them after working some time on them. Don’t ask me to continue any of them, I won’t.

Oh, also, they won’t make sense unless you’ve read TCC. I guess that’s kind of expected. Lol.

#1: Discarded starting to Chapter Fourteen.

It was a fine Saturday morning. (Like the little essays you write in kindergarten: It was a fine Saturday morning. The clouds were blue. The birds chirped. My brother ate my pancakes. I wish he wouldn’t do that. I hate him. The third-to-last sentence happens fairly often, to my dismay.) For once, I hadn’t been woken up by Britney Spears and her prerogative. Pray a little and you shall receive, amen!

Staggering to the bathroom, I washed the morning guck off my face and felt my brain clear a little. I wondered if Dev had made it to the party Taylor had been ranting about, and whether he’d gone with Amy. His girlfriend. Whether they’d made out. Whether she’d stared into the eyes Shakespeare could write a whole play on. Whether…

Though why the hell would I care? I mentally berated myself for letting my mind wander to that train of thought. Now I wouldn’t be able to stop thinking about it for the whole day. Great. What a great start to the weekend. And I’d probably have to ask Jared about it, which would trigger his suspicion mechanism. Nice, very nice.

After a very, very hot shower (while guys take a cold shower, girls do the opposite), I toweled myself off, making sure there wasn’t any more of the crusty substance that forms after a long night’s sleep at the edges of my eyes. I then changed into my favourite pair of shorts and a T-shirt so ragged you could probably see my armpits from the Eiffel Tower. Not that anyone was around to see me. Jared was still sleeping away the effects of the party from the night before; the parents were at work. That left me with the whole house to myself. However, as nerdy as I was, I didn’t want to get down to homework on a Saturday morning. Maybe I could call Taylor over for some girl time – she’d be up, definitely, as her motto is ‘the early bird catches the worm’. What kind of worm she wants to catch, though, I have no idea.

Exiting the bathroom, I bumped into someone. Without thinking, I sidestepped the person, proceeded down and started down the stairs.

Then I stopped dead in my tracks.

Wait. Jared wasn’t up, as far as I knew. Mom and Dad weren’t slated to be home till the evening. So who…?

I turned around. Said person was rounding the corner of my room. Panicking, I accelerated, did a flying kung-fu kick, added a ninja warrior tackle and finished it off with a knee to the balls.

“OH, HOLY (censored) (censored) (censored)!” The person howled as he went down. Grinning triumphantly, I put my knee to his back and gripped his hair. And it was then that I suddenly realized the colour of it. And who it was. And whose balls I’d just kneed.

I also realized that I needed to learn Braille.

What are the chances of the very person you were thinking of showing up at your house five minutes after you thought of him? Oh, maybe about…. ten million in one. I, however, happen to be an extremely lucky girl. Or unlucky, however you see it.

“Oh, my God, Dev? Oh, shit, I’m so sorry, I didn’t know it was you! Jared was still in his room and Mom and Dad were out and I didn’t see who you were and I just panicked and I-”

“Reese, do me a favour?” he gritted out.

“Anything, I’m so sorry!” I wailed.

“Get off me, and shut up!”

I considered that. “Right.” Getting up, I brushed the imaginary lint off my T-shirt and waited for Dev to get up. He did so, gingerly holding his hip. His hair looked like it’d just gone through a particularly intense electric shock. I resisted laughing, knowing he’d accomplish what I thought the person he was would accomplish if I did – kill me.

I have juvenile thoughts bordering on a fifth grader’s, SO?

“Where did you learn that from?” Dev asked, wincing as he felt his head. “Feels like I just got tackled in football. Damn!”

“I thought you were a burglar!” I said defensively.

He stared at me for a moment before erupting into laughter. “Reese, unless you haven’t noticed, it’s broad daylight. See, most burglars like to use the cover of the dark to sneak into houses. And you know I have the key to your front door!”

“Thanks for the Psychology 101 lesson, dude,” I said, rolling my eyes. Apparently satisfied that none of his major bones were broken, he brushed past me and headed down the stairs. Deciding not to ask why he’d been heading to my room, I followed him down, reaching the living room in record time. He looked at the newspaper on the table for a moment while I groused.

“I apologize for tackling you, and I’ll fully compensate for whatever wounds your ego has taken! What else do you want me to do? Want me to stroke your wound?”

It wasn’t till a second later that I realized how that must have sounded.

“Wow, I just came over to see if Jared’s recovered from beer pong last night, and I get offered a blow job? With no charge too?” He stroked his chin. “Let me think about it.”

“Just shut up,” I grumbled, stalking past him. Vaulting over the couch, I flopped down next to an out-dated copy of Groom Your Home magazine. Meh. Groom Your Horse’s Ass, more like.

“What the hell did you just say?” he asked.

“What?” I yelped. He started laughing again, but probably only because I sounded like I’d just peed my pants. “Okay, I said something embarrassing. I admit it. Stop frigging laughing at me, you asshole!”

“How’re you gonna stop me?” he challenged.

“I don’t know.” Standing up, I looked up at him with a playful grin on my face. Chasing him around the house with Groom Your Horse’s Ass didn’t sound like a bad idea. Nor did whacking him repeatedly with it. “What do you think?”

He considered my question as if it were of supreme importance. Well, yeah, it was, in a way, but (beep sound) not the point!! “I can think of many ways.” He lowered his face till it was inches from mine. “Some are better than others, though.”

I involuntarily gulped. All thoughts of him being my brother’s best friend fled my mind when I looked at those soft, slightly chapped lips of his. The mood suddenly changed – playful to (dare I say) sexually charged. How long ago had I kissed him? Had he kissed me? Three weeks ago? A month? An eternity? His features had matured over the years, so different from his younger years, yet somehow so similar too. The proud nose, the strong jaw, the thick black hair, the eyes…

I swallowed. “And what would be those ways?”

“It’d be better if I could demonstrate,” he murmured, so close that I could see my reflection in his eyes. The colour had deepened into a dark brown.

“Really?” I managed to get that one word out. What was he doing to me? I couldn’t for my life figure out where my emotions were heading. At that moment, it seemed as though they were on a roller-coaster, twisting at every turn. I didn’t need Dev as a distraction, and he already had a girlfriend. Amy. He’s not even supposed to be standing so close… you’re treading on dangerous ground, Reese…

“Really.” Without warning, he leaned down and captured my lips with his.

Taken aback, I stumbled backwards. We fell onto the couch, his arms around my waist. My arms encircled his neck and I found myself kissing him back purely against my wishes. It was as if he had taken my mind and tossed it aside – he tasted just like he had that rainy Saturday night, a tempting offer of sweetness and danger rolled into one perfect package. His lips moved onto mine with a fiery burst of passion, threatening to engulf my entire cloud of sanity.

He ran his tongue over my lower lip and slowly, torturously, began to nibble and suck on it till I felt like I was on fire. My hands tangled with his silky, thick sandy brown hair and I couldn’t help but let out a moan, letting him gain full access. He held me even closer if that was possible, his hands slipping up my shirt to massage my lower back, but not going any further than that. His tongue played havoc with my mouth and I was lost somewhere in the border between sanity and crazed musings. He felt so warm and protective… I pressed myself against him, wanting more.

We separated for a moment, grey eyes dueling with dark brown, then he took my face in his hands and slanted his lips over mine, changing the angle of the kiss. My hands went up to his back, feeling the muscles there stretch as we fell over to the side, his body over my body and his mouth still firmly melded to mine. My heart threatened to burst out of my chest as I succumbed to the wonders of his kissing abilities. His hand trailed down my jaw line to my neck, twining a lock of black hair around his fingers, playing games with my already hazy mind.

His hands went to my shoulders, steadying me as I kissed him back with fervor. If this was what ecstasy felt like, I could definitely kiss him till eternity ended. His solid body pressed up against me, his lips leaving mine to trail kisses down the slender column of my throat as I moaned and arched against him. Okay, screw till eternity ended, I could kiss him till we both shriveled up like prunes.

As he continued playing with my hair, a thread of thought suddenly dangled its way through the fog he had created over my brain. Oh my God, you're kissing Devon Saunders for the third time in your life!!

What the hell's going on?

Goddamn it, you're kissing Devon fricking Saunders for the third time in your whole. Fricking. Life!! NOOOOOOO!

I tried to push him away but he was as unyielding as the hardest of hard boulders. “Dev…” I muttered, then gasped as he nibbled on the base of my neck. “Dev, stop it, we can’t-”

“I told you to shut up, Reese,” he murmured, teasing the ticklish spot on my neck. I couldn’t help it; want overcame me and I forgot all about Jared again as I wound my arms around him and forced him to kiss me again.

Who knows what might have happened if a door above hadn’t banged open that very moment.

The remaining four scenes will be up one day at a time, ending on Saturday.