A/N: I do not own "Pride and Prejudice", Quotes from Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet", Captain Underpants, lyrics from Jesse McCartney's "Daddy's little girl", "Come to me" and "Tell Her", and Grimm's Rapunzel.
Essie: Thanks for the comment! I made the change!
And many thanks to those who reviewed, added this one-shot to their C2, added it to their favourites or simply enjoyed reading it!
Something rapped against my window.
I glanced at my window before deciding to ignore it, returning to my first book of the night, Romeo and Juliet. Seriously, no one should ever miss out on this epic, classic love story.
Something rapped against my window, again.
And, no one, I repeat, no one messes with my Saturday night romance novel marathons. Just ask my brother why he places a "Dangerous, keep out" sign on my door.
Placing the book down, I stormed over to the window and flung it open, fully prepared to blast at the living thing whether human or otherwise for interrupting Romeo and Juliet's confession of love for each other.
"Get lost you idiot! I'm at the balcony scene!"
I trailed off when I looked down and stared into the startling green eyes of a guy. He pushed some strands of wayward blonde hair out of his eyes and snuck a look out of the corner of his eyes at a moving bush.
Yes, a moving bush with badly concealed, random pieces of limbs and the flat of buttocks near the top, to breathe I suppose. Why do boys do everything with their butt?
I returned my gaze to the bold guy, oblivious to his imminent death, and demanded.
"What the hell are you doing here?"
I swear I heard giggles in the bushes.
He grinned at me and went down on a knee, extending his right arm towards me in a make believe, stereotypical princely pose.
"Rapunzel, rapunzel! Let down your hair!"
I gaped at him for a moment before lifting up my shoulder length hair and sighing, depressed. Two could play a game.
"But darling, the evil witch has already chopped off my hair! I'm afraid I shall never see you again!"
"With love's light wings did I o'perch these walls, for height limits cannot hold love out"
Did he just say Shakespeare? Oh well.
"If my mum do see thee, she will murder thee."
His eyes sparkled at the challenge and without missing a beat, he launched his next line
"Alack! There lies more peril in thine eye than twenty of her swords," after a short pause, he added.
"At least give me the pleasure of your name."
"What's in a name?" I teased.
He looked to be despondent for a moment before shaking his head and lifted his green eyes to regard me sadly. Setting his lips into a pout, he asked.
"O! Wilt thou leave me so unsatisfied?"
"What satisfaction canst thou have tonight?"
A chorus of "ooohhhs" erupted from the bush. He swiftly turned around to glare at it, took off his shoe and hurled it into the tangle of leaves, stem and limbs. He lifted to me his forefinger requested for one second before hobbling over to said bush and giving it a swift kick.
"Thanks for ruining the moment."
He gave the bush a hard kick and felt his friend tug his jeans violently. I watched him turn around to look at my house slowly before the whole lot of them bolted off.
"What are you boys doing in my backyard?!"
Oh…the much discussed mum.
I leaned over my window and waved to my bemused and slightly confused mother, before returning to the book.
He was on a dare again, I hope. No one sane would dare traverse such dangerous grounds, openly. His friends were hiding behind the bush, and sadly once again entirely unsuccessful. Judging from their big build, I would guess they are jocks.
This time however, they were not here to be the not-so-silent observers. They armed themselves with percussion instruments, though I am not sure if I really want to know why they are so.
"So, what are you reading now?"
"Pride and Prejudice."
"Cool…why aren't you out on a Saturday?"
"Well, I could ask the same of you. Besides I have a strict 9 o' clock curfew."
"Then I think I have the perfect song for you."
He winked at me and snapped his fingers. I could hear badly coordinated beats and shaking.
So that's why…
You just turned
eighteen a week ago
You want to learn what you don't know
You're
grown up don't need permission
Find out what you've been
missin'
It took some time but now you really want to figure
out
Just what it is that all the other girls are talkin'
'bout
And it's driving you're mama crazy
'Cause daddy's
little girl is now my baby
I think you're ready baby
I
think you're ready baby
Come on and get it baby
I think
you're
I think you're
"TERRIBLE!"
I sniggered aloud as I watched his face turn from smug to horrified, for one very simple reason. My mother.
She stormed out, waving a frying pan. His friends had already abandoned him and he was retreating a step for every one my mother was taking.
"Young man! This is atrocious! Can you think of something else to sing?"
He took a deep breath and stopped retreating. Instead, he moved forward to greet my mother.
"Good evening madam. Nice to meet you. I apologize for the… er…atrocious song. I will be sure to find a more suitable one in future. Have a great evening."
With that, he high-tailed out of my backyard.
I devoured the remaining pages of Pride and Prejudice, occasionally stopping to take a bite out of my chocolate bar.
Romance and chocolate makes the world go round.
Pausing in my reading, I looked out of my window to the clear night sky and felt a smile unconsciously playing across my lips as I started thinking about the hilarious and slightly cheesy conversation a week ago.
Did I just hear a tap?
I scrambled across my bed and leaned out of the window. Sure enough, the same guy stood below my window but this time, he held a guitar. Seeing me at my window, his arresting green eyes lighted up with happiness and he waved enthusiastically at me.
"Am I interrupting something?"
"Yes! We were just getting to the exciting part! Elizabeth's finally listening to Darcy's profession of love!"
"Oops…that took a long time."
"Yes!"
"Why don't you listen to mine instead?"
I inclined my head to the left and looked at him questioningly. Interpreting my lifted eyebrows, he realized that I had no idea what he was sprouting.
"I mean, listen to my profession of love."
Then, seemingly in an entire change of atmosphere from teasing to, dare I say, romantically shy, he stared up at me with a bashful smile. He began to strum the strings of his guitar to a familiar tune – one that I was blasting into my earphones a few minutes ago.
Let me be the
one
Telling you it's alright
Sharing the smiles and tears you
cry.
Let me be the one,
Loving you when you're weak.
For all
of the strength you need,
You can come to me.
When you're
down and you feel so lonely
Turn around, you can come to me
When
you're down baby, I will be the only
Come to me
You can
just be yourself,
'Cause I don't want nobody else.
All of your
secrets are safe with me.
For the kind of love you can trust,
For
more than just a crush,
Baby, why don't you just come to me?
He started to grin when he noticed me trying to suppress a smile, unsuccessfully. Strumming a few last chords to end off the portion of the song, he lowered the guitar and smiled at me.
"I love that song…"
"I know."
I narrowed my eyes, regarding him cautiously. As if reading my thoughts, he continued.
"No! I'm not stalking you…maybe just a bit…but I figured that out myself. You seem exactly like the type of girl who loves this kind of songs."
"So…what type am I exactly?"
His face took on a slight red blush that I could just barely make out in the street lights. Running his hand through his hair while chewing on his bottom lip, he pondered for a moment before muttering under his breath.
"Huh? Sorry…I loaned my extendable ears to Captain Underpants."
He hesitated for a moment before breaking out into a splitting smile.
"You're exactly MY type!"
Now it was my turn to turn red. I spluttered, lost for words for once and flailed my arms around uselessly before finally landing them on my face. I could even feel the heat radiating from my face.
Deep breath.
Oh…right.
"Yeah right…You nearly got me there."
His smile fell as he registered what I said.
"What…what do you mean?"
"Erm…aren't you on a dare to do this? I mean…I'm completely normal, and there's nothing really special. Why would you like me?"
Before he could say anything else, I shut the window tightly and ignored his repeated calls.
Some one once asked me why some people love reading romance novels so much. My answer? We yearn for that kind of love and romance that we know is out of our reach.
My room lights were off though it was early on the Saturday night. For the first time in two years, I had broken my tradition. And never in my entire life would I have expected it to be because of a boy.
Though lying on my bed thinking, my eyes kept drifting to the window. At each slight sound from outside, I could feel my body tensing up, somehow, waiting for that familiar tap on the window.
That tap did not come, but the door bell did. My mother called out to me and after checking my reflection in the mirror for a few seconds, I went downstairs. There was a guy there, though not the one with the familiar green eyes and blonde hair that had been permanently on my mind the past week.
He smiled gently at me before extending his right hand. I shook it cautiously.
"Hi. I'm Jordan. Your neighbor across the street if you didn't know…" he added after noticing my confused expression.
"I'm just the messenger. Here, this is from Pete."
I stared at the package he handed to me and he continued. He did not have to clarify who Pete was.
"He had to leave early this week; something urgent happened to his family."
Jordan paused for a moment, scrutinizing me to gauge my reaction to the news.
"And he won't be coming back."
I refused to let the tears in my eyes, which came out of absolutely no where, fall. Though, from the sympathetic look on Jordan's face, he could probably see it glistening in my eyes. Or perhaps, he could hear my emotions in the break in my voice.
"Thanks."
"He wanted you to have it on the same day that you both have been meeting. I guess I'll leave you now, see you around."
After Jordan left, I opened up the package and found a CD in it. Puzzled, I inserted it into my computer and waited, before his familiar voice floated through the speakers.
Every time that I'm
around her
I just go to pieces crashing tumbling to the ground
I'm
so glad I found her
I know how it feels
If you see my
girl
Just tell her I miss her smile
Tell her I'm counting the
minutes
Gonna see her in a little while
I know when she
Holds
on to me
She's the one thing that I could never live without
Oh,
oh, oh, oh
And tell her I love her
Oh yeah, just tell her I love her
There was no way I could have held my tears in.
It was two years ago that I had met him.
As the librarian announced that the university's library was about to close in fifteen minutes, I packed up my books and returned them to their shelves. Inserting a reference book on Shakespeare back into its original space, I noticed "Romeo and Juliet" on the shelf right above it.
I can still remember the first time he recited lines to me. Fingering the book cover, I turned to leave. As I walked back to my work space, I noticed a figure walking by with a stack of books right up to his eyes. Eyes, of that recognizable shade of green. I grabbed my bag and ran after him.
As I exited the library, I glanced around frantically for him. I felt myself start to panic when he was not in sight. Then, I heard his voice.
When I've got you in
my arms (got you in my arms)
Say it's where you wanna be (where
you wanna be, yeah)
He was walking down to footpath to the dorms on the opposite side of mine. I hurried after him and called out.
"Pete!"
He stopped dead in his tracks. But, he did not turn around. Instead, he started to shake his head.
"I must be dreaming…"
He took two more steps and panicking as he walked away, I ran up to him and hugged him from behind. I felt him freeze and stop breathing.
"Is that really you?" he breathed.
"Yeah…"
He dropped all his books and turned around to crush me in a tight hug.
"It's really you..."
"Is it really so hard to believe that I am actually here, alive and talking?"
He released his hold on me and leaned his forehead against mine. A small smile slid lazily across his face and he rubbed circles on my cheeks with his thumb.
"You know…I've never actually finished the song I was singing the other day at your backyard."
"The one with the guitar?"
"Yup, and your mum's not here to chase me out again."
He held onto my hand and went down on a knee, and it was like two years ago all over again, when I first stuck my head out of the window. Yet, it was different because the teasing look in his eyes at that time was gone replaced by one that was true, serious and filled with love.
'Cause girl I'm
down on my knees
Promising my heart oh, my heart
Whenever
you need me, ah
Whenever you need me girl
Whenever you need me,
ah
Oh, I'll be there