Editing DbS (section)

== ELEVEN ==
⚇乂⚇

'''BETRAYED BY ONE WHO CALLS YOU FRIEND—WAIT, WRONG BOOK''' 

“THAT’S IT, YOU’VE HAD IT,” said a gruff voice behind me. I turned around slowly, deciding it’d be better to talk it out first instead of immediately going to punch.  

Looking back on it, I’m actually pretty glad that I didn’t uppercut the person behind me, because as it turns out, that person was Mercutio.  

“Mercutio!” I said, “What’re you doing here?”  

Mercutio frowned at me. “Don’t ‘what’re you doing here’ me. You know exactly what I’m doing here.” 

“Nah,” I said, trying to be normal. “No idea, my guy.” He gave me a weird look after that last statement. My mind raced with possibilities- he could’ve been a Judas character, trying to stab Romeo in the back at the last second. Or… he could’ve just been a really good friend keeping watch on Romeo….

Mercutio sighed and uncrossed his arms to massage his temples in frustration, leading me away from the two with his right hand whilst massaging his forehead with his left. Modern problems, modern solutions. 

“I’m here because I’ve never seen you before,” he stated flatly once we were away from Romeo and Juliet.  

“Mercutio, I’m standing right here,” I said with a smirk, rolling my eyes in a way that translated roughly to “you’re crazy”. 

“Yes, but I’ve never seen you before,” Mercutio shot back, eyes darting from one place to another, searching over his surroundings like he was a hawk.  

“Well, it’s a big city,” I said with a shrug.  

“You’re a spy,” Mercutio stated dully, seeming to think he’d figured everything out. 

“Sure,” I said “and pigs fly.” Mercutio was unconvinced of this fact. 

“Hamlet, I know not what you mean, but you will drop your sword-” I did, in fact, wear a sword on my tunic belt thing that Romeo had lent me “-and leave this party to stay from whence you came.” Even with the transmitter in my ears, I could hear his Shakespeare and I wondered if it were something about his particular accent. 

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I said, straightening up. Deny, deny, deny. I looked at him in a way that I hoped shouted “you’re most definitely going crazy”. 

“You are a spy!” Mercutio accused again, then, once people looked over, he quieted his voice. “For the Capulets.” 

“No, I’m not a spy for the Capulets,” I said, crossing my arms as well, mirroring him.  

“Oh yeah? Then what are you?” 

“A normal person! Like you!”  

Mercutio stepped back, satisfied, a smirk of his own on his face. “I knew it. You’re from out of town,” he said, convinced.  

“Yup,” I said. It wasn’t a half-truth. “But what’s with the questioning, Mercutio? I’ve been with you for half a day, surely we, as friends, are past the ‘what’s your favorite color’ or ‘whose side of this war are you on’ questions by now.”

“Acquaintances,” Mercutio corrected subtly. “Just because I talked to you doesn’t make you my friend,” he said. ''Not sure if I should be offended or if he just does this to everyone he meets.'' 

“Besides,” he added on. “I knew you must’ve been out of town. Kingdom of the Scots, maybe? Your accent is strange. It’s got some ''aye'' to it, if you understand what I’m saying.” 

I sighed, as it was now my turn to massage my temples. “Okay, sure. But—”  

Mercutio cut me off. “The better question to ask is this: why were you spying on Romeo? To get to his father? His sister perhaps?”  

“I—no. I was making sure Tybalt didn’t sneak up on him.” 

“And if Tybalt had snuck up on you while you were spying on Romeo? Do you know what he would do if he found Romeo, of all people, talking to his cousin? Well, do you?” Mercutio demanded, glaring at me.  

“Whoa. Hang on. Relax. I had it under control, Mercutio. I wasn’t planning on letting Tybalt catch me spying on Romeo. And if he did, I would make sure he didn’t do anything,” said I, trying to smooth over everything.  I was a ''professional'' spy, for crying out loud! I could spy pretty well, ''thank you very much.''

“Did you, though, did you?” asked Mercutio. “I mean, it looked like Romeo was going to see you or something.” He leaned in close to me so I could smell the grapes on his breath. “Don’t you ''dare'' ruin Romeo’s night. This is his chance—he’s been moping around for days now, and you’re going to ruin it. So, I would appreciate it if you would stop.” 

“Mercutio. Chill. I wasn’t going to ruin Romeo’s night. I was just watching them. They’d be perfect together, even if they are supposed to be enemies.” I backed away from Mercutio, who was inching forward slowly, glaring at me.

“Yes, I know that,” said Mercutio, rolling his eyes. A glance to from whence we came. “Don’t you tell Romeo that.” 

I shrugged. “Wasn’t planning on it. Honestly, I wasn’t planning on ruining anyone’s night. I just… like seeing young lovers, you know?”  

''Gross.'' The whole of that last remark made me sick. Not my job, I wasn’t a fan of romance, I disliked the kissing parts of movies, etc, etc, etc, normal dude stuff, carrying on. 

Mercutio paused a moment. “Are you sure? Hamlet, I need you to be honest with me. I think, against my better judgement, you actually want Romeo to have a good life, correct?”  

An eye roll and a shrug in a “duh” sort of way. 

“Then, I suppose, no harm has been done. Just… be careful about Romeo, alright? He’s rather emotional right now, in a girl-crazy stage, you know? Besides, if you’re good—” he shot me a wink at this “—I’ll get you a date with Abigail. You know, you and her—you wouldn’t be so bad for each other.” 

I fought the urge to gag. I’m sure she was nice, just… not a fan of romance, remember? A forced smile. “Yeah, sure thing. Sure thing, Mercutio.” 

Mercutio nodded. “Good man. If you’ll excuse me… I believe Benvolio really would like to see me. For some reason,” said he, gesturing to Benvolio, who was staring at the two of us intensely, probably trying to pry our deepest darkest secrets out of the depths of our souls. 

I shrugged. “Okay, the—” I was cut off.  

Mercutio had turned around to face me. “Believe me, good Hamlet, I would not have interrogated you unless absolutely necessary. I believe that you’re a trustworthy person. Besides, I’m very careful about whom I become friends with. As you should be,” said he, walking off to meet Benvolio. Beside him stood a practically floating Romeo.  

I followed a few seconds behind Mercutio. I arrived right when Benvolio said, “… it’s best if we leave.” He straightened his hat, messing up his blond, man bun-able length hair. 

“How come?” Romeo and I asked at the same time. I gave him a slight smile, still mulling the things Mercutio had told me over in my head. Romeo did not respond, but a permanent smile was pasted on his face, which I assume had something to do with Juliet. 

“Well, as I was just telling Mercutio, it’s best if we leave when things are just getting fun. That way we won’t be seen at the end,” said Benvolio matter-of-factly.  

“Seriously?” Romeo asked frowning, clearly a little put-out with his cousin’s statement.  

“Yes, seriously. Why, have you met some new love?” Benvolio said, half sarcastic, raising an eyebrow at Romeo.  

I cast Mercutio a look, trying to ask him something telepathically, but he wasn’t looking so I guess telepathy only works if the two people are looking at each other. Mercutio was instead giving Benvolio a look that said “we need to talk”, and Benvolio was looking at Romeo.  

“Already, gentlemen?” asked an older man, coming up to us. It was Capulet. His graying swallowtail goatee was impeccably combed, and his eyebrow was cocked, as I had seen Mercutio’s many a time. (I wonder if they had hung out ever, maybe Mercutio had picked it up from him?) 

“Uh, yes, sir,” said Benvolio nodding. “It was a great party, but we really should be going.” 

“But I was just about to bring out desserts!” exclaimed Capulet.  

“Honestly, though, we should be going,” said Mercutio giving Capulet a fake smile that I supposed could be convincing to those who hadn’t hung out with him for half a day.

“We thank you for allowing us to come!” said Benvolio grandly, ushering Romeo to the entrance quickly.  

“And I thank you for coming!” said Capulet, his booming voice echoing across the courtyard where sounds of laughter and music playing were present.  

We said our goodbyes and headed to the door. I let out a breath, wiping my sweaty palms on my tunic. ''That was close,'' thought I. ''Too close for my liking.'' I continued forward before our group got stopped by something. 

An older lady with graying hair came up to our small group. She hastily asked Romeo his name and his father’s name.  

Romeo answered, “Romeo II, son of Romeo Montague I.” He gave the old woman a nod. 

“Ah, thank you,” said the heavy-set woman and hurried off, the small whisps of hair that had come undone from her headset flying behind her.  Benvolio gave Romeo a very alarmed look  while Mercutio grinned and cracked his knuckles as if ready for action. I wasn’t sure what to do. 

Hordes of people started crowding around us, our little group being swamped by a mob. They were a happy mob, but a mob nonetheless, hurrying out, ready to get home and boast about the night’s events. I was ready to get home too, and I couldn’t help but think about how I was supposed to get out of this storybook-esque world. ''What’s time like here?'' I wondered to myself, trying to work out what the jetlag time would be between London and wherever Romeo and Juliet was set. (Italy. It’s set in Italy.)

As people crowded around us, smashing our group together, I heard Mercutio grunt in annoyance. “And that is why we should’ve been going sooner,” said he, being shoved left and right by random people trying to escape the Capulets’ humble abode.   

All of a sudden, Romeo darted off, racing away from the group.  

“Romeo!” Benvolio called after him, starting after the boy, before being surpassed by Mercutio running at full speed after him. Unfortunately, Romeo was much, much, faster than Mercutio, and had had a head start.  

Not wanting to be left out of the fun, I ran off after him, legs pumping, trying to push off the ground with my toes as the fitness guy at the agency had instructed time after time.  

I was finally gaining on him, the sprints and mile runs paying off. With a final burst of running energy, I jumped at Romeo and grabbed his ankles, tackling him to the ground. I had been chasing him for around four minutes and I could tell that it was getting harder for him to keep running.  

As Romeo fell to the ground, he didn’t say anything, as to not give up his location, I supposed at the time (later he told me he was so surprised to have been caught he couldn’t say anything). He quickly rolled over and backed away at full speed as to escape me. He ended up backing into a tree trunk.  

“What’re you doing, Romeo?” I asked in a stage whisper.  

“Getting away from you,” Romeo shot back, scrambling up, trying to get away.  

“No, no, no, not so fast,” I said, grabbing his ankle with both hands, trying to get him back to me.  

“What’re ''you'' doing, Hamlet?” Romeo whisper-yelled, trying to shake me off his foot.  

“I’m stopping you from doing something dumb,” I whisper-yelled back.  

Romeo sighed. “Listen, I’m just doing something I have to do.” 

“And that is…?” I quipped, ready to defend my decision of tackling Romeo. I wasn’t dense, dear reader. I knew exactly what Romeo was doing—he was on his way to go talk to Juliet (and be somewhat of a creepy stalker by standing outside of her window, listening to her talk to herself but that’s another conversation).  

“If you have to know, I’m off to talk to the love of my life. Tell Mercutio and Benvolio that I’m alright. Tell Mercutio in particular that if he doesn’t stop talking about Rosa, I’m going to stab him,” said Romeo, pulling his blue cape around himself tighter as a breeze whisked by our hiding spot. 

“Fine,” I relented, to which a surprised look crossed Romeo’s face. 

“Really?” He looked startled, then regained his confidence “I mean, it’d be rude of you not to.” 

“Okay, you go, I’ll tell the boys I couldn’t catch up to you—” 

“Because of my quick feet,” finished Romeo with a lopsided grin.  

“Sure thing, Romeo,” I said, trying to lighten up the conversation with a laugh. “I’ll tell them that.” I turned, ready to go, but Romeo spoke before I could leave. 

“Hey, Hamlet?” called Romeo, to which I turned around.  

“Yeah?” 

“It’s easy for someone to joke about scars if they’ve never been cut,” said the boy, before he turned around, dragging his cape through the air like Batman would before disappearing through the undergrowth.  

After he had disappeared, I let out a breath I hadn’t known I’d been holding, satisfied at how the story had gone so far, and went in the opposite direction of Romeo to find Benvolio and Mercutio.  

“Hamlet!” exclaimed Benvolio upon seeing me, relief in his eyes.  

“Hamlet,” agreed Mercutio nodding to me in greeting, pretending to be Benvolio.  

“Hey, guys,” I said, coming up to them. “What’s up?”  

“Oh, nothing. We were just wondering why you went after Romeo that way—I mean, he was probably just going off to bed,” said Mercutio, raising a single eyebrow at me, giving me a look I couldn’t quite interpret but was pretty sure had something to do with our conversation earlier.  

“No, he couldn’t have been going off to bed,” said Benvolio shaking his head. “The castle is that way,” he said, jabbing his thumb over his shoulder in the castle’s general direction.  

“Well, where else would he go? He wouldn’t want to ruin his reputation,” I said, crossing my arms. “Besides, he’ll be safe.” 

“Safe? In Verona? That’s a joke,” muttered Mercutio.  

I rolled my eyes. “Anyways, he’ll make his way home eventually.” 

“Right. And we should be doing that right now. Say, Mercutio, Hamlet, would you like to stay in the castle?” asked Benvolio looking between the two of us.  

Mercutio shook his head. “No, I was told to be home soon,” said Mercutio shrugging helplessly.  

“Well, it’s past soon, so you should definitely get home,” said Benvolio taking charge.  

“Okay,” said Mercutio. “I’ll walk with you guys as far as Benjamin’s Apothecary and then I’ll split to go home,” said the ginger-haired boy, nodding as if all this made sense.  

“Good. Let’s get going, then,” Benvolio agreed, and began off, leaving Mercutio and me to follow. Mercutio gave me a shrug, a strange look, and then followed Benvolio, leaving me to trail after the duo, left alone with my thoughts and to figure out all that had happened.