Free Forbidden To Love (The Erosians) by D Wills

classic scene, including Juliet’s famous line “Romeo, Romeo, where for art thou, Romeo?” I notice Josh’s face at my childishness and instantly regret acting.
    J osh slumps down into the chair next to me, sighing, and hands me the script sheet that the teacher has given to him for us to perform.
    “ Thanks.” I turn my attention away from Stacey, who is almost shaking with anger, and try focussing on the script. I think our scene is the first scene where Romeo and Juliet meet, “You recognize this bit?” Josh asks, not looking up.
    “ Erm, no,” I reply, trying to keep my voice level. I don’t get how to act around him. A part of me has relaxed fully now he’s close to me; like this is how our being together is meant to be, but the other part of me remembers Eros’s face and his warning.
    “ Why don’t we just start at the beginning? I presume you’re happy to play Romeo.” I’m not sure my attempt at humour to ease the atmosphere between us has worked. He lets out a low laugh, and I can tell jokes aren’t the answer.
    “ Of course. Not sure you could play Juliet, though,” he replies almost under his breath. I refuse to be sucked into another argument.
    My line is first, so I gather myself and begin “I … ”
    “ So what was all that about yesterday?”
    I scan the script, too focused on the scene we ’re supposed to be performing to realize he’s not reading Romeo’s lines.
    “ Where are you starting from?” I ask dumbly.
    He turns in his chair to face me, and pushes the script down in my hands. “I'm not reading from the script. I'm talking about yesterday in the hall. You want to tell me what I'm supposed to be or, for that matter, start at why you were staring at me on the field?”
     
    I fiddle with the end of the sleeve of my dark grey sweater, but his eyes focus in on mine. Even though, we’re in a class of thirty, there’s no one here to take the attention from the questions he’s asked. They’re all absorbed in their scripts. The teacher is at the other side of the room talking to the groups over there. It’ll be at least twenty minutes before she comes over here to us. I can’t just sit here silently for that long, but I can’t come clean either, and something is stopping me lying to him.
    “ Sorry.” I open my hands out in front of me, figuring that’s the best way to begin. Josh raises his eyebrows in response and tries to keep eye contact with me as I slouch further down into my chair and place the script on my legs. If only someone had written what I need to say, this would go a lot easier.
    I glimpse up at him, my long lashes hiding part of my eyes. His face is calm and composed, his eyes relaxed, and his lips look more inviting than ever.
    Something about him makes me want to bare my soul. An act that would get me in more trouble than I can imagine; but he would be worth any punishment.
    “ I was staring at you because … ” I let out a sigh. I suppose I'd better go with the lesser of two evils. “ … I thought … you were … well … hot.” I cringe at the word but can’t think of a better one. My cheeks burn with embarrassment; I’d rather tell him that I’m a new breed of Goddess who has a twelve month expiration date, sent to the mortal world to make people fall in love. A confession would have been less mortifying than this. Josh’s expression doesn’t change, and he doesn’t say anything back, so I carry on.
    “ I guess I got caught up and didn’t realize I was staring until you saw me and your friends noticed.” I close my eyes as my entire face burns with humiliation. I can’t believe it’s this hard to tell someone you like them. If this is what I make people do when I knit their auras together, I'm going to stop. This is practically a form of torture.
    Josh is still silent. He ’s probably mortified at what I’ve revealed and is trying to think of a polite way to tell me that he’s not interested.
    “ What about in the hall?” He