Romeo & Juliet - The Killers (PART 4)

Final part.

The film was amazing, but Will wasn’t really watching it. His mind replayed all his memories with Gemma and he was still left with the question: how could she say, “It was nothing”? It didn’t make sense to him, but he couldn’t stop thinking about it.

A few seats away, Gemma sat in the dark cinema. She saw her face on the big screen, a dream come true. But she wasn’t seeing her face on the screen, she was seeing his. All her memories of him, and her pride last night when she saw him on that stage, singing their song. She felt the regret at losing contact with him, how she had let her pursuit of acting close so many of the doors in her life �" including him.

 

“And all I do is miss you and the way we used to be

All I do is keep the beat, the bad company”

 

 

That night, back at the hotel the band was staying in, Will turned in early. He locked the door of his room and strode across to the bed, ripping his tie off as he went, it was strangling him. He threw the expensive jacket across the room and it landed on a chair. Angrily, he threw himself onto the bed and lay there for a while.

Hours later, he picked up his old guitar. He gently strummed the strings, and sang the words in his mind. New words, beautiful words. Words that had meaning he had never felt before. He channelled all his thoughts of her into his voice, his mind and his hands. The sound that formed was enchanting, the emotion raw. It was from the heart.

 

“And all I do is kiss you, through the bars of a rhyme

Juliet, I'd do the stars with you any time”

 

           

The next day, Will took his guitar with him across London. He ignored the phone calls from Janine and the rest of the band. He just carried on walking. Eventually he found himself at an address that he had spent most of the day tracking down. The evening was drawing in, not yet dark in the summer months. There was a bench in a park across from the classy flat he looked up at. He passed under a streetlight and set himself down on the bench. He sat there for a long time.

After a while he started singing to himself. Looking up at the window of the flat, he sang. Passersby stopped and stared at him, but he ignored them, he just kept singing.

 

“A lovestruck Romeo, he sings the streets a serenade

Laying everybody low with a love song that he made”

 

 

Will awoke back at the hotel. Janine stormed into his room and reprimanded him for going off without permission. He blankly replied to her questions and soon after, she left, still fuming. They had a free week until the next gig, so Will spent the day flicking aimlessly through the channels on TV. He stopped on one that was playing a trailer of the new Bond film. It cut to an image of a conference room, there in the middle of the current James Bond and his latest Bond Girl, was Gemma.

It was Bond’s turn to talk, so Will decided to order some room service instead. He alternated channels until after an age, it seemed, it was Gemma’s turn.

At first the talk was just about the movie, then it turned to her personal life.

‘In this movie your character has a brief romance with Mr. Bond. Is there anyone in your personal life at the moment?’ asked one reporter, who Will thought was being very nosy.

‘There hasn’t been for a while, I’ve been so busy with filming, but a few days ago I met someone who is very special to me. So, in answer to your question, maybe.’ Gemma’s eyes twinkled mischievously at the camera.

Will sat up straight, astounded at what he had heard. He had a chance! He finished off his room service meal and threw himself into the shower. The rate things were going at the press conference; it would be at least an hour and a half until they were finished. He had time, he judged, to get ready and to walk to her flat.

Not long after, Will checked his reflection in the mirror. His dark hair lay in a sweeping fringe just above his eye line, he had shaved especially, and he thought he was looking pretty swish. He was dressed in dark skinny jeans and laced up converse, he wore a simple open necked shirt and as he walked out the door he threw on his favourite leather jacket.

 

It was early evening as Will walked down the street to Gemma’s flat after stopping by a florist. One by one the streetlights flicked on, illuminating the pavement around the park.

Will rang the doorbell, there was no one home. He left a bouquet of flowers �" lilies �" on the doorstep.

So he waited. Outside the flat, in the shadows, underneath the streetlight.

Soon enough he spotted a figure walking towards him. Gemma. She hadn’t spotted him yet, she headed straight to the door. She stopped when she saw the flowers; he knew that lilies had been her favourite flowers all those years ago. She spun around and looked into the darkness for him.

He stepped out of the shade.

‘You heard me.’ She said simply.

‘Can I come up?’ he asked.

She nodded in reply, a beautiful and perfectly happy smile spread across her face. Together, they walked hand in hand up the stairs to her apartment.

The actress and the musician, years after they met, were together again.

 

Find a convenient streetlight, steps out of the shade

He says something like, "You and me, babe, how about it?"

Author's Note

Thoughts?

Reviews

[Ethan Mariner]

Go Killers. Good band. And your work is good too--I'm glad it ended happily. I respect your ability to write a complete short story--it's something I can't do, at all. Keep up the good work.