Juliet: A Tale of a Deadly Sin

Juliet: A Tale of a Deadly Sin

I didn't know if Juliet was my love or my lust. Whenever she invaded my thoughts she consumed them, burning red hot trails through my brain, leaving a sweet smelling smoke behind that only I could smell. Every time I glanced at her butter yellow hair my stomach would drop ten feet below me. Her sapphire eyes sent tingles through my skin, causing pangs of longing to cut through my body. My nights were spent dreaming of her, my days thinking of her. She would pass me in the hallway and the smell of cinnamon and spice filled my nose.

Juliet sat in the seat on my left in Calculus. I'd spend most of the hour with sweating palms and nervous glances to see what she was doing. Every so often she would smile at me softly and return to scratching away at her work with her pencil. Her pencil was a purple mechanical one that she never seemed to be without and I loved to watch it swirl across her paper. The way her handwriting curved effortlessly made me look at my own plain writing in dislike.

Tuesday morning we were working on complicated equations and the sun was starting to come up over the trees. The light streamed gently through the window and I glanced over at Juliet. Her hair was glowing softly and her rosy pink lips moved without a sound as she worked through a problem. Seeming to struggle, I leaned over and whispered, “Hey, do you need some help?”

She looked up, almost startled. Finding her voice, she said, “Um, yeah. Actually.” She smiled, showing me her million dollar teeth. “That would be great!” Scooting her chair over so that our desks were touching, she showed me her paper. “I'm having some trouble with problem fourteen,” she explained, pointing to her work. Furrowing my brow, I scrutinized her problem solving and shook my head.

“You're doing it all wrong,” I told her rubbing my hand through my black hair. Pulling a rubber band off of my wrist, I threw my hair into a messy bun and took the liberty of erasing her entire problem. “Factorials are really quite simple, once you get the hang of them,” I went on. “Here's what you want to do...” I started to complete a problem, making sure that she understood everything.

When I finished, I looked at her and said, “Do you get it?”

“You're really good at math, aren't you?” she laughed. “I'm more of an English person.”

I blushed all the way to my ears. “Um, yeah,” I stuttered. “I'm considering engineering. You know, for a career.” When she smiled again, I felt my face grow even hotter.

“I figured when you said you wanted to be an engineer.”

Awkwardly, I looked down at my desk and pulled my hair out of the elastic. I didn't know what to do other than wring my hands together. The smell of cinnamon filled my nose and I wanted so badly to run my hands through her hair. I wanted to touch her lips with my index finger. Longing filled my chest cavity. It was taking all my strength not to lean over and kiss her.

Juliet looked down at her sweater and picked an invisible piece of hair off. We sat in another moment of silence before she said, “So, can you help me with another problem?”

Snapping out of my daze of staring at her, I nodded and swallowed hard. “Sure thing.”