Letters to Romeo

Noticing the tall and dark shadow of someone behind the window of her room, Julie felt a sheen of sweat form on her forehead. She didn't see how the window was unlocked, and now it was left slightly ajar.

The person didn't completely open the window or did a hand appear to sneak through the little gap to pick up her letter. On seeing the outline of the person's shadow, Julie turned worried. She had believed it to be Roman, but when the shadow moved closer, she noticed the person behind the window had the face of a bird.

It was similar to the costume that she had seen during the day of the Hallow.

The person continued to stand there, and so did Julie on the other side, her heart starting to thunder when the shadow went to hold the window with its hand. But it wasn't just any hand. The hand looked like sticks but, at the same time, defined. Until now, Julie had never seen anything like that.

Slowly, the window was pushed to open it, and Julie saw a bird's face that didn't have eyes and were hollow. The face wasn't made of metal like the usual plague doctor, but it appeared more like it was made of wood and her heart stopped still when it turned to look at her.

Hearing another sound, Julie woke up from her desk, as while studying, she had fallen asleep. Quickly standing up, she looked around the room before her eyes fell on the window, which was still left slightly ajar.

Was that a dream? Julie asked herself. But it felt less like a dream and more as it happened a few seconds ago.

It was past twelve in the night, and the campus had turned quiet, except for the sounds of crickets and rustling leaves.

Not a minute had passed, and soon another shadow of a person appeared on the other side of the window. A little frightened, she walked towards the window. When she pushed the window with her heart still beating quickly, she found the bad boy standing right outside.

On seeing that it was Roman and not the bird faced person she had seen in her dream, Julie breathed a sigh of relief. She said,

"You are here."

"And you are awake," stated Roman. Julie quickly leaned forward, taking a good look outside, left and right, to see if anyone apart from Roman was there. Once she was done scouting around the place to make sure there was no one, her eyes fell back on Roman, who had a curious look in his eyes. "Whom are you looking for?" he asked her.

Julie shook her head and then asked him, "Are you not worried about getting into another detention? Mr. Evans or Mr. Borrell's will catch you."

"Do you think I am as easy to be caught like you?" questioned Roman, raising one of his eyebrows.

"I am offended. But you did get caught by Mr. Evans that night," reminded Julie, and Roman rolled his eyes.

"I wouldn't have if you didn't step out of the Dormitorium with my letter in your hand. Who do you think is responsible for making me take part in the stupid play?"

When her mouth shaped as if she was going to say 'You', Roman's eyes narrowed at her with a glare in them. "Don't even dare, else I will have you hanging upside down in the tree, until someone else comes to bring you down."

"That is a mean thought," whispered Julie so that she wasn't loud. "If you had given back my uncle's letter this would not have happened."

"If you read the rules and cared enough to ask someone on what you are supposed to do and not to do, the letter wouldn't have to come to me in the first place," pointed Roman, and Julie wondered if he had come here to bully her more. "But I know what's going on in here," he said, placing his hand on top of the window sill.

Julie slightly frowned and, curious to know, she asked, "What?"

"Since the first week you joined here, you have been breaking rules left and right. You have already put one foot into the dark side," a smirk appeared on Roman's lips. "Time to put the other foot. The more you try to run away from something, the more it will try to catch up to you."

She looked at him with her brown eyes, staring into his midnight black eyes.

Julie said, "You seem to be enjoying acting in the stage play. You are good at it."

"Did you expect me to throw a tantrum like the others?" questioned Roman, and his hand reached out to take the letter that she had placed next to the window. This was the first time she saw him holding her letter and reading it right in front of her.

A few days had passed since Hallow, and Julie had slowly started to map the letter thief's face with Roman.

To his question, she answered, "No, I don't think I have ever thought you would throw a tantrum. I just didn't expect you to be good at this too. Say, Roman…" Julie started.

Roman's eyes had finished sweeping through the words that she had written in the letter, and he looked up to see her, "What?"

"Doesn't it get tiring to go back and forth next to pick up the letter?" Her words were careful.

"I am usually walking around the Dormitorium and there isn't much entertainment here for us… students. At least not for me apart from breaking people's bones and bullying some in the campus," replied Roman with a straight face, and Julie stared at him.

"I don't know what to say," replied Julie, and he said,

"I wasn't waiting for you to comment on it," and Roman folded the letter and put it in his pocket. He started to leave, and she watched him walk away from there.

Like a clock clicking with its hand ticking forward, her heart continued to beat while she watched Roman leave the front of her window. Her eyes followed him, watching his broad shoulders where he hadn't bothered to wear his leather jacket.

But after Roman took a few steps forward, he turned around and came to walk past her window. He then returned to stand in front of her window again that she hadn't closed.

Roman said to her in a low voice, "Keep your voice down."

Roman held both sides of the window sill with his hands, and realizing what he was going to do, Julie's eyes widened. "What are you doing?" she asked him, alarmed.

"Inviting myself in. Thank you," remarked Roman before jumping inside the room and closing the window.

She could see that! Said Julie in her mind. With Roman entering her dorm at this hour of the night, together, they were breaking rule number seven!

"You shouldn't be here!" Julie said in a hushed voice, but Roman was quick to place his finger on his lips while he looked at the window. He turned off the study lamp, turning the room dark. A shadow appeared just outside Julie's window, and she turned to look at him with a frown on her forehead. Was it the bird faced person again? But then, this shadow didn't seem to have a bird's face.

Julie heard a male's voice from outside her dorm, "Did you see someone walking in here?" It was Mr. Evans.

"I thought I heard some rustling sound. One of the students must be lurking outside their dorms. there's always someone breaking rule in the night," said another person, who was scouting through the campus to make sure to see that all the students stayed inside.

A little amount of light came to pass through the window, letting them see things inside the room.

"Rom-" Julie was about to call him when Roman placed his hand on Julie's mouth.

A human wouldn't hear the sounds coming from inside the dorm, but one of the teachers who stood outside was a vampire with decent hearing ability. His eyes flared while looking at her so that she wouldn't cause trouble to both of them by saying something. With Julie's lack of knowledge about the existence of vampires, it was nothing less than a problem to Roman with her.

"Go check the other side and I will check this side. Piper said she wants one more student to help her play," said one of the people outside and Julie heard the light footsteps that slowly receded away from there.

Roman made sure that everything had turned quiet, and he then finally pulled his hand away from Julie's mouth.

"Now don't scream bloody murder or I will murder you myself and you won't see the day tomorrow," Roman warned her so that she wouldn't raise her voice. He had picked the quickest escape route so that Evans wouldn't catch hold of him.

"The time of night is not good," murmured Julie to herself. Because one or the other day, someone was going to catch the midnight delivery of letters.

"You are right. It is troublesome for me," Roman responded to her words, and he moved towards the window. "For a change I should have you come and pick up letters from my dorm. Tomorrow, it is your turn."

"What? No!" Not only was his room on the above floor where she would have to make use of the outside stairs, but she was also terrible at sneaking in and out without being noticed. "I will be caught on my first try."

"Maybe it is time that you start practising how to not get caught, Winters," said Roman, turning to look at Julie, whose eyes had widened. "Too scared?"

"Of course, not. I am a good student who likes to abide by the rules of the university," said Julie. At the same time, she noticed Roman's eyes fell on her bare legs in her shorts with the image of books imprinted on her shirt. "W-what are you looking at?" she questioned, bringing Roman's eyes back to meet her eyes.

Roman stared at Julie before he made his way to where she stood. Suddenly she turned on her guard, aware that they were alone. When he came near, she closed her eyes. After a few seconds, she slowly opened them. She noticed him pick up her book. "Such a nerd." He then went and sat on her bed.

"I have seen plenty of bare legs before, for you to feel shy about it. Sit," he said, jerking his head to the side. "I think this evens our scores where we both have entered each other's dorms through the window."

Julie saw Roman going through the notes she had written in her book. He sat on the edge of the bed as if he owned this room, where his posture was completely relaxed. He had leaned forward to rest his hands on his knees while he flipped through the pages. The chain around his neck that often rested on his chest had moved forward, where the two rings hung on it.

Remembering him caressing her wrist on the stage, Julie's face turned red, and she turned to have her back facing him. Picking up the water bottle from the tab;e, she took a couple of sips before placing it back. She tried to remind herself that it was just acting in person, and Roman was not like that. Instead, he was someone who used those very hands to beat people up.

Not knowing how long Roman was going to be here and when the teachers would stop their patrolling of students who were breaking the rules, Julie decided to take a seat on the bed. She kept a distance between them, and Roman didn't bother to comment on it.

Noticing the tattoos on his arm, she caught sight of the words on his fingers 'DEATHWIT'. She wondered what that meant. Julie asked him, "Did it not hurt while having them made?" She bent her legs and placed them both on the bed.

Roman's eyes shifted from the book in his hand to look at Julie, whose eyes were on his arm. He said, "It is only the beginning. It feels like a hot drop of liquid on the skin and then it gets better."

"That's too much pain," murmured Julie with a frown that Roman caught, and his lips twisted into a faint smirk.

"Don't you know that after pain there is pleasure?" Closing the book, he placed it on the side table.

"No," came Julie's direct answer that only made Roman amused.

"Let me educate you, as it seems like you need a lot of learning to do in many things," suggested Roman, and Julie looked at him warily before shaking her head.

"I am good. I am not looking for that kind of learning," replied Julie, and she then looked at her wrist where Natalie had scarred it.

Roman watched Julie, where her hair hadn't been tied, and without the glasses, she looked like a butterfly in the night. As if sensing his gaze, her eyes moved to look at him. He noticed the little gulp, and her eyes, unable to keep up with his gaze, it darted to look away from him.

As if nervous by his presence, Julie said, "You shouldn't have stayed outside the window for so long. The teachers wouldn't have been alerted."

"That did cross my mind, you little, troublemaker," remarked Roman, whose eyes were still on the human girl. "Do you ever dream of what happened in the past?"

Julie looked slightly startled, and, noticing him looking at her wrist, she unconsciously placed her other hand upon it to cover the scar. "Sometimes," replied Julie. There was something with the way he looked at her, a hint of intrigue and intensity, along with the bad boy aura that made her nervous. "I feel like I have told you more things about me than you have," she muttered under her breath.

"Have you ever heard about a prisoner having more information than the abductor?" Roman continued chewing gum. He then leaned backwards on the bed, letting the upper half of his body lay on the bed while placing both his hands behind his head to support it.

"You aren't planning to sleep here, are you?" asked Julie with a doubtful tone.

"You can take the chair, Troublemaker," hummed Roman and Julie hoped he was only joking. As if he wasn't done speaking, he said, "I don't think it is safe for either of us to sleep on the same bed. I don't trust you."

What?!

"I would never do anything like that!" replied Julie, not knowing what Roman thought about her. "I am not going to throw myself at you like those other girls whom you keep swatting away. In your dreams."

Roman sighed, "Seriously, which direction does your mind keep running to? I mean I don't trust what kind of trouble you would bring to me."

Julie turned embarrassed, and she tried to cover it, "That is what I was getting to next. I wouldn't do anything."

"Sure," responded Roman, his voice sarcastic. "Are you telling me that you don't mind sleeping in the same bed as me?"

"That is not what I meant. I don't even know why you want to sleep in my bed, when this is my room and-" Julie stopped speaking because Roman had sat up, and he leaned forward, bringing his face in front of her.

"Sorry, I don't think I quite caught what you just said a second ago. Care to repeat it?"

The look in his eyes had changed to something very dark, and his entire demeanour turned colder than she had ever come across in the past. Julie didn't know what she said that got Roman simmer.

Suddenly his hand shot towards her face, Julie felt her heart stutter, and she closed her eyes. She heard Roman's words that fell low and in a husky voice, "You look scared. I am not going to hurt you."

When Julie opened her eyes, the look in his eyes didn't change, and he said, "You might be living here now, but don't forget that to begin with, this was my room before you came to live and it will stay like that. Okay?"

It was hard to go against his word because of the way he intimidatingly looked at her.

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