Page 86 of The Casualty of Us
He squints at me with a quirk of his lips. “Didn’t take you for a nature girl, Freckles.”
“I’m not.” I correct with a small scoff. “But I do like to appreciate it from the comfort of a nice cabin.”
“Hmm.” His eyes narrow a bit more like he’s imagining it. “That fits.”
“Probably with a book in hand.”
“Making me read too.”
“Oh, you’re there?” I laugh, knowing I’m toeing the line, but…
“Of course.” His dimples flash, and another beat passes before he tacks on softly, “Wouldn’t be anywhere else.”
The statement hangs somewhere between where our gazes are meeting, and I drop mine at it before he starts again. “I finished it.”
I take a quick breath to force my eyes back up, finding that intensity in his again. “What?”
“Hamlet.”
“Oh.” My brows fall. “I didn’t know you were still reading it.”
“In all my spare reading time, yeah.” He scoffs a half-amused sound. “But I still wanted to finish it before the summer.”
“Why?” I frown, not really getting it. “I told you it’s a sad story.”
“You really don’t like it?” He eyes me curiously. “Any part of it?”
“Maybe the flowers, I guess.” I shrug unhelpfully. “The symbolism of that moment for her at the end. Honestly, I’m not a big Shakespeare fan.”
“Hmm.” He lets go of my hand before lifting his own to run a finger down my nose. “What’s wrong with Shakespeare?”
“A lot.” A giggle bubbles past my lips and his lift with it. “But I don’t know…I guess I’ve always found his characters to be a little off-putting.”
“How so?”
“In reason.” I frown. “Repeatedly.”
“Ah.” The sound comes with a flash of victory in his eyes. “I see.”
“See what?”
“The conundrum there.” He lifts his finger from where it’s running over my cheek to tap it against my forehead gently. “You can’t comprehend Romeo not wanting to live without Juliet or Hamlet playing such a pivotal role in driving Ophelia mad.”
I just stare at him for a second, a bit taken aback by the depth of his perception, but I guess after a semester’s worth of penance reading, he’s learned something.
Even if that something’s more about me than the books.
“No.” I clear my throat quickly. “No, that I can understand perfectly actually…” I blow out a breath to ease some of my nerves before admitting, “What I can’t get past is why Juliet was stupid enough to fall for a boy that loved a different girl two seconds before her and Ophelia giving Hamlet the time of day to begin with.” His eyes flare with surprise, and I finish quietly, “I understand being willing to die for someone, but they need to be worthy of that kind of devotion too.”
He pauses. “That’s fair.” His gaze drops to follow the path his fingers are tracing on the lines of my face as he presses further. “But what if it was real? What if Romeo really did fall in love with her just like that?”
“Then…” I frown at him with another sigh. “They should have been smart enough to plan an escape that didn’t involve fake deaths and poor communication skills.”
A real laugh escapes on his next breath. “Very romantic, O.”
“At least they would have been alive instead of gone to eternal oblivion.” I shrug, watching him closely and seeing the moment something sparks that has his fingers pausing their path.
“Can I ask you something?”
