Chapter 3
Back in her own room, Anne opened her window, letting in some fresh air to clear her thoughts. A breeze of nightly cold flowed towards her, making her shiver. She leaned on the windowsill and let her gaze wander through the darkness. Alone and surrounded by the quiet of the night, she could feel herself slowly shedding the role of April and returning to her own thoughts, left alone with the reality of being herself. The weight of being Anne Hathaway, the wife of the great and famous William Shakespeare, came crashing down on her all at once, and she had to grip onto the sill to steady herself for a moment. What was she even doing here, trying so hard to escape her own life for a moment, that she wrote herself into one of her husband’s plays.
Shaking her head, Anne let out a deep sigh and lifted her head up to stare into the void of the night. She had been feeling unsatisfied with her life for a while now, her husband always being gone and her not having an actual purpose in life now that the children were already old enough to look after themselves. She knew deep down that she did not want to keep on living like this, that she needed to make a change for her own sake.
“It has to happen, and it’s already begun,” she spoke firmly into the darkness, trying to convince herself. It was true in some way; she had done things she would have never done before. Talking Juliet out of the wedding, encouraging her not to take the easy, reasonable way, but to venture into the unknown. Juliet. Anne couldn’t help but fluster a small smile. She thought back to the evening they had spent together, drinking, and laughing in the old bar, whose vibrancy had rubbed off on them both. It had been exactly what they both needed in that moment, to just let loose and to drown their sorrows in alcohol. Even though Juliet may have overdone it a little with the drinking. Anne chuckled as the image of a tipsy Juliet re-entered her memory, making her feel warm and fuzzy inside. Quickly shoving the feeling away, she straightened back up, and readjusted her thoughts back to reality.
“Maybe those drinks are getting to me more than I thought…,” she mumbled to herself, slowly stepping away from the windowsill. With a swift motion she closed the window, hoping to lock out the night and the wandering thoughts that came with it.
—
When Anne woke up the next morning, the sun was already shining through the window, making the room glow with morning light. Alarmed by the fact she had overslept, she shot up straight in bed, immediately regretting it as her vision became a little blurry from the sudden movement. Holding her head, Anne stumbled out of bed and groaned. Could this day start any worse? Suddenly, it hit her like a flash of lightning, the wedding! Juliet’s wedding was today, and she had overslept.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” Swearing in a way that would have horrified William and the whole English high society, she rushed to make herself presentable and sprinted out of her room, into the hallway. Anne could feel her heart racing from the unusual morning workout, but her body was not the only thing having trouble keeping up: not having had time to sort her thoughts and come up with some sort of plan on how to help Juliet this morning, her mind was now working overtime and spiralling out of control, trying to come up with ideas.
Anne knew that Juliet was totally capable of handling the situation by herself but still, it would definitely not hurt to have Anne, or rather April, there as backup in case something went wrong.
Anne rounded the last corner before the grand ballroom, where the ceremony would be held, came into vision. She had almost reached the doors, when she suddenly felt herself crashing into someone. William. Of all the people she could have run into, her husband was by far her least favourite option.
“Anne, just who I was looking for!” His face was unreadable, his body language stiff and cold. She took two swift steps backwards, to create some space between them. William gave her a questioning glance but didn’t comment on it.
“I really need to talk to you, right now,” He gave her a look that allowed no objection and gestured for her to follow him around the corner from where she had just come.
Anne made sure to keep her distance from him and crossed her arms in front of her chest, raising an eyebrow in anticipation. William just stood there in front of her, his hands clasped behind his back and a thoughtful look on his face. Anne rolled her eyes, she had neither the time, nor the nerves for his drama.
“If the great William Shakespeare could let me in on his brilliant thoughts, that would be great. I don’t have all day and as of yet, I haven’t mastered the art of mind-reading.” She gave him an annoyed glare.
Taken aback by his wife’s sarcasm, William dropped his hands and cleared his throat.
“Look, I don’t want to argue with you, Anne. I gave you plenty of opportunities to live out your inner writer with this play, but now is not the time for amateurs. This part of the story is kind of important, so please let me handle this.”
Slightly hurt by his careless words, Anne took a step towards him, her eyes dark with rage.
“If I were you William,” she lowered her voice before continuing. “If I were you, I would think very, very carefully about what to say next.” She glared at him as she went on. “For your information, I have no intention of watching you ruin that girl’s life. So if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to continue living out my amateur writer and do what you have repeatedly proven yourself incapable of: creating a strong and independent woman.”
With one last glare, Anne turned on her heels and left a speechless William behind.
–
Juliet had been sitting in front of her vanity for about an hour, staring at her own reflection. She was supposed to marry Frankie in less than an hour and still did not have any idea how to get out of the whole thing without causing a huge scandal for both of them.
She leaned her head on her hands and sighed. Her head was pounding painfully, and she could feel a wave of dizziness washing over her. Well, she thought, if it isn’t the consequences of my own actions. How many drinks did she have again? She couldn’t even remember. It didn’t matter anyway; Juliet was not used to drinking a lot of alcohol, so naturally her tolerance was very low. She let out another sigh. Why had she been so careless? She needed to get herself together, think clearly and get started with her plan. What even was her plan? She tried hard to think about all the ideas she previously had, but her mind kept drifting off to the last night she had spent with April.
Juliet leaned back in her chair and reviewed the night in her mind. Thankfully, it seemed like she was able to remember everything clearly, despite the number of drinks she had. A shy smile crept onto her face as she thought back to her and April sitting together. She could still feel April’s arm around her shoulders as she was comforting her. Her cheeks turned into a soft pink as she let the memory replay in her head. Her body was still tingling where April’s arm had been laying and if she was being honest, the moment had been over way too fast for her liking. She wouldn’t have minded sitting like this for hours, listening to April talk about her own life, giving out life advice and just being silly together.
“Fuck I sound like a teenager with a silly little crush,” Juliet puffed up her cheeks and let the air out again, when it dawned on her. Was this what it was? A…crush?
There had been plenty of times where she had caught herself looking for the redhead in a crowd or hoping to see her whenever she went out. But that was normal right? Friends were looking forward to seeing each other, weren’t they? Yes, but they don’t get all tingly from each other’s touch. The voice in her head had a fair point, if she was being honest with herself. But even if it was a crush, there was nothing she could do about it, after all April was married and also quite a bit older than her. Juliet sank down in her chair, unsure about what to do with this new revelation.
“Get it together girl, focus on the wedding first,” a sudden rush of determination washed over her, she shook her thoughts away and got up from the vanity, put on her dress and quickly fixed her hair. Overall, she was quite pleased with herself. As she was fixing one last strand of hair, she could not help herself but letting her thoughts wander back to April. What was she going to wear? Would she like her dress?
Juliet quickly shook her head, immediately regretting it as the room began to spin around her. Well now I’m losing it completely, she thought to herself as she held onto the wall for support.
When the room stopped moving, she slowly straightened herself back up and mentally scolded herself for her lack of focus. How was she supposed to manage the whole situation with at least some sort of grace and elegance and without making a total fool out of herself if she was so caught up in her own thoughts and feelings?
As Juliet left her room, she had come up with at least a concept of a plan. It was not great or well thought out, but it was something. She hurried down the stairs, taking two steps at a time and almost fell over her own feet. When she managed to safely arrive in front of the doors that led to the ballroom, she took a deep breath and reached out to open the doors, when she heard a familiar voice call her name.
“Jules, wait!” May ran over to her and hugged her tightly.
“I’m so happy to see you, dear! Look at you,” May stepped back to get a better look at Juliet and her dress. She gave them a smile and twirled around, making the ruffles of her dress flutter.
“Do you like it?” She beamed at May, bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet.
“Giiirl what do you think? You look amazing! Everyone’s gonna be totally speechless, believe me,” May winked at Juliet, making her chuckle. May always made it easy for her to get out of her head and forget all her problems for a moment.
“Well, thank you. But you look very beautiful yourself today, my friend.” May blushed at Juliet’s compliment but couldn’t help but smile.
“It’s an important day, I have to do it justice, don’t I?”
“Well about that important day…” she hesitated for a moment, suddenly becoming more and more nervous as her enthusiasm vanished.
“What about it? I’m sure you have a great plan like you always do,” May was still smiling, oblivious to her growing nervousness.
Biting her lip, she made a decision before her courage would leave her entirely.
“You know what, let’s just get this done with!” Juliet took May’s hand and pulled them along with her to the doors of the ballroom.
–
Anne was standing in the grand entry hall, trying to calm her furious mind, when she heard excited voices coming from the hallway leading to the ballroom. Focusing back on herself, she ignored the voices and paced up and down the hall. If she wanted to be any help to Juliet, she really had to get it together. She paused her pacing and let her gaze wander to the nearest window, which offered a beautiful view of the blooming rose garden. The sun was already high up in the sky and the flowers were softly swaying back and forth, guided by a soft summer breeze. What a life, she thought, just letting yourself sway wherever the wind takes you. She smiled softly at the thought. This could be her life, she just had to let herself be swayed and see where the wind would take her.
As the voices in the hallway grew louder, Anne turned her head and wondered who they belonged to. She took a few steps towards them and recognized May and Juliet, they were laughing about something. As she was debating whether to listen to the conversation or to retreat, she saw William approaching from the corner of her eye.
“What do you want?” She rolled her eyes at him and crossed her arms.
“Listen, I don’t know what your problem is, but I do know that you’re ruining my story.” He looked angry and Anne wondered where her once so affectionate husband had gone, for she hadn’t seen him in a very long time.
“In case you haven’t noticed,” she felt more confident than earlier and was determined to fight for what she wanted, “this is my story now, or better, it’s Juliet’s.”
“No, it’s definitely not! But you ruined it, your beloved Juliet is about to ruin everything I worked for just because she has a silly crush! Can you believe that?” His desperation was almost funny to see, but Anne was in no mood to laugh or make jokes.
“Well and why on earth would that be a bad thing?” She could feel herself growing impatient with William, this conversation really did not seem to be any more productive than the one they had had earlier that day.
William looked at her completely dumbfounded. “You don’t know?”
“What do you mean? Look, I really have to go now, can’t this wait until later-“
“She’s got a crush on you, I mean on April, so basically on you!”
Anne stared at William, not being able to comprehend what he had just said.
“Now is not the time for jokes, William.”
“It’s not a joke, trust me.”
She looked him in the eyes and could tell that he was being honest with her. Juliet had a crush on her? It took her a few moments to process the new information. No, that could just not be true, she said to herself. They had spent plenty of time together recently and she had grown quite fond of Juliet, especially after the whole Romeo drama, as she called it. But all the things they did had always been completely platonic, or at least so she had thought. As of now, she wasn’t sure what to think anymore. It was no secret that she was very fond of the brunette girl, and that she loved her dearly, as a friend. Anne couldn’t think of anyone else that she cared about as much as she did for Juliet. She thought back to the last night they had spent together, drinking, and letting themselves enjoy the moment. Sure, there had been some physical touch involved and she was the one who had initiated it. She also had to admit to herself that she had actually enjoyed it and was happy that Juliet had seemed to do so too.
That was normal for friends to do though, wasn’t it? She had absolutely no clue what to do or think of this, as her experience with romance and flirting was limited and not worth mentioning.
Sure, there was William, her husband. He was always away, never home and she could not recall the last time they had spent some quality time together, as a couple. If she was being honest with herself, they had grown apart, and had become strangers. Though, she still cared for him, just not in a romantic way anymore.
But did she think of Juliet in a romantic way? Anne shook her head, as if to emphasize her thoughts. No, absolutely not. Juliet probably didn’t either, she was just confused because of the wedding and the whole mess that came with it.
“Anne, are you alright?” William looked at her worriedly.
She had to blink a few times to get her mind back to the present, “Sure I am. Now stop this nonsense and let me finish this damn story, and don’t you dare interrupt me again!”
She shot him one last glare before storming off towards the ballroom.
William, once again left alone, could feel himself growing worried about his wife but did not dare to follow her. He sighed in defeat. She was right, this was her story now.