Last-Minute Juliet
()
About this ebook
When the girl playing Juliet in a student production of 'Romeo & Juliet' takes ill on opening night, a male crew member who knows everyone's lines is pressed into service to fill her shoes (and dress). When everyone starts treating him nicer as a girl, he wonders if this is what he wanted all along.
Related to Last-Minute Juliet
Related ebooks
Lee Hacklyn Private Investigator in High Marx: Lee Hacklyn, #1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThomas Destiny Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNo Doubt in My Mind Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Filthy Truth Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/536 Week Jam Session Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Hood King Stole My Heart: A Chocolate City Young Love Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMake Me Want It: Diva Diaries, #1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Red Velvet Box Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPerspective: The Portrayal of Artist Esther Joy White Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsReconstructing Charlie Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsQuake: In Real Time, #1 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5In a Lifetime Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Voodoo Doll - A Psychological Horror Suspense Short Story: Lisa's Dark Gripping Short Tales, #13 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5An Extraordinarily Ordinary Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhy Did I Have to Wear White Today Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRun, Run, Run Away ~ The Ivy Chronicles: 1 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Confidentially Yours #2: Vanessa's Fashion Face-Off Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ultimate Temptations Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Birthright Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Night Owls and Summer Skies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Coming of Age Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCenter of Gravity Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEar-Witness: A Jessica March Mystery Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLove At The Wrong Time Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Killer Within Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Necromancer: A Novella Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A Dream Worthy of the Risk Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLimelight: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Deadly Infatuation Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDealing with Demons Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Romance For You
The Rosie Effect: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Heart Bones: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ugly Love: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All Your Perfects: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My Favorite Half-Night Stand Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5November 9: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Before We Were Strangers: A Love Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Finding Perfect: A Novella Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Confess: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Josh and Hazel's Guide to Not Dating Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hopeless Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Without Merit: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5It Starts with Us: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Maybe Not: A Novella Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Buzz Books 2023: Spring/Summer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Chased by Moonlight Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Maybe Now: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stone Heart Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Something Borrowed: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dating You / Hating You Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Under the Roses Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Wuthering Heights Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Bossy: An Erotic Workplace Diary Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Tess of the d'Urbervilles Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Swear on This Life: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Roomies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Second Glance: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Seven Sisters: Book One Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Kingdom of Dreams Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Little Shop of Hidden Treasures: a joyful and heart-warming novel you won't want to miss Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Last-Minute Juliet
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Last-Minute Juliet - Tunnels Magee
Last-Minute Juliet
By Tunnels Magee
tunnelsmageee@gmail.com
©2016 Tunnels Magee
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
OK, we’ve all pranced around the house in our sister’s underwear when we had the house to ourselves; that goes without saying. But this was much bigger than that. From such modest beginnings I found myself on a slippery slope and now I was a boy in a girls’ room looking in the mirror. And Juliet was looking back at me. Yes that Juliet. I was wearing a dress from the 16th century, my face was made up, my hair was done up, and I was actually kind of hot. Going back and forth behind me were teen girls in various stages of dress, which they probably wouldn’t be if they knew I was a boy. So far I had fooled the cast, and in ten minutes I’d have to fool the whole audience. This wasn’t how I planned my day. When I woke up that morning I was planning on doing manly things. I was going to deliver the newspapers on my route, then maybe play some street hockey.
How did things go so terribly off the rails?
It’s a funny story actually.
Even before this, I had been leading a double life in the summer of ’76. Mornings were spent delivering newspapers. Afternoons were spent at the local community center for a teen theater workshop.
The paperboy life and the theater life were two totally different things. The sun would be rising and us paperboys would meet in a garage in our neighborhood to pick up our papers. If the truck was late, we’d have to hang out and wait for it. We were all boys, and it was rough. Lots of body checks, rough housing and tough talk. If I complained they’d say I was gay or worse. There was fighting and cursing and smoking. My mom thought it would be good for me to have a job to make extra money, but she had no idea what kind of dick heads I worked with. I really didn’t enjoy the constant pressure to be a tough guy, I just wanted to get my papers and go.
One day I had accidentally bumped into Frankie, the branch douche bag. I said sorry but he pushed me back real hard. Watch it, bitch!
I said I was sorry,
I said.
He repeated me in an exaggerated whiny voice, I said I was sorry.
I tried to walk away but he pushed me again. Where you going, Turdy?
I should point out my name is Terry, but he called me Turdy to piss me off. And it worked because I pivoted and pushed him back, and soon a small circle of boys was crowding around us.
Just when I thought I was about to get pummeled, a car pulled up, scattering the boys. The branch manager got out of the car. He was middle-aged, had a comb-over and had the unenviable job of keeping testosterone-driven adolescents focused on delivering newspapers.
Knock it off,
he said, getting between us. Just deliver your papers and stop torturing one another.
My best friend Brian was a paperboy too. He approached when the dust settled. You were good back there,
he said as we both got on our bikes.
I hate this constant tough-guy act,
I complained.
He’s a dick,
he said to console me.
In the theater group, we all get along, there’s no competition to be the biggest dick,
I said.
Yeah,
he said, I wouldn’t go mentioning to the other paperboys about your theater group.
And he was right; I had commemorative T-shirts for every play I had been in or worked on, yet I couldn’t wear them to pick up the papers. If the decal on your T-shirt wasn’t suitably manly (trucks, baseball players), you were deemed queer.
Before splitting paths to our respective routes, he asked if I’d be by for dinner at his house.
Your sister’s taking me to play practice,
I reminded him.
Since Brian and I were best friends this was a common thing. He’d often have dinner at my house and on days I had theater I usually had dinner at his house. Afterward we’d watch TV in his bedroom while waiting for his sister Kara to take me to theater.
Row homes in Philly are pretty tightly packed. I had 60 papers to deliver every morning but it wasn’t a lot of ground to cover. I’d lock my bike up to a pole and divide the papers. I would leave 30 with my bike, then I’d go up and down the street delivering the other half. Then I’d put the other 30 in my bag and deliver them on the next block. A little old lady named Mrs. Johnson always met me at her door and chatted with me. She tipped me best and not-so-coincidentally she got the best service.
On a sunny day it wasn’t a bad job. The only downside was the jerks at the distribution point.
When I got home, I took my bike into the basement and went upstairs to see my mom packing her lunch for work. She was in her 30s, and I thought very pretty, but what did I know, I was her son. We were about the same height but