6teen Fan Fiction ❯ 7teen: Pop Goes the Question ❯ Cyrano De Jonesy ( Chapter 1 )

CHAPTER ONE

Jude remained in the same state of shock, even when he arrived at the lemon the next morning. He looked as if he hadn't slept all night. “Let me guess…” teased Nikki. “Watching too many horror films again?”

Jude simply shook his head, but still didn't even blink his eyes, and Caitlin's woman's-intuition told her it had to be something to do with Starr. “She didn't break up with you did she…?”

Jude shook his head again; even Wyatt could tell that wasn't it. “I don't think that's the kind of face you get after a breakup.”

“You would know… you've been dumped so many times before.” Chuckled Jonesy, but none of us found that funny, not even Nikki. “Shutting up, now…”

“Look, Jude, just tell us. You will sooner or later anyway.” I said.

Jude drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “'Kay… well ya see, Starr and I were out last night and she kinda… sorta…” We all learned in getting ready to hear what was coming, “She… popped the question to me.”

Caitlin and I gasped.

“No way!” exclaimed Jen.

Wyatt spit his coffee.

Nikki and Jonesy were like, “What…?!”

Now we could all understand why Jude looked so out of it. “EEE…!” shrieked Caitlin “She proposed to you? That is so sweet!”

“Congratulations!” Wyatt said, but Jude just seemed more disturbed than ever. He told Starr he'd think about it, but he really didn't know what to do. He pulled his tuque over his eyes in frustration. “Uhn…! I haven't felt this twisted since the Zombites got to me, and ya know I hate talking about that.”

“Come on, Jude…” said Nikki “It's not like you're being forced into marriage.” She hinted that to Jonesy as well the way they were forced to be married, but it was fun anyway. Jude sighed again, and decided he needed some space to think. “Later…” and he skated off.

“Poor Jude…” said Wyatt “I've never seen him this upset before.”

“Can you blame him?” asked Jen “Since when does a girl propose to the guy? Not that I'm saying they can't.”

Caitlin checked her magazine and confirmed what Jen said. “Usually, when a woman proposes to a guy, the guy feels very nervous almost as if he's being stalked by an amazon.”

I looked at the magazine and concurred, being a recovering caligynephobic. At least I had Amelie. “I wouldn't mind it if she proposed to me.” I said as I gazed at a photo of her I kept in my wallet.

“Serena sometimes acts like she wants me to pop the question.” Wyatt joked. We all shared a laugh, and realized Jude just needed some encouraging, but ultimately it would be up to him.

This was starting to give Jonesy an idea. “For a small fee, I will help the poor, miserable, and depressed who are too chicken to confess their feelings to one another.”

We all blinked once. “You mean you're going to play Cyrano?” said Nikki.

“No…” her husband replied, “I'm just going to anonymously write letters, or send texts and make it look as if the person who is too shy actually wrote it.” Then he asked, “What's Cyrano, anyway…?”

Jonesy was never one for literature, so we each explained that we were talking about Cyrano de Bergerac the play. “Amelie and I went to see it once. I think I still have the program of it.”

Jonesy looked through the pamphlet, and we explained the plot of the play.

The plot was about a man named Christian who fell in love with a beautiful girl named Roxanne, but he was far too embarrassed and chicken to talk to her. So he asked his friend Cyrano, a strong duelist, but very joyful and gifted poet to write Roxanne a letter under the guise.

Cyrano was also in love with Roxanne, despite being her distant cousin, but he, himself, has a very large nose which is the reason for his own self-doubt. This doubt prevents him from expressing his love for his distant cousin, the beautiful and intellectual heiress Roxanne, as he believes that his ugliness denies him the "dream of being loved by even an ugly woman."

“Whoa!” exclaimed Jonesy, he was starting to figure that maybe he was biting off more than he could chew already, but he still wanted to go for this. “I think I'm just going to need to improvise a few things.”

Then he walked off and Jen asked Nikki, “Are you really going to let him go through with this.”

“Meh…” Nikki simply scoffed “We all know how this'll turn out.” The rest of us nodded in agreement.

…

Meanwhile, Jude was still thinking about Starr and her proposal as he worked at Stick-It. Starr even sent him a text asking if he had decided yet which only further enhanced his confusion and frustration. Jude was so distracted and lost in his thoughts that he wasn't watching what he was doing and his sleeve caught fire from the cooker.

“YA-HA-HAOW…! DUDE…!”

He ran around in circles panicking, until the emergency sprinkler doused him out. Jude was cold and drenched, but he was still feeling more nervous about the proposal. “Ah, man! What am I gonna do?”