I focused on counting to lull myself into boredom so deep that I would fall asleep. I had cleared three thousand before my eyes began to grow heavy. I fought the panicking thoughts of Stina, Jay, and Shakespeare from pulling me from my stupor. I only realized I had fallen asleep when my mind stirred back to consciousness. The awareness was soon replaced with disappointment. The cushions of my couch cradled me, and distant sirens filled the darkness of my apartment. I glanced to the kitchen to see the glowing green numbers announce the time as 10:15 pm. I had successfully fallen asleep, but it appeared my tunnel to the past had collapsed.

My hands lifted to my head as I panicked at what my next steps would be. How could I repair the world around me? I had no copy of the play even to see what had happened. My eyes fell on my television remote in a stroke of hope. I flicked on the set and scrolled to my recently watched movies. There was Romeo and Juliet. It was not the big Hollywood production I recalled. Instead, this Romeo and Juliet was a low-budget film from the 70s. Still, it existed, which meant not all was lost.

I flicked the movie on and was met with scenes of war on the streets of Verona. It was still a captivating beginning that set up the stage for just how much hatred flowed between the families. My mind clung to the resemblance to the Romeo and Juliet I had known.

Next, we meet young Romeo lamenting over the loss of Rosalie to his cousins. I was still annoyed at his bland friends that allowed a spoiled Romeo to overindulge in his own pity. But then Juliet enters. Gone is the shrinking flower. This Juliet chides her nurse and has a suitor in a nobleman named Paris. I smiled at the flushed-out Juliet.

As if on queue, we return Romeo, but not just Romeo. Mercutio, the procurer of invitations to the ball and all-around entrancing friend, was with them. I sighed, relieved that Romeo finally has a friend that pushes him. They arrive at the ball in their masks. A flush filled my face as my heart began to flutter at the moment Romeo lays eyes on Juliet. My mind pulled to Harris as I recalled the first time I swam in the pools of his deep brown eyes.

Romeo longingly spies Rosalie, Juliet and Paris dance in flowing twirls. But then Romeo's eyes meet Juliet's eyes across the room. It was the moment everyone hopes for, charged. They were drawn to each other but were tentative in acknowledgment of their feuding families. The balcony profession of love and stolen moments of love abound scene after scene until the fraying of the sneaking around wears on them. Their love fizzles under the strain.

Romeo returns to a waiting Rosalie, who had grown regretful of her dismissal of him once he ceased his attentions to her. Meanwhile, Juliet takes the hand of the nobleman Paris. Romeo's and Juliet's romance falls victim to practicality. I buried my face in my hands as the reality sunk in, tainting every thought I could muster. The most famous story of true love was now a bland story of fleeting teen love and pragmatism.

How many hopeless romantics were lost to this new world? Stina can't be the only one. Even Harris, with his gentleman qualities and charisma, seemed lost when asked to have faith in love. Was it possible that one play could have such a cultural impact on breeding generation after generation of love? Without it, were we now in a sensible world? All of the annoying snide comments on love that I had once shot to Stina sliced into me like a million salted papercuts. What was worse, I had no way to correct all the errors I had made.

I pulled myself from the couch and flopped dejectedly to my bed. I laid there, staring at the darkened ceiling, lamenting all I had ruined. Even as I tried to focus on how I had ruined Stina's sweet romanticism and probably many more, my mind kept returning to Harris. In a cruel twist of fate, I suddenly was a hopeless romantic in a world of bitter logicality. Could I hope for fate to pull Harris and me together again? How could I dream of a happily ever after if they didn't exist anymore? I sunk deeper into my pillow in defeat and let sleep succumb me again.