What would Juliet have done if Romeo had left her,
not because he was banished, but because he lost interest?
What if Rosaline had given him the time of day
and he changed his mind? What if, instead of marrying Juliet,
he'd just disappeared? I know how Juliet would have felt.
She wouldn't go back to her old life, not really. She wouldn't
ever have moved on, I'm sure of that. Even if she lived until
she was old and gray, every time she closed
her eyes, it would have been Romeo's face she saw behind
her lids. She would have accepted that eventually. I wonder if
she would have married Paris in the end, just to please
her parents, to keep the peace. Well, no, probably not.
But then, the story didn't say much about Paris. He was just a
stick figure -- a placeholder, a threat, a deadline to
force her hand. If Romeo was really gone, never coming
back, would it have mattered if Juliet had taken Paris up on
his offer? Maybe she should have tried to settle into the
leftover scraps of life that were left behind. Maybe that
would have been as close to happiness as she could get.
--New Moon. <3