The Understorey, Book One of The Leaving Series (10 page)

“You torture Sawyer Tuttle, you know.”

    “No I don’t! I’ve barely
said a word to him since. I even wave to him now and again so he
knows I’m not angry at him.”
    “Even making eye contact with him is torturing
him Jules. He’s seen you in your underwear. I’m pretty sure that’s
all he ever thinks about when he’s around you.”
    “No!” She said. I could almost hear it click in
her head. “Wait. Seriously? It was so long ago. I’m sure he barely
remembers it.”
    “Trust me baby doll. He remembers.”
    “Well, crap. Should I say something to
him?”
    “No,” I laughed, “not unless you want him to
keep obsessing about you. No, the best thing for you to do is wear
a large bulky jacket to Chemistry.”
More laughing. Poor Tut. Poor, can’t wait to punch him in the face,
Tut.
    The next day, I saw Jules at lunch and we picked
up where our two hour phone conversation left off. We reminded
ourselves of all the little things we did together growing up. I
had forgotten what great partners in crime we had once been and
definitely felt closer to her again. All it took was a simple phone
call. It was like time had never passed us by.

I freaked out a little bit while waiting
until the end of the day to see her during fourth period Chemistry.
We were picking lab partners for the rest of the year that day and
at lunch she agreed to be mine.

“Dude, what’s going on with you?” Jesse asked
during third period, before the band started practicing.

He pointed to my bouncing knee and the
drumsticks nervously twirling in my hands. I stopped all movement
before I answered.

    “Oh,” I said, clearing my
throat, “nothin’.”
    “Seriously, you’ve got something going on lately
and you’re not telling me.”
    “I really don’t.”
He didn’t buy it.
    “Okay,” I said, sitting up, “but listen, you
can’t say a word to anyone about this. I’ve been talking to
Jules...Julia lately and she’s skittish. I don’t want to scare her
off.”
    “Awww man! Elliott!”
All heads turned our way.
    “Shhhhh! Keep your voice down.”
    “Elliott, you can’t go out with Julia Jacobs,”
he whispered.
    “I can do whatever I want Jesse.”
He got unusually serious for a moment and his face and voice grew
menacing.
    “You’d be smart to stay away from her Elliott.
Trust me, you’d be the smartest person in the world to stay away
from her.”
    “Whatever Jesse. That’s enough ordering me
around. Class is about to start.”

I tried to pass off what Jesse said but it
really rubbed me the wrong way. It wasn’t so much what he said, but
how he said it that gave me the willies. I decided to ignore it. I
had better things to think about, like Jules’ hair and skin.

After rocking it out for an hour and a half.
I thought about changing my sweaty t-shirt but was too excited to
see Jules. My hair even stuck to the back of my neck, I was so
sticky with sweat.

    I threw my book bag onto
my shoulder, stuck my sticks in the back pockets of my jeans and
hauled over to Mr. Belkin’s Chemistry class. I sat at the lab table
in the back with my little friend Sawyer Tuttle. I say little, but
the guy was at least six foot two with a broad chest that could
probably take a few punches, darn it.

Jules wasn’t there yet so I took my sticks
out of the back of my jeans to play with on the lab table while I
waited for her to walk in. I really got into whatever it was I was
playing because when she strolled in Tut had to shove at one of my
elbows, causing me to drop one of my sticks, to get my attention
that she was there and not because he thought Jules and I were
talking. I’m pretty sure he didn’t have a clue that Jules and I
were talking. It was because she was drop dead and that didn’t
escape even one of the guys’ attention in that room.

No one wanted anything to do with her but
they could not disagree that she was the most beautiful girl in
that school. I knew. They all knew. Hell, she was the most
beautiful girl in the entire world. It kind of infuriated me that
Sawyer Tuttle noticed her; that all or any of the guys noticed her,
really. It infuriated me even more that Tut thought I’d want to be
one to delve into whatever private thoughts he was having about
her.

    I don’t know what got into
me but I stood up, leaving the stick on the floor, eyed Tut like a
dog eyes a piece of meat and walked right up to Jules. Placing my
hand at the small of her back, I leaned into her ear, breathing in
the scent of her hair.
    “You haven’t changed your mind have you?” I
whispered.
    “No, Elliott. When Mr. Belkin asks me who my lab
partner will be I’ll be sure to say your name. Now sit down and
stop being mean to Sawyer, despite our
history
he’s still
one of the few here who treats me nicely.”

She smiled and lightly tapped me twice on the
face sending a short burst of sparks cascading from my cheek. I
just stared into her eyes with a huge grin on my face. She was
original, my Jules. Original and too smart, for
my
own
good.

    “Sit down Mr. Gray,” Mr.
Belkin said beneath his reading glasses.
I walked back to my seat and Tut’s mouth matched his eyes, wide and
in disbelief.
    “Are you going out with Julia Jacobs?” He asked
bluntly.
    “No.”
He relaxed in his stool.
    “Not
yet
, anyway” I threw out so his body
language could grow back the tension I wanted it to be at.

The bell rang and Mr. Belkin began taking
roll. When he was done, he went down the line of lab tables and
asked each student who they’d like their lab partner to be. When he
got to Jules, I straightened up in my stool, crossed my arms and
winked at Tut. He smiled the most insincere smile I’d ever seen and
I could almost hear the curses in his head.

    “Julia Jacobs?”
    “Yes, Mr. Belkin?”
    “Who is to be your lab partner?”
    “Elliott Gray, Mr. Belkin.”
    “See ya’ around Tut,” I gloated.

I joined Jules at her table and she shot a
look of disapproval my way. I just stared ahead, knowing well what
I’d done but not caring. When he finished pairing everyone up, Tut
got stuck with Robby Banden, sucker. Mr. Belkin explained the lab
we were doing that day and gave us a few minutes to prep.

    “What’s up with you?” I
asked.
    “You forget Elliott Gray. I can feel everything
that you feel without touching you, if the feeling’s strong
enough.”
    “Oh,” I said, embarrassed, “the anger I felt for
Tut you must have been feeling toward me and I couldn’t tell the
difference.”
Have to figure out how to differentiate the sensations
, I
told myself.

She touched my arm, “I can tell you’re sorry,
so I’ll drop it.”
Wow, this is going to work out really well
, I thought.

“Though I don’t deserve it,” I said, “I’m
glad you chose me today.”

“I’d have chosen you even if you had
clobbered him onto the ground. It’s just jealousy Elliott. You
don’t think I feel it for you when any one of these girls here
looks at you? It’s only natural. Just don’t let it bother you. I’m
interested in you and you alone.”

“Julia Jacobs!” I shouted in a whisper. “I
believe you’ve just stolen my heart. God! Why do you have to be
such a firework?”

“That’s an incredibly astute question,” she
said, eyeing me slyfully.

I peered back over my shoulder at Tut.

“Tut seems to be kind of mad himself. Why do
you think that is Jules?”

“Elliott.”

“What if I brushed your hair from your
shoulder? Do you think that would anger him more?”

I brushed a long strand of hair off her
shoulder and stared deeply into her eyes, trying really hard not to
look back at Tut.
    “I don’t like cruelty,” she said.
    “It doesn’t
feel
like you don’t like my
brand of cruelty.”
She let a smile slip through.
    “I don’t deny that I like it when you touch me,”
she said. Butterflies rustled in my stomach.   
“But,” she continued, “not at the expense of others.”
    “But Jules, had you not thought that my touching
you might help Tut get over you?”
I let the back of my index finger trail tiny zaps down her jaw
line. She grabbed my hand and put it onto the lab table.
    “In this class, you will not encourage Sawyer’s
hurt.”
    “I understand,” I said, suddenly ashamed of my
cruel behavior. “You know Jules? You do strange things to me. I’ve
had little to no control of some of the smallest emotions. For
instance, this jealousy I feel over Tut?” I leaned into her ear.
“It makes me want to kiss you in front of everyone in here. Just so
they’ll know that I belong to you and you belong to me.”
    “Well, as much fun as that would be,” she said
grabbing my face and turning it toward our solution filled flask,
“we have work to do.”
We both smiled flirtatiously then focused on the task at hand with
only the occasional teasing remark.

When Chemistry was over, I walked her to her
car. The five minute walk was inspiring, to say the least. Images
of students slurred around us, but we were the only ones that
mattered. I hesitated for the first minute but eventually grabbed
her hand in mine. The instant our hands connected, a pyrotechnic
shower of light and heat cascaded over our heads before spilling
onto the concrete. It was beautiful and I knew exactly what it was.
It was the happiness we felt, together, and it reflected in the
sparkled bits of electricity that fell at our feet.

“You make me feel like I’m flying Jules.”

“You make me feel like I’m falling Gray. The
good kind. The ‘tip of the roller coaster before it plummets’
kind,” she said.

I could feel in my gut that she wanted me to
ask myself over to her house but I didn’t give myself the
opportunity. I needed to drag out the week so she’d feel obligated
to come to my football game Friday. Something Jules
never
did. Also, the next day, I was determined to take her to Thatcher’s
and that was going to be a task in and of itself. I peeled my hand
away from the pleasant thrumming, seriously thought about grabbing
her hand again, but willed myself away.

    “Bye Jules! See you
tomorrow,” I shouted as I ran off.
    “Bye,” she said quietly, confused and waving her
beautiful hand my way.

I ran as fast as I could to my truck in the
other lot, leaving ribboned trails of Jules’ and my shared
electricity behind me. Fireworks shot from my chest and hands,
visible to only myself. I smoothly dodged around the crowded
hallway of students and objects, dusting them with glimmering
powdery dust. I never felt alive as I did in that moment, like I
had sat in an emotionless body until I saw Jules that first day of
school. Emotions pre-Jules barely registered in my thoughts. I let
the light permeate the wind around me, raising effervescent fingers
to the air, dropping shiny sparks of magnetic tensions and watched
as they fizzled at the ground.

    The drive home felt
bittersweet. The electricity was fading without Jules around. I
drove home to The Future Cast’s ‘Lovers March’ and blared the song
out open windows, belting each word. I was a fool and loved every
minute of it. I got home a little sooner than I usually did, ran up
the hill to the house, and burst through our kitchen door,
startling my mother.
    “Elliott! What’s gotten into you son?”
    “Sorry mama,” I said sheepishly, cautiously
closing the door behind me. “I had a really good day at school
today.”
    “Oh really? Fix that little problem?”
She stood at the stove, one hand on her hip, stirring something in
a pot.
    “Yes ma’am,” I said, kissing her cheek and
grabbing an apple before heading up the creaky stairs to my
room.

I purposely took my ‘non-squeak’ path, as I
called it, carefully choosing the random spots on the random steps
that avoided sound. It took me years to figure out the combination
and I got a kick out of knowing it by heart. Maddy bothered me
incessantly about teaching it to her but my dad said it was good
for her not to know for fear a seventeen year old version of Maddy
would use it for dubious purposes.

“Got a lot of homework ma’. Just call me for
dinner.”

    “Okay baby!”
    “What’s his problem?” I heard Maddy ask on my
way up.
    “He’s just happy, child. You should try it
sometime,” I heard my mom answer as I shut my door behind me. I
looked down at my mom’s cell phone in my hand.
    The phone rang a couple of times before Jules
answered.
    “Hello Elliott Gray.”
    “Hey Jules. How did you?”
    “Because I just knew.”
    “Cool.”
    “Why did you just run off earlier?” She
asked.
    “Because I don’t want to bug you Jules.”
    “Oh,” she laughed, “Sometimes I don’t mind being
bugged.”
    “Really?” I asked surprised. “What a complete
one eighty you’ve done on me from the beginning of the week Jacobs.
I don’t know what’s gotten into you but I like it.”

“Well, I’ve decided that you’re worth
dropping my defenses for. Consider yourself lucky because I’ve
never done that for anyone at Bluefield, except for maybe
Sawyer.”

“I consider myself very lucky babe, but not
because you’ve dropped your defenses.”

After another two hour conversation of
talking about absolutely nothing yet everything that seemed
important I had to let her go.

“Jules, I gotta’ go.”

“I know, me too. That’s okay. We’ve got
tomorrow.”

“Alright, see you tomorrow.”

“Bye Elliott.”

“Bye Jules.......Oh, Jules?”

I waited for a while but no answer.
    “Shoot. She hung up.”
    “No, I didn’t.”
    “Why didn’t you answer me then?”
    “Because I was waiting for you to say whatever
it was you were going to say.......So?”
    “I forgot now.”
We both laughed.
    “Bye Jules.”
    “Bye forgetful.”

I hung up the phone and swiveled my chair
toward my bedroom door. Smiling at how things can change so quickly
in such a short period of time. I didn’t forget what I was going to
ask her. I just decided it’d be better if it waited until the next
day.