Unsound: A Horizons Book (14 page)

The sound of the shower filled the room moments later.

“Hey… guys,” Julie stammered. Her voice was thick from the crying. I saw her cringe at the sound.

“What the hell’s going on?” I asked. The ice in my stomach melted as fire invaded my body. 

Jay smirked wider, “If you have to ask, Jon….”

“Shut up, Jay,” I snapped without looking at him.

“What the hell is going on?” I repeated, anger dripping in my voice. I was looking at Julie’s puffy eyes, even though she wouldn’t train hers on mine. Jason lost interest and went to the bathroom to shower the rain off him as well.

“It’s not what it looks like, man,” Chris said, standing up and reaching for his jeans to pull them on.

“I haven’t even started on you yet,” I said, not taking my eyes away from Julie.

She shook her head and stood, shaking her head, “I’m going.”

“The hell you are,” I said, grabbing her arm gently, “what happened? Why are you crying?”

Julie pulled away from me, not appreciating my demanding tone, “I’m not crying. I’m fine. And not that it’s any of your business Jon, but nothing happened. So back the fuck off.”

She pushed passed me and started pulling her boots on.

Chris started to walk over to her, but I blocked his path, “Julie.”

“Both of you chill. I’m fine,” she spat over her shoulder and hurried out of the cabin, running through the rain and letting the door slam behind her.

I turned to Chris, anger radiating off me.

“Dude,” Chris started, walking up to me, “what is your problem?” Chris was worried about Julie. Even through my rage I could see that but I tamped all logic down. I was too angry to think clearly.

“What’s my problem?!” I exclaimed, “What the hell did you do to her?”

“Bro, how many ways can I say this? It’s. Not. What. It. Looks. Like,” Chris said. He wasn’t backing down. Chris and I were the same height, same build. It was an even fight—if it were to come to that.

“Then what was it? Because from what I saw, you had no pants on and Julie was crying. What did you make her do?”

Chris took a moment to respond as we listened to the rain pounding on the building outside and the shower water hit tiles inside, “I didn’t make her do anything. And nothing happened. We were talking. You need to back the fuck off and drop it. It’s none of your business what happened, but her getting upset had
nothing
to do with me.”

I stared Chris down, trying to read him. He wanted to make sure she was okay. He obviously realized that I felt the same way, but he didn’t view me as the enemy. I took a few deep breaths before I backed up, “sorry, man,” I choked out, “I just… it looked bad is all. Why was she crying?”

Chris obviously wasn’t going to tell me. Maybe this was a test I put him through to get a feel for his character. As much as I wanted to know, I would have lost respect for him if he divulged one of Julie’s secrets. He didn’t get the chance to show me either way since Jason came out of the bathroom to get dressed.

“Chris! Nice work, kid,” he said with a smirk as he rummaged around for a clean pair of boxers.

“Come on, Jay, cut it out,” Chris responded. He started making his bed, anything to make us forget what we had walked in on.

I wanted to go find Julie, go see if she was okay; to see if she could open up to me the same way she did for Chris. I wanted to get rid of this jealousy I had. I wanted to punch something. But all I could do was change out of my damp clothes and climb into bed.

I guess I could add that I wanted sleep, since that was another unobtainable thing that night.

Julie

A couple weeks passed and though I didn't outwardly avoid Chris when we were together with the group, I made sure not to be alone with him either. I still couldn't believe that I broke down and told him about my stepfather. I didn't mean to, but with the weed as a catalyst, the sound of the rain must have triggered something within me.

I knew Chris was a good guy, but I wanted to make sure he would back off. I needed to build the wall back up. I wasn't ready to talk about my past and it was all I could do to re-suppress those memories of my stepfather to where they belonged, deep down in the recesses of my brain.

Chris handled my snub in stride. There was no show of anger or hurt pride. It made me feel like maybe he would be there as a friend if I needed him. I realized that he was someone who I could potentially trust, since I subconsciously already did.

I quickly found myself taking up residence in the back row of classes next to Jon. It wasn't long before I ate my meals and studied with him also. Even if Jon didn't initially sit with me in the cafeteria or the common room during study hours, somehow I would find him next to me. I couldn't tell whether I went to him or if he gravitated towards me. Either way, I couldn't complain. Being near him eased my anxiety, which helped keep the bad memories at bay.

Mindy Davies

"Hi! I'm Stacy," the bubbly little teenager greeted everyone.

"Hey there Stacy," Jason responded with a wink. I looked over at Jason, shaking my head. I couldn't hide my disgust at his girl obsession. Stacy Hatcheck had arrived earlier that day and I didn't know which part was worse, her tiny waist accentuated by her full C-cup or her gorgeous light blue eyes and perfect skin.

The girl rubbed me the wrong way. She just seemed happy; happy and excited to be here. I was thoroughly confused by her. I rolled my eyes and let them travel over to look at Jason again, whose mouth was practically on the table, staring at Stacy.

"Ugh," slipped out of my mouth in exasperation. Everyone looked at me. I just stared back, but I felt the blush starting to rise up my neck into my cheeks, "Sorry… I... realized I forgot my notebook!"

"Nice cover," Julie mumbled under her breath before announcing she would come with me.

"I need to head back to my cabin also, I forgot something too..." Jon said automatically in response to Julie, "it was nice to meet you, Stacy."

We stood up, and with some more phony apologies we quickly left for the girls’ cabin. I led the way with haste, not paying much attention to Jon tagging along again. I had gotten used to him being attached to Julie's hip. Jon took a quick look behind him as he opened the door to our cabin like a gentleman, letting us walk in first. Before entering, he took l last glance behind him to make sure no one was around to see him sneak in.

Julie sat on a vacant bed near the bathroom and opened the window before reaching into the nightstand for a cigarette. Jon sat down next to her. I paced in front of them and ignored the feel of their eyes watching me.

My mind was spinning,

"It's… practically illegal!" I began.

Jon, who had been reaching for Julie's hand to take a drag of her cigarette, stopped to look at me, a very puzzled look on his face, "um… what?"

"She's like…fourteen. And Jason is looking at her with drool foaming at the mouth. He's almost eighteen! That's just… wrong!"

"I think she's fifteen," Julie quietly interjected.

"And, Jason is still seventeen for like, six months," Jon said as he exhaled smoke.

I was ready to retort, "But then he's eighteen! And like, what is she? A midget? She's like a mutant. I've never seen anyone that tiny and proportioned like that. That's like a new breed of human girl. And what's with her? Does she need a pair of pom-poms too? So she can shake them around with her tiny self, rubbing it in how perfect and tiny she is."

"Are you done, sweetie?" Julie asked. Jon shook his head, eyes wide, trying to make sense of my rambling.

"Wait," I said, pausing to think, "yeah. I'm done."

"Well, you realize you're making up a few situations in your head. We just met Stacy three minutes ago; give her a chance. Jason is going to drool over any girl who crosses his path—and that just has to do with him being him. It doesn't even have to do with the fact that being up here doesn't exactly help out with sexual frustrations," Julie cleared her throat and tried not to glance at Jon.

"If you ask me, you just sound a little jeal—" Jon started to say.

"Don't," Julie and I said together.

"What I say?" Jon blinked once at our response.

              "There is no jealousy, Jonathan," I said quickly as I walked towards the door, "and this conversation never happened."

Julie

"What… was that?" Jon asked, watching me close the window. I turned around to find him staring at me. I ran my hand nervously through my hair.

"Listen, you may have been sitting in here like one of the girls, but you definitely aren't one of the girls, Jon."

I reached for a bottle of body spray; spraying myself before holding it up to Jon, ready to spray his shirt.

"No, I'm not sitting through classes all day smelling like you," Jon said, reaching for the spray, trying to wrestle it away from my clutches.

"Oh you make it sound like I don't smell good… like it's such a bad thing… to smell like me all day long," I choked out between giggles. I had the spray bottle above my head, as if Jon couldn't easily reach it. Before he did, I sprayed his hand a couple of times and doubled over in laughter.

"Really?" Jon said as he tickled me in retaliation. I got a few solid sprays to Jon's t-shirt before he had me on the bed. I tried to fight back as he tickled me, but was failing.

"Truce, please truce," I gasped for air through laughs.

"Okay, okay. I'm sorry, you smell great," Jon said before he leaned in, kissed my cheek and stood. He reached down and pulled me to my feet, keeping my hand in his for an extra moment. I broke eye contact as I stepped back to grab my notebook. I needed to break the physical contact. Being around Jon definitely made me nervous, which was a weird experience for me. Guys didn’t make nervous.

I turned to leave the cabin, knowing Jon would follow me, and we walked to class.

JONATHAN

We entered the cafeteria for class and I slid onto the bench next to Julie.

There was something about being with Julie that calmed me down, took away the ever-present anger I felt. Even though she was slightly distracting to have around all the time, it was an easy transition. I liked her being around and I liked being around her.

Lena was standing next to a large cart covered by a blanket. There were strange noises coming from under the cover.

"What's that, Teach?" Anthony asked.

"Everyone sit, I'll get to that in a moment," Lena started, looking around at her class, "where's Marie?" she asked.

No one answered but Lena decided to get started anyway.

"Sex," she said.

"You did it!" Jason said, "You got our attention in one syllable or less."

"Bonehead," Mindy called Jason.

"Ooh," Jason smarted, "bonehead… good one, Davies."

Mindy rolled her eyes, but a flush colored her cheeks.

"Anyway," Lena interrupted, "this will be our only class meeting this week."

"This is getting better and better," Jason said.

Lena ignored him and walked over to the cart, quickly pulling the blanket away from four bassinets.

"Where do I begin?” Lena pondered to herself, “I know all of you had sex education in your former middle and high schools. I'm sure some of you have had your own sex education," Lena added with a nervous laugh.

"Maybe not all of us," I said throwing a pen cap at Jason. Jason gave me the finger while the class snickered.

"Regardless," Lena said, "this is going to be a serious crash course. We received a donation of these infant simulators. They are not exactly living, breathing babies, but they are crying, laughing, crapping, strange little robots.

"We only got four, they're extremely expensive, so you guys really need to handle them as if they are real live human beings. This lesson isn't going to be so cut and dry. I want to show you some diversity so you can understand all walks of life."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Anthony asked warily.

"So it's 2015, right?" Lena started, "What kind of couples are there now?"

"Unhappy ones," Julie commented.

"Yeah, how many happy couples are there anymore?" Mindy chimed in, "isn't it one in two marriages that end in divorce now?"

"My parents are divorced," I added to prove her point.

"My parents are still married, happily married actually," Anthony stated.

"Good for them, but you have to admit that's a rare situation," Mindy rebutted.

"I'm not going to say that I love how jaded you guys are, but you are definitely getting my point. Anyone else? Any other familial situations you can think of?" Lena pushed us to have more conversation.

"What about gay couples," Stacy piped up with a smile, "Gay couples are able to get married now, adopt kids. And what about all the women who are having kids with a sperm sample or adopting kids on their own, without a partner."

"That's not a relationship," Mindy interjected sharply.