Stupid.
Julez is quiet for much longer than I‘ve heard him manage since I met him, and I glance up to find him gawking at me.
“Do I have something on my face?” I wipe at my mouth, feeling horrified as he just continues to watch me.
“Julez!” I hiss, and that seems to snap him out of it.
“Oh, no, sorry,” he chuckles, but it sounds forced. “You just caught me off guard, is all.”
“What?”
“You better eat so we can get going. This school is big. If you want a chance to see it all, we need to get moving, or we’ll miss dinner.”
He'd better be joking.
He wasn’t joking.
We’ve been walking around for hours now, and I feel like all I’ve really seen are classrooms, a few different types of gyms that Julez said were specialized, and the lounges, which I guess are for studying, though his air quotes make me think it might be used often for other things.
Note to self: don’t go there.
Though the one thing I can appreciate is nature. Why every building needs to be its own instead of connected, I have no idea, but the paths are winding and beautiful. There are flowers just about everywhere, but a few strategically placed clearings with benches or picnic tables offer a chance to study or eat outside.
There are trees, some bearing fruit, some just there to offer shade. Julez pulls an apple off one as we pass and bites into it. The juice drips down his chin before he tosses it to me with a smirk.
“It’s always best when it’s fresh,” he said, and damn it, I had to try.
He made it look so good, so I spun the apple around and took a bite from the back, and I’ll be damned if it really wasn't the best apple I’d ever had.
I always wanted to go to one of those places where you pick your own apples, but if we went with Mom and Dad, I can’t remember, and anything with Auntie was out of the question.
I may have finished the rest of the apple, unfazed that a practically would-be stranger took a bite out of it.
Great, now I’ve got cooties.
I look at Julez as he strides down the path, like he owns it, and heads turn.
Cooties might be the best-case scenario; something tells me he’s more than a little friendly with a few more people than I can imagine, if the way they look at him says anything.
Or maybe I’m wrong; who knows.
“Stop overthinking it. I can hear your brain smoking from here, Pookie. We’re friends, and friends can share an apple.” He smirks back at me over his shoulder, and I chuck the core at him, making him laugh, and I join in.
Being here is so different, so freeing in a way I never knew was possible.
I can’t ever go back.
We turn the corner, and I freeze in my tracks as the most beautiful tree I’ve ever seen sits in the middle of the path that splits to go around it.
“Wow…”
“Yeah, it’s pretty amazing, huh?” I feel Julez stop beside me, but I can’t bring myself to look away.
I’ve never seen anything like it before.
“It’s wisteria.”
“I didn’t know trees could be this color,” I tell him honestly, making him chuckle.
