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“See?” She laughed. “I’m not ungrateful that you came to my rescue, not at all, but I’m a little surprised. Growing up, you were so patient, I just always kind of pegged you for the ‘lover not a fighter’ sort. Well, also you do the ‘loving’ part so extraordinarily well.”
I cleared my throat and grabbed her wrist tightly, surprising her. “You know, I’ve never understood the phrase, ‘I’m a lover, not a fighter’. If you’re passionate in love why would you not equally be as passionate enough to fight for it?”
Her mouth fell wide open, “Touché baby, touché.”
That night, after Jules went home, after a lecture from both my parents, and after her parents got in from New York, Jules called me.
“Elliott?” She asked.
“Yeah, babe? What’s up?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Have you talked to Maddy today?” Her voice trickled sarcasm.
“Uh, yeah,” I laughed.
“Did she happen to mention to you anything that might have happened at church today?”
I swallowed hard.
“What happened?”
“Well, I guess Maddy’s been quite the chatterbox, a regular Ouiser Boudreaux, couldn’t wait to mention our little indiscretion to Mrs. Kitt’s daughter apparently and as you probably now suspect, Georgia Kitt spread it around like wildfire. Would you like to take a guess as to her first stop?”
“Mrs. Kitt?”
“Oh yeah and guess what else Elliott?”
“What?”
“The old Kittster called my mom.”
“I’ll kill her.”
“Yeah? Send my condolences to your mama.”
“Julia!” I heard in the background.
“Gotta’ go sweetheart. See you in, I don’t know, a year?” She laughed and hung up.
“Maddy!” I screamed, ignoring the searing pain in my lungs.
Chapter Four
Anti-Heists and Confusions
We started school that Monday with a slightly tainted reputation thanks to Maddy but Jules and I knew the truth. I wouldn’t do anything to Jules that would make her anything less than the pristine girl she was, and we didn’t care what people thought, so we sailed through the tribulation with the greatest ease, except the part where Jules was grounded for two weeks.
Every year, the seniors taking AP English, take a trip to London over spring break with Mr. Cray.
This is something both Jules and I had wanted to do even before we ‘met’ each other. We had thrown ideas back and forth throughout the weeks about how we would pay for it. Though Jules’ parents probably could have afforded to fund the entire trip and then some, Jules never asked them for the money. She assumed, like me, that she was old enough not to rely on her parents for such things.
We decided that to afford the trip we would each make something and sell the goods online. Jules noticed this ridiculously stupid bird house I had made my mom for mother’s day the previous year and insisted that would be perfect. She was going to paint canvases. So, over the two weeks she was under house arrest, I finished around thirty of those stupid birdhouses and even had time to add tiny wood details. My mom gasped every time I showed her one, so I figured they were alright.
Because Maddy felt like crap for snitching, she promised to be our go between since Jules’ mom and dad refused to let me get anywhere near Jules during her imprisonment. I sent Maddy to Jules’ house with them to have them painted. After every one she dropped off, Jules would call me and rant and rave. Side note, girls are funny. She would always send Maddy back with Polaroids of the paintings she’d completed and every single time I saw a new one I would almost fall over. The girl had talent, which was very apparent.
When we had plenty of items in stock we started placing them online. We didn’t have any luck for the first few weeks but when Jules was no longer grounded and we were able to scheme together, we had much better results. Jules had an idea to post them on this website where creatives can market their stuff.
Finally, through that, we had a couple of bites. At first, it was easier to sell the birdhouses because they weren’t as expensive as the paintings, but eventually, after the first sale, Jules’ paintings moved like hotcakes. Word of mouth had to have been the key factor there because we were doing little to no marketing. All the money we made we put into an interest bearing savings and slowly but surely after a couple of weeks had earned enough for both of our trips and a little spending cash a piece.
