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“Elliott, I thought Jesse was your best friend?” He asked, confused.
It probably was more unsettling to him that we had a game Friday and he didn’t want two of his players at odds. I didn’t feel like explaining something to him that he would just shrug off anyway, so I lied.
“Nothing. Really Coach. It’s a misunderstanding and I think we’ll be okay soon.”
I almost said for Friday’s game instead of soon but caught myself. He would have seen right through that as my way of only appeasing him. I guess it was an acceptable enough answer for him because he started down the hall toward his classroom and I followed. I had never looked forward to Mrs. Kitt’s class so much in my life. I sat in History following the sluggish tick of the second hand paying absolutely no attention to the lesson.
My thoughts turned back to the disastrous turn of events. I’ve only begun to frighten you, he had said. Acid from my stomach began to creep into my throat. I couldn’t sit there any longer. I grabbed my bag and jacket and rocketed from my desk into the hall. Coach started to protest but I had already started for my truck and wasn’t about to turn back.
I sat in the cab, shivering from the cold, wrapping my jacket closer to my body, collecting my thoughts. I thought about how I was going to handle Jesse and wondered if I was overreacting. Stop trying to find an excuse for him. He’s not the same Jesse anymore.
I wondered if I was going to tell anyone about our conversation, I wondered if they would believe me, but mostly I wondered how I was going to keep Jesse away from Jules. I still hadn’t decided what I was going to do when the bell rang.
It startled me from my dark thoughts. It startled me because it meant something to me that it had never meant before. Its shrill tone marked the end of a euphoric existence with Jules and the beginning of an uncertainty. I was scared and I never get scared because, I realized, I had never had anything worth losing before.
“Jules!” I called when I caught a glimpse of her across the hall. My hands shook at my sides.
She smiled and did this little funny dancing jig to make me laugh, not caring one bit about the pairs of eyes staring right at her. She was blissfully unaware of how effective it was, temporarily melting away the fear of my morning from my mind.
“Hi,” she flirted.
“Hi sweetheart,” I said, kissing her neck, reigning in my feelings of fear just enough not to tip her off.
“Gross,” said Taylor behind us, rolling her eyes and shrugging past us to her next class.
Of course, we ignored her. Jules and my world was an amazing one. World War III could be clamoring around us and she’d be asking me if I remembered to write down the name of that obscure Indie film we had wanted to see.
She snuck her left hand into my right jacket pocket, as she always did, and let it set there to get warm against my body. Her hands were always frozen. I dipped to get her to remove her hand so I didn’t reveal anything through touch but she thought nothing of it. We moved to the tile wall behind Mrs. Kitt’s door to let traffic through.
“What happened in Art today?” I asked, avoiding the inevitable.
My heart was beating at a million miles an hour. I breathed deeply to regulate, hoping I wouldn’t give it away. I knew I had to tell Jules what had happened but I would have paid an exorbitant amount of money in that moment not to.
“Not much,” she said, scrunching her nose.
Uh oh.
“What happened?” I asked.
“Well,” she said, “Taylor Williams.”
“Enough said.”
We both laughed.
“Exactly. How was History?” She asked innocently, asking the very question that usually deserved a mundane answer.
“Well,” I sang.
“Uh oh,” she said, repeating my previously unspoken comment.
“Jesse Thomas and I got into a fist fight.” Guess what else baby? He’s also a psychopath.
I tried to make it sound like it was not a big thing. No sense in worrying her at school
“What?!” She almost screamed.
Heads whirled our way. They would find out soon enough but I wasn’t going to be the one to tell them.
