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I wasn’t one hundred percent certain Taylor was involved or not. I studied her reaction to see if it still fell under her normal crazy self but couldn’t tell. If I was a betting man though, I’d probably put all my chips on the both of them. I felt an uncontrollable rage to hurt Jesse, well both of them really, but luckily for them, Jules was the deterrent.
We reached the Friday before Thanksgiving break without incident and Jules and I felt a lot better about the note by then. We figured it was just a onetime thing since the entire school, its staff and the police knew the details. We felt confident that Jesse would stifle any plans for future pranks.
Early the next morning, I sat around my kitchen table and chatted with my mom while I waited for Jules’ parents to pick me up.
“So I talked to Danny last night,” she said.
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah, he thought like we did. That whoever did this thing is done.”
They didn’t want to point fingers at Jesse and Taylor. My mom especially didn’t believe it was Jesse. He did a spot on impression of Eddie Haskell with her, if you catch my drift. I didn’t argue with any of them. I knew the truth and thought that as long as they were quiet, there would be no need to taint any smallish reputation of being decent they still had, despite the fact that it hung by a thread. Their razor sharp indecencies would cut those on their own. I’ve found it’s always better for people to discover things like that without my help. I’ve found that when I did help things along, the shock would lose its potency and water down the needed reaction.
“I hope you’re right,” I said.
“Are you excited sweetheart?”
“Huh? About what?” I asked, my mind still occupied by the idiots.
“About Mauch Chunk, Elliott. Golly baby! What else? You’ve been counting down the hours and minutes to this trip since day one.”
She laughed. It sang through the house like a clear bell and touched every heart within a hundred foot radius. It melted away all the anxiety resting in my chest. Her happiness was always so contagious.
“Of course I am! It will give me a little glimpse into college life and it better be good because I’m gonna’ be there for awhile.”
The gleam in her eye flickered for a moment and she sighed.
“Yes, you are, quite awhile.”
“I’m going to miss you mom.”
“I will too son, but sooner or later a mother has to let her boy contribute to the world in the way they were destined to. That’s life.”
I laughed, “No mom, I meant over Thanksgiving.”
“Oh,” she cleared her throat, “yeah. I’ll miss you loads son. It won’t be the same without you here. What are the plans for her aunt’s house?”
“Well, you know, sex, drugs, rock’n’roll. Debauchery.”
“Keep that tongue wagging and you’ll find yourself sitting across from your aunt Becky instead of Jules at dinner young man.”
oked at me suspiciously but decided I wasn’t the type he’d easily associate with trouble.
“Uh, Jesse Thomas,” I said reluctantly.
“Jesse Thomas? Your best friend Jesse Thomas?”
“Ex-best friend,” I corrected.
“But it could also be Taylor Williams. She hates me too. We’re just not sure which one,” Jules laughed nervously.
“Okay,” he said shaking his head, rubbing chin stubble between his thumb and forefinger. “I’ll be right back.”
Jules and I heaved ourselves onto the hood of my truck. The heat from the engine was a comfort. I made sure she sat closely so our skin would stay in contact and it’d keep me calm. It was freezing but neither of us made an attempt to go inside because our contact kept us a balmy ninety-eight point six, maybe warmer. I don’t think we wanted to hear the conversation he was having either. We remained silent, keeping a conversation within ourselves.
I tried extremely hard not to imagine Jesse sneaking into Jules’ room, slithering his way around, going through her stuff. I also tried not to think about all the different ways I’d kill him when I found out for sure that it was him. I tried not to think about what I was going to say to him at school the next day as well. I did think about avoiding him altogether and skipping school but I had to see for myself the way he acted around me, around us. I knew him well enough to recognize when he was acting shady, though Jesse 2.0 might be a little harder to decipher.
Jules squeezed my hand tightly into hers to ease my restlessness. She was reading me. It worked. I closed my eyes and let the sleepy current soften my rigid torso. I took a deep breath through my nose and nearly drowned from the heavenly delirium that was Jules’ perfume. I fought past that and could smell dark smoke, most likely from a couple miles ahead of us at the Miller’s house. They always started burning old wood from the prior winter seasons first and I could smell the burning of dormant kindling.
