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“Bye Tut.”
He frowns but I can’t tell if he’s angry, hurt, or playing around. Either way I don’t have time for it because I’ve been gone half an hour for a simple bell pepper and my mom is going to flip when I walk through the door. Her dish will be ruined now. Yikes.
The next day, I spot Elliott on my street after school. While passing my living room window I am pulled back into my previous step. Elliott Gray is standing in Ezra Colston’s yard just staring in my direction. I hit the floor like a soldier and belly crawl to the window, peeling two blades of the shutter open. Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness. Wait, chill Julia. I lean into the window. What is he doing? Does he even know Ezra? I pause, noticing Elliott in all his glory. My God he is a fine specimen. Hooah! He wore a pair of faded jeans and a long sleeved black t-shirt with the sleeves pushed up. The wind picked up his hair and dragged it across his perfect face. He ran both his hands through his hair to control it and the muscles in his forearms flexed, sending me into a frenzy. Jeez. Get a grip Julia.
Elliott turned toward the Colston's front door. Ezra Colston got into an auto accident his senior year and broke his back. He barely finished high school and has been confined to a wheel chair for the past two years. His friends used to come around a lot but when they all went their separate ways to college, Ezra was sort of left on his own. He attends classes at the local community college and plans on transferring to university as soon as his lengthy rehabilitation is over. He can’t live on his own right now because of it and is forced to bide his time at home until then. At first, Ezra was sort of lonely I think, but then last year nineteen year old Delphine moved across the street and now I’m not so sure he regrets living at home.
He loves her. She loves him. But she’s stupid and won’t take a chance, too scared to let him make the first move. Dunce.
Hypocrite.
What? Who said that?
I visit Ezra once a week but he’s never mentioned Elliott to me. I start to think he’s using Ezra as an excuse to see me but when Ezra opens his door Elliott hugs him and they do this secret handshake thing that makes me think otherwise. Hmm. They stand on his porch and joke and laugh for what seems like forever.
Ezra points my direction and Elliott drags his hand back down which sends a secret thrill through me, though I'd never say it out loud. Ezra starts laughing and Elliott jokingly wheels Ezra’s chair into the house. You surprise me Elliott Gray. I still suspect that Elliott is using Ezra for information despite their obvious friendship and decide to wait him out but I fall asleep on my mom’s stiff sofa instead. My dad wakes me for dinner.
“What are you doing sweetheart?”
“I’m on a stake out.”
“Oh, okay,” he says, comfortable with my idiosyncrasies.
I gaze out the window and Elliott’s truck is still there. Huh. I decide I’m going to go to Ezra’s after dinner only if Elliott’s out of there. I stuff my face much to the dismay of my mother and run back to the window to see Elliott’s truck gone. Yes! And no? Get it together Julia. I dash out the front door and march up Ezra’s porch.
I pound on the frame of the screen door, “Ezra! Open up Ez!”
“What the bloody heck are you doing creature?”
Ezra’s like the brother I never had. I annoy him, he annoys me, but we'd do anything for each other.
“Why was Elliott Gray at your house all afternoon?”
“Because he’s my friend,” he says, a small smile twists up the side of his mouth.
“How come I’ve never seen him here before?”
“Maybe because you’re blind? I don’t know. He comes here like twice a week Julia. We hang out and stuff. He’s cool. Why? You like him?” An eyebrow raised.
Immediately, I’m on the defensive, “No!”
“Doesn’t appear that way to me girly. You’re all flustered and red in the face. Looks like you’re ready to huff and puff and blow my house down.”
“Ezra Colston! What are you talking about?”
“Go home, look in the mirror Julia. You’re smitten with Elliott Gray. Boy, that is hilarious. Never thought I’d see the day that Julia Jacobs was a smitten kitten! Kind of always pegged you for a panther myself but heck I’ve been wrong before.”
“I am not! I am not as you say a smitten kitten! I’m.....I’m....” Doing a fantastic job of defending myself?
“Alright Julia, whatever you say,” he says closing the door.
I heard him chuckling through it and marched myself back over to my parents’ home. I stop in the foyer and glance in the mirror. Darn. He’s right. I am a smitten kitten. Can makeup fix this?
Thursday proves rather difficult at school. Now that Sawyer is on to me he’s paying very close attention to everything I do.
Friday rolls around and to be perfectly honest, I was exhausted. Between avoiding Elliott, wanting to find Elliott, wanting Elliott to find me, avoiding Sawyer, listening to Ezra taunt me about how Elliott and I are sitting in a supposed tree, school, homework, and parents I’ve had enough. I’m glad to have the week over with and plan a visit to Koan’s, my favorite indie book store in Charleston. I want to load up on books and camp in my room until school starts back up the following Monday; a little mini-vacay from my impossible life. No more Elliott. No more obsessing.
Koan’s is amazing. Only the hippest cats in town know about it. Okay, that’s sort of a stupid thing to say about a bookstore but let’s just say it’s off the beaten path. I head in and inhale the sharp smells of fresh ink. The earthy smell of paper permeates the air around me and I close my eyes for just a moment enjoying the temporary escape. I greedily finger the display piles and run my palms over the covers. If I were wealthy, I’d swim in a pile of books. I wouldn’t even mind the paper cuts. Nothing like them in the entire world, books that is, not paper cuts. They truly are like nothing in the entire world; that’s not necessarily true but you get what I mean.
