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“Are you surprised? You sulk around here. Pay little to no attention to anyone and sneer at the ones who even attempt to talk to you.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about. It’s a matter of self preservation. You think I enjoy having to be ‘put up’ with? What would you know about it anyway? You’re just as much of a freak, or whatever their definition of a freak is, as I am. Yet, since you’re the king of their football team they look right past it. I know you listen to all the same music I do. I know that you secretly think my clothing is kind of cool.” She slid her hands down her waist. “I have a pretty good feeling that you can’t stand most of your lemming friends and I’m also willing to bet you don’t really care what they think.”
“Oh yeah? And what makes you think I don’t care what they think? They are my friends after all.”
“Because you’re sitting at this table while your friends whisper and stare.” She threw her eyes in the direction of the team table. “If you cared so much, you wouldn’t be here at all. You’re perfectly aware of the trouble I’m going to cause you by being here right now. Still, here you are.”
She had hit the nail on the head. I didn’t care. I only cared, selfishly I admit, for my ownreputation because I was a teenager and hopelessly shallow in the matters of position within the young community. However difficult it was to keep up the false pretense of our town’s expectations of me, I knew too well, as Jules did, the load of being the town’s black sheep. I chose the former because it seemed easier.
“Truthfully Elliott Gray? I’m confident you’re as sick of this place as I am but you just quite haven’t figured out how to let it go. You’re too afraid of losing the security of your popularity that you’d rather not risk being unique and possibly opening yourself up to new and amazing things. You’re too afraid to be yourself and that’s just pathetic to me. Now, if you’ll excuse me.”
She gathered her bag and made her way toward the door leaving me stunned by the sudden turn of events. My, my, my! Who does Julia Jacobs thinks she is? I immediately stood to chase after her. I wasn’t about to give her the last word.
Outside of the cafeteria I caught her arm and pressed her back against a locker. She looked at me with shocked eyes as the electricity clung and snapped against the lockers around us. I kept my hand on her arm to help drive the point home.
“Who do you think you are passing a judgment like that on me? You don’t know me. You’ve never bothered to find out if I was the same Elliott or not. You don’t like to be judged by your appearance or actions and yet look at the massive contradiction that is you judging me by mine! I was trying to get to know you again Jules. I wanted to know more about you and not because I had ulterior motives but because I was sincerely interested in you. You should know this. This” I said gesturing with my free hand around us, “should be proof enough.”
I let go of her arm and we both relaxed from the release of the lit tension. She stared seriously into my eyes.
“I’m.....I’m sorry Elliott. You’re right. I, I did judge you unfairly.”
“Well, good,” I said, running my fingers through my hair, “and I’m sorry if I ever gave you the impression that I was anything like the idiots just beyond those doors.”
She smiled and sniffed.
“So?” I asked.
“So, I think that maybe you should call me tonight.”
“Seriously? That would be really nice.”
“Alright. Here.”
She grabbed my hand and took a pen from the inside pocket of her bag. She wrote her number on my palm then looked up at me and smiled before releasing our grip.
“If this were a movie, this would be where we break away from one another and the gooey music would be cued, but....” I said.
“But we still have like twenty minutes of lunch together? And third period next?”
I moved next to Jules at the lockers. We slid to the linoleum floor in unison.
We ate and passed back and forth simple questions like, what’s your favorite color? Things like that. We had things in common that didn’t really matter much on paper but, to me, were an indication of the things to come.
Also, we shared birthdays. I had forgotten about that. Growing up we were always aware that we’d have to plan our parties around the other until, that is, Jules no longer threw them. It didn’t seem that significant then but intimidated me now. I wondered what it meant. Feel like adding weirder to the already weird? Our birth date was February, 29th, leap year.
We talked music, food, movies, books and when they bell rang, much, much too soon, we headed for third period. Without even skin contact, I could tell her heart was lighter and that mine beat in rhythm with hers.
That night, I asked my mom if I could borrow her cell. I borrowed it all the time to talk privately in my room because Maddy had a tendency to get on the other line and eavesdrop, so my mom thought nothing of it. I picked up the phone and ran up the creaky kitchen wooden stairs to my room. My hand shook as I nervously dialed the number written on my hand. Three rings. Her dad answered.
“Hello? Jacobs’ residence.”
“Hello? Mr. Jacobs? This is Elliott Gray. May I speak with Jule, uh, Julia please?”
“Just a moment.”
The silent wait was torturous. My bouncing knee would have kept time with a hummingbird’s wings.
“Hello?”
