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“Mom, she is not strange. She’s just different from the girls around here is all. In fact, she’s extraordinary,” I said surprisingly defensive.
“I’m sorry baby. I didn’t mean it that way. She is lovely. Boy, are you protective of her already!” She laughed. “I’ve never seen you do more than look at a girl. I only meant that it was strange to see you take a sudden interest is all.”
“He’s turning into a man Shelby!” My dad said, slapping me on the shoulder. “Aren’t ya’ boy?”
He seemed proud. I guess he felt satisfied that I wouldn’t let my grades slip and mess up my football career.
“I can’t explain it actually. I never so much as glanced at Jules before the first day of school, but something happened. I’m too afraid to even talk about it for fear you’ll think me insane,” I said.
“I don’t judge. You know that,” said my mom earnestly.
And she didn’t.
“Well, I was messin’ around before class in the hall with Jesse Thomas when I saw her floatin’ down the hallway as if on some sort of revolving belt, like a bad eighties movie. I didn’t even see her feet move mom. I half expected ‘Dream Weaver’ to belt from the ceiling speakers.”
She laughed.
“But in all seriousness,” I continued, my eyes reflecting the experience, “Her eyes met mine and it made the weight of my body feel burdensome. She scared me to death during dinner when she admitted to feeling the same thing. It was as if she had read my mind. I touched her hand in class and my hand felt like it was on fire.” I left out the fireworks and the ESP. My mom didn’t judge but she wouldn’t be above committing me. “I swear I’ve never felt, seen, heard, or even read of anything like that before. I couldn’t explain it to you fully. Not even if I tried,” I paused apprehensively, “Mom? Do you? I mean, have you ever felt anything like that before? Is it normal?”
She thought about it for a moment.
“No son, I can’t say that I have,” she looked at me strangely, “but everyone feels attraction differently, I think, honey. Your daddy and I had our own little way of knowing who we were to one another that only we could distinguish.”
o;Already we’ve got an inside joke? Don’t you think that’s a big step? Aren’t inside jokes for people with labels? We’re not even friends.”
I had only said that because of what she had said at lunch.
“We aren’t?” She asked pleadingly.
I didn’t know what I was doing. I had forgotten how to be a man.
Forget parameters, I thought to myself. Forget lunch. Tell her what you want.
“No Jules. We aren’t friends but that’s going to change, because we’re going to start dating.”
A little too forceful.
“If that’s okay with you?” I amended.
She looked pleased, but I couldn’t tell for sure.
“Elliott Gray. I’ve never met anyone like you. You’re nothing like I’d thought you’d be. How you appear to others is not what I see in your heart. You’re well liked at school, but you don’t seem to care. You’re the starting quarterback, and from what I’ve heard your phenomenal, but you don’t seem to be bothered to even talk about it. You’re an enigma.”
“Oh that,” I said, clearing my throat. “I do that for my pop. Don’t get me wrong, I like playing. I mean, it’s fun and all, but he wants me to play college and frankly I haven’t figured out a way to break it to him that I won’t be doing that.”
At that moment, Thatcher’s door opened up and let a tiny gust of wind in. The wind carried itself throughout the diner, caught Julia’s perfume and sent it through my nostrils. It assaulted me, and again, I forgot what we had been talking about. It tasted of honeysuckle and citrus and it was intoxicating. I almost shot up, snatched her hand, and dragged her from that booth. I didn’t know what I was going to do then, but I can tell you this, if the food hadn’t come to free me from the thought I would have seized her with everything I had in front of Thatcher and the whole inane town.
Thatcher tossed everything down and slumped away. It was hot so we let it cool for a moment or maybe we were just too excited to eat.
“Let me try something,” she said.
She reached out her hand, her palm facing me and waited for mine. I reached up my own hand and met it with hers. The voltaic strike punched through us but neither of us pulled away, darkening the diner around our booth. A hot heat built between our palms and our breathing got heavier and deeper as the charge trembled through us. I had to pull my hand away just to keep my sanity about me.
“That’s an amazing feeling, isn’t it?" She asked.
“It’s unfathomable,” I said.
“What is it?” She asked bluntly.
