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“I didn’t mean it that way Elliott. It’s just, well, I never once saw you participate in class last year.”
“That’s because I’m bored half the time.”
“I can see that now. You were always turning in your tests in half the time of the rest of the class. I just assumed you were turning in blanks.” She couldn’t help but laugh.
“Is that so? Had you been watching me Julia Jacobs?”
“No,” she blushed, “I, that is, I mean, I’m not gonna’ lie. You are sort of attractive,” she dug folded hands between her outstretched knees. “You were sort of hard to miss.”
“I knew it! You think I’m hot!”
Emphatically, she protested, “Trust me Elliott Gray. I never gave you a second thought until that first day so you can get over yourself!”
I laughed.
“Yeah, not just a second thought. A third, then a fourth, etc., etc.”
“You’re starting to get a little too confident for my taste.”
“Whatever Jules, I know the truth. I see it in your eyes. If you could, you’d rush me this second and plant a kiss on my face and you know it.”
If you don’t, I will, I thought.
She began to protest but I jabbed my shoulder into hers and she accepted my non-verbal apology with a smirk. I grabbed her hand and we watched the sun rise in silence. Well, accept for the static bits of electricity entangling themselves around the face of the rock beneath us but we were getting awfully used to the sight of that.
We took in the bits of lilac, pink, and crimson glittering above the treetops. Jules pressed her shoulder into mine and an intense stirring current thrummed through my torso. She sighed deeply from content and my chest rose and fell in harmony with hers. The only thought spinning through my head was how I was going to find a way to spend every waking minute with her and then, how we were going to rationalize it.
“It’s so beautiful don’t you think Elliott?” She asked, staring at the nature around her.
“Not as beautiful as you are Jules.”
I was only half-joking.
“I can’t believe you just said that,” she laughed, “What? Read a book of bad romantic one liners before you came out this morning?”
“It was bad. I admit, but as cheesy as it was Jules, it doesn’t make it any less true,” I said.
The flush started to seep up my neck and into my face.
“Well, as cheesy as it was,” she concurred, “you should know that I love cheese. In fact, it goes really well with the blush you’re wearing right now.”
She threw her shoulder deeper into mine.
“Really? You think so? I’m really bad at this, if you haven’t noticed.”
We both laughed.
“I’ve noticed,” she laughed. “What was that about my teeth being mistaken for a horse’s?”
I buried my cherry red face in my hands and groaned. I lay back on the stone and laughed. I moved my hands and looked up at a smiling Jules.
“I, uh, resort to accidental insults when I’m nervous, I guess.”
“I don’t want to admit it, but I almost died laughing when I got to my car after school. I held it in as long as I could.”
“Oh my gosh. That is so embarrassing.”
“Nah, not as embarrassing as your genetically altered vegetable comment.”
