The Understorey

“You make me feel like I’m flying Jules.”



“You make me feel like I’m falling Gray. The good kind. The ‘tip of the roller coaster before it plummets’ kind,” she said.



I could feel in my gut that she wanted me to ask myself over to her house but I didn’t give myself the opportunity. I needed to drag out the week so she’d feel obligated to come to my football game Friday. Something Jules never did. Also, the next day, I was determined to take her to Thatcher’s and that was going to be a task in and of itself. I peeled my hand away from the pleasant thrumming, seriously thought about grabbing her hand again, but willed myself away.



“Bye Jules! See you tomorrow,” I shouted as I ran off.



“Bye,” she said quietly, confused and waving her beautiful hand my way.



I ran as fast as I could to my truck in the other lot, leaving ribboned trails of Jules’ and my shared electricity behind me. Fireworks shot from my chest and hands, visible to only myself. I smoothly dodged around the crowded hallway of students and objects, dusting them with glimmering powdery dust. I never felt alive as I did in that moment, like I had sat in an emotionless body until I saw Jules that first day of school. Emotions pre-Jules barely registered in my thoughts. I let the light permeate the wind around me, raising effervescent fingers to the air, dropping shiny sparks of magnetic tensions and watched as they fizzled at the ground.



The drive home felt bittersweet. The electricity was fading without Jules around. I drove home to The Future Cast’s ‘Lovers March’ and blared the song out open windows, belting each word. I was a fool and loved every minute of it. I got home a little sooner than I usually did, ran up the hill to the house, and burst through our kitchen door, startling my mother.



“Elliott! What’s gotten into you son?”



“Sorry mama,” I said sheepishly, cautiously closing the door behind me. “I had a really good day at school today.”



“Oh really? Fix that little problem?”



She stood at the stove, one hand on her hip, stirring something in a pot.



“Yes ma’am,” I said, kissing her cheek and grabbing an apple before heading up the creaky stairs to my room.



I purposely took my ‘non-squeak’ path, as I called it, carefully choosing the random spots on the random steps that avoided sound. It took me years to figure out the combination and I got a kick out of knowing it by heart. Maddy bothered me incessantly about teaching it to her but my dad said it was good for her not to know for fear a seventeen year old version of Maddy would use it for dubious purposes.



“Got a lot of homework ma’. Just call me for dinner.”



“Okay baby!”



“What’s his problem?” I heard Maddy ask on my way up.



“He’s just happy, child. You should try it sometime,” I heard my mom answer as I shut my door behind me. I looked down at my mom’s cell phone in my hand.



The phone rang a couple of times before Jules answered.



“Hello Elliott Gray.”



“Hey Jules. How did you?”



“Because I just knew.”



“Cool.”



“Why did you just run off earlier?” She asked.



“Because I don’t want to bug you Jules.”



“Oh,” she laughed, “Sometimes I don’t mind being bugged.”



“Really?” I asked surprised. “What a complete one eighty you’ve done on me from the beginning of the week Jacobs. I don’t know what’s gotten into you but I like it.”



“Well, I’ve decided that you’re worth dropping my defenses for. Consider yourself lucky because I’ve never done that for anyone at Bluefield, except for maybe Sawyer.”



“I consider myself very lucky babe, but not because you’ve dropped your defenses.”



After another two hour conversation of talking about absolutely nothing yet everything that seemed important I had to let her go.



“Jules, I gotta’ go.”



“I know, me too. That’s okay. We’ve got tomorrow.”



“Alright, see you tomorrow.”



“Bye Elliott.”



“Bye Jules.......Oh, Jules?”



I waited for a while but no answer.



“Shoot. She hung up.”



“No, I didn’t.”



“Why didn’t you answer me then?”



“Because I was waiting for you to say whatever it was you were going to say.......So?”



“I forgot now.”



We both laughed.



“Bye Jules.”



“Bye forgetful.”



I hung up the phone and swiveled my chair toward my bedroom door. Smiling at how things can change so quickly in such a short period of time. I didn’t forget what I was going to ask her. I just decided it’d be better if it waited until the next day.



I left my room and headed down the back stairwell to the kitchen to put my mom’s phone back on her charger. I finished my homework, ate dinner, talked and laughed with my parents, even played with Maddy before I forced my tired feet up the stairs and plunged into my sheets.



“Today was a good day,” I understated. “A very good day.”



The next day, we were barely able to speak during second period because Mrs. Kitt was on to us. Mrs. Jacobs’ best friend. Enough said. When class was finally over, I nervously walked two paces behind Jules toward the door. Mrs. Kitt was watching us very closely now and we tried to act as inconspicuously as possible.



 “Stupid town and their stupid gossip. I know she’s just itchin’ to call my mom,” Jules whispered under her breath to me once we reached the end of the hall.



 “Let’s go to Thatcher’s after school, avoid prying eyes,” I said joining her side.



She stopped short and I took a step back to join her. For a long time, she hesitated.



“Please say yes. Don’t make me beg you Jules,” I pleaded with a smile.



“Okay,” she leaned in and whispered back.



I could feel her warm breath on my neck when she leaned in to my ear and shuddered at the tingle it gave me. She never knew it, but in that moment I about said ‘screw it’, but when I was close to dropping my bag and books and sweeping her into my arms to kiss her, Mrs. Kitt walked by.



“You going to lunch kids?” she asked, eyeing us gingerly.



You’ve just been saved Julia Jacobs.



We walked to lunch and entered the cafeteria doors. As the daily custom now, all eyes shot our way.



“Wanna’ sit with me and Jesse and the rest of the team? A change of pace?” I asked.



“Absolutely not,” she laughed.



“Why not? They don’t bite.”



“Yeah, but I might.”



“Oh whatever Jules. Come on. You might like them.”



“Yeah, the guys would probably be polite, but the cheerleaders won’t. They hate my guts.”



“I don’t think so Jules. You’re imagining things.”



“No, I’m not, but if you really want me to, then I will, but don’t say I didn’t warn you. Just pay attention to how Taylor Williams and her comrades act toward me.”



“What did she do?” I asked, finally feeling safe enough about us to pry.



I knew how awful Taylor Williams could be. Over the summer, she called me like fifty times to see if I wanted to go to the movies but I was about as interested in that as a cat is in his bath. She was foul. A true sociopath. She constantly gossiped, was cruel to people who she thought were beneath her and was about as intelligent as the lemming she so eloquently emulated.



“Don’t you remember that awful fight we got in to last year in art class?” She asked in disbelief.



“No,” I honestly said.



Whenever Taylor’s name was brought up around me I’d phase out, uninterested.



“Well Taylor accidentally,” she finger quoted, “poured an entire can of blue paint on the piece I was working on for my final project. It also got all over me but when I got up from my stool, dripping in paint, she started to apologize. I thought it was an accident until I saw her wink at me behind Mr. Stewart’s back and all her little followers started laughing at me.



So, of course, that’s when I snapped. I had spent over thirty hours on that painting. I started to confront her but Mr. Stewart stopped me and sent me to the Principal's office. I almost got suspended because of her.”



“Jules, I had no idea. Don’t tell me any more stories of her being mean to you. It makes my blood boil. How about this? Let’s just stay at the far end of the table with the guys, away from the girls.”



“I’m not afraid.”



“Of course you’re not Jules. I only suggested it because I was afraid for Taylor Williams.”



“You can take an interest in her well being, do you?”



“Jealous?”



“Absolutely not.”



“Your hand tells me otherwise.”



She yanked her hand away.



“Come on Jules. I have absolutely no interest in her well being whatsoever, but if you gave her a black eye, then she’d attack you in retaliation and then I’d have to punch a girl for attacking you. I’d forever be known as that jerk who punched a girl. Plus, we’d both get detention, possibly suspension. I’m just not at all eager to spend the first few days I’m getting to know you again under adult supervision.”



“Really? Hmm. Maybe you do have ulterior motives.”



“Does it feel like I have ulterior motives?”



“No.”



“Then, come on!”



I dragged her to the three rectangular tables pushed together and ten of the guys from the team made room for us. We dragged two chairs together and sat at the end cap. Taylor and her idiot followers began to roll their eyes before we even sat down and immediately all five bent in to talk about us. The guys were, at first, pretty aloof, engrossed in a story of how David, our tight end, spent the summer on the coast of North Carolina with his aunt and all the girls that inhabited the beach there. When David was finished they all sat back in their seats and finally took note of us. Really, they took note of Jules.



“Well looky here Greg,” said David, slapping Greg on the shoulder, “Gray’s got himself a lunch date. Nice of you to finally join us Gray.”



They all laughed, including us.



“Shut up David,” I playfully joked back, “at least she’s a real person, unlike the ones you probably just made up from the summer at your aunt’s.”



“Ohhhhh!” All the guys chimed at once.



“Okay. Okay, Elliott!” Said David, his hands up as if surrendering. “Obviously your love life is something we’re not allowed to talk about and you,” he pointed to all the guys at the table, “I’ve got pictures. Just wait until tomorrow. I can’t wait to see you all fall to your knees at the hotness that was those girls. Just wait!”



“Oh, we’re not together,” said Jules unexpectedly.



I couldn’t believe she said that. My mouth fell slack and I felt the heat starting to creep into my cheeks. Another “Ohhhhh!” leaked out of the guys.