Chapter Thirty-Eight
Jared
Juliet brushes up against me as we’re heading down the hall to the same class. “Hi,” I say.
She blinks. “Hey.”
“You’re talking to me?”
She shrugs. “I am not as mad today.”
“I guess that’s a small achievement.”
She’s carrying the Blu-ray’s I sent her this morning.
“What are those?”
“Movies. My favorite … You wouldn’t happen to be behind this would you?”
I laugh. “Me. I didn’t even know those were your favorite movies.” It’s a white lie. I didn’t know until I talked to Adaline.
“Have you seen them?”
I shake my head. “I haven’t been able to watch movies much.” I let her enter class before me. She turns around and starts walking backward while she happily talks about the movies.
Bobby Dorn stands up and almost smacks into her, but I reach out and move Juliet before the collision happens. This causes her to falter in her story and she blushes. She tucks a piece of hair gently behind her ear and whispers, “Um, I should get back to my seat.”
Crap. That’s the end of our conversation. She’s shutting me out again. Damn Bobby!
“Okay.” I steer myself in the opposite direction of her desk and reluctantly take a seat.
An announcement comes on. “Two more weeks and the Valentine’s Day Dance is here. Get your tickets in the main office.” Some peppy voice says through the intercom system.
“Who are you going with?” Whitney giggles to Gabby.
“Well, I’m thinking Dennis is going to ask me this week. He seems to be taking my hints,” Gabby says.
I bite back my remark. I overheard Dennis in the locker room telling anyone who would listen that he’s taking Mary Parker. She’s a senior and captain of the softball team. Way hotter than Gabby too.
Whitney looks back at me. “Who are you going with?”
“Me? No one.”
“You haven’t asked Kimber yet?” Gabby gasps.
“No.” I don’t plan on it either.
Whitney looks aghast. “Why not?”
“Why would I?” I ask completely forgetting that everyone in this damn school thinks I’m dating Kimber because of her Facebook posts. I deleted my account the day after she posted she’s “in a relationship” then when someone asked who? Her response was my freaking name, yep I was done.
Gabby sneers. “You’re dating her.”
“No. I’m really not. Don’t believe everything you read on the internet.”
Whitney gasps. “But you like, kissed in the halls.”
Now I’m annoyed because no matter what I say here it will come out wrong and I will be labeled the asshole. I don’t respond to this.
English class couldn’t end any faster in my book. It’s not that I don’t like the class, I really enjoy it. I just want to have another chance to talk to Juliet.
“Can you tell me one similarity from Pride and Prejudice to today?” Mrs. Griffen says.
Juliet raises her hand. “Yes, Juliet.”
Her hand drops and her eyes lock with mine. “Pressure. What’s expected of us? I don’t think that will ever change. Parents’ usually want you to be one way. Peers expect you to be another way. It’s exhausting.”
“That is very good. Can you be a little more specific? You say how parents and peers expect things, but can you give me examples?”
“Sure. Parents usually want their children to behave, have manners, and get good grades. Some parents though, they want you to be more than you are. They push you in a direction they feel fit for you even if you hate it. Maybe there is a sibling and the one sibling is super smart but antisocial. The other is social but struggles with school. The parents push and push though. They want them both to be the same.”
She drops her gaze. “Friends are just as bad. They want you to like this person or that person. If fashion is involved they give you a bunch of crap if you wear something they don’t approve of. Instead of telling them this is you, you change in order to fit in.”
“Excellent Juliet! Your homework tonight is to find five similarities between Pride and Prejudice and with your own lives. I want it to be at least two pages long. I want to know what they are and why you feel they are similar. You may start on it now or talk quietly among yourselves.”
I get up and move over to the empty seat beside Juliet. “What are you doing?”
“My homework,” she says in a “duh” like tone.
“Do you mind if I sit here and talk to you while we do our homework then?”
She drops her pencil and rubs her temples. “Jared, this is a bad idea.”
“What is? Talking and working like we have done very well in the past, or are you talking about something else?”
She makes a noise of frustration. “You’re impossible. You know that? Like right now I would love to jam this pencil in your eye socket. At the same time, I miss your voice, so I want you to stay. But I shouldn’t want that at all because you’re just going to destroy me way worse than Mark ever did.”
I lean close are noses are inches from touching. “I’m not though. If anything, you’ll hurt me.”
“You say that now,” she whispers. Her minty breath coats my lips. “But you will.”
“I’m not giving up.”
“Shut up both of you. I’m about the pitch myself right out the window if I have to hear another sappy word come out of either of your mouths,” Chase scowls. “I’m trying to work.”
“Then work and stop listening to us,” I snap back.
Juliet shakes her head and writes something in the corner of her notebook. He found out Addy isn’t into him like he is into her. Give him a break. I nod then write underneath her note got it.
She smiles and then sighs. I hate fighting with you. She writes.
“Me too.” I could ask her to go to the dance with me, but I want to win her completely over.
We stop talking and work on our homework in silence. Well, I’m not working on homework, I’m thinking of the next three items to deliver to Juliet. The last one must be perfect. It’s gotta show her I’m serious about liking her this long. It has to show her I know her better than Mark ever did.