The Understorey, Book One of The Leaving Series (15 page)

She’s the Julia Jacobs who forced me to
suffer my mother’s wrath by arriving late to dinner one summer
night of our fifth grade year because I
had
to help her
rescue the feral kittens underneath Mr. Westburg’s wood porch.
She’s the Julia Jacobs who helped me fix the flat in my bike’s tire
so I wouldn’t get in trouble for riding near the construction site
I was forbidden to go near off Main. She’s the Julia Jacobs who
used to sing ‘American Pie’ at the top of her lungs with me at the
pool in seventh grade and made me laugh so hard grape soda went up
my nose. She’s the Julia Jacobs who would weave fantastic tales of
adventure over a gleaming flashlight when we used to camp by the
creek.

That girl was colorfully, gorgeously,
brilliantly, and astonishingly
in love
with me. I felt it.
That’s exactly what it was. The taste of it was remarkably similar
to greatness. No, it beat greatness, to a bloody pulp. My heart
inflated like a balloon, doubling, tripling in size with each beat
when she revealed it to me, like a massive kick drum. Thump, thump,
thump. It sang to me and was the sweetest melody that had ever
touched my ears. It was beyond words, impossible to put into words.
It was something that needed to be touched, heard, smelled, tasted
to grasp its full meaning and I knew. I knew that it was mine only.
It was a flavor only I could taste and smell, a feeling only my
fingers could touch, and a song only I was meant to hear.

Unexpectedly, a choir of angels sounded. It
dawned on me. It was a feeling I sincerely shared. She probably
knew it too. I know she must have felt it as well. Now that I knew
what the love she held for me tasted like it was suddenly easy to
recognize my own distinct flavor I had for her and boy was it ever
the dominant current. I had sent it streaming through my fingers to
hers every single time I’d touched her. She must have gotten a
private kick out of my revealing more than I had intended. I was a
fool, an unbelievably happy fool.

    “Hey Jules,” I said calmly, when I finally sat
next to her in English.
I couldn’t let her touch me or look into my eyes or I’d give it
away. I suppressed the feeling as much as possible so she couldn’t
read any radiations of it either.
    “Hi darlin’.”
She tried to act as casual as possible but even without our gift I
could see through her cool facade.
    “Hey Jules?” I said seriously, turning my body
toward hers, resting my elbows on the desk and chair.
    “Yes Elliott?” She said, her head buried in
‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’.
    “I think I figured it out,” I said, and paused
for a really long time, letting her sweat it out.
She kept her nose buried but her eyes began to look for mine. She
was worried.
    “Hmm?” Her voice cracked, her eyes resettling on
the wrong page.

“I said, I think I figured out the theme I am
going to write about for Mrs. Kitt’s book report due next
month.”

“Oh,” she swallowed hard. “I think I’ve got a
theme too. What are you going to write about?”

“Oh no. I can’t say. I wouldn’t feel right
showing it to you. It’s too soon to reveal such intimate things to
one another. Don’t you think?”

“
Okay
?” She said, furrowing her
eyebrows. “You don’t have to. I
guess.”

She raised her beautiful nose from George
Orwell and turned her body toward mine.

“Why are you acting so weird?” She asked,
suspicious.

Mrs. Kitt saved me from revealing too much
when she began class.
    As we walked to lunch, I grabbed Jules’ hand and
revealed a little secret of my own but didn’t let on that I knew
that she knew.
    “What do you say I take you on a proper date
tomorrow Jules?”
    “Sh, sure babe.”
She swallowed hard from the reveal, but kept her mouth shut.

“Where?” She asked.

    “I was thinking the
Kanawha Library in Charleston to work on our
paper
and if
it’s not too late maybe dinner?”
    “That sounds perfect actually.”
    “It’s a date then.”

The rest of the school day was pretty much a
waiting game until I saw her again. I had come up with a plan to
get her to come to the game. In French, I tore a sheet of paper out
of my notepad, wrote ‘If you loved me, you’ll be there tonight’ and
folded it into quarters. I wasn’t sure if she’d get it but I had
never hoped for something so much.

After school, I met her at her locker and
while she piled books into her bag I snuck the note in its front
pocket. When she seemed to have gotten everything she needed, I
grabbed her velvety hand and we walked side by side, laughing and
joking ignoring every prying eye that shot our direction. I opened
the double doors that led to the parking lot and I noticed from the
corner of my eye an out of place group that lingered near Taylor
Williams’ car. Taylor Williams, Marisa Hartford, and Jesse Thomas.
All three were gathered around Taylor’s open driver’s side door
talking and laughing. At first, I thought it might be nothing but
when we passed by and I waved at Jesse each became quiet and went
their separate ways. Jesse nodded his hello.

“That was weird,” Jules said.

“Hmm,” was all I could reply, narrowing my
stare on Jesse.

I drove Jules home and walked her to her door
before hugging her goodbye. It wasn’t a little hug either. It was a
big bear of a hug. I squeezed the air from her lungs and lifted her
feet from the porch. I left her as breathless as if I had kissed
her. I got into my truck and turned the key, hoping she would check
her bag before seven o’clock because that’s when the game started.
I drove away with her standing bewildered at the door, staring in
my direction, her keys still in hand and her hair mussed about her
face.

    The team was required to
be at the stadium an hour before the game but I got there five
minutes late because the traffic was already horrible getting into
the stadium parking lot. It looked like at least two thousand
people from the nearby towns decided to make the game their Friday
night.
No pressure Elliott…. On all accounts.
I walked into
our locker room and saw all my gear piled into a locker with my
name printed on a piece of paper tacked to a broken
nameplate.
    “Thanks for showing up Gray,” Coach Miles said
sarcastically.
    “I’m sorry Coach. I have no excuse.”
    “Lombardi time, Gray! If you’re not fifteen
minutes early, you’re late!”
    “I know coach. I’m sorry.”
    “Well? Don’t just stand there like a bump on a
log! Get your gear on!”
    Half an hour before the game we prayed as a team
and were out on the field warming up. I tossed the ball back and
forth with the team manager. The stands were filling up and there
was still no sign of Jules. I’m not gonna’ lie, I was starting to
get pretty frustrated. I searched row by row, time after time, and
nothing. I eventually caught my parents’ eyes on the fifth row
toward the middle and we waved to each other.
Hi mom. Hi dad.
Ohhh, Yup. I see you there.
My dad deliberately and
dramatically tucked his hands inside the pockets of his sweatshirt.
Yup, I’ll keep my hands warm dad.
I nodded.
Sheesh.

We only had five minutes before the game and
I was beginning to give up on Jules coming. I was starting to feel
foolish. If she hadn’t found the note it was going to be
embarrassing picking her up for our library date the next day
because I would have had a heck of a time trying to steal it back.
I especially didn’t want to think about how embarrassing it would
be if she had found it and decided not to come.

Suddenly I wasn’t so sure of what I had felt
earlier that day. That was only a fleeting thought. My subconscious
casting shadows on the truth like a flock of birds trying to drown
out the sun. It never works. There’s never enough birds to manage
the cause, the sun always finds the earth. I knew I’d have to give
into the catch twenty-two and just come out and ask her about it
before we even traveled to Charleston the next day and I dreaded
that conversation. I was wishing I had never put the stupid note in
the bag in the first place. I thought I was being so clever. I
tried to stop thinking about it. I needed a distraction or I was
going to lose the game. I threw on my iPod and started Muse’s ‘Map
of the Problematique’. It always pumped me up before a game.

It was working. I was only starting to
refocus when I looked up and through the corner of my eye I saw
tall a girl with long dark hair floating behind the bleachers.

    “Oh my God!” I said out
loud, gulping down my shock and dropping my hands to my
side.    “Well, she definitely got my note.”
Butterflies ensued.

She was walking across the cement underneath
the bleachers and I could see her face through the gaps beneath the
seats. She finally turned onto the ramp leading into the stands and
boy did she ever prove to be the distraction I had asked for. She
wasn’t wearing
anything
close to what she had worn to school
that day. My jaw went slack and from the corner of my eye I could
see my mom following my stare. When she saw Jules she laughed at me
and shook her head but I barely noticed, too absorbed in Jules’
every step.

Her hair was down, as usual, and met her
waist but this time it was straight as corn silk, her bangs across
her forehead instead of swept to the side. At the top of the ramp
the wind caught it and blew it behind her. It brought out the
outline of her flawless face. She had done her makeup a tad bit
darker for the evening and her lips were a dark red. She had a
cashmere sweater dress on that covered almost every inch of her,
from the scoop neck that met her collarbone all the way down to her
knees but hugged her body like it was painted on. She wore her flat
brown moccasins again that met the middle of her shins. If there
were any doubts in any of the minds of the guys in the stands that
she was drop dead, this outfit would erase them all.

She kept her hands at her side until she
reached the bleachers but lifted them slightly to balance herself
as she stepped onto the first bleacher raising her hemline slightly
and making me forget where I was. It left me wondering how anyone
could dress so modestly yet be so astonishingly beautiful. It
permanently altered my definition of sexy. Once she sat, she slowly
looked across the track separating the field from the bleachers and
smiled a devilish smile.
You’re in trouble Jacobs
, I thought
and smiled back.

She blew me a kiss and my heart literally
stopped beating. I caught it, to be goofy, and tucked it into a
pretend pocket. She laughed and I pointed toward my family a little
to her right and up four rows. She smiled and nodded, stood and
walked up the bleachers toward my parents. 

Each step she took she passed by at least a
dozen classmates. I furrowed my brow and took note of all the boys
who would be joining Sawyer Tuttle on my enemies list. Tut’s name
was now on their twice.
You can close your mouth now
Tut.

My family stood and I watched as she shook my
dad’s hand and hugged both my mom and Maddy before squeezing past
them to sit next to my sister. My dad gave me a wink.
Please
don’t embarrass me dad.

    “Done ogling Julia
Jacobs?” The team manager asked me.
    “Are you?” I joked.
He just smiled and passed the ball back to me. It was time to get
my head in the game and now that I had both of my own personal
muses, that’s exactly what I did. I was preparing myself for the
win that came our team’s way.
    When the game was over, the crowd was on their
feet and celebrating our first victory. The drum line was doing
their finest and it really revved up the team and crowd. I ran off
the field over to the fence near Jules and thread my fingers
through the chain link.
    “Yoko!” I yelled at Jules.

Her back was turned to me but when she heard
my voice she turned and smiled before hopping down the stairs to
meet me. She bent to sit on her ankles, one knee resting on the
concrete and wound her fingers through the fence over mine. I
readjusted mine to rest on top of hers and kept them gripped
tightly. Our charge lit up the fence like a net of burning
ember.
    “You did well Gray!” She yelled over the
drums.
    “Thanks miss Jacobs! I’m really very glad you
came tonight!”
    “Yeah, well...........I got your note!” She
smiled letting it touch the corners of her bright eyes.
    “Oh yeah? Huh! Thought we’d need to talk about
it but I can feel it won’t be necessary!”
    “I don’t think it will Gray! I can tell you feel
the same way!”
I smiled.   
    “The
exact
same way!”

I jumped onto the concrete barrier that
separated the track from the stands and leaned my stomach against
the fence. She stood and we met face to face.

    I leaned into her ear, “I
love you Julia Jacobs.”
I felt her grin against my cheek, electrifying my face.
    “I love you Elliott Gray,” she whispered.

I pulled my face from hers and readied myself
to kiss her. We both closed our eyes but when I expected to feel
her warm lips on mine, instead, I felt a million hands pull me from
the fence and carry me off the field. I stared back at her and
shrugged my shoulders with a crooked smile. She only laughed. There
would be a time for our first kiss and if
I
had anything to
say about it that time would be very soon, like the next day.

I picked Jules up for our study session at
the library in Charleston at two o’clock. I was really nervous. I
knew her parents but never at a time that I found their daughter to
be the most handsome woman I had ever known. Sorta’ added a
pressure that hadn’t ever been there before. I tugged on my t-shirt
and wrinkled cardigan before bounding up the steps to her front
door.
I should really invest in an iron.
My eyes were tired
from the game the night before and I was forced to wear my dark
rimmed glasses again which made me incredibly self-conscious
despite Jules’ earlier rants. I rang the door bell and looked down
at my feet while I waited.
Should have cleaned my Converse
,
I thought right before her dad answered. My blood pressure spiked
to an unhealthy level when he signaled for me to step through the
door.