“Sit down Mr. Gray,” Mr. Belkin said beneath his reading glasses.
I walked back to my seat and Tut’s mouth matched his eyes, wide and in disbelief.
“Are you going out with Julia Jacobs?” He asked bluntly.
“No.”
He relaxed in his stool.
“Not yet, anyway” I threw out so his body language could grow back the tension I wanted it to be at.
The bell rang and Mr. Belkin began taking roll. When he was done, he went down the line of lab tables and asked each student who they’d like their lab partner to be. When he got to Jules, I straightened up in my stool, crossed my arms and winked at Tut. He smiled the most insincere smile I’d ever seen and I could almost hear the curses in his head.
“Julia Jacobs?”
“Yes, Mr. Belkin?”
“Who is to be your lab partner?”
“Elliott Gray, Mr. Belkin.”
“See ya’ around Tut,” I gloated.
I joined Jules at her table and she shot a look of disapproval my way. I just stared ahead, knowing well what I’d done but not caring. When he finished pairing everyone up, Tut got stuck with Robby Banden, sucker. Mr. Belkin explained the lab we were doing that day and gave us a few minutes to prep.
“What’s up with you?” I asked.
“You forget Elliott Gray. I can feel everything that you feel without touching you, if the feeling’s strong enough.”
“Oh,” I said, embarrassed, “the anger I felt for Tut you must have been feeling toward me and I couldn’t tell the difference.”
Have to figure out how to differentiate the sensations, I told myself.
She touched my arm, “I can tell you’re sorry, so I’ll drop it.”
Wow, this is going to work out really well, I thought.
“Though I don’t deserve it,” I said, “I’m glad you chose me today.”
“I’d have chosen you even if you had clobbered him onto the ground. It’s just jealousy Elliott. You don’t think I feel it for you when any one of these girls here looks at you? It’s only natural. Just don’t let it bother you. I’m interested in you and you alone.”
“Julia Jacobs!” I shouted in a whisper. “I believe you’ve just stolen my heart. God! Why do you have to be such a firework?”
“That’s an incredibly astute question,” she said, eyeing me slyfully.
I peered back over my shoulder at Tut.
“Tut seems to be kind of mad himself. Why do you think that is Jules?”
“Elliott.”
“What if I brushed your hair from your shoulder? Do you think that would anger him more?”
I brushed a long strand of hair off her shoulder and stared deeply into her eyes, trying really hard not to look back at Tut.
“I don’t like cruelty,” she said.
“It doesn’t feel like you don’t like my brand of cruelty.”
She let a smile slip through.
“I don’t deny that I like it when you touch me,” she said. Butterflies rustled in my stomach. “But,” she continued, “not at the expense of others.”
“But Jules, had you not thought that my touching you might help Tut get over you?”
I let the back of my index finger trail tiny zaps down her jaw line. She grabbed my hand and put it onto the lab table.
“In this class, you will not encourage Sawyer’s hurt.”
“I understand,” I said, suddenly ashamed of my cruel behavior. “You know Jules? You do strange things to me. I’ve had little to no control of some of the smallest emotions. For instance, this jealousy I feel over Tut?” I leaned into her ear. “It makes me want to kiss you in front of everyone in here. Just so they’ll know that I belong to you and you belong to me.”
“Well, as much fun as that would be,” she said grabbing my face and turning it toward our solution filled flask, “we have work to do.”
We both smiled flirtatiously then focused on the task at hand with only the occasional teasing remark.
When Chemistry was over, I walked her to her car. The five minute walk was inspiring, to say the least. Images of students slurred around us, but we were the only ones that mattered. I hesitated for the first minute but eventually grabbed her hand in mine. The instant our hands connected, a pyrotechnic shower of light and heat cascaded over our heads before spilling onto the concrete. It was beautiful and I knew exactly what it was. It was the happiness we felt, together, and it reflected in the sparkled bits of electricity that fell at our feet.
“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.