The Understorey, Book One of The Leaving Series (22 page)

He was a big boy, probably two hundred and
fifty pounds. He had a brief look on his face like I had it coming
and he was going to give it to me and out of nowhere charged and
tackled me to the ground. I could hear the refs blow their whistles
but it didn’t help me one bit, he had already elbowed me hard in
the face and my nose was bleeding everywhere.

I felt a little dizzy and all I could hear
was booing from my side of the stands. I turned my head and saw
Jules’ tiny frame come hurdling from the stands and she was out for
some blood of her own. I saw the balls of her feet recoil off the
edge of the track, tiny bits of dust spit from underneath the soles
of her Converse. Her stride widened with every step she took as she
sprinted across the field, her hair a blur behind her head

She was graceful, even with the reddish fury
that resided in her usually calm green eyes. Her clothes clung to
her feminine frame with the force of the wind. She swung her hands
back and forth smoothly, the backs of her forearms brushing against
her shirt. If she were anything but human, she would have been a
gazelle. I had the strongest inclination to bring myself onto my
side and rest my head on my hand just to get a better view of her
but I knew that might deter her from whatever she had planned and I
wasn’t going to miss that for anything in the world.

When she reached us, she hovered over me and
I smiled to reassure her. That must have given her some sense that
I was alright so she turned her attention to my pathetic antagonist
and reached her hands for the back of his shoulder pads and before
anyone could react she yanked him to the ground.

He more than likely dropped out of sheer
surprise, his heavy body slumping to the grass. She deftly
maneuvered around his grounded girth and placed her foot onto his
chest plate. She kept her hands calmly at her side, kept her back
straight as an arrow, tilted her head toward him and began to
quietly threaten through her teeth. The kinds of things Jules had
never thought, let alone said aloud. She had the patience and
virtues of a saint, but when it came to the important things
everyone knew not to cross her, too bad he didn’t know that.

He started to push her foot off his chest and
began to call her bluff. The referee knew that would have dire
consequences, for the boy, and pulled her off of him. She fought
uselessly to get back to the idiot. I’m guessing she had more to
say. She pointed in the boy’s direction and silently stared her
warning. It was so powerful that it peeled around him and began to
wash over all the boys on the field. She scared the living
daylights out of us, but I had never wanted to kiss her more.

When she reached the edge of the field the
referee set her down and she hopped the fence in response to
something he said but turned our direction once more. She
straightened her hair and clothing, turned toward the direction of
my truck and attractively sauntered until she was out of sight. I
was laughing so hard by then I couldn’t even stand up. Soon, the
stands joined me, forgetting our amazing last minute victory.

I finally regained enough control to trot
toward the sidelines and because my nose was bleeding, I handed
Coach my helmet and with an approving wink fled the field toward
Jules. I heard applause but I knew it was for her only. The
intensity in that girl’s heart.

I jogged across the parking lot, removing my
jersey and shoulder pads, leaving my plain white t-shirt, to a
sedately lounging Jules scattered across my hood, her back to my
windshield, one hand behind her head, the other twirling the end of
a lock of her long hair. I threw my pads and jersey to the gravel
and stopped a few feet short of the truck.

“Come here,” I said with a smile.

She melted off the hood of the truck and
carelessly strode my way. Her hips had a bit more swing than usual.
She stood about a foot in front of me, her head high with
confidence and shrugged her shoulders, a slight grin pulled at the
right corner of her mouth.

    “Well, well miss Jacobs.
Care to explain yourself?” I teased.
    “It was
impulsive
,” she said, her face
slightly blushing. She gritted her teeth to prevent the obvious
grin.
    “Oh, yeah,
impulsive
,” I winked at her.
“I have to say, I’ve never seen that side of you before. It was
tremendously
sexy.”   
    “Shut up Gray!”
Her face became an instant shade of deep pink.
    “Yeah Jules! Especially when you stepped on his
chest plate like that,” I closed my eyes and pursed my lips in
satisfaction. “Very Joan of Arc of you,” I continued, “charging in
like that, by the way. All that was missing were your brave
soldiers. I have a feeling, if the referees hadn’t torn you off
him, you would have gotten those soon enough.”
    “You must think you’re so hilarious Gray.”

She bit her lip trying to keep the smile from
her face, but she was failing. The corners of her mouth turned up
and they were too strong for her teeth to contain. Finally, she
burst into laughter and I followed suit.

    “I’m so embarrassed,” she
said. “I have no idea what your mom thinks of me now. She’s already
on edge about me as it is. My dad is going to kill me and I have
the distinct feeling I’ll be receiving the ‘lady like’ convo from
my own mom as soon as we get a moment alone.”
    “You were so cute Jules I almost kissed your
face in front of God and everyone.”
    “I’m glad you restrained yourself. At least one
of us did. I couldn’t help myself,” she said. “It was like I had no
awareness of the people around me. All I know is I saw you bleeding
and that ridiculous pinhead was responsible for it. I immediately
ran to your side but when you smiled at me all I could feel was
this rage inside me as I saw the blood stain your face. Suddenly,
it was my job to do something about it, so I did. It was
instinctual.”
    “Imagine how you felt, babe, quadruple it and
that’s how I felt about what happened at Tanen’s. Come on, before
everyone bombards you here under these scorching lights,” I said,
grabbing her hand, scooping up my pads and jersey and leading her
to the passenger side of my truck.

Everyone from our side of town decided to
switch things up a bit and piled into Babe’s restaurant in
Bluefield. Jules and I got there a little earlier, for obvious
reasons, and we sat at a long table with a million chairs.
Eventually our fellow Greenbacks, the ones I considered loyal
anyway, came streaming in and one by one they began to tease
Jules.

She blushed in horror but finally things
settled down. It was crazy busy and it was beginning to look like
it would turn into a really fun night. Jesse came and sat at our
table with us and Greg and four other guys and two random girls who
arrived before him.

“Hey Elliott,” Jesse said, totally
disregarding Jules. “What do you think? Huh?” He asked pointing to
the new tattoo on his neck.

“What’s up Jesse?” I said, throwing a subtle
nod toward Jules.

“Hey Julia”, he said sweetly, eyeing her
strangely.

She ignored him and enthusiastically greeted
him like she did with everyone, sweet and sunnily. 

Jesse was icy cold to Jules but had recently
ceased being outright mean to her. I didn’t quite get Jesse. I was
starting to believe something was seriously wrong with him. His
behavior was so erratic.
    “So?” He asked again.
    “Oh, I wondered why you had a bandage on your
neck during the game. Is that why you skipped school today?”
    “Hell yeah it is! Don’t say anything to my mom,
though, she doesn’t know.”
    “How the heck are you gonna’ keep something like
that away from your mom dude?” I asked in disbelief. “Wear
turtlenecks?”
The entire table laughed.
    “No,” he said disdainfully. “I’ll break it to
her eventually man, just not right now. I’m not doing so hot in my
classes and I don’t want to give her extra fuel. Know what I’m
sayin’?”

It pissed him off that I called him out like
that. Not even a buttoned up shirt with a tie could cover the thing
it was so graphic and it practically reached his chin but I’m
betting that Jesse wasn’t on the fast track to becoming a CPA so it
didn’t bother me if it didn’t bother him, to each their own.
    “I do,” I said trying not to appear
judgmental.

Jesse was always really
sensitive
about the things that made him look badly and he didn’t respond
well when you ‘put his neck on the chopping block’, as he’d say, so
I learned to just keep my mouth shut, most of the time.

    “So Julia,” Jesse said,
turning toward Jules. He kept an eye on me but eventually turned
his focus on Jules.
I almost fell over in my chair. I couldn’t believe he was talking
to her and by his own volition.
    “Yes, Jesse?” She asked, wide eyed.
He leaned in to Jules, causing her to lean back a bit
uncomfortably, and rested his forearm on the back of her chair. I
threw him the dirtiest look but he ignored me.
    “I was thinking, since you and my boy here seem
to be such a sure thing, that you and I should get to know one
another better.”
    “Okay?”
    “Yeah, maybe I could take you to a movie
sometime and we can shoot the shit.”
    “Wait a minute,” I said. I did
not
like
where this was going. “I’d be coming too right?”
    “Nope,” Jesse said, never breaking his gaze on
Jules.
I opened my mouth to object but Jules silenced me with a
smile.
    “Uh,
no
, it’s okay Elliott. Jesse, I
think that’s a wonderful idea. I think you and I started out on the
wrong foot.”
    “Over my dead body,” I said.

“That can be arranged,” he smiled.

“Come on Jesse. You can’t take my girl out.
Isn’t that like a rule or something?”

    “What? You don’t trust
me?” He asked, doe eyed.
    “Nope.”
Jesse laughed darkly toward the tile on the floor before raising
his head to speak.
    “It’s okay, Elliott. I would never do anything
to Jules.” He smoothly mumbled something into a cough but I didn’t
catch it.
    “Well, that may be true,” I said, skeptical,
“but I’m not comfortable with it.”
Jules laughed roughly. The table got eerily quiet as Jesse and I
stared each other down.
    I’m not sure what had gotten into Jesse lately.
I was starting to seriously wonder about his current state of
mental health. For the past few weeks, I’d catch him staring at
Jules but not in such a way that made me think he wanted her, at
least not in the way most teenage boys wanted her. No, he looked at
her with possessiveness and always a strange, dark look.
    “Cappelli, you rock my world dude!” Greg
suddenly said to the table, probably trying to break the unexpected
tension that emanated from Jesse.

The conversation took off at a hundred miles
per hour, none of us remembering the outcome of the game until that
moment. Everyone told the same story in their own words mentioning
things they noticed or didn’t notice, all agreeing, except an
eerily quiet Jesse, that Jules was hilarious.

    On our way home, Jules sat
with her forehead against her window. We were both pretty tired and
didn’t talk for a minute or two. I could tell that Jules had
something on her mind from the pinch in her forehead, so I asked
for her thoughts.
    “What are you thinkin’ about babe?”
    “About Jesse,” she said sadly.
    “What about him?” I shifted in annoyance. He was
the last thing I wanted her thinking about. I was hoping she’d let
the movie idea go.
    “For a long time I thought Jesse felt that I
would steal his time with you from him, but after all the effort
I’ve made to make sure he was always included, he still always acts
so coldly towards me. That’s why I was sort of surprised he made
such an effort to want to get to know me. No, I was
flabbergasted.”
    “I know what you mean. Jules,” I paused, “I
don’t particularly like the way he gets to know girls and I don’t
have a good feeling about his movie invite. God, he was acting so
weird tonight.”
    “Yeah, he is sort of strange, but I think that I
should do it anyway.”
    “I don’t think so Jules! Do you have any sense
of self preservation? It’s one thing to hang out with him with me
but I’ve not been able to get a grasp on him lately. He’s
changing.”
    “Elliott, you said yourself that I should get to
know him better.”
    “Yeah, around me!” I repeated.
    “Well, maybe he feels like he can’t be himself
without you around. You are pretty intimidating.”
    “No! No way!”
    “Come on Elliott! He won’t try anything. He
knows that I’d tell you if he did anything weird.”
I let out a deep breath.
    “Fine.”
Seriously, what’s the worst that can
happen?
“But let me just go on record as saying that I don’t
like this at all.”
    That Saturday night, I sat at Jules’ house
waiting for another dude to take her to a movie. I felt like a
complete and utter tool.
    “This is just too weird Jules. My gut is telling
me this is a bad idea.”
    “Oh, Elliott. We’ve already been through all of
this. It’ll be fine. I promise you. He’s making an effort.”
    “Yeah, but what kind of effort?”
I heard the roar of Jesse’s engine come to a halt.

“He’s here.”

The door bell rang.
    “Wanna’ get that?” She asked, applying lipstick
in her vanity mirror.
    “What are you doing that for Jules! You don’t
need to impress Jesse!”
    “Elliott! What is wrong with you?” She laughed.
“Go answer the door. My parents aren’t here and I’m not finished
getting ready.”
    I hesitated but got the door anyway. Jesse was
on the other side with something in his hand. I didn’t even greet
him. He knew that I didn’t like this one bit.
    “What’s that?” I asked.
    “None of your business Gray.” He smiled,
sticking whatever it was in his back pocket. “Come on buddy! Relax!
It’s me!”
    “Exactly!” I snapped.
Maybe, I am being a bit
overprotective. This is Jesse. I’ve known him since I was a baby!
So what if he’s been acting strangely lately. I know he’d never
step over my line.
I led him to the sitting room.