A love story
I'm not sure whether this story will have a happy ending or a sad ending, see it when I'm done. As far as I know, it's going to have two point of views, the girl's and the guy's.
Or maybe it's going to be in third person...
Julie
Leather Jacket
Sitting in Math II. Next to my best friend. My social circle consists mostly of smart people. Not nerds, just smart people. The kind of people who can talk about the essentiality of biological weaponry elimination with the same enthusiasm as sports or music or gossip. Nerds with lives.
There he was, in the next row, two seats away from my best friend. He turned around, grinned. Blew a kiss.
"What on earth does he think he's doing?!" my best friend's whisper brought me out of the whirlpool of sin and cos thetas.
"Huh?"
"Just look at him! Flirting with Jenny like that! In the middle of class… Gawd! I hate PDAs."
Jenny was this cheerleader chick who sat behind us. It appeared as though Andrew Bennett was blowing kisses at her.
"Uh… Yeah… Gross."
No, we're not prudes. We don't mind people making out. Just don't do it right in front of us, like where am I supposed to look for crying out loud. And besides, Drew made faces at different girls every few minutes. Or so it seemed.
The bell rang, me and Katie, my best friend, picked up our books and left as Andrew made his way towards the general direction of where we were sitting, I mean, where Jenny was sitting.
Guys.
"Hey Julie, me and Lia were thinking, lets go out somewhere today. What say?"
Lia, my other best friend. This sucks.
"Damn, I've got this family thing today. You guys have fun."
"Oh. Damn… Okay, we'll all hang out sometime."
"You get Tay and Jake and go on a double date. You wouldn't be able to do that when I can come"
"Oh shut up!"
Met Lia, Tay and Jake at the gate, spoke for a while then left in the direction of the bus stop.
But, instead of getting on the bus I walked ahead, ducking under a couple of trees to avoid catching the attention of my bus mates and took a shortcut to this place I was heading to.
Which was this certain abandoned building in this abandoned area of town.
See there was this fire quite a long time ago. It burned up this section of town, which somehow never got rebuilt.
Initially it was just because of lack of funds, then there was this 'haunted' phase and now it's just underage people who wanna have booze parties who go there. Everyone knows what goes on there but somehow nobody gets caught. I wonder why.
I knew it was dangerous but somehow the rational part of my brain stops working on Fridays, specifically, Fridays, after school.
I got to the building and went to what appeared to be its back. It was the only place here which still had more than one storey. It actually had two complete storeys and the floor for the next one formed a nice roof. I climbed up this rusty old ladder onto the 'roof'.
There was this big guy in a leather jacket sitting there. Waiting for someone, waiting for me.
"Hey Andy, you were smoking weren't you?" I said, as I sat down next to him and swung my legs off the roof.
Andrew Bennett looked down at me, grinned sheepishly and said, "How'd you know?"
***
Julie
And then we make out. A lot.
Yeah, I know. I have no idea how everyone would react if they found out. Me, Julie Turner was going out with Andrew Bennett.
Most of my friends, either hated Andrew or else hated one of his friends. Not because he was popular or because he was one of those huge guys most people want to run away from if they happen to meet him in a dark alleyway.
It doesn't matter why they hate him. At least I try not to think about it.
Basically, they would go crazy. And not the "YAY!!" crazy. The other crazy. The bad crazy.
And so, I haven't told them. Any of them. Even Lia, and she's the most open minded one.
I might want to tell her, soon. Maybe. Sometime in the near or distant future. Distant future preferably.
Not because I think she'll be mad at me. But because she's pretty sure to tell Jake, her boyfriend, my best friend, and he would get mad. Jake would tell Tay and he would tell Katie. And then it would be time for Julie to kiss Andrew bye-bye.
And so, I haven't said a word.
But it is hard. Very hard. First of all the lying. Like today, when I had to tell them I had a family thing to attend when I'd really been making out with Andrew on the roof of an unfinished building.
Then all the times Andrew makes faces at me during class. I tell him not to, he doesn't listen. Honestly, I like it. But anyway, I don’t really like dealing with anyone sitting around me talking about Andrew making faces at some random popular cheerleader chick. I mean, come on, is it that hard to believe that Andrew Bennett was hitting on me?
Well actually, yes. Yes it is. Damn.
Actually, not damn, yay. That's what makes the idea of not telling anybody that we're going out so incredibly foolproof. Nobody would believe it. They'd say either that I'm too smart to go out with him or that I'm too not-pretty-cheerleader for him to go out with me. Either way, not very obvious. So, that's good. I think.
Three weeks today. That's how long we've been going out.
And that's why I had to meet him today. Because it was a sort of anniversary. Believe it or not, I don’t care, much. Every month, fine. But every week is just exceptionally lame. But Andrew insists. Most people wouldn't believe it if I told them but, I quote, "Don’t know how long you're gonna wanna go out with me so I wanna make the most of it when I can."
That statement makes him sound needy or clingy but honestly, its exactly the opposite. He thinks it was during a lapse in my-usually-good-judgment that I said yes to him, so he says that we might as well make the most of it till my brain starts working again.
I tell him he's being stupid but yeah, he's the man.
I'm getting a call.
Its not that hard to balance your phone against your shoulder and comb your hair. With practice, you can even do math homework while doing all that.
I'm just saying.
Lia's telling me about their hangout. They went bowling and had dinner at this new pizza place. It was pretty good apparently.
"Oh guess what? Bennett came there, but he just got takeout and went. Couple of his friends were sitting behind us and the Jenny girl was saying something about how he was acting weird lately."
"Jenny thinks And-rew is acting weird?" Dammit, I can't call him Andy when I'm on the phone with Lia, he usually glares at anyone who does.
"Yeah, something about not wanting to hang out with her. And then James said something about Andrew disappearing after basketball practice today."
"Ooh, drama!"
"Yeah I know! Then I think is was Dave who said something like he must have a secret girlfriend-"
Crap.
"-but then I think James choked on cheese so no one paid much attention to him"
Thank you God. It's a good thing it was Dave. No one ever pays much attention to Dave. Poor Dave.
"Do you think its possible?"
"What?"
"That Dave was right and Andrew has a girlfriend?"
"Maybe. Possibly."
"You seem to know more than there is"
"How would I know anything more than you do?"
"You know, because you and Andrew and Dave are friends?"
Uhm. Yeah. Lia knows that much. Me and Andrew were friends, back in grade 4 or 5. Somehow, I was the girl none of the 'bad guys' had a problem with, in fact, some of them were even my really good friends, like Dave and Andrew. This is one fact some of my current friends have trouble dealing with. Not Lia or Katie, but Tay and Jake get annoyed with me sometimes. Even most of my other casual acquaintances look rather shocked or sometimes even offended when I high five Dave in the corridor when I'm with them.
Maybe its because Dave doesn't do much to acknowledge their existence except sometimes, rarely he might nod at them.
But mostly it’s the fact that I am on high-five-terms with David Wilkins, friend of Andrew Bennett, who was like the Official tormentor of 'nerds' back in middle school.
Something that not many people but me are willing to forget.
Okay, no one but me is willing to forget.
Especially the guys. Since Bennett is the captain of the school basketball team and he has a tendency to pick his buddies over the other kids. One more reason for Tay and Jake to hate him.
I've never really spoken to Andrew about that, not that I'm scared if he'd get pissed but the topic has never come up.
Mostly we talk about the few things we have in common. Music, food and some books I've made him read.
And then we make out. A lot.
"I don't know… I'll ask him if you want me to…"
"Yeah, you could… He might tell you. Wouldn't it be funny if you were his mystery girlfriend?"
What!?!!??
"Wha- Where did that even come from?"
"I've just always thought it would be cool if you guys went out."
"Whatever"
"Seriously!"
"Uh… And how would it be funny exactly?"
"Everyone's reactions would be awesome"
"Awesome?"
"Yeah. Most of his friends would be like "Wha!" and Tay and Jake are gonna be like, "Bennett? You didn't find anyone else but him?"
"Yeah that could be fun for you… not so much for me."
"True…"
"How would you react if I told you that I was going out with Bennett?"
"Uhm… I wouldn't mind I guess… Because from what you've told me, he's a nice guy and you know him better than I do and it is completely your decision. I'd be happy for you I suppose…"
I should have told her just then. I know I should have told her just then. But I didn't. What I did say was something along the lines of, "Yeah. Sure. Whatever."
I know. Pathetic. Simply, absolutely pathetic.
Anyway, I could have tried to bring it up later in the conversation but I didn’t. Not because I didn't want to tell her, but because that's about where our conversation ended.
My cell phone ran out of charge.
And as soon as it charged, I called Andy up.
"Hey"
Ooh… Someone was in the room. Most probably James or Dave or Jenny. Or else he says 'Hey Ju' or 'Hey Jul' or 'Hey Juli'…
Basically he always uses my name. Always. And says its because he really likes my name… *blush*… :P
So I asked… "Ooh.. Bad time?"
"No… Talk"
"Oh… " And I told him what Lia had overheard his friends talking. When I was done he said, "Wow. They're smarter than I gave them credit for…"
"Very funny Andy," I said. My sarcastic comment didn't stop me from laughing a little. A little. "But seriously, what are we gonna do?"
"I love the way you say 'we,' Julie, though its just my friends"
"Oh god Andy, stop flirting for now at least… Besides your problem is my problem. And what are *you* gonna do about this problem?"
He laughed. I loved his laugh. It was a deep, from the heart type of laugh. Anyway, he said, "Uhm… I don't know… Do you think I should tell Dave? He seems to be the only one who's got the brains to figure out what I'm up to…"
"Yeah… Maybe… It kinda bugs me though, that Dave's gonna know about us before Lia"
"So tell her first"
I pretended not to hear him and continued, "Unless, Dave getting to know doesn't really count because its you who's telling him and not me… Its okay. Tell Dave."
"Okay cool. I'll call you up later tonight. James is sitting in my room and wondering why the hell I took the call out to the balcony. Lemme go before Dave proposes his theory again… Bye Julie"
"Bye Andy…"
Before he cut the phone I heard Jenny go, "Who was that Drew baby-"
Ohh… So Jenny was at his place too. I wonder why he didn't tell me.
My cell phone flashed and I opened the text I received from Andy.
Jen n James were bugging me asking who I was on the phone with… said you were a cousin… :P they bought it, Dave hasn't. gonna have to talk to him tonight. Ttyl. Ly.
I replied.
I love the way you never tell me you love me when we're on the phone but as soon as we're off the phone you text me with some excuse. And I love how the text always ends with 'Ly'. Love you too.
And yeah. Talk to him b4 it gets outta hand. Have fun wid Jenny. :P
Andy finds it unnatural that I don’t give a damn about how Jenny keeps jumping on him. I find it completely normal. I don’t wanna be like those girls who are constantly insecure about their boyfriends. I don’t want to make up paranoid scenarios about how he is making out with some other girl as soon as I turn around. I mean, where does that get them? A lot of tense moments, anxious crying and soon, no boyfriend.
I've told Andrew all of this. But there is something I haven't told him, something I don’t plan to tell him either.
I… trust Andrew. I know he'd tell me if he wanted to break up. And I know him. I would be able to figure out it was over before he told me. And besides, he doesn't like it, the way she jumps all over him.
So I don’t mind. Or my ego doesn't let me admit it even if I did mind.
Andrew
I hate talking about how I feel
My cell phone vibrated and to took it out, I'd got a text from her.
I love the way you never tell me you love me when we're on the phone but as soon as we're off the phone you text me with some excuse. And I love how the text always ends with 'Ly'. Love you too.
And yeah. Talk to him b4 it gets outta hand. Have fun wid Jenny. :P
Damn. I thought she wouldn't notice.
I find it hard to tell her I love her. Maybe because I really do love her. A lot.
I mean when I was going out with Jenny it didn't really matter. Me saying 'I love you too' whenever she said 'I love you Drew baby' was reflex. I'd never really meant it.
And I never thought I ever would really mean it.
But now that I mean it, I can't say it so what is the point?
This is going to sound very cheesy but I never thought I'd meet someone like her. Actually it would be more like I never thought I'd fall for her so bad.
She was one of the few people I was honest with back in grade 6 or 7. It had never really occurred to me but now when I think back, she was the closest thing I had to a friend back then. That never made a difference as to how much I used to rag the people she was friends with. I mean, it wasn't my fault that she was friends with all the… uhm… 'smart' kids like Juli says it. She hits my arm whenever I call her friends nerds. I like it when she hits me like that.
I honestly never expected her to say yes to me. After about two weeks of after school library time where she tutored me before midterms, I asked her out one day as I was walking her back home. She thought I was joking, and gave me a pretend reproachful look which probably meant something like 'I-thought-we-were-friends.'
I told her I was serious and that I'd never felt the way I did about her about anyone else.
She laughed and told me I was being cheesy.
I almost dropped dead of embarrassment when she caught my hand and said, 'Yes I will go out with you. That'd better have not been a joke, even if it was you're still going to go out with me'
Later she told me that she said all that because from the beginning of that tutoring session she knew I was going to ask her out.
I called her cruel. She laughed. Mwa ha ha ha.
Damn. James is telling me about some game he watched on TV and im not paying attention. Concentrate. Done.
Jenny is clinging onto my arm. She is about the size of my arm. Very, very skinny. Julie says she's anorexic, Jenny that is. Its mildly annoying. Jenny on my arm, like an itch I cant scratch.
Me and Jenny went out for a really long time, about a year and a half. We've broken up quite a number of times in between but we always got back together because she really liked me and because I really liked making out with her.
Maybe that's why she refuses to get off my arm. Probably trying to seduce me into asking her out. Its not very seductive though, the way my arm is going numb because of how tight she's holding it.
I broke up with her about a month ago. She must be thinking that it is record time that we're not together. She doesn't realize that we're not gonna get back together.
Its not really my fault. I mean when I broke up with her, I made sure to say that it wasn’t like all the times we'd broken up before. That this time it was going to be the end.
She acted normal until… yesterday.
Oh crap. Today in math I tuned around and looked at Julie, Jenny must've thought I was looking at her. Er, blowing kisses at her.
Gotta fix that.
Aww hell. I hate talking to people about how I feel.
Julie
Dave's 'so-called-friends'
Andrew hates talking about how he feels. All evening yesterday I was wondering how he was planning to tell Dave about his 'secret' girlfriend.
I met Andrew today morning at a coffee place quite a distance from town center. We meet there sometimes when I'm not in the mood to walk all the way to the abandoned rooftop.
He told me his side of the story and this is how it happened.
After I put the phone down, James and Jenny stayed for a while. Then James left and Jenny asked Andrew to drop her. Since he had some 'business to settle' with Jen, he agreed but made sure Dave got in the car too, in the front seat.
He got Dave to go get a coupla cokes at a store and while Dave was out Jenny went all, 'Why haven't we gotten back together yet baby?'
Andrew didn't exactly tell me all of that but I know Jen well enough to imagine how it went down.
Apparently, Andy then told her that he felt that their last break up was sort of final and not really a 'break'.
And Jenny was silent for the rest of the ride.
After they dropped Jenny, Dave asked, 'Drew, what did you say that made her shut up? I'm not complaining,,,'
Andy, who is so incredibly awkward with his feelings thanked heavens for this opening and said, 'I told her that me and her breaking up wasn't just a break and that we were over'
Dave replied, 'Ooh! Harsh! But anyway, she's gotta deal with it. Who are you with now?'
Andrew the chicken replied, 'What makes you think I'm with someone now?'
At that, Dave raised his eyebrows and replied, 'I'm smarter than Jen or James, man… Don’t bullshit me. If you don’t want to tell me, I wont ask, but just say that.'
Andrew was speechless but he managed to reply, 'Julie'
'Aahh… That cute little smart girl? I always thought you had a thing for her'
'Whatever. But just don’t say anymore of the 'Maybe Andrew's got a secret girlfriend' shit around James or Jen or anyone else'
'How did you kno-.. Oh wait, Julie's friends were sitting at the table next to ours… Who all know?'
'You, me and Julie'
Dave just nodded but at least we know he's not gonna say anything anymore because now when they discuss Andrew's weird behaviour he doesn’t say anything to them. He does, however, tell Andy if he thinks that any of them have gotten close to finding out the truth.
Speaking of Dave, there he is. Walking straight to my locker. Uhh… I don't know what to -
"Hey Julie!"
It was funny the way he stretched my name into a whole bunch of syllables.
"Hey Dave"
I was aware of the curious stares we were getting from my friends, Allison, the girl I sit next to in English, Jacob, he guy who was in my Chemistry class, Nat from art, all were looking at me like I was an alien who had just descended from my locker and said that I was gonna take their brains as samples for my species' biology class. Talking to 'them' so casually was not acceptable.
Or maybe it was Dave talking to me that was the issue. They were staring as though a God had descended from heaven to talk to a mere mortal.
And then there was Jenny who was staring at Dave with her mouth in the shape of an 'O' as though he just said that he wasn't wearing branded jeans.
Anyway, whatever. Dave and me were friends, it wasn't any of my concern what anyone else thought about it.
Dave walked with me to Chemistry, which we had together, talking randomly about cations and anions and our last chemistry assignment.
That was okay.
But the thing that made even Katie and Lia gossip was the fact that he sat next to me throughout third lesson Chemistry and fourth lesson Economics. Walked me over to lunch even.
I asked him what happened to his usual schedule which was filled with the Andrews and James of the world, not the Julies.
He said he wanted a break from his so-called-friends.
So-called-friends. That was exactly what he said, his exact, specific words.
I asked him if everything was okay, and his face suddenly went all smiles and his tone was free from all the bitterness of earlier and he said, "Yeah, of course I'm alright."
I didn't believe him and maybe that was shown on my face because he quickly changed the topic saying, "You don't mind me hanging out with you right? I'm pretty sure Drew doesn't…"
I was shocked initially, but when I remembered that Andy had told Dave and the look on Dave's face when he said 'so-called-friends' I said, "Of course I don’t mind, and Andrew had better not have a problem with it…"
"Why?"
"He shouldn't be that possessive now should he?"
Dave laughed and hit me on the head with his books. I went 'Oww!!' as though it hurt me a lot even though he hadn't hit me really hard. He leaned forward and bent all the way down, so that his face was in level with mine, to see if I was alright. 'All the way down' because I'm really short compared to Dave. With Andy I'm just above his shoulder so that's a decent height. But Dave is incredibly tall. I barely come up to his shoulders which means that I'd never be able to hit him over the head under normal circumstances. But this wasn't a normal circumstance.
As soon as I hit him, he stood up straight and laughed at me. I laughed to and turned around to see Jenny staring at us, tugging at James' shirt trying to catch his attention.
Dave apparently saw too, because he said, "Lets go in for lunch" and caught my arm and pulled me into the cafeteria.
On my way in I bumped into Andy. It was quite the crowd so he ended up shoving me against a wall. He said, 'Oh, I'm *so* sorry!' but his roguish grin said otherwise.
"Hey Andy"
That was the first time I'd called him Andy around people who knew he hated being called that. Tay was just a few feet away, he saw us, but there was a chance that he would hear. But I didn't care. Having your incredibly hot boyfriend press your body against a wall can do things to you sometimes. We looked at each other with stupid grins for a few seconds then walked in opposite directions. I'm pretty sure he still had that grin on his face. I couldn't help smiling either by the time I sat down next to Lia and Katie, opposite Tay and Jake at our usual table with my lunch tray, a salad, some pasta, an apple and a tetra pack of juice.
We ate, we talked. I was waiting for Lia and Katie to say something, anything about me and Dave because I could see it that they had spoken about it.
And then they did.
"What's with David?''
"Huh?"
Tay and Jake exchanged a look. Oh. So they were talking about it too.
"I mean he doesn't usually hang out with you that much, does he?"
"Uhh… We were friends anyway…"
"Yeah but…"
"Why he walked me to lunch? We had two continuous classes together and we were just talking…"
"Oh ohkay."
Then the topic changed.
Whew.
Andrew
Julie's looking so hot today.
Julie's looking so hot today.
James expression when he saw Dave laughing with Julie? Not so hot.
Speaking of Dave, I have no idea why he's sitting at the corner table with a book in front of him.
Its not my problem anyway.
"Oh my god! Dave is acting like such a loser! What is wrong with him?"
Jenny. Hopefully someone will enlighten me now…
"Cranky after basketball" said James. Whoa. Now, its my problem.
See I hadn't turned up for practice today morning, I had some extra work to do. Okay I had to take a retest for my failed Eco paper.
Yes I failed Eco. Julie had a family thing, she couldn’t tutor me that day…
Anyway, back to the topic.
"What did you do, James?"
"Nothing Drew, Dave was just cranky."
"What did you do, James?"
"Nothing man! Chill, why you getting pissed?"
"What. Did. You. Do. James?"
Third time's the charm.
"Don't get pissed man! Dave just heard some guys saying crap about him and got pissed."
"Would these 'some guys' include you, James?"
"Drew, you know how Dave is right? I mean he's always in his own world and you know as well as I do that we let him hang out with us only because he's a heck of a basketball player."
"Is that what you said?"
"Yeah, man, I was just saying it like it is."
"So you really think that we 'let' him hang out with us just cuz he can play?"
His eyes said that he agreed but maybe because of the tone of my voice he didn't say anything, just shrugged.
I was genuinely disgusted. James was such a douche sometimes.
I got up and walked away.
On my way out, I looked at Dave with the corner of my eye. He was still sitting there with his book, without realizing the huge drama he'd caused back at our table.
I didn't go and sit with him, not just because James would probably come too and cause more gossip for the scandal-hunters, but because… I couldn't.
I didn't know what to say to him.
Because its not like I hadn't thought that about Dave until a few weeks back.
So I looked up to find my next option. Julie.
I looked at her for about three seconds. The she looked up and raised her left eyebrow. Not a look filled with attitude, more like, 'Hey sexy'
Okay no, she didn't look at me like that, I wish she had though.
The look probably would have meant 'What's wrong?'
I jerked my head to Dave's direction, and left the caf.
