“Yes,” said Jules. “Their names are Robert and Arlene Chambers.”
We heard the clacking of computer keys.
The teller looked up, her eyes hopeful, “And their address?”
“Yes, I think so,” said Jules eyeing me.
“Uh, yeah,” I said, “it’s 587 Sycamore, Bramwell.”
“Okay,” said the teller perching closer to us from her chair and speaking under her breath, “I could get into tremendous trouble for doing this, but I figure, you came all the way from Bramwell and that means you’re looking for anonymity. So, I’ll strike you a deal.”
Jules and I leaned closer.
“I’ll give you the dollar amount owed on the loan each month and you tell me how many months you’d like to pay.”
“Deal,” said Jules.
Her eyes lit up like fireworks in July. The teller wrote down a figure on a small post-it. Jules and I borrowed her little hand calculator and did some figuring.
“We’d like to pay for four months,” she’d said.
“And for the next two,” I chimed in.
Jules looked at me with surprise.
“Might as well do some real good. I mean London’s out anyway,” I said.
Jules kissed me on the cheek.
“And the next two months as well,” she repeated.
We ended up withdrawing most of the money and decided to leave the rest for a rainy day. The teller made the payments in cash so they’d never know who made them and we asked the teller to have her manager ring the Chambers’ home and let them know to disregard those letters.
She agreed and waved at us as we walked away from our painful good deed. The pain seemed to dissipate as we got closer and closer to home and also as we came to terms with missing out on London. We promised ourselves that we would do it someday and that someday should be soon.
When we arrived at my house we had almost forgotten about it and were bickering in good fun back and forth about who was more annoying, pop singers or those people who pretend you can’t see into their cars when picking their nose.
“No way,” I said, “at least when they pick their noses it’s not hurting anyone.”
“Okay, okay. You’ve a valid point. I concede,” she laughed.
We slammed both the doors of my truck closed and a few seconds later my mom opened the screen door and leaned against the jamb, the proverbial tea towel tossed over her shoulder.
“Hey Elliott?” She asked across the little hill.
“Hey ma. What’s up?” I said, clamping my hand in Jules’ and leading her up.
“I was just thinkin’. When is the deposit for your trip due?” She asked.
Uh oh, I thought.
“Not sure. Actually, turns out, Jules and I don’t have enough money to go after all. I guess we underestimated the cost. Right Jules?” I said turning to Jules.
“R,Right,” said Jules nervously.
She was a terrible liar.
“Oh, well, y’all are only needin’ a small deposit right now. I bet you could earn enough by the time the last payment is due,” she said in reply.
“Maybe,” I said, “maybe not. Actually, it doesn’t really matter because Jules and I were talking about it, ma, and we’ve decided that we’re not interested in going after all.”
“Is that right?” My mom asked suspiciously.
Aw crap.
“Guess what Elliott?” She continued.
“What?” I asked.
“I just got off the phone with Arlene Chambers and can you believe it? Some bank manager in Charleston called her up and told her that her mortgage was not only paid to date but that the next two payments were also covered and that they didn’t owe a dime until January.”
“That’s fantastic news mom,” I said. “I hope that it helps them.”
“Oh,” she said, tears streaming down her face, “I think it will son. I think it will.”
We tried to walk past her into the kitchen but she stopped us at the door, hugged us firmly and kissed us each on the cheek.
“Feelin’ sentimental mom?” I asked, wiping a tear away from her face with my thumb.
“No, son. I’m just choppin’ a few onions.”
We both smiled at my mom and walked straight into the living room.
That night, when I took Jules home we sat in her driveway but before I would let her leave I grabbed her door and slammed it shut.
“You don’t think your dad heard that do you?” I asked.
“No,” she shook her head, her eyebrows pinched together, her bottom lip in a pout.
My face was right next to hers and I could smell her perfume. It stung sweetly. I sat back up and pulled her closely to me.
“I’m glad we did it,” I said.
“I know, me too.”
“You know,” I began coyly, changing the subject, “your parents are probably asleep.”
“Your point?”
“And you’ve got half an hour before curfew right?”
“Again, your point?” She asked cautiously.
“I just thought that maybe, if you wanted to, we could hang in the cab of the truck for awhile before you go in.”
“What are you suggesting we do?” She asked flirtatiously.
“I don’t know, maybe, as a reward for doing such a good thing today we could make out?”
“Elliott,” she laughed, “what am I going to do with you? You know one good thing doesn’t cancel out one naughty thing right?”
“Wait a minute! There’s nothing naughty about making out,” I protested.
“No, there isn’t, but there are things it can lead to that aren’t exactly good for us,” she replied, “and we aren’t exactly the suppressing type.”
“I think we can control ourselves for a few minutes Jules. We did that night I fell asleep on your living room chair,” I basically pleaded.
She sat for a few seconds, thinking.
“No argument there,” she smiled.
We were at each other before you could blink an eye. She felt so warm to me, warmer than the heater blowing through my vents. There’s always something so romantic about the winter. The chill in the air forces you closer to one another and what can be an already satisfying touch always feels extraordinary when it’s cold outside but there was also, for me, the added bonus that every touch from Jules included a shivering electric shudder through my spine.
Winter also brought with it the most enticing smells as well. The clean snow, warm chocolate drinks, the satisfying punch of the woodsy billowing smoke from everyone's chimneys. The smoke was always my personal favorite, besides Jules’ fragrance that is.
When I began to kiss her, I could feel her breath warm against my mouth. I pressed my fingers into the small of her back and culled her into my body. I ran my hand down her hip and thigh and cupped my hand around the back of her knee. She let her hair fall behind her and I brushed my lips along her neck until they reached the hollow beneath her ear. I repeatedly kissed her there. Tiny, insignificant kisses that spread a shiver across her skin. I continued across her collarbone to the bottom of her neck, kissing up her throat and paused when I heard her swallowing hard.
“Stop,” she barely whispered.
“Stop?” I asked quietly.
“Don’t stop,” she corrected.
I continued until I reached her chin and kept going until my lips met hers. She slammed her mouth against mine and the electricity hammered its way through my body, ravaging every nerve that I had, firing off each one with tumultuous effectiveness. I pulled her knee up and around me as I pressed her against the window on her side of the car. I propelled my body into hers, pressing my left hand against the cold glass.
The cold shocked me back into reality. I sat back up and scooted myself away from her.
“Wow,” I said and dragged both my hands through my hair.
Her chest huffed with each winded breath. She rested the back of her head against the cold passenger window and attempted to
straighten out her hair but I could tell she was thinking of something. She quickly sprang for me and grabbed the collar of my shirt. She crushed her lips into mine with the same severity as before, but this time I resisted.
“No,” I said grabbing her shoulders.
“Yes,” she said pushing herself against me.
“No Jules.”
“Please Elliott.”
“Jules!” I yelled.
Her eyes popped open, startled. She sank into her seat, licked her lips and wiped her mouth with her thumb and index finger, pulling at her bottom lip. She ran her fingers through her hair and bit her thumb, her elbow resting on the door staring out of the window. I could see her reflection in the frosted glass and her eyes began to wet with tears.
“I’m sorry,” was all I could muster up.
The tears flowed more steadily and she opened her door without a word. She scrambled quickly to retrieve her bag. I jumped out of the truck and followed her up the porch steps to the front door.
“What are you doing Jules?” I asked desperately.
“What does it look like I’m doing?” She bellowed, the tears still coming, “I’m going to bed.”
“What happened? I don’t understand,” I said, racking my brain for an answer to the question of how this had turned so badly, so quickly.
Her hands trembled as she searched in the dark for her keys in the front pocket of her bag. When she found them she slid the key in the door and turned it. She walked in and left me standing on the porch without a word, without a second glance.
The whole way home, I kept trying to guess what I had done that so terribly offended her. Jules was dramatic but she had never been unreasonable, so I had to have done something pretty awful. I parked my truck and turned off the lights. I slid out of my truck and bounded up the steps to the kitchen. When I walked in, my mother and father were at the kitchen table.
“What’s wrong son?” My mom asked immediately.
Either I plainly wore my emotions on my face or it was a mother’s intuition, or maybe it was a little of both but she could tell something was up.
“Nothing,” I said. “I’m going to bed. G’night.”
I tumbled into bed still wondering if it was the rejection but decided I needed some sleep and that maybe after a night’s rest Jules would come to her senses and talk to me.
The next morning, I ran to my truck once I was ready for school. I went to The Perry House and knocked on the door but no one answered. I went around back and Jules’ car wasn’t there. She’s already left for school? I raced down the road to Bluefield and saw flashing lights behind me.
Dang it! Danny! I said glancing in my rear view. Danny was my mom’s youngest brother.
“Danny, what do you want?” I asked impatiently.
“Nothin’ Elliott. Just want to know where the fire is?”
“I pissed off Jules somehow and she left for school without me,” I offered as an excuse.
He started chuckling and slapped me on the shoulder.
“Boy, you better get used to that. Women are funny like that,” he said.
He didn’t know Jules though. She wasn’t the type. We’d never had so much as a cross word since the day we got together, not seriously anyway.
“I think I really offended her though. It’s not just a girl thing,” I said, looking for advice, even from my ‘clueless about women Uncle Danny. How he married my lovely aunt Becky I will never know.
“Well, if you really did, then you should have a pretty good idea what happened that made her that way,” he said intelligently.
“I have an idea Danny.”
“Well, go fix it son but it’s better you get there in one piece. You hear me boy? Slow down!” He demanded in his best sheriff’s voice.
“Okay, I will. Thanks Danny.”
“Alright, bye Elliott.”
“Wait! Uncle Danny?”
“Yes Elliott?”
“Don’t mention this to my mom. Please?” I pleaded.
“Mention what?” He said with a wink while walking back to his cruiser.
I started back toward Bluefield, this time at a snail’s pace. When I finally got to school, the parking lots were pretty full. I drove around Lot A, where Jules’ car would be and saw it parked toward the front. I had to drive to the other side of campus to my lot and was almost late for my first class. I was going to have to wait until lunch to see her.
I paid little to no attention in Economics or Algebra. I only faintly remember Mr. Cook calling on me in Algebra and asking me if I’d forgotten to turn in my homework. He had counted one short and called out everybody’s names on the headings to take attendance and find out who skipped out. I apologized and handed it in. I sat back down and zoned out again. I was okay with having to teach myself the lesson later from my book.
After second period, I walked into the lunch room and Jules wasn’t there. Damn it Jules! What is going on? I sat down next to Jesse. I was still slightly bitter about Jesse’s date with Jules, not to mention his strange new behavior spilling out of the woodwork. I regretted his getting to know Jules more because, ironically, I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to be friends with him anymore.
“Where’s Julia?” He asked.
“I pissed her off. She’s avoiding me. The problem is that I don’t even know what I did,” I said.
His eyes lit up.
“Really?” Too interested.
“Yeah”
“Tell me what set it off.”
I sighed. Maybe he might help.
“Well, we were making out in my truck in front of her house.”
He sneered.
“Do you want to know or not?” I asked with little patience for his stupidity.
“Go on,” he said.
“And things got, well, sort of heavy pretty quickly and I stopped but she didn’t want to. I kind of yelled at her to stop and I think it hurt her feelings.”
“No kidding. You were making out with the girl and she wanted to keep going and you yelled at her to stop? And you think you offended her? Elliott, no offense, but you’re a moron.”
“Why’s that?” I asked defensively.
“Because, if a girl wants to keep going, that’s her problem, not yours.”
“You’re a jackass,” I said. “Don’t you get it? Jules isn’t some chick dude. Jules is the love of my life.”
“Please, Elliott. You don’t find the ‘love of your life’ in high school.”
“Maybe you won’t, but I did. Plus, what kind of attitude is that dude? You’re trying to tell me that if a girl wants to keep going in that moment that it’s her problem and not yours? You’re just as responsible for her as she is for herself Jesse. Grow up. Where are your morals dude?”
“Morals, schmorals,” he joked.
“I’m not kidding Jesse. If you’re not careful you’re going to make yourself miserable for the rest of your life. That’s the kind of blasé attitude that allows you to punish yourself in cruel ways.
“Think about it this way, you have sex with some girl you barely know and she gets pregnant. Say, you marry this girl and she’s turns out to be awful because you married someone you don’t know. You’ll be miserable and so will your kid, if she turns out to be a psycho. Say, you don’t marry that girl, you’ll still be miserable because you’ll have to share custody with a kid you feel belongs one hundred percent to you. That’s a torturous fate my friend and all for what? For sex with some girl who let you? It’s not just about her future, it’s also about yours. Is it worth it?”
“God, you’re a nerd.”
“Also,” I continued, “what if you do know the girl well and she is the girl you want to marry. Would you want to compromise her by messing it up with a stupid thing like sex? Dude, when you’re married you’ll have all the time in the world for that, a few years without it is not going to kill you. In fact, it makes you both that much stronger. I’ve got something with Jules that I don’t think even thirty year olds can find.
”
“Okay, okay Elliott. You’ve made your point but I don’t think you’ve converted me to your celibate lifestyle there,” he said mockingly, brushing me off.
“Don’t insult me Jesse Thomas,” I said, standing up, raising my voice. “You think that just because I keep from doing that crap, it means that I’m naive. You can be innocent and simultaneously not be naive dude. I’m not stupid. Just because you have sex doesn’t make you older, smarter, or even more mature. In fact, it makes you just the opposite. You’re juvenile, stupid and below capacity.”
I stormed off with Jesse’s mouth gaping open. The whole cafeteria caught the end of our conversation and I felt eyes burn into the back of my neck as I headed out the double doors.
I heard Jesse yell loudly, “Jules broke up with him!”
I didn’t even bother correcting him, I was so ticked off. I went to the band room and practiced my drums.
I had joined percussion freshman year and worked my way up to varsity band last year. It was awesome because I didn’t have to play during the games and wear their ridiculous uniforms because I was the quarterback. Every now and then, I would join them when I had some down time during the games, but I wasn’t required to or anything. I had the best of both worlds.
People eventually started streaming into class after lunch. Taylor Williams and her little creepy crew came in. They all played flute. Her followers couldn’t even pick a different instrument. Taylor flitted to my side.
“I’m sorry to hear that you and the Jacobs girl broke up,” she said.
“Go away Taylor,” I said as I tapped my drumsticks over a snare drum.
“I’m still sorry to hear it Elliott,” she said, a cruddy grin on her face.
“Go away Taylor!” I yelled.
She sat back down in her seat and she and her little posse started whispering and laughing. Class began and it took my mind off things. Music always did that for me. There was something soothing about playing the drums.
After class, I rushed to Chemistry and sighed when I saw Jules sitting at our lab table. I plopped beside her and turned my stool her direction.
“Jules,” I said.
“We can’t talk about it just now Elliott,” she said.
I turned my head and saw twenty pairs of eyes focused in our direction. I fixed my stool and didn’t say another word until the end of class. She darted out as quickly as possible toward her car.