-I-
Second Encounters.
I was already dressed for the occasion. A purple v-neck jumper hugged my non-existent curves, and a pair of jet-black skinny jeans hung loosely on my small hips and even smaller legs, I’d just been able to get away with that tiny adjustment to the school uniform since we got the new head teacher. I made my way to the mirror above the bathroom sink, opened the cupboard concealed behind it and took out my toothpaste, as the dry paste hit my tongue it burned slightly, too minty. It took several good strokes for the burning to stop, and I quickly finished up in there, hurriedly making my way back towards my bedroom.
I checked the clock, 6:30am, too early to start making my way to school; I took one last look in the glooming full-length mirror crouched in the corner of my room. I glanced at myself, horrible; my limp blonde hair ached for more volume but my failed attempt at backcombing it ever so slightly made it look tatty and un-cared for. I grabbed my best brush from inside my dressing table drawer, and gave my hair one hundred strokes, which only allowed about two minutes pass. My hair had gotten so much lighter in summer break, it looked almost white, and my feminine features weren’t enough of a compliment to distract from how obviously tiny I was. I was a measly 5”2, much too small for a sixteen year old girl. I never ate much either, my parents had discussed among themselves whether I had an eating disorder once; they didn’t notice me leaning over the railings of the stairs to overhear their conversation.
I un-packed and re-packed my school bag. Twice. I sat on my undersized bed, the one I’d had since I was 10, I never grew much after that so I didn’t need a bigger bed, was my parents logic. Now that I came to think about it, time passed slowly in my house. The 70’s wallpaper never ceased to scar my eyes whenever I entered the front door, and the huge black leather couch was tattered and almost grey now, but my parents refused to change anything about the place. Luckily I had my sanctuary. A deep cherry purple covered one, central, wall thickly, the other walls a delicate cream colour. On the central wall I’d spent half the summer holidays drawing and painting on a blindly white snow leopard crouching as if getting ready to jump, facing me now it seemed too intimidating, I was almost scared to look into its onyx eyes.
My best friend Sam helped me do it, he was gifted in art, always making him a good one to hang onto if I needed any decorating done, he’d just smile encouragingly and get on with it, with me in the background standing awkwardly trying to let him help me, unsuccessfully. His brown hair complimented his delicate features and with the amazing natural blond highlights he’d always looked older than he actually was. We’d been friends since nursery, though it was a confusing friendship, ever since his hormones kicked in he’s liked me, too bad I’d always liked Dean. He was the sweetest guy I’d ever met, and I really don’t know what I’d do without him. I first saw him in year 5, he’d come to our school late in the year from Seattle, and no one wanted much to do with him. He was different from other people. He had jet-black hair about shoulders length, and coffee coloured skin, that was always smooth even when everyone else’s faces were going through the early signs of puberty. All the girls liked him even though none of them wanted to admit it, so when he was put next to me I was secretly overwhelmed. He used to talk to me in class everyday and eventually, over a few years, our friendship grew into something more than just that. Sam was jealous all the time, but I’d just never seen him as the boyfriend. I just always wanted to show Sam that I’d always want to be close to him, but never found the right words or actions.
I checked the clock and an hour had passed, I guessed I’d better make a move to school, I could feel a glum look spread across my face, but I remembered Dean and Sam. Sam. I decided that that day I’d try and explain how I felt. Without giving him false hope. I exited the front door and made my way to the bus stop, luckily my bus was one of the first to come, and I hopped on and prayed for a decent day at school.
Sam was waiting for me by the gate, as always, but Jake was nowhere to be seen. ‘Late again’, I thought to myself as I climbed from the bus and skipped over to Sam, he seemed happy enough that he was waiting alone, but the look in his eyes portrayed something different to happiness, he was more distant today. Still, he smiled as I approached, flashing his always perfect, white teeth into the smile I’d grown to love so much and to my surprise, he took my hand for a brief moment and held it to his chest.
“What are you doing?” I laughed.
“Well, someone told me you were thinking of becoming a nurse, I was just seeing if you could check if my heart was okay, its been beating really fast for the past… minute”
I looked at him in shock. Then laughed, he was smiling quite smugly as I snatched my hand away from his iron grip.
“You make me laugh, Sam.”
He sighed and the smile vanished from his face, he was looking up at the sky with an extremely serious look on his face. I nudged his side and watched him as he looked down at me smiling once more and put his arm around me, his other hand tucked safely in his pocket and looked back to the sky. There was a minute of silence before Sam talked again.
“Hey Jules…?”
“Mhm?” I said dreamily. He looked at me full in the face. I stared back.
“You wanna come round my house after school? I have my mobile; you could call your mum if you’re worried she’ll wonder where you are.” He looked like he was concentrating very hard, it was almost scary.
“Um… sure I guess, if my mum says it’s cool, I think I was supposed to help her clean the spare room today but I’m sure she won’t mind if she knows I’m with you, I guess.” His face lit up triumphantly.
“Cool, I’ll meet you by the front gates, yeah?”
“Yeah, but Sam, why do you want me over? I haven’t been to your house since your birthday last year.”
“Exactly. I was thinking about it this morning. You haven’t been to my house for so long, I just thought it might be nice for you to come visit.”
“Oh. Well then, I guess that’s cool.”
“Hey, what’s up? You look worried.” I wasn’t the one who looked worried; his forehead was creased so much I thought it’d need ironing.
“No, no I’m cool. I’ve just been thinking a lot too.”
“About what?”
“Oh not much, you… mostly” I said tediously, this could either go two ways.
“What?” He had to press his lips together to stop from beaming.
“Just, I mean, you should know that I love you, Sam. You are the best friend a girl could ever have and seriously, I don’t know what I’d do without you. But, yeah I dunno. You know its not gonna be like how you want it to be.”
“Oh, that again.” He sighed
“Yeah, Sam, I’m sorry, look--”
“Jules, Jules, Jules,” He cut me short, “Look I understand that now, it’s all cool. I’m… trying to get over you” he laid an awkward grin on his face “and you and Dean. He’s a cool guy, in his own… foreign, way. It’s fine.”
“Really?”
“Like lemon lime in the summertime.” He smiled again, with slight disappointment and hurt behind his hazel eyes, but still the same smile I loved, it assured me that everything was all right. I smiled back and hugged him tightly.
“Alright alright, get off. People talk you know. And with Dean not here you never know what’s gonna be spread if people see you hugging me, now geroff.”
I released him and gave him a quick smile before he declared that he needed to go and talk to Mr. Lewis about his art homework, I let him go. I spotted a guy sitting further away, reading, in the small recreation area in the corner of the main hallway. Our school was pretty good… for school. He looked older than the other kids; and I’d never seen him around before though he seemed familiar, he was quite good looking too, so I wondered why no one was talking to him. I thought I might as well go and introduce myself, he reminded me of Jake in a weird way. I made my way over to talk to him; he had a glass of icy water on the table next to him and a book of Shakespeare in his hands. He saw me coming and a large grin spread across his face, I looked around to see if there was anyone around me he could have been smiling at and before I knew it he’d caught me in a strong embrace and was hugging me like we were old friends. I pushed him away in my confusion and he looked hurt,
“You don’t remember me do you?” he asked, he had a thick American accent and an extremely deep voice, he turned away to return to his seat with his book in his hands. I ran after him.
“Well, no. But I-” I looked at him blankly; the smile he’d greeted me with was completely gone. His mumbling had interrupted me,
“I can’t believe it, she doesn’t remember me, and I mean I know I’ve changed but you think she’d remember her own boyfriend’s brother.”
I looked at him in shock; I couldn’t believe what I just heard. I’d forgotten that Dean even had a brother; he’d run away from home two weeks after Dean and his family moved to England. He wanted to stay in Seattle, because he’d got accepted to go to the same college that his girlfriend was going to, so he was devastated when he had to move here. He’d been saving up money since he knew he was moving so that he could get a plane ticket and go straight back. I’d only met him twice before he ran away but Dean still kept in contact with him more than regularly and I’d talked to him a lot when I was at Dean’s house. When I’d first met him, he had the same jet-black hair as Dean but cut much shorter, and his eyes were green, not blue like Deans, and he was only a little bit taller than Dean, even if he was 5 years older. But now, he looked completely different, he’d grown, and he was well over six foot now, and he’d bleached and grown out his ebony locks, right down to his shoulders, he had his eyebrow pierced, and you could see a flick of silver in his mouth when he talked, so he had his tongue pierced too, no wonder I didn’t recognise him.
“Andrew?” I edged on cautiously, his smile spread across his face once more to confirm I’d gotten his name right, he stood up to hug me but had to bend down a little because I was too short.
“Oh, it’s so good to see you again Jules. You’ve not grown very much have you? Dean’s told me a lot about you; things seem to be going well between you two, am I right? Huh?”
“Boy, you talk fast”
“Haha, it’s a gift, really,” He joked.
“Wait a second, how did you even get in here? You have to have a visitors pass.”
“No need to worry, little one, I got it right here” he ruffled my hair then unzipped his jacket to show a tag on his shirt that classified him as a welcome guest at our school.
“How did you manage to swing that?”
“Oh… I know people” He looked around the room being overly obvious.
“You didn’t sleep with a teacher did you?” I asked, only half joking. His mouth was hanging open like I’d said something terrible.
“Juliet! How dare you insinuate that I slept with a teacher at your school!”
“So no?” I enquired.
“Of course not.”
“Sure, sure” He looked at me with a cheeky grin.
We both laughed, and the bell went to go to form time.
“Oh hey I gotta go,” I told Andrew, “But hang around I’m sure Jake will be here sooner or later.”
“Alright, I’ll stay right here.” He sat back in the seat with another huge grin and averted his eyes to a passing teacher, he leaned back in the chair and nodded his head as my music teacher, Ms. Delise walked by, and when she turned around the corner he looked back at me.
“I’ll definitely be staying here” he grinned
“Pervert.” I rolled my eyes and headed down the corridor. I kept my cool until I’d turned the corner then started running. I was going to be late for class if I didn’t hurry
* * *
I entered the class, red, sweaty and flailing out of control, to just catch my name being read from the register.
“Juliet Blaqk.”
“Here, sir!” I panted, “I’m here.”
Mr. Payne eyed me curiously as I smiled at him and made my way towards my seat next to Catherine.
“Hey Jules.” Her singsong voice rang in my pounding ears.
“Hey.” I replied, coldly. Catherine had never been a serious friend of mine but I’d known her since primary school so it seemed spiteful to shun her out of my life now. Besides, her mum and mine were best friends; I couldn’t split those two up.
“How was your weekend?” her rich, curly, blonde hair dangled on her shoulders, and her long nails tapped rhythmically against the table while she waited for my reply.
“Fine.” I reduced my answers to one syllable as I was attempting to stop myself from looking like i'd just run 12 miles on a baking summers day.
“Oh.” Her response was monotonous “Well I went to a swimming gala, took home the gold, yes I did.” She smiled widely, showing the large gap between the two front teeth. “It was no competition to be honest, I beat them all in a landslide, I’d already started the second lap before half of them had done a quarter of the first.” She let out a short, unimpressed laugh. “My mother was so proud, her, my father, my brother and I went to the Plaza afterwards for dinner. Father even got the people in the restaurant to sing a congratulations song for me…”
I let her carry on talking about herself, while I zoned out. I was thinking about Dean and where he was. Usually he’d text me or phone me if he wasn’t going to be in school, so when Mr. Payne called his name in the register and didn’t hear a response, all I could do was give an apologetic shrug when he looked at me for an explanation. I didn’t like being out of the loop when it came to Dean, we’d always promised that we’d tell each other everything when it came to anything, so that just made me more worried about him. I’d grown to love Dean so much that being apart; not hearing his voice for one minute was sheer agony. It felt like I was in physical pain when I wasn’t near him. Even when I dreamed, anything that didn’t have him featured in it was a nightmare. Eventually, Catherine stopped talking about herself and I heard Sam’s name come up in her one sided conversation.
“…So anyway, how’s Sam doing? I saw you hugging near the front entrance today. What’s all that about?” she nudged me with her sharp elbow.
“Oh, shut up Catherine. You know I’m happy with Dean, and you know Sam’s my best friend. Leave off it will ya?” I scolded at her and she reacted with her ‘shocked’ face.
“Oh My Gosh Jules. I was only asking. Looks like someone’s getting a little defensive, eh?” She winked at me, and I just rolled my eyes trying to listen in on a different conversation about the maths homework some of the guys in our class were having, completely ignoring Catherine’s smarmy comments. “Just as well,” she started “I’ve had my eye on your guy for a long time, I might take my chances while I still got ‘em.” My head snapped back to look her in the face, and I could feel my face getting hotter.
“What, did you just say?” Catherine looked at me, confused.
“Ohhhh. Sorry hun, I didn’t mean Jake, nah, he’s not my type. I was thinking more along the lines of Sam.” An uneven pain hit my stomach, it felt weird, and I’d never had that kind of feeling before, not when I’ve been at my sickest. I let out a low slow groan and Catherine frowned uneasily.
“Hey, darling, are you okay? That didn’t sound healthy.”
“I-I’m fine.” I replied quickly, though my voice was strained and my eyes were still closed. I shifted myself upright again and opened my eyes although I still felt a bizarre discomfort in the pit of my stomach.
“Well, as I was saying, Sam, he’s un-attached right?” my stomach kicked again but I managed to whimper a forced “Right.”
She was smiling, obviously to herself, a smug, satisfied smile, that made me feel quite angry, for no apparent reason.
“Thanks, I’m gonna ask him today I think.” She tooth-smiled at me again, “I shall charm him with my feminine wiles.” She laughed at her own joke and picked up her bag and coat. “’Bells gone, Jules.” She called at me over her shoulder as she wandered through the classroom door.
I let out another forced “Right.” Picked up my own bag and walked out of the classroom, toward my locker in the East Corridor.
That might just be me though. Ha ha. 
Apart from thAt, this is very, very good, and I'd love to read more! 