Authors: Michele G Miller
Katie’s just reached Jeff at the bottom of the steps when she stops and hollers back, "Yeah, we should."
"I've been in the mood to watch something old school...maybe some Buffy." Jules holds her breath the moment it comes out. Katie looks mildly confused, but nods her head in agreement.
West, on the other hand, isn’t confused at all. He turned away from them, Jules suspects to try to be indifferent to her, but the moment she says ‘Buffy’ his head snaps her way and his signature grin breaks out across his lips. He tips his head her way and she lifts her hand in a small wave. Luckily Katie and Jeff are standing there, and she plays it off as if she’s communicating with them.
"Are you ready?" Stuart calls after her, and she slides into her seat with a smile.
"Sorry."
"We're here."
The car door slams shut, shocking Jules out of her silent reverie. She looks up to discover they are already parked in the driveway at the Daniels' large house. She was so consumed with her thoughts, she barely noticed the drive over. Stuart rounds the vehicle and pulls the door open for her with a bow. They didn’t speak a word on the drive over, and she feels guilty for ignoring him.
"Thank you." She tries to smile as she pulls herself from the car and starts to walk towards the front door.
"Hey." He reaches for her arm, pulls her into his chest and moves his hands up her bare arms to snake around her back. "You were awfully quiet on the way here."
"I know, I'm sorry...it's just been a lot to deal with."
"Jules, I'm not complaining." He sighs and pulls her into a light hug. "I'm here for you. If you want to talk or whatever...I love you."
She can’t speak past the lump in her throat, so she presses a kiss to his neck instead and lets him hold her for a few minutes.
"Come on."
She follows him inside and they come upon his parents sitting in the kitchen talking. His mother is a typical California girl; long, wavy blonde hair, blue eyes, fit body from all of her personal training sessions. The Daniels have money
—
lots of it
—
and Mr. and Mrs. Daniels ooze privilege. They have always been sweet to her and never act snobby, but they’ve always looked a bit out of place in this small Texas town. Typically the more affluent families dress in casual, but expensive clothing, but the Daniels seem to find it hard to ever dress down.
Even sitting here changed from the funeral from earlier, Mr. Daniels looks ready for a country club party, and while Stuart's mom wears a little velvety track suit, she is all blinged out equivalent to one of the Real Wives of O.C.
"There you two are." His mom stands up as they walk into the kitchen; her little kitten heels clicking on the tile floor. "Did you get stuck in the detour traffic?"
She goes to the stove and stirs some type of sauce she has simmering in a huge pot. The kitchen smells heavenly, and Jules takes in the salad fixings on the counter and bread sitting on a pan ready to go in the oven.
"You're staying for dinner, aren't you, sweetie?" Mrs. Daniels asks over her shoulder.
"Of course she is," Stuart answers for Jules, and his arm goes around her waist protectively. "Right?"
A wave of dizziness runs through her and she leans into Stuart; lifting her palm to her temple. It has been an exhausting day and she really wants to lie down, but the look on his face keeps her from saying no.
"Sure, I'd love to stay." She smiles weakly and Mr. Daniels frowns.
"Stuart, why don't you two go relax on the couch until dinner? Jules looks a little pale."
She starts to shake her head and protest, but Stuart immediately takes action.
"Can I get you something? Is it the concussion?" he asks; concern clearly written across his tan face. "Remember when I had that mild concussion last summer? It made me sick for weeks. I should have thought about that before."
"No, it's alright. Can we go sit down though? I'll feel better then."
"I'll bring up some Sprite, sweetie," his mom calls after them, as Stuart guides her upstairs to the media room.
Jules lowers herself onto the huge couch gingerly, pulls her legs under her and closes her eyes.
"Why didn't you tell me you felt so bad?"
Stuart sits next to her, and her body shifts as his weight causes the couch to sink below her.
"Come here." He pulls her into the crook of his arm and chest, and she works to keep her heavy eyes open.
"I'm sorry. My head feels so heavy. I'm so tired," she mumbles, before snaking her arm around his waist and snuggling into his warm side.
"Doll, you have a concussion. You need to rest. I should have taken you home."
"No, no
—
I want to be here with you." She yawns before adding, "I feel like I'm losing you." The words come out in a tired mumble, almost absentmindedly. She probably never would have said them if she didn’t feel so rundown after the funeral. If Stuart thinks anything about what she said, he doesn’t allude to it. She feels him shift as he props his feet on the footstool in front of him.
"We'll chill for a bit." He sighs. "Rest, Jules. I'm not going anywhere."
"Tell me about you and Stuart."
Jules shakes her head. Her eyes keep closing on their own, but she wants to keep them open.
"Come on…don't pass up this golden opportunity to gush about the amazing Stuart Daniels."
"You don't sound like you really want to hear about him."
"Ha!" She faces him, lying with her head resting on his bicep. Their faces are so close she feels his laughter blow over her. "Of course I do. Tell me."
"Tell you what?" she mumbles, confused.
"About your boyfriend."
"There’s nothing to tell."
There is a cracking sound amongst the boards around them, and then a loud snap sounds and dust falls onto her face.
"Oh no," she moans as she hears debris shifting around them. West's hand comes up and covers her head as they squeeze closer together.
She hears voices yelling for them on the other side of the basement, and West answers the frantic shouts.
"We're good!" She hears Lola's cries and wonders what is going on out there.
"Do you love him?"
"What?" Her thoughts are so muddled. It’s like she is looking through a glass window covered in dirt, and every time she wipes it clean, another puddle splashes up and covers it with more grime. She gets one moment of clarity and then splash! Confusion.
"Do you love Stuart? You've been together forever."
"Yeah, I love him." Something nags at her the moment the words leave her lips. "No."
"No?"
"Yeah."
"Jules, I'm used to chicks confusing the hell out of me, but you’re winning by a landslide right now."
When the wreckage shifts, he pulls her closer and puts her head right under his chin. As he speaks, his breath sweeps across her cheek and tickles her ear.
"I mean that if I'm honest then yeah, I love him, but I'm not
in
love with him
anymore."
"Since when?"
"I don't know...it's been a while, I think."
"Then why are you still with him?"
"I don't know; he loves me. He's good to me, and like you said, we've been together forever."
"That's stupid."
"Excuse me?" She jerks her head back and knocks into his chin.
"Damn girl, stay in one spot." His pained grunt fills their little hole.
"Can I punch you when we get out of here?"
"If we get out of here, Buffy, you can do whatever you want to me."
"If?"
"I meant
when
. Don't get your panties in a bunch."
"Wow, you're a charmer," she mumbles; not sure how their conversation turned from civilized to strange and sarcastic.
"Oh, I'm sorry, cheerleader. Did you want me to be charming?" His voice slips into a low tone, smooth as milk chocolate, and Jules shivers at his breath touching her face again.
"No."
"Jules, sweetie?"
The memory of her conversation with West fades as she hears her name.
"Jules?"
"Hmmm?"
"You've been asleep for three hours."
Jules stretches. Sometime while she slept someone placed a blanket across her, and she is burning up now. She kicks her leg out from under it and pushes herself into a sitting position.
Pushing her hair back from her face, she looks at Stuart. He’s shifted into the corner of the couch, though his legs stretched out before him, resting on the stool. His arm is wrapped around her shoulder. He’s watching the sports network and she smiles to herself because it’s such a normal thing to do.
"Oh my word, I'm so sorry. I've been horrible company." She stops herself from commenting on how terrible of a girlfriend she's been as well. Telling West she doesn’t love Stuart, whether there is any truth to it or not, isn’t right. It isn’t fair to tell someone else how she feels about her relationship if she isn’t able to tell Stuart first.
"Don't apologize, it was nice holding you. I...I'm going to miss it."
"Miss it?" Thinking he is referring to next year when he goes away for school, she smiles. "We've got, what
—
nine or ten months until we need to worry about that."
"Actually." He sits up and pushes the footstool away so he can place his feet on the ground. "Remember I told you I had news?"
"Yeah?"
"Turns out that with the tornado, school and football are all screwed up here. The Board doesn't know where Hillsdale students will end up, and regardless of what they decide for the school, the sports program for this year will be pretty washed out."
"How do you know this?"
"My dad talked to several members of the Board. Apparently they are considering re-zoning our school while they rebuild a new one, especially since school hasn't started yet. It would be easier than to try and find one large location for us all."
Jules remembers the conversation with her parents the day before about the same thing, and agrees it would make the most sense. She knows right away of several friends who will end up at another school because they live across town, and frowns. Stuart will most likely end up at a different school, too. The Daniels live closer to Robinson High School than they do to Rossview, which is barely outside the city limits from her neighborhood.
"My parents and I met with the coaches at South Houston while we were visiting my grandparents..."
He trailed off; his hand reaching off the back of the couch to skim her shoulder, and she waits for him to explain what he is talking about. She can sense his hesitance to continue, so she sits forward and raises her brows as if to say, 'and?'
"Um, they offered me a spot on the team. It's already been cleared by the school system."
"What are you saying, Stuart?"
"Jules, my mom is seriously freaked out by all the damage here. So when we realized I might have to forfeit my senior year of ball, Dad made some calls. We're going to move to Houston and live with my grandparents."
"You, what? Why, what...I don't know where to begin." Rubbing at her temples, she watches as he leans forward and tugs on a thread from his slacks while she moves to calm herself. "It's our senior year."
"What does that mean anymore? We don't have our school, Jules. I can't play ball here."
"Ball? Seriously? Stuart, you're already locked in at USC. There are other things besides football."
"I know that, but you also know how important this year is for me. I can't sit a whole year out. I need to play, develop and get ready for college."
He’s right, she
does
know how important it is to him. She grew up with football. She's never given him crap about the time he devotes to it, and she’s not about to start now. "You're serious? You're really going to move?"
"It's only three hours away. Nothing has to change with us. I mean, we can make it work. We were going to have to do it next year, anyway."
"Were we?"
Seventeen
"We talked for a while that night. I'm not going to bore you with all of the details, but let's say the future of us…the things we thought were going to happen our senior year? Well, those things became just another casualty of the Tyler twister of twenty-fourteen."
"I left Stuart's house pretty late; my heart heavy, yet hopeful. I recall taking the back roads home that night, and my thoughts kept circling back to West. He’d been on the fringes of my life all that week…showing up at the house and at funerals, making his presence known at just the right time. His touch comforted me whenever I felt as if I was going to lose it."
Tugging on a strand of hair tickling her collarbone, Jules twirls the hair around her finger.
"At Tanya's funeral, I flung myself into Stuart's arms the moment I saw him. I thought it was love that made me so happy to see him; to seek out the comfort he provided when he held me. But as I drove home that night, I realized I was finally ready to admit the truth."