Eli & Juno

21- Change

Something's wrong when I come to school the next day. I can feel it. It thrums through the hall like a human pulse, dragging everyone and their stares along with it. I can feel eyes on me, judging and burning me from all directions. But worst of all, the murmurs have stopped. You'd think that when someone is talking about you, they whisper. But not in highschool. They don't whisper. They eye you slientllas you walk down the hall to your first class of the day, and erupt into laughter when they finally pass you like you're some kind of check point to clear.

Something is wrong.

"What is it?" I hiss to Noelle as she slouches beside me. She gives a quick shake of her head.

"Not now," she mouths.

"When?"

"Later."

I sit fuming with confusion and anger all the way through what must be the most boring history class ever. I half expect smoke to be coming out of my ears. I can not even focus on the material because everyone is looking at me more than the board. Eventually I fake avid note taking so I can just fix my gaze on anything but my surroundings.

After class, someone pulls me aside.

"I'm sorry," I say, not looking to see who I'm speaking to. I need to get to Noelle. "I think you have the wrong person."

"Eli, I need to talk to you."

"Now is not a great time, Poe."I spare a quick look at him. "Later, okay?"

"We need to talk now."

"I have got to-"

"Eli." Poe, for the first time since I've met him his focus is trained entirely on me. I still. "Listen to me."

And then he tells me everything. My books stay numbly clenched in my hands as his words flow past me, barely making sense.

None of this makes sense.

How did this happen? Why did this happen? Why whenever I'm getting close to achieving the one thing I've ever wanted does it fall apart?

"Eli?" he asks carefully.

I shake my head, staring at my fake history notes. I blink tears at the page. A few fall, dropping between the lines and forming perfect circles.

Well, at least finally something I did is perfect.

. . .

(Juno)

"He found out."

I bury my face in my hands. "How?" I cross my fingers like I did when I was eight and had a big test coming up, praying that it was in a gentle way. Not by someone yelling slurs across the football field like what happened to me this morning.

"Poe told him."

I freeze. What the hell? "Did you find out why?"

"No," Zo says. "But I'm glad he did. Eli was going to have to find out either way. At least he got the opportunity to hear it from a friend."

"I wish Eli never had to find out."

"If we're making wishes, I wish none of those ever happened." Zo sighs. I saw their face when e thought I did it, and I saw em when they found out I didn't. E knew this kind of pain in a way I never would. I don't ask though.

"I don't know what to do."

"Find Eli. Show him this isn't the end of the world."

"Even if it feels like it?"