The Beauty and the Poet (And Other Short Stories)

The Beauty and the Poet Part 1

It starts on a sunny Thursday afternoon when the school's primary pretty-boy Jake Mars spontaneously walks up behind her and puts an arm around her waist.

To her credit, Julie manages to not instinctively elbow him in the gut, but she does still flinch rather badly, a sort of full-body twitch that causes Jake to squeeze her just a bit to keep her from jumping away.

"Okay this is probably really weird but I really need you to just go with it okay?" he whispers in a warm rush of air against her ear, and Julie tightens her grip on her bag in an effort to not twist away in surprise.

"I think I would be much more comfortable if I knew exactly what 'it' was," she hisses back, her voice steadier than she thought it would be; but then again, whispers have a way of covering up wavering tones. Julie refuses to look up, but she can hear Jake start to reply when he sucks in a sharp breath instead, and his hand slips down just a little too low. Julie has no qualms in forcing it back, even if it means it bunches her shirt up in the process. She quickly returns her hand to the strap of her bag, and Jake turns towards her with an unfairly upset look on his face.

"What do you think you are doing," she states more than asks in response to how his mouth twists down when he catches a glimpse of her own glare. Jake's eyes dart away momentarily towards some unknown person before flickering back to her face, but by then, Julie is trying to turn to see who exactly he'd been looking at. Jake lets out a rather undignified squeak, weaving his arm through hers, and actually physically jerks her away.

"Ow!"

"Sorry, sorry, just don't look okay? It'd seriously be best for both of us if you didn't look."

"Can I at least know what I'm not looking at?" Julie gripes. Jake briefly squeezes her arm with his own, although it's more likely an involuntary gesture than anything, and he lets out a slow sigh.

"It's my girlfriend. Well, ex-girlfriend. The breakup didn't go so great."

"What happened?" Julie turns her head slightly when he doesn't answer right away, and Jake instantly sucks in a sharp breath and forces her to keep walking away.

"She kinda hasn't accepted it happened," he says in a low voice, like he's afraid his new ex-girlfriend will be able to hear from however many feet away she must be by now. Julie casts her mind back to try and remember who Jake had been dating last; it's a small school, and Jake is popular, so it's never exactly any small secret who was dating who. In fact, the breakup must have been really recent, considering Julie hasn't heard any gossip about it.

"So the girl I'm currently not looking at is Annabelle Smith?"

Jake looks far more surprised than he has any right to. "How did you know?"

"Call it a lucky guess," Julie mutters under her breath. "So what do I have to with this?"

This question is apparently far more confusing than Julie thought it would be, because Jake just stares down at her, eyebrows scrunched together in clear uncertainty as to how he's supposed to respond. Julie rolls her eyes. Jake may be a remarkably pretty specimen for his gender, but for what he got in looks he tends to lack in brains.

"Believe me, you have my sincerest condolences that you and Annabelle broke up, but that doesn't explain why you had the spontaneous urge to grab my arm and drag me in the exact opposite direction to where my next class happens to be," she says. "I really do not think it's too demanding of me to ask you why."

Jake still looks a little unsure how he should be taking the question, but before Julie can attempt clarification again, he shrugs slightly and says, "Well, you were close by, and you're pretty cool so I figured you'd not freak out if I, uh, grabbed you." Jake pauses. "That sounded a lot worse than I thought it would now that I said it out loud." He scratches at his nose with his free hand, frowning slightly. "But in any case, you're also pretty, so there's that too." It's a compliment Julie isn't expecting, and she ducks her head down, cheeks flushing pink.