One more thing I've learned the hard way about Jules; she gets startled easily if someone touches her shoulders from behind, and will not hesitate before whipping her head back to headbutt the person. That's a major example of irony when you think about it.
"Ugh," I moan, putting my hand over my forehead and the bridge of my nose. Jules gasps when she sees me. I hold up a finger. "I swear to God your skull is thick as hell."
She closes the locker door and pulls me away from the crowd. "I'm sorry about that," she says. She peels my hand away and takes a look at the injury. "All I can see is pink."
"Great, which opens up the possibility of bruises," I say, putting my hand back where it was. "I thought you don't do apologies."
"I don't. I thought that's what you wanted to hear."
I dismiss it with the other hand. "Got any painkillers somewhere?" I ask. When she shakes her head, I groan again. "You obviously were raised without any manners."
"And who decided to sneak up on me?" Jules looks at me expectantly. I don't answer; instead, I gesture to my forehead. "Okay, fine." She reaches up and kisses on the spot she smacked. "Better?" she asks.
"I still would rather have the painkillers," I admit.
"Of course you do." Jules takes a step to my right, but I stop her by grabbing her arm. I pull her back to her original place. "Is this the part where we play some sort of a tug-of-war? It's been a while since I played, but I'm pretty sure this isn't it."
A girl rounds the nearest corner and stops when she sees us. I would have pretended she doesn't exist, but it seems Jules would like some space from anyone at the school. A raised eyebrow later, the girl skitters back and leaves the scene.
"So," I start, letting go of her. "How was your weekend?" Note that I say this with a certain smile.
Jules chuckles. "Uneventful," she says.
"Is that supposed to be a good thing?"
"It should be. I got more than what I wanted." She then proceeds to pick up one of my hands and entangles my fingers with hers. "And speaking of getting what I want . . ."
Jules starts swinging our hands to and fro. She takes a step to my right again, and I follow this time. "What? You're not going to finish what you were going to say?" I ask.
"Callie, there's a quote, 'Actions speak louder than words'." She gestures to the hands. "This is an action, us holding hands. Do I really need to say anything?" Before I can open my mouth to answer, Jules adds, "No? Great."
I roll my eyes. "You're so childish," I say.
"And you're so shy." Jules glances at me. "Actually, you're not shy much now."
I decide not to say anything on that matter.
We walk towards the courtyard, still holding hands, intending on going through the thick crowd and go to our separate classes. Like what I expect from the people here, several have glanced our way, doubled over, and start gawking. Right, as if no one's been making jokes about me being Jules' girlfriend over time, I think.
One of the gawkers, it turns out, is the same guy Jules got into a fight with. "Look at this!" he says to a couple of guys next to him. "Junkie Jules finally got herself a drug mule."
I lean into Jules. "I thought the rumor was I'm hooking up with you for the drugs," I whisper.
"You used 'rumor' in your sentence," Jules points out. "Not a lot of good things come from the word."
Despite her earlier comment about how I act now, I'm starting to get anxious from the attention I'm getting from the several people. Slowly, more are starting to watch, but I think it has more to do with the guy, who's currently stirring up more trouble than he should be.
"Hey Junkie, since we uh, got interrupted last time, why don't we try and finish it off?" he says, more demanding than asking.
"Needed to make sure you could fight a girl before you upgrade to boneheads like you?" Jules asks. I flinch; she's using the neutral tone from before.
A couple of people laugh while the guy's facial expression doesn't change. He takes a step forward, separating himself from the rest. Someone grabs me by the shoulder and pulls me away from Jules' side. I turn around to see Annalee.
"What are you doing?" I ask in a low voice. The senior doesn't do much else than putting a finger over her lips. "That's unhelpful."
A smack and the crowd going "oooh!" gets me to whip my head around in time to see that the guy's holding onto a side of his face. Jules still has her fist up in the air, waiting for another opportunity to strike. "Who the hell punches someone's ear?!" the guy shouts.
Jules responds with, "Um, hello, me. Weren't you there when I did it?"
She steps to the side when the guy lunges to grab her. He grabs her shirt, however, and they both go down on the floor. The guy flips her on her back and sits on her. She shouts out something, but with the loud chatter from the crowd and the guy making some weird grunting noises, I can't hear much of what she's saying.
He attempts to punch her in the face, and Jules blocks the fist with her arm. She does the same to the other before shoving him aside. She kicks at him before she stands up, narrowly missing his crotch. Jules gets in position and waits for the guy to stand on his own two feet before she lands a punch on him again.
"Man, two fights in a semester," Annalee marvels. "Fife High hasn't had that in a while."
"How long a while are you talking about?" I ask without thinking. "Wait a minute, what am I talking about? I'm watching Jules fight again, and all I'm doing is ask you a fucking question about what you just said?"
Annalee winces when the guy manages to punch Jules on her shoulder. "Yep, welcome to high school, Callie," she says. "Damn, it'd be a miracle if he didn't dislocate that shoulder."
I bury my head in my hands. "Lovely," I muffle. It doesn't take long for me to watch the fight again, mostly because it feels like they'd roll their way into me if I don't look.
Jules, at some point, throws the guy to the wall. She puts a hand over his neck, the other still balled up. "This is for the nickname," she says, hitting him in the lower stomach. "This is for the rumors." Another punch lands on the chest. "And this is for your jackassary." She finalizes the combo with a wobbly punch on his nose.
As soon as she lets go, the guy bends at the waist, holding up his nose with the palm of his hand. He breathes heavily.
"Calm down, bitch," she says. "It's not enough to make you start bleeding."
Jules turns around to walk towards me, but out of the corner of my eye, the guy quickly 'recovers' and heads straight to Jules. "Move!" I order her.
She looks behind her too late, and the guy grabs her waist and they both fall to the concrete with a smack!, Jules face-down on the ground and him lying on top of her again. With her looking in my direction, I can see a look of pain to match with a couple of scrapes on her cheek and neck. He grabs her hair and is about to yank it up when someone in a janitor's suit emerges from the crowd and grabs the guy by the shoulder.
"You need to treat ladies better than that," he says.
Even Jules snorts. "I'm no lady."
"Both of you, to the nurse's office," the janitor continues as if Jules hasn't said anything. For someone from the staff breaking up a fight, he sounds weirdly calm. "I want you two to be as far away as possible in that room. I'll tell the principal what happened while the nurse treats those wounds."
He takes Jules by the elbow and helps her up as well. No one intervenes when the janitor leads Jules and the guy from the scene and through the crowd to get to the nurse. Not long after the three of them disappear, the crowd disintegrates into small groupings of friends and whatnot.
I haven't realized Annalee's been holding onto me. "I got it," I say. She lets go of me.
"What started it?" she asks.
"Jules and I walked out holding hands, and--"
"You're a couple now?" Annalee interrupts. I make a so-so gesture. "Ah, you're in that stage. And this led to the fight, how?"
"The guy saw us and challenged Jules to finish where they left off last time," I answer. "Everything went downhill after that." In case I haven't emphasize how steep the hill is, I make a very slant arm pose in front of her.
"Hmm." The senior crosses her arms. "Did she ever tell you the reason she got into that first fight?" she asks.
I shake my head. "No, why?"
"I dunno. Sounds like something you should know."
"Okay, Miss I Know Something And You Don't," I say.
Annalee laughs as she gives me a wave while walking to her friends. I check my phone, forgetting the time. There's not much for me to do next class, if I remember correctly from what that teacher told us yesterday. I doubt she'd care if I miss her class today.