Chapter 13: Re-Union

I watched as Mr Garner walked away with Julia, he whispered something in her ear and she giggled, stirring me to get even more angrier or was it jealousy? God, this was frustrating.

I had no doubt that my eyes had changed color from their normal ocean blue to dark, given just how much I was feeling toward him. When Jess turned to look at me awed by the oh-so -amazing Mr Garner and his beautiful fiancée , she gasped when she caught sight of the difference.

''Are your eyes always like this?'' she asked confused. I blinked rapidly , trying hard as I may to calm myself down.

''I don't know what you're talking about.'' I retorted, hoping and praying that the deep breaths I was taking were calming my emotions down.

''I swear your eyes turned ... Never mind.'' she blew the thought away and I sighed deeply, relieved.

That was close.

''Let's go to class before we lend ourselves in detention for being late.'' I said, taking her hand and dragging her to our next class. We got to class to find a few students already in and we took our seats at the back of the class.

"Is it me or are you edgy today?" Jess asked after we settled down on our seats.

"It's gotta be you, I feel perfectly fine." I replied, pulling out my books from my bag. Edgy wasn't even word enough to encapsulate the ocean of emotions twirling inside of me.

"And the growl?" Her eyebrows went up enquiringly as she looked at me, she really was one curious cat.

"What growl? Are you okay?" I asked her, acting dumb.

"Never mind, I'm just...anyways, did you see her! Omg! I swear Mr Garner is one lucky man. I mean, did you see her? They're like so perfect together. He's like this goddess of a man and she's, well she's that." Jess practically squealed like a crazy fan girl over Julia.

"Goddess of a man? What does that even mean?" I did not like this conversation one bit.

I didn't know what to say, I just looked at her, keeping my fake smile on as she went on and on, raving about how beautiful Julia was and how she fit him perfectly because they were both beautiful people and they're going to have cute babies.

"But as weird as this may sound, there's just something about her. I know she's lovely and all that but something was off about her, like she..." Jess trailed off, not knowing what else to say. I couldn't even relate to what she was saying. For all I know, Julia could pass as an angel.

"Do you get what I'm talking about? She's just too nice to be that nice in like, real life. I don't know, I'm probably not making sense but whatever." she looked at me thoughtfully.

How was I suppose to even make sense of what she was saying when I was too busy trying to gain my composure? And in any case,if there was anything off about her,my inner animal would have sensed it or at least it should have.

"I don't know, maybe it's because she's English. I think they looked good together." I shrugged, the words coming out of my mouth like poison. They looked good together, how I hated admitting that.

"I know that...it's just that she seemed..."

"Quiet, reserved, withdrawn." I finished the sentence for her.

Admitting to myself that they were good together made me see the possibility of never getting a chance with him. Julia was a beautiful lady and I had no doubt that she made him happy, or at least he looked happy. I didn't want him to be happy with her.

"I don't know hey. Maybe it's just me, I know for a fact that Mr Garner would never marry her unless he's in love with her and that's what's important I guess." she concluded, like he knew him well enough to make that conclusion. I was about to tell her to drop the subject when the teacher arrived, commanding the class to order and saving my pity ass from anymore of Jess' analysis of the happy couple.

The class went by quicker than I wanted and before I knew it we were heading to the cafeteria to have lunch. My thoughts still occupied by our own earlier encounter with Mr Garner.

"Is it me or is today just plain boring?" Jess asked as we moved along the queue to getting our lunch.

"Is it just me or today you're boring?" I replied sarcastically turning to face her.

"Whatever, anyways what you gonna be up to this weekend? Nothing..." Jess poked me as we gathered our lunch and moved to one of the unoccupied tables at the far side of the cafeteria .

"Uhm was that suppose to be a question or a statement." I replied.

"A question...duh." she said rolling her eyes as we sat down. Her and Lucas on the other side and me alone on the one side facing them.

"Hey." We greeted Lucas simultaneously.

"Hello ladies, so what you on about?" he asked looking at me and smiling happily. I swear, his eyes lit up at the sight of me. It was flattering.

"Weekend plans buddy. Charles have nothing planned, right? ."

They both looked at me quizzically, waiting for my response.

"Yeah, got nothing. " they both looked at each other smiling wildly.

"Am I missing something here?" I asked, a little confused.

"Well,we're going clubbing on Friday night, and you my friend are coming with us." Jess stated matter of factly.

"Hell no! I'm not even eighteen yet." I had no intentions of spending my Friday night in some club with sweaty bodies surrounding me all night.

"Who cares if you're eighteen or not, as long as you look it." Lucas said.

"Ugh come on Charles, don't be such a baby." Jess reprimanded.

I was about to make up a lame excuse when I caught sight of someone very much familiar behind Jess. I could have sworn I was hallucinating or perhaps seeing a ghost.

"Oh my God! James?!" I stood up as fast as my feet would take me heading his way, practically squealing until I reached him. I couldn't believe my eyes, or maybe I could but couldn't for the life of me decipher how what, or rather who I was seeing could be standing right in front of me.

I jumped on him excitedly catching sight of startled faces around us, including Jess and Lucas confused stares. I think the whole cafeteria might have been looking at me like I was the crazy new girl.

"Jessica!? Am I dreaming?" He was as flabbergasted as I was, if not more.

"Oh god. What are you doing here?" I asked him after a long bone crushing tight hug and a few kisses on his cheeks.

"Shouldn't I be asking you that question?" he said smiling at me happily.

Could this day get any better? I was smiling so broadly I could feel the tips of my mouth touching my ears...or not. But This. Was. Fantastic.

I turned to see Jess and Lucas approaching us, their baffled selves not making sense of why I was jumping with joy at the sight of James.

"Er, how do you know James?" Jess asked once they were standing beside us, obviously still confused.

"It's a really long story..." I replied and looked up at James, who was now holding me tightly around my waist. He was dumbfounded, smiling relentlessly, speechless and who could blame him? He was practically pressing me closer to him as I stared at him, just to make sure I wasn't dreaming.

" Oh James." Involuntarily, I went in for another hug and couldn't help but just rest my head against his chest. My god, how I missed this guy.

I couldn't help but notice how Jess was now...nervous? And Luke was, astonished and didn't look too happy when James didn't take his eyes off of me.

What's up with them?

" Should we maybe sit down?" James asked and I nodded enthusiastically. I didn't want to let go of him and so I kept my arms wrapped around his waist as we followed Jess and Lucas back to our table.

As my eyes drifted past Lucas, I noticed that everyone was now back to their business, clearly over my fan girl tactics from earlier on. I caught sight of Mr Garner staring at us as he was grabbing his lunch. Was that a frown or was he just grumpy because hadn't had lunch? I couldn't say for sure, but my instinct let me know it was probably the former.

I ignored him and turned my gaze to James, my ex boyfriend from back home. The guy I once loved and clearly still loved by the way my heart was thumping inside my chest at the sight of him.