After Wonder

Chapter 15/I Love You

Just two days later, problems once again arose. Me and Julian were kind of surprised when Jack did not say a word to us in English. Usually, he would give us back handed compliments, insult Julian, roll his eyes at us, or try and upstage us. He didn't say anything though, and that kind of made Julian paranoid.

"I think he might be planning something." Julian whispered to me. I stared forward, being tempted to look back at Jack. I could feel his eyes on me. As more students filed into the room, I could feel Jack's gaze retreating. Throughout class, I wanted to look back at Jack, but being there with Julian made me forget about him. Then Julian left me and Amos at the gym, 

"I'll see you at lunch. Don't die in there." Julian said to me, 

"I don't want you to leave." I told him, standing on my toes to look him in the eye without straining my neck. 

"I know Auggie, but class is only 50 minutes." Julian said. Amos crossed his arms, rolling his eyes. 

"We get it you guys love each other! Now enough!" Then Amos pulled me into the gym, I held my arms out reaching for Julian as the door closed. I saw Julian walk away then turned to look at Amos. 

"Why did you say that?" I asked him,

"Say what?" He replied with another question. 

"The L word." I said,

"Love?" Amos said, "I said it because it's true." He then registered the panic on my face, 

"Wait.....you have told him you love him, right?" Amos asked very slowly. All I did was stare at him. 

"We aren't even exclusive." I said. "How could I?" Amos shook his head,

"We'll discuss this later." He said, "We have gym class to attend." Throughout the class, I tried to keep my mind off of Julian, but since Julian was not there, it was difficult. After class we had lunch. That was when the trouble started. Me, Julian, Amos, Miles, Henry, Summer, Christopher, and Charlotte all walked into the cafeteria together. 

"I didn't know that you had this lunch period, Charlotte." Julian said, "Why haven't we seen you before?"

"I tend to hang back. Since I do not have any other friends in this period, but I was not sure if I wanted to approach you guys." She replied. Part of me wanted her to leave, because I had an instinctive feeling that something was going to happen. That feeling had been there the entire day so far. The other part of me wanted Charlotte to witness what I felt was going to happen, so one more person could know about what was going on since school started. My eyes scanned the loud cafeteria, and I found Jack pretty quickly. He was sitting by himself, had a tray in front of him but seemed to neglect the food on it. We did not end up walking past Jack, but that didn't matter. Not long since lunch started, I heard some people chanting my name. 

"What the hell?" I asked. I looked at everyone else and they were all simultaneously confused.

"I have no idea." Julian stood up, looking to see why all these people I didn't know were chanting my name. He quickly sat back down,

"Do not go over there." He advised. I picked up my fork,

"Why? Is something happening?" I asked.

"Jack is causing a scene. Don't go over there." Julian told me again. Before I could say anything else, a random student walked up to me,

"Just humor him." She said, "This ought to be good." Then she walked away. I stood up, beginning to walk over, but Julian stopped me.

"Auggie.. please don't." He said. As an alternative, I stood on top of the table we were sitting at.