Waves at once

Chapter 16

Kinda like Great Gatsby

"Are you okay?" Ellie ask and I turn to her with a raised eyebrow as we leaned by her locker "you just seem extremely tired lately" her words were soft and delicate as she watched me anxiously "and you have bags, which you never have" she adds quickly

"Yeah, I haven't gotten much sleep lately" I answer honestly as I move my glasses as I wipe my eyes "This whole Hunter thing is getting to me" I answer yawning and she tilts her

"Hunter thing?" She questions and I nod tiredly "Do you mean the Oliver thing?"

"Oh shit-yeah that" I batt my eyes a couple of times as I scramble to find the words as I attempt to organize my head again "Oliver,yeah"

"Have you spoken to Hunter since the whole situation... like properly?" She ask while we beginning walking in the direction of her class

"Not really, no" I answer quietly

"I think you should"She says "- look, I know you love Oliver, but have you ever thought maybe you like Hunter? I mean, I'm not his biggest fan, but I don't oppose your happiness" She adds in quickly as she waits eagerly.

"I don't think I like Hunter Elle" I answer easily through my teeth "Hunter and I are just friends. I feel nothing around him" the lie left my mouth so easily and freely, I almost believed myself for a second.

"If you say so... enjoy studying" she smiles as she turns off for her next class as I find myself at the library entrance. I sighed heavily as I walked into the warm familiar venue and head straight to he back, behind the bookshelves and isolated away from everyone in. I find a table and dump my bag onto, immediately unpacking  my text books  and notes.

Once I'm finally settled and the musics playing in my ears. My phone vibrates interrupting my early stages of studying English.

Dinner,Friday night?- Oliver

I didn't know how to feel. Emotions began flooding my stomach and my mind and I feel confused and disoriented. Did I actually want to see him, we had been fighting for so long, I almost forgot that I had a boyfriend. I don't reply to the message but rather put  my phone down as I continue highlighting and jotting down notes in hopes to ace the essay we had been tasked with writing.

"Hello Julie" a voice that had become foreign to me says and I look up, gently pushing my glasses up, to find Hunter smiling down at me.

"Hello" I answer quietly, surprised at his appearance. I hadn't seen him, and even if I did, I hadn't expected him to actually try speak to me

"mind if I join you?" He ask looking at the table that I occupied

"Of course not" I answer quickly moving away my thing as I began clearing out my things and making space for him. He chose the closeted seat next to me , just adjacent to my position.

"The Great Gatsby ... not gonna lie, still struggling with it" He states as he looks down at my notes while he pulls out his notebook

"Why? It's quite easy" I answer confused and he shakes his head

"To you yeah, but you're smart and just seem to get this whole academic thing" He chirps back at me and I giggle lightly as I continue writing down notes.

A comfortable silence falls between us as we both zone out into our work, not daring to disturb one another's mindset. It was sort of relieving to finally have him around, it was as if everything made sense and the world was no longer flipped around.

"Julie" He mutters quietly,shyly,as if he was afraid to disturb me.

"Hmm" I hum lightly as I wrote continuing to write my notes, not looking up at him 

"Can you please help me with this?" He ask gently

"Yeah,sure" I answer as I quickly finish my last sentence before looking up at him "what's the question?"  I ask as I bat my green eyes at him gently only to feel the face of his ocean blue eyes tug at my souls, demanding me to come back to him... as if I ever left in the first place.

"Why is Tom so worried about what Daisy said?" he ask and I furrow my eyebrows in confusions

"What do you mean?"

"Well, in chapter seven, Daisy talks about how Gatsby  looked cool and how he 'always looked so cool' right?" He looks to me, as if to see if I'm keeping up

"Right" I answer

"So, now that apparently meant that he loved her and Tom became all stressed. I just don't get it, why is Tom so worried suddenly" he said as he knitted his eyebrows together. I couldn't help but admire how adorable he looked when he was confused.

"Well how would you feel if you saw your girlfriend , or rather wife , tell another man they loved them in front of you"  I ask and he furrows his eyebrow's deeper

"But she never says 'I love you' she-"

"You don't have to actually say those three words to mean them. There a lot of ways to show or tell someone you love them" The words leave my mouth easily and gently as he watches me, scanning my face gently as he listens carefully. Suddenly the world between us seemed much smaller and we seemed a lot more closer.

"It' like when someone says 'message me when you arrive' or maybe they ask you if you're hungry... their not actually saying I love you but they're showing that they care, it's subconsciously them showing they love you" I explain "it's a subliminal message"

"No, I get that. But all Daisy says is 'you're so cool, you've always been so cool', how does that mean she loves him" he ask still not understanding

"It's also the way she says it, I suppose. She looked at him in a way that signified she loved him, her tone was probably in a way that signifies she loved him. Yes words are important , and we all speak the same language but we all have different implications and understanding y'know. Words are just words. It's the implication that matters" I say shrugging as if it was the simplest thing I'd ever had to explain ever. He's bright eyes watched me intently and I could feel the butterflies begin to fill my stomach as he watched me in such way, he stared at me as if I were a Goddess or some piece of art, he stared at me as if he'd never seen something as amazing before.

"So, if I looked at you and said 'you're so smart ... you were always so smart' that could be me saying I love you?" He ask gently as he watched me not daring to take his eyes off me for a second

"If you wanted it to mean that, it would mean that" I answer smiling gently back at him. And we meet eyes for a moment longer than I expected  and I could feel the waves of emotions come to shore as I found myself trapped in his exotic gaze. A wave had just hit me, but I could tell he too had been hit by this wave as an  array of emotions scattered across his eyes as he watched. No words were said, just us together, in the middle of what felt like outer space , living and breathing each other in.

And I knew , and not for one second did I ever doubt it , that Hunter Daniels just confessed to being in love with me.

I wasn't scared ,nor was I worried. I had felt calmer and more content that I had felt in a long time. I had felt so interested in his presence that nothing mattered anymore.

It was just us in the space of a library.