romeo + juliet ↠ l.h

15

Blue eyes. Practically staring me down.

He's across the room but I feel like he's touching me.

"Hi guys welcome to the first meeting of the after-grad committee. I'm the teacher sponsor of the committee, but you guys will be making all the decisions. Any questions?" My favorite teacher, Ms. Jenson, informs us.

Me, Luke, and the rest of the committee, which  disappointingly included Josslyn, sat around a large table. It was 7:30 am, and I was sipping on an iced latte with extra espresso. I hadn't slept since I saw Luke this morning. So I didn't sleep all night.

Luke looked exhausted. The bags under his eyes were dark, and his hair was disheveled.

I still thought he looked handsome.

"Do we know our budget yet?" Jafari, the smartest kid in our grade, who was Yale bound, questioned.

"Not yet, I think Dr. Gibson will have that sorted by week." Ms. J informed us, "I want to take this meeting to get to know each other. I know you've gone to school together since elementary, but I just thought we could break the ice and really mesh so we could fully work as a team."

No one moved or spoke.

"Go ahead! Socialize." Ms. J pulled out a book and began reading it. Josslyn made the first move by moving her seat next to Luke's.

I wanted to punch her.

Sure, she had no clue of anything. She was just talking to Luke. They were obviously just friends. I shouldn't hate on another girl just for talking to the boy that I.... well, I don't know. And I definitely didn't hate her. Josslyn had always been somewhat nice to me.

But either way, I was jealous.

I turned to Mateo to ask him about Alice. They were official now, and I barely saw Alice anymore. She was with him all the time. I didn't blame her, Mateo was a really good guy.

"We're doing pretty good, I'm taking her to San Antonio next weekend to meet my family." Mateo told me. I was so jealous of their newfound love. I wanted that.

"So someone was telling me something interesting last week." Mateo hinted, then continued. "About you and Luke."

I choked on my iced latte.

Did he know? Did people know we'd spoken? Almost kissed? Snuck out? A million paranoid thoughts ran through my head.

There's no way.

"Wh-what do you mean?"

"That your families have some sort of century long feud and you're forbidden to speak." Mateo laughed. "I'm sorry I just think it's funny. Have you guys ever even spoken? Besides that time you set me and Alice up?"

"Not really, no. Unless we had to for school." I lied. I wonder if he could tell. I'm a terrible liar.

"That's bullshit," Mateo said, "I'm sorry. I don't mean to be a dick but I feel like nothing is that serious. Fuck your parents, you're gonna have to be friends if we're gonna work on this After-Grad together."

Luke and I made eye contact. Josslyn was talking his ear off. He slightly smirked. Was that directed at me? I knew it was for me when he winked, so quickly I wouldn't have even noticed if I wasn't staring.

"Emma." Jafari called out. I snapped out of my trance and turned towards my insanely smart classmate.

"Hi!" I chirped. Jafari made anyone's mood better.

"I already know you have so many ideas for this." he stated, "Want to share some?"

The truth is, I hadn't even begun to think about actually planning After Grad. My brain was very preoccupied thinking about something, or rather someone, else.