Letters Unsent

III

I didn't end up seeing Julia again until lunch. She came up to my lunch table in the cafeteria, and since she had come up behind me, I didn't see her. But Ned did, and he was sitting across from me. His mouth fell open as soon as he saw her and I got confused and looked behind me since he was looking over my head. I saw Julia coming over and stood up.

"What are you doing here?" I asked, trying to look like I was happy to see her because after all, she was my girlfriend according to the rest of the world.

"Can we go somewhere private?" she asked and I got very nervous.

"Yeah, totally," I said. I followed Julia outside to a picnic table up on a hill overlooking the soccer field. It was quite scenic.

"If we're gonna do this, we need to set some rules," she said, sitting at the table across from me.

"Sure," I replied. "But why?"

"Just so we have some ground rules of what this entails," she said, pulling out a notebook.

"Right," I agreed. "Like what?"

"Like... I don't really know how much we should be kissing," she stated.

"Why?" I asked, not that I was opposed to not kissing her. But I did... like kissing her.

"Because it's not real ya know? It might be a bit much," she said, so I just nodded. "But you are free to put your arms around me or hold my hand or something cute like... put your hand in my back pocket," she said. I furrowed my eyebrows.

"Hand in your pocket?"

"Yeah like in sixteen candles," she said. I still had a blank expression. "You've never seen sixteen candles? It's a classic," she said, shocked. I shook my head. "Ok, so that's going in the contract. You are watching sixteen candles with me," she said, writing it down under the clause about me being able to put my arms around her and hold her hand.

"Okay, sure," I said.

"Also you have to come to my soccer games and to parties with me," she said.

"Okay, then you have to come to academic decathlon," I said.

"Yeah, of course," she replied. "Also, we kind of have to tell my dad—not that it's fake—but I don't keep secrets from him so we gotta tell him we're dating," she said. And this idea made me very nervous.

"Okay, won't he kill me?"

"No, I mean. He doesn't like Ethan but that's because he's more of a 'bad boy'," she explained in air quotes. "He knows you and likes you so I'm sure he'll be fine with it," she said.

"Okay, then I also have to tell my aunt May," I said. I wasn't quite ready to get into my family history with Julia but it felt safe to mention that my aunt was my guardian.

"Of course, but no one can ever know it's fake, okay?" I felt my chest relax in relief that she didn't ask about my aunt. 

"Yeah, absolutely," I agreed.

"Perfect," she said to me. "What else?"

"I could uh... write you notes? Every day?" I suggested. Her face turned a little red.

"You'd do that?" She asked.

"Yeah. I figured it could, uh, make Ethan jealous," I shrugged. I kind of just thought it'd be a cute idea. I've always wanted to do that for a girlfriend. And I know it's not real but it could be cute.

"Yeah, okay," she said, adding it. "Oh, also. You have to come on the ski trip with me," she said. The ski trip was an optional trip in January that Midtown Tech had every year. It was also known to be the place to lose your virginity. I'd never gone. And the thought of going with Julia made me incredibly nervous.