Loving You

Chapter 3

Year 2014

“Maggie......wait up!!!” You heard a familiar voice behind you.

“Hey, Jammie. What are you doing here?” James had this big grin on his face when he saw your face especially when you called him by his nickname. By this time, he didn’t want anyone to call him Jammie, except you.

“You’re not happy to see me?” He pouted his mouth and you knew that he was not serious.

He’s not in the same school with you anymore since he’s in high school now and you’re still in middle school. You still had a few months left before you started your high school years.

“Of course, I’m happy to see you. I’m just surprised, that’s all.” You gave him a big smile and he could see your dimple on the right side of your face. He like to see your smile with that cute dimple.

“You wanna get some ice cream before we headed to your house?”

“I’m sorry, Jammie. I have some final team project today so I will meet up with Julius to do our project.” You could see the disappointed look on his face. But you couldn’t help it since the project was due on Monday and Julius, your teammate, said that he couldn’t meet up during weekends since he usually be out of town visiting his grandma.

“Hey, how about tomorrow we can get that ice cream together since tomorrow is Saturday?” You tried to cheer him up by making a deal to meet him tomorrow. It’s been awhile since the last time both of you got together. He’s been busy with his after school activities and so were you. Even you, yourself harldly saw Taylor unless it’s family dinner or an event that the whole family had to attend.

“Who is Julius? Why I’ve never heard about him before?” James look suspicious but tried hard not to look like one.

“What? Are you jealous?” You like to tease him this way because you like to see him blushing and his ears turned red. He looked cute.

“Wha.......Me? Jealous? In your dream.” He turned his face away from you and suddenly he saw this tall and lanky kid walking toward both of you.

“Hey, Meaghan. Are you ready?” He looked at James and quickly looked back at you.

“Yup, I’m ready. Oh, by the way. Julius, this is James. James, Julius. Okay, we have to go now. Sorry, Jammie. Tomorrow okay?” You felt bad a little to leave him like that but you had no choice since you really need to get the project done. Besides, he didn’t tell you that he would come to your school to pick you up, so it’s not your fault. But somehow, you still felt bad about it. “I will meet him tomorrow anyway, so it’ll do.” You thought to yourself.

>>> 

James POV

What am I feeling? Am I jealous of him? What’s his name again? Julius? Couldn’t be, why would I feel jealous? Maggie is like a sister to me, I shouldn’t feel jealous about it, right? Right. And what with that name that he called her, Meaghan? Tsk, I guess he wasn’t that close to her then. Well, she can do whatever she wants to do with whomever she wants. Why would I bother with that?

Aiisshhh, James. Get a hold of yourself. She’s like a sister to you and she treats you like one of her brother no more, no less. Although sometimes she pays extra attention to me. Hmm......aaahhh, I need to get rid of this thought. I should just go to Taylor and see what he’s up to.

>>> 

You were almost done with the project. Who knew that Julius actually was a good partner in doing this project. At first you thought that he would be a burden that he wouldn’t do his part, but you thought wrong about him. He actually a very responsible boy and you like to work together with him. Maybe next time you would ask him again, if he’s ever be in the same high school with you.

He talked quite often about his grandma to you. On why he and his family needed to go out of town every weekend to visit her. You found out that his grandma was living alone and all her children, except Julius’ dad, were living overseas. So, none of them were living near his grandma.

When his family moved to the city, his grandma didn’t want to come and live with them. She preferred to stay in her old house because she felt comfortable living there despite being alone. Luckily, she got neighbors that could look after her once in awhile so his dad didn’t feel so bad to leave her alone in the house.

Julius just moved to your city not more than two years ago. That’s why James had never seen him in school while James was still in elementary together with you and Taylor. But you often mentioned James name to him, how you both always played together during breaks and went home together with or without Taylor. So, when you introduced him to James awhile back, he knew who James was and he felt a little uneasy but he didn’t know why.

“Hey, Meaghan. Do you think one of this day, we can hang out together? Not just for project.....I mean....like.....you know, we can hangout in the ice cream shoppe or something?” Julius looked very shy and you could see that his face flustered.

“Sure, Jules. I would love that. By the  way, just call me Maggie. Meaghan sounds too formal.” Somehow he like the way you gave him a nickname. He felt special. Now he even felt flatter when you ask him to call you by your nickname.

“Awesome! How about next weekend?” He suddenly had the courage to ask you immediately.

“I thought you need to visit your grandma every weekend with your parents?” You asked since you knew about his weekend arrangement.

“Yes, but next weekend my grandma is going to visit us instead. So, I will have a free time to hang out with you.” Julius eyes lit up when he said those words.

“Oh, okay. So, next weekend then.” Somehow you could feel that your heart beating a little faster but since you’re still young, you didn’t know what it meant.  You just ignored it.

“Well, I gotta go, Jules. It’s getting dark and I don’t want to make my mom worries about me.” Julius walked you to the bus station and waited until the bus came. His house was near the school so he just needed to walk a few blocks.

“Bye, Jules. See you on Monday.” You waved at him before getting on the bus and he waved back at you with his signature bunny smile.