The Square root of falling: A Brazos High Novella

by Sparling, Amy

  “Yeah?” I say, feeling relieved that she doesn’t hate me.

  “Yeah,” she says softly. “Friends.”

  Then my heart cracks open just a bit. Friends. That’s not what I want to be with Jules. I want to be so much more than that. The rain pelts against the window, loudly drowning out my thoughts. Thunder rolls through the sky, and the entire building sounds like it’s being attacked by a mega-villain rainstorm. Jules and I sit quietly for a long while, just listening to the rain. And then something happens in me. A shift, a change in my entire heart. I don’t know why, but suddenly I feel like I can’t keep this to myself. I can’t just sit here, content with being friends.

  “Jules… I like you,” I say. My voice fills the small room, my words drifting across all of this silence that had been settled between us. And once I’ve started talking, I realize I can’t stop. “I really like you. I like you as more than a friend.”

  I glance over at her, but the sky stays dark, no lightning to show me a hint of what she might be thinking right now. Doesn’t matter. I’ve started talking and now I’m going to say everything I want to say. If she hates me when it’s over, then oh well. At least I would have been able to say what’s on my heart.

  “Jules… the thing is… I’ve never had a girlfriend.”

  I hear her gasp in the darkness, and it makes me snort out a sarcastic laugh. “Yeah. I’m not lying. It’s the truth. Everyone thinks I’m so popular and… well, you know. They just assume I date a lot and the truth is that I never have.”

  “Why are you telling me this?” Jules says.

  “I don’t know. I just wanted you to know the truth.” I run a hand through my hair. “I really like you, and I should have asked you on a real date and not to Oliver’s stupid party. I just have no idea what I’m doing when it comes to dating.”

  “In the name of embarrassing confessions…” Jules says softly. “I guess I can tell you something, too.”

  My heart skips a beat. “Please do. Make it extra embarrassing, please. I’m mortified over here.”

  She laughs. “Well, how’s this for embarrassing… my boyfriend dumped me last year and broke my heart and made me so sad that I promised myself I wouldn’t date anyone this year. And then I somehow get seated next to the hottest guy in school, and Mr. Casey forces us to be friends and well…” She heaves a sigh. “Somehow, I stupidly got a crush on you.”

  “And that’s bad…?”

  “Yeah, it’s bad!” In the shadows I think I see her throw her arms in the air. “I can’t have a crush on any guy this year, and I really can’t have a crush on you.”

  “Why?” I ask. “What’s so wrong with me?”

  “You’re the hottest guy in school.” She says it like she’s saying my yearbook superlative title and not like she’s just calling me hot. “I can’t crush on you. You’re way out of my league.”

  “Jules, you are so in my league.”

  She goes quiet for a minute. “I don’t know what to say.”

  “Why can’t you crush on me?” I ask. “I mean… if it wasn’t for my stupid looks?”

  “I can’t crush on anyone,” she says. “I refuse to get hurt again.”

  “What if I won’t hurt you?”

  Lightning strikes outside, and it’s one of those long ones that light up the sky for about five seconds. Jules looks over at me and our eyes meet, sending a bolt of another type of electricity right through my body.

  “Jake…” she says softly. “I don’t want to get hurt again. I don’t want to crush on the most popular guy in school. I don’t want to feel as bad as I felt when Trevor broke up with me last year. I just can’t deal with that kind of pain again.”

  I reach over and take her hand in the shadows. “What if we just trust each other?”

  “Jake…”

  “I’m serious,” I say, squeezing her hand. “I really like you. I like everything about you. I know it’s probably a weird thing to date me with my stupid popularity but I’ll do whatever it takes to make it easier on you, I promise. I really, really wish you’d give me a chance. I promise I won’t hurt you.”

  “And what if I hurt you?” she says.

  I trace my thumb across her palm. “That’s a risk I’m willing to take just to know what it’s like to be your boyfriend.”

  I hear her gulp. “Are you asking me out?”

  “Yes,” I say. “Sorry I’m doing such a bad job of it.”

  She sits up on her knees and scoots closer to me. “You’re not doing a bad job. I kind of like this whole honesty thing.”

  The lights come back on and suddenly I’m staring into the eyes of the most beautiful girl. And I’m still holding her hand. She reaches out and takes my other hand. And then I kiss her.

  Epilogue

  Jake

  Two weeks later

  I squeeze Jules’ hand as we walk through the hallways of Brazos High School, making our way toward Mr. Casey’s first period math class. All around us, girls are watching her, and me, and us. It’s like the entire school can’t get over seeing me with an actual girlfriend after years of only hearing about my supposed female conquests. With the way some people watch us, you’d think their heads might explode off their shoulders any minute now.

  “I’m sorry about the stares,” I whisper.

  Jules shrugs and smiles up at me. “I’m used to it by now.”

  “You are the greatest girlfriend on the planet.”

  Jules rolls her eyes and takes a sip of her coffee. “Until you’ve dated every girl on the planet, you can’t exactly make that statement. You have no idea if it’s true.”

  “I don’t want to date every girl on the planet.” I lean over and kiss the top of her head. Now that Jules is officially my girlfriend, I get to do all the cute things I’ve always wanted to do—like kissing her head. “I just want to date you.”

  She makes that little grin that always sends my heart racing. It’s a look she only gives to me, and it’s part bashful, part flirty. It’s one of my favorite things about her.

  “Oh my gosh,” Abby says sarcastically. “Would you two stop doing that looking longingly into each other’s eyes thing? It’s so annoying to those of us who are single.”

  I know she’s mostly playing with us, but I’ve also been in Abby’s shoes before, watching all the happy couples around you and wishing you were also part of a happy couple. I feel bad now.

  “Sorry,” I say.

  “It’s fine,” Abby says with a sigh. “I’m happy that you make Jules happy.”

  “You just need to start dating one of Jake’s hot soccer friends,” Jules says, wiggling her eyebrows at her best friend. “Then we can all go on double dates.”

  Abby’s tanned cheeks turn pink. “Yeah, right. A hot soccer guy won’t like me.”

  “Yes they will! I bet all of his friends would like you.” Jules turns to me. “Right?”

  “Well… I’m not sure you’d want to date some of the guys on the team…” I curl my lip, thinking of that party the guys threw before school started. “Some of them are total players I wouldn’t trust around any girl. But some of them are good guys, too.”

  Abby sips her coffee and then stops when we reach Mr. Casey’s classroom. This is where she leaves us each morning. “We are so not talking about my dating life right now. That is way too embarrassing.”

  “Fine, we’ll talk about it later,” Jules says.

  Abby rolls her eyes and then walks away. In class, I slide into my desk right next to my desk partner, who is now my first girlfriend ever and also favorite person on earth. When the class begins, Mr. Casey walks right in front of my desk, a big grin on his face.

  “Everyone,” he says, projecting his voice across the classroom. “I am proud of what everyone has accomplished so far this year, but I’d like to take a second to point out that this partnership right here—” He holds out both hands toward Jules and me— “has scored the first ever one hundred percent on an exam in my class. Congratulations,
you two.”

  Some of our classmates make sarcastic comments, and a couple of them clap for us. Most people don’t really care, despite how much Mr. Casey tries to make everyone care about his class, but that’s just the nature of being in high school, I guess. Luckily, he doesn’t make us the spotlight for too long, because after that announcement, he turns around and walks back up to the whiteboard to begin his new lesson.

  “Wow,” Jules says to me. “We’re amazing.”

  “Yes we are,” I say, winking at her. “We’re the best.”

  * * *

  Thank you for reading The Square Root of Falling! Book 2,

  The Enemy Hypothesis! Releasing November 2019!

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  About the Author

  Amy Sparling is the bestselling author of books for teens and the teens at heart. She lives on the coast of Texas with her family, her spoiled rotten pets, and a huge pile of books. She graduated with a degree in English and has worked at a bookstore, coffee shop, and a fashion boutique. Her fashion skills aren't the best, but luckily she turned her love of coffee and books into a writing career that means she can work in her pajamas. Her favorite things are coffee, book boyfriends, and Netflix binges.

  She's always loved reading books from R. L. Stine's Fear Street series, to The Baby Sitter's Club series by Ann, Martin, and of course, Twilight. She started writing her own books in 2010 and now publishes several books a year. Amy loves getting messages from her readers and responds to every single one! Connect with her on one of the links below.