26So it has been forever... that's the understatement of the year. But look who just submitted something! This chapter was not as juicy as I expected it to be, but it's been a while, and keep in mind this is a first draft. Thank you for reading, and expect a new chapter sometime soon!
Garneau - Your review makes me smile every time I read it. (and I have read it more than once, haha) Thank you so much for putting so much effort into it. It made me excited all over again to be writing and definitely got me to submit this chapter and jump back into the writing game. Sometimes it takes me a bit to remember that writer's block is not nearly as big as my imagination. Ooh, and thanks for noticing the whole cell phone thing. I've been looking so closely at the rest of the story to make sure that I didn't mention her having a phone that I missed that one part! When I hit 2nd draft mode I will definitely fix that. You're a life saver.
Chapter Twenty: Swimming
Sunlight streamed through my eyelids and I groaned, rolling over. Was it time to get up for school already? I was exhausted… I must have stayed up late studying. A breeze drifted through my window and I shivered from the cold. Thankfully something warm was next to me and I could snuggle up to it, absorbing its heat. Then the warm thing draped its arm around my waist. My first instinct was to snuggle closer, but then I realized that warm things shouldn't have arms. In fact, why would there be some random warm thing in my bed in the first place? The only explanation for whatever it was having arms was that it was human.
Carefully I opened my eyes. The first thing I saw was a male chest covered in flannel. I let my eyes wander up to rest on Derek's face. Then I let my eyes leave his body all together and take in my surroundings. We were in a tent, and the cause of the breeze was the wind coming through the flap of it.
"What the Hell?" I shouted, startling Derek into consciousness and causing him to sit up quickly. Since I was resting on his chest this meant I came up at a very odd angle quickly as well. "Ouch!"
"Huh? What? Oh Trina, I'm sorry!" I wriggled out of his grasp, refusing to enjoy the fact that I was hearing his voice again.
"What is going on? Why am I here? What happened last night? Did you drug me or something!?" The events of last night rushed back quickly and I knew I must have been dreaming them. Or maybe I was hallucinating. Or maybe… or maybe… or maybe something…
"Trina, calm down, everythi-"
"Don't you dare tell me to calm down! Everything is not okay! How can you tell me that waking up in the arms of some jerk after driving and wandering through the rain for hours is okay? Oh God!" I looked down at myself, "Whose clothes are these? Did you change me or something?"
"No, no, no!" he threw his hands up in defense, trying not to upset me even more. "Jennifer was the one who changed you. Don't worry, we didn't wash you or anything; you're still covered in mud," as if I couldn't tell that I was covered in mud. It had all dried to thick layer of clay that coated my body. I felt like I had spent the night in a kiln. "We had to get you out of those soggy clothes though or you would have froze."
"Still doesn't explain why I was in here with you," I muttered, and he seemed relieved that I wasn't yelling at him anymore.
"You were obviously really cold, and I was worried about you," he paused for am moment before saying, "Trina… do you remember what happened last night?"
"Besides you guys leading me to the wrong location?"
"We didn't lead you to the wrong location. If you had just looked at the next step in the instructions you would have realized that you only needed to walk to the next clearing." I opened my mouth to protest but he spoke quickly and with volume, purposely cutting me off, "Do you remember anything else?" I frowned at him, but thought about it.
"Well… I was wandering through the rain when… there was this bright light and I felt all of this energy flowing through me and then I think I… oh… I passed out." I looked at him and he nodded.
"George said he heard some type of shouting going on over in the other clearing and so he and I went to go investigate the cause. When we got you, you were standing up like you had just been sitting down and you got this weird look on your face. Then you were struck by lightning. If George hadn't pushed me to the side, I probably would have been more than temporarily blinded. I looked back at you just as you crumpled to the ground." The side of my face throbbed a little as if to confirm his story.
"Struck by lightning?" I asked, looking blankly at him. I just had to laugh, it sounded so absurd. I was chuckling in chaotic spurts when someone walked to the front of the tent.
"How's she doing?" Josh asked before ducking his head down to peer into the tent? He saw the smile on my face and then looked at Derek. "Doesn't seem like she's doing so bad."
"I wouldn't be so sure," Derek spoke softly, his worried eyes never leaving my face.
"Hey Joshy, I was hit by lightning," I giggled and smiled up at him before my eyes rolled back in my head and I was surrounded by darkness.
When I opened my eyes this time I found myself alone. I was still in the same tent but, judging by the heat that had built up to an almost suffocating temperature, it was later in the day.
I practically peeled a blanket off of my body. The air was laden with hot dense moisture. Ick, nothing like waking up to humidity. As I crawled towards the now closed flap of the tent, I started to hear something that sounded like mosquitoes. As I warily unzipped the tent flap I realized, to my relief, it was only murmured conversation. I'm not sure why I worried, the mud on my body probably would have protected me from anything that could bite or sting.
I carefully poked my head out of the tent. All I could see from this angle was a semi circle of collapsible beach chairs around what might have been a fire pit. Although, at this point of the day, there would be no fire lit.
"What do you think we should say when the time comes?" I heard Jazz ask. She was leaning back in a hot pink cloth chair with her legs stretched out in front of her.
"We'll know when the time comes. She'll probably want some questions answered before we explain anything to her," Rex answered. It was weird, for some reason I never expected Rex to be able to speak about anything other than cars and sports. I guess I was wrong.
"I think the time might have come," Brent's voice came from around the corner. I couldn't see him at all and I was tempted to lean out of the tent even more to try and catch a glimpse of him. Good thing I didn't, because soon everyone had their eyes on me.
"Hi," I squeaked out before receding back into the tent. Why was I filled with such nervous energy all of a sudden? Up until now I had felt calm, last night leaving me with an empty, drained feeling. Taking in a shaky breath, I exited the tent, slowly rising to my feet. Everyone was quiet as I made my way to where they were sitting. Turns out the semicircle of chairs was actually a full circle of chairs. Everyone who normally sat at our lunch table was there. Jazz, Jennifer, Rex, and George were on the side. While Derek, Brent and Josh were on the side that I couldn't see earlier. I saw a chair between George and Derek, but decided against sitting. Being in front of the whole group was kind of intimidating. Especially seeing as I didn't even really spend all that much time with Rex, Josh, or George.
It didn't help that no one was uttering even one word. Josh nodded a little when I entered their circle, and Brent gave me a weak smile, but that was it. I sighed before turning to Derek. Even after our weird mutual freak out date I still felt like he was the person I was closest to.
"Uhm," I began ever so eloquently, "would we be able to talk... somewhere else... just you and me?" He looked at me for a moment, not hesitating, but almost as if he was seeing something he hadn't seen before. I wasn't sure how that was possible because besides the mud, nothing had changed since this morning.
"Sure," he spoke with a nod. I gave another sigh, this one of relief. I had almost expected everyone to just give me the silent treatment for a long time until I got fed up and decided to drive away. "Hold on a sec," he reached into his bag that hung off of his green mesh chair, and pulled out a bottle of sunscreen and bug spray. Then he stood and walked over to me. His eyes had fallen back onto me, and he still had that funny look on his face. "We'll be by the lake," he told the others and they actually responded with a few uh huh's and all right's. They were certainly a lively crowd this afternoon.
The walk to the lake was surprisingly not awkward at all. We didn't say anything as we stepped over holes and trudged through mud, but it was a comfortable silence. Eventually he sat down under a tree where there was miraculously only a small amount of mud. I joined him and didn't wait for him to speak.
"So, why camping of all things?"
"I don't know… I don't really have a reason. I guess it's secluded and I like the outdoors… I just really wanted to talk to you. I know you probably hate me right now, so I invited the others along. I wasn't expecting it to rain, sorry about that," I looked at him, but his eyes were trained on the rippling water in front of us.
"About the rain and well… Was I actually struck by lightning?" I was feeling unusually calm about all of this and it could be heard when I spoke.
"Yep."
"How… how is that possible? Shouldn't I be dead?"
"I think it might have something to do with your power."
"What exactly is my power Derek?" he turned his head when his name left my lips and looked at me.
"I don't know. Trina," he sighed my name, "I don't have all the answers. I think it might be electricity or something seeing as you basically shocked me on our date."
"About that… what happened? Why did you treat me so strangely?"
"I'm sorry about that Trina, it was really just bad timing…" I interrupted him.
"Wait, so you're saying that me discovering that I could shock people, maybe even kill them didn't come at a convenient enough time for you? That's why you basically ignored me? That's why you disappeared for a whole week and then sent me some mysterious invitation to go freaking camping?" My voice wasn't so calm any more, "That's why you send me out in the middle of a thunderstorm and I get struck by lightning? If I had somehow managed to fit into your schedule, would things have been different? Oh, well that makes a lot of sense Derek," his name sounded like something bitter in my mouth. I moved to stand up, I wasn't so sure I could handle this any more, but he reached out and touched my arm. Just this one touch was enough for me to sit back down.
"Trina, that's not what I meant," I looked up and into his blue eyes, trying to calm down, trying to understand, just trying. "Before I took you out I got in a huge fight with my brother Tyler. I've always wanted to try and live a normal life without the pressure of having to keep so many secrets. I would give up my powers in an instant if it meant I wouldn't have so many worries and responsibilities. Tyler on the other hand just loves using his powers and won't understand why I can't appreciate our "gifts" as he calls them. I didn't know about your power at the time, so I thought that maybe with you… I could just pretend to be normal. Don't get me wrong, that's not just why I asked you out or why I was attracted to you. So, when I found out that you had this power, for some reason it just seemed like I was trapped. It didn't take away any of my feelings for you at all, but it did make me angry and frustrated and sad all at the same time. I know I could of reacted better… but I didn't and I'm so sorry for that Trina.
"I know you're struggling a lot with what you're finding about yourself and it wasn't fair to have deserted you when I could have helped you find answers. Tyler said you found out that we weren't allowed to discuss our powers with people that don't have them. Well, I knew you had one and I could have helped you. I could have even taken you straight to my parents and they would probably have even been able to help you even more. I just freaked out… and I'm sorry…" he trailed off, his last apology barely even a whisper. I could tell he was beating himself up a lot about this and it made me feel a twinge of guilt. I probably shouldn't have yelled at him without letting him speak first… but I did deserve answers.
"Derek, I forgive you, for all of that. I don't hate you, and I don't even really think it's possible for anyone to hate you after getting to know you. The important thing is now you can help me out. I understand now that there's a lot more to you than just a teenager and that you have a lot of things that are weighing you down. I want to be there for you as a friend, and help you out some too." He let the hand that had been touching my arm fall to his leg, but didn't break eye contact with me.
"Just friends?" he smiled weakly.
"Just friends," I nodded, and then added, "for now…" I smiled and his smile grew. Right now I had way too much on my plate to consider a relationship with Derek. Well… I probably wouldn't stop considering it, but I was also realizing I didn't really even know who the real Derek was. I was going to have to learn more about him before I could fully trust him again.
"You want to go back?" he nodded back to the campsite. Although it sounded more like "You want to g-" because George suddenly came running down the small slope that ran down to the lake screaming one word at the top of his lungs.
"CANNONBALL!" he was wearing neon orange swim trunks and racing for the water.
"You idiot! It's only five inches deep when you first get in!" Jennifer shouted, running after him. Jazz was the next one down the hill, except she was walking slowly with Marci trailing behind.
"Hey, rumor is you two made up so George thought we would have a little fun," she looked at me first and then Derek. There was a squeal and we looked to see that George had stopped Jennifer mid-rant and was pulling her into the water with him. "You should join the fun!" Jazz smiled, bringing my mind back to where we were sitting, and then she too took off into the water.
"Do you want to go back up to the campsite and talk instead?" Derek asked, concern in his voice.
"No," I shook my head standing up, "I am tired of stressing out, and worrying, and most of all I am tired of being covered in mud. I think I deserve to relax for a bit before we start talking more about this. You do too, let's go for a swim."
"I knew there was a reason we're friends with this girl!" Jazz exclaimed, grabbing my hand and tugging me towards the water. Soon laughter and a playful atmosphere surrounded me. Maybe after gaining this information things didn't have to change for the worse. Maybe these people could still be my friends, and instead of doing the horrible things I had feared, they would help me figure things out. I knew that after these fun hours things would get serious. I also knew that now I wasn't going to accept half answers and rain checks. If things went right, I would have the explanations I needed by the end of this camping trip. Right now, splashing around in the water, it was easy to believe that there exists a time when things go right.
P.S. Reviews are the best thing since sliced bread! :)