Walking a fine line✔️

21. Purely physical

After completing the high ropes course, we dropped off our ribbons then went to wait with the rest of the students who were slowly gathering outside the information centre. I spotted Ruben sitting on an empty bench and walked over to him and surprisingly the rest of my group followed.

"How did you guys do?" he asked.

I sat down. "Pretty good. I'm not sure about our time though."

"No thanks to you two," Brittney snapped at Griffin and I.

Ruben raised his eyebrows. "What happened?"

"Griffin almost fell off," I explained. "It took a bit of time to pull him back up."

Ruben laughed. "At least you managed to save him. A person from my group fell fully off."

Holly nodded as she sat down on a sunny patch of grass beside the bench. "We did witness a few slips happening."

Ruben reached down to his backpack and pulled out a bottle of orange juice. "Anybody thirsty?"

Griffin smiled. "I'm parched, yes please."

"Me too," I said for sake of appearance. I knew full well I would definitely not be drinking any of it.

Holly and Brittney also said yes and I glanced over at Ruben. Out of the corner of my eye he gave me a slight nod. It seemed we'd come to the agreement; in a prank war, the sacrifice of innocents was sometimes necessary, and this was a necessary moment. I inwardly laughed at what the girls had just unknowingly signed up for.

Ruben pulled out some plastic cups from his bag and began pouring the juice into them. "There we go," he said and I began handing round the cups, making sure to give Griffin his first. It was essential for him to take the first drink.

"Thanks princess." He gave me smile.

Brittney scowled slightly at the nickname he had for me. Interesting.

I grinned. "You're welcome."

I watched as Griffin drew the cup closer to his mouth. It was almost there, just a little bit further and—he took a sip and for a moment nothing happened, then his face crinkled up in disgust. He spat out the liquid. "This is disgusting!" His turned to me with an accusing gaze. "What have you done to it?"

"That is liquid mac 'n' cheese darling." I blew him a kiss. "What is it? 5:2 now? You really are behind."

He narrowed his eyes. "You are an evil lady."

I smiled innocently. "I thought you said I was a princess?"

"I take that back." He wiped the back of his hand against his mouth.

"You're a horrible horrible person!" Brittney interrupted as she stood up and practically threw her empty cup at me.

I turned to Holly to apologise for also getting her but she was laughing. "Thank goodness I didn't drink any."

"I was worried you would!" I replied.

"You're lucky you didn't." Griffin grimaced and put his cup down."I'm going to the water fountain to cleanse my mouth of this horror."

"I'm coming with you." Brittney looped her arm threw Griffins and began dragging him around the corner of the building to where the water fountain was.

I turned and high-fived Ruben. "That went perfectly."

"It did," he agreed with a laugh. "The disgust on their faces was priceless."

Holly giggled. "It was amazing."

"Noah and June will be sad they missed out on it," I said. "It's a shame they were put in the second group."

Ruben waved his phone. "At least I caught it all on camera."

I grinned. "Thank goodness you did, I totally forgot to."

"I didn't want to be murdered by June for forgetting," Ruben replied.

"You saved both of our lives." I tipped the 'orange juice' out of my cup then stood up. "I'm going to go fill this with water. Anybody want to join?"

Ruben nodded. "I'll come. Holly, you cool guarding the bags?"

She nodded. "Have fun."

Ruben and I got up and made our way round the building of the information centre only to come to a complete halt when we rounded the corner. My pulse began to race and I blinked but the sight before us remained the same.

Griffin and Brittney were kissing. He was standing there with his back to us while Brittney had her hands woven in his hair.
My stomach turned and I grabbed Ruben's hand, pulling him back around the corner before we could be seen. We quickly dodged into the information centre's shop and pretended to be looking at things for sale.

I could hear the blood pounding through my ears as Ruben finally said, "I thought Noah said they'd broken up."

"I thought so too," I replied whilst staring blankly at the hats for sale. "I can't believe that just happened."

Ruben grimaced. "I can't believe he's with her. I've seen her for maybe a maximum of twenty minutes over the last week and already can't stand her."

"I don't think he cares about her personality. It's not like he gets in relationships with people," I said, the words heavy on my tongue. "It's purely physical for him."

The sight of them kissing had stirred a horrible feeling in me and I didn't like it. I didn't like that Griffin was beginning to have such a large effect on me.

Maybe this situation was actually good, I thought as a stuffed toy monkey made eye contact with me. It was a reminder that Griffin was a player and I needed to stop giving in to his flirtations and smiles. He was only taking part in the prank war because he wanted to take me on a date to quite literally prove to me why so many girls wanted to sleep with him. That fact alone should have stopped me from getting even remotely friendly with Griffin to begin with, and yet it hadn't.

And that scared me.

I bit my lip. He was the same egotistical player who had collided shoulders with me in the hallway only a week ago, and I shouldn't have let him make me forget that. It was time to put away any playful feelings and focus only on winning the prank war. I couldn't let him win. The idea of going on a date with him now sent actual shivers of disgust down my spine after seeing him just kiss Brittney.

"Are you okay Ror?" Ruben asked as we got on the bus a few minutes later, ready to drive back to school. "The sight of Griffin kissing Brittney didn't scar you too badly?"

I nodded and sat down by Ruben, ignoring the seat that Griffin had just offered me next to him. "I just have a headache."

A/N:

I've never personally pulled the orange juice prank but I have had it done to me... as you can probably imagine, it was gross!

What's the worst thing you've ever tasted?

Vote and comment if you enjoyed :)

SouthernAlps over and out...