Homesick || Discontinued

4 - Water

"Dude, I got great news. Joey told me that Brad doesn't like MJ but her and said that she'd keep him away from MJ for the trip," I heard Peter say as he told Ned. I walked past the two to get my suitcase from Mr. Harrington since he volunteered to carry some students' bags out of the kindness of his heart.

But when I got mine, Brad appeared out of nowhere, showing his extremely white pearls. "Hey, you want me to carry that for you?"

Automatically, I shook my head as he tried to offer again, "don't you have your own bag to carry?" I point out.

"Yeah, but mines very light and from what I'm seeing, yours isn't," he pushes and I give in for Peter's sake.

"Fine," I say, rolling my suitcase handle over to him. He smiles before taking it and walks me over to the metal detectors. He goes first then I, and we walk over to the vending machines as we wait for the class. The distant noises of beeping going off pick up in my ears and I see Peter gets pulled aside to be searched with security.

"Hey," Brad starts and I look back, "you want a pop tart? I'll buy you one." He offers and as curious as I was to go see what going on with Peter, I stay, remembering that I made a promise to him. If I go over there, Brad might think I care about Peter and that will ruin everything. I will ruin everything. So I stay and Brad soon hands me a wrapped pop tart. And while I ate up, i texted Burnie that we landed to keep me occupied for the time being.

***

What the fuck.

"Come on guys, one at a time onto the boat!" Mr. Dell yells as we, students, inch our way to it in a line.

Okay, maybe I shouldn't have come on this because I didn't know we were going on a boat. Because if there's one thing I hate most it's water because I can't fucking swim. I've tried to learn but always fail and end up almost drowning. I felt okay when in the plane, flying over the ocean but now, it's a little too much. I mean, what if I slip and fall into the water and nobody helps me and I die. I will basically ruin the whole field trip and everybody would be traumatized. So maybe I should've thought before randomly deciding to pack for the trip. Just maybe, that could've been more reasonable.

Just don't look at the water too long and you'll forget it's there.

I, uncomfortably, feel Brad's hand grab mine as I step onto the boat. We're instructed to sit in the back so we do. I ask Brad if I can my suitcase back but he refuses and says he'll give it back when we're at the place we're staying at. I sigh and see Peter get instructed to sit in the back too, which I feel myself perk up as he approaches.

"Hey Joey, Brad," he waves and then faces me, "are you enjoying the trip so far?" I open my mouth to speak but stop when I feel Brad's hand grip my leg closest to him as he spoke for me.

"Oh, we're having a blast, aren't we Joey?" Brad asks and I show Peter my current expression as I am not having the best time.

He gives me a sorry look before taking his seat on the boat before we started moving. I turn to Brad, "Can you uh, take your hand off, please?" I ask and he retracts his hand.

The whole ride was quiet and I just watched as Peter watched MJ looking out at the front end of the boat, the wind blowing in her hair, the sunlight making her face shine. I get it. She was perfect for him. Her dark humor, her careless behavior, her confidence. I get it.

What I don't get is why Brad can't keep his hands to himself!

I look down to see his fucking arm snaking around my waist as the boat glided a bit roughly along the water at some point. I glared at him and he again retracted his arm away from me and kept it that way until we got to the docks.