A Million Trillion Billion (What's Eating Gilbert Grape Fanfic) *ORIGINAL*

Chapter 6 - Do You Like Bats?

I sit up in my bed, and anxiously look around. I get frightened when I see I'm quite far from the ground.
A head pokes out from under me. "Morning!" Says Becky. I sigh with relief, and remember where I am. I grin wildly, I'm sharing a room with Becky, in Gilbert's house! How insane is that! So awesome!
I trod downstairs and skip happily into the kitchen, humming to myself. "Gee someone's happy this morning." Amy says, chuckling. I blush. "Oh man I didn't know anyone was standing there." I say. "Ah, go ahead, it lights up the mood." Amy says, gesturing her hands upwards.

After breakfast, a shower, and an hour of homework, I head into the living room and collapse on the brilliant new couch.
I sigh heavily. "Janie! Janie!" I can hear Arnie behind me. I sit up, laughing. "Yeah Arnie?" I ask, turning around to face him. "TAG! YOU'RE IT!" He exclaims bursting into laughter and racing out the door. I playfully roll my eyes and toss the TV remote back onto the couch. "YOU CAN'T RUN FROM ME!" I yell excitedly, as I leap up off the couch and follow Arnie outside.

After about 10 minutes of running, I finally catch Arnie. Or more, I run out of breath and he holds his hand out for me to tag as I sit pathetically underneath the tree. "You got me good Janie." Arnie chuckles. "You bet I did!" I say, sarcastically, laughing.
Arnie grabs my hand and pulls me up, telling me to follow him up the tree. I nod and start to climb. We sit on our favourite branch on the very top. "Such a nice view. Don't you think Janie?" Arnie exclaims, flicking his nose. "Yep. I definitely agree Arnie." I say, nodding. "You know one time when I was up here hiding from Gilbert I saw a bat." Arnie says, impressed with himself. "Really? Where?" I ask, in wonder. "Right here!" Arnie makes a bat with his hands and claps them right beside my ear. "Ahh!" I exclaim, laughing, as he tickles my ear, and he laughs too, continuing to make the bat fly.
"I like bats a lot, do you like bats Janie?" Arnie asks, still mimicking the bat with his hands in the air. "I sure do. They're such beautiful creatures." I say, dreaming of a family of iridescent fruit bats soaring through the pitch black sky. "Just l-like you Janie." Arnie says, and I turn to face him, his eyebrows raised, cheeks slightly flushed.
Before he can say anything else I place my left hand on his neck, slamming my lips onto his.
I am surprised with delight when he falls into the embrace and so softly kisses me back.
He ever so gently places his hands on my lower back as I wrap my arms around his neck, passionately pressing my lips to his.
I pull away, furiously blushing. "I-I-I love you J-Janie." Arnie stutters slightly and pulls the same expression he did just before I kissed him. "I love you too Arnie." I whisper, looking down at the few inches of tree branch that separates us. I know I'm telling the truth, but all the same I'm so confused.
How can you fall in love with someone you've only know for 2 or so weeks?
How is it possible? I've never been in love before. Sure, I've had a boyfriend, kissed a few guys, but nothing like this.
It sounds cheesy, and cliche, but I think that I am in love.
I climb down the tree after Arnie, and follow him inside.
"Ooh! Full house is on!" I exclaim with excitement. "I love Full house Janie!" Arnie's eyes light up.
Arnie dives into the couch, and I sit right beside him. I gently lock my fingers with his, putting my head on his shoulder. He tucks my fringe behind my ear and grabs the remote, turning the volume up.

That afternoon, I'm sitting in the basement with Gilbert and Amy, as we both solemnly look at the Grape's old couch, wondering what to do with it. We all silently stare at it, our heads tilting to one side in sync. "We could give it up for charity?" Amy says. Gilbert scrunches up his nose. "Nah. No-one would want it." He says. "I mean look at it." He snorts and stands up. "We should just toss it." He says, frowning, arms folded. "No! Dad bought it when we were just kids, we can't throw it away Gilbert!" Amy exclaims, frowning. "Dad's not here anymore." Gilbert says, and with that he turns and goes back up the stairs. Amy sighs. "Do you have any old photo albums?" I ask Amy, conjuring up an idea in my head. "Yes, several. Why?" She turns to look at me, my eyes still fixed on the old tattered couch. A smile appears on my face. "Well, maybe we could do something other than throw this couch away." I say, raising an eyebrow, and then retracing Gilbert's steps up the stairs. "BOO!" Arnie jumps out at me when I reach the top. I laugh. "Where were you hiding?" I ask, my stomach immediately filling with butterflies at the sight of seeing Arnie. "Around the corner." He grins. I roll my eyes. "Guys?" Gilbert calls from the kitchen. "Yeah Gilbert?" I ask. "Do you want to watch the sunset tonight? I heard some people from the village are going up, it's supposed to be a rare thing, purple sky I think they call it." Gilbert opens the fridge, scanning the food, and the closes it, opening the cupboard. "Yes yes yes Gilbert!" Arnie squeals, jumping up and down. "Okay, sounds good, I'll go tell Becky." Gilbert says, opening the fridge one last time before tutting and walking down the hall. I turn to Arnie. "Have you gone before?" I ask, as he taps his fingers on the palms of my hands. I giggle. "Yeah, we went when, when mama's birthday was last year." He says, swaying back and forth, now holding my hands and swinging them. I frown. "Oh, well. I'm excited to see it." I say, with a short smile. "Meeeee tooooooo!" Arnie says, laughing and diving onto the couch. "Watch out! Tickle monster's coming!" I say, wiggling my fingers, with a grin on my face. Arnie squeals, stumbling off the couch as I start to chase him.

"So are you coming? You lazy ass." Becky chuckles as I shove on my boots. Becky and I are going out shopping, we're planing on asking Ellen on our way out.
"Ellen?" Becky calls out as we walk down the stairs. "What." Ellen walks out the kitchen stuffing a bagel into her face. I chuckle. Ellen pulls a face at me. "We're going out, wanna come? We scouted out some shops downtown, about 20 minutes drive." Becky says, shoving her car keys into her pocket. "Hmm." Ellen shoves the remainders of her snack into her mouth. "Let me get my shoes." She says, racing up the stairs. "I'm so glad we finally get to hangout with Ellen y'know?" Becky leans her arm on the kitchen counter. "Mmm, what's the reason for your sudden interest?" I ask, pinning back my hair, out of my face. "I don't know.. She just seems... Lonely." Becky shrugs. "I want to be there for her y'know? She's goin through a rough patch. Might as well have someone to answer to besides Gilbert." Becky and I look over at the window, where Gilbert is angrily attempting to chop a piece of wood in half. We both laugh.
Ellen pops around the corner. "What are you losers laughing at?" She says, applying her lipstick. "That!" Becky points out the window, snorting with laughter. Ellen rolls her eyes with what looks like a tiny smirk. "Moron."

"Oh! They have so many shops here!" I say, excitedly looking out the window of the car. "Yeah, I can't wait to try those donughts..." Becky hungrily looks out at the donught shop to our right.
We park just outside the big building. I climb out, gazing up at it in wonder. "Ah! Let's go!" Ellen says excitedly.

After looking through several stores, and climbing way too many stairs, we finally decide to sit down and get a snack. "This place is sick." Ellen nods in approval, sitting down at a cafe chair across from me and putting her various shopping bags down on the ground. "Those boots look great on you." I grin at her. Becky is up at the counter ordering our food. Well, our donughts. Typical Becky.
"Well, who do we have here?" I hear a sly voice come from behind me, and I shut my eyes, pretending that I'm asleep and soon I'm going to wake up from this dream.
"Janie Parker..." A boy chuckles. "What do you want Jimmy." I turn to look at him with narrow eyes. I see he's with Leon, who can't even look me in the eye. Obviously he's aware of what happened. I'd hate to see a nice guy like him fall into that trap Jimmy's laid out for him.
"Having lunch with the Grapes are we?" He snickers, as Becky places down our food and sits down with a firm, determined look in her eyes. I look behind Jimmy at Leon, who is now looking at his feet like he's never discovered they were there before. I roll my eyes at his cowardly manner.
"Just get out of here." I dismiss him with my hand, turning away, shaking my head. "Oh, but I'm just gettin started babe." He chuckles. "DON'T call me babe." I stand up, smacking my hand down on the table. "Why must you constantly interfere with people's happiness? Is it because you lack your own? Just GET AWAY!" I yell at him, causing a bit of a scene. Immediately, seeing the look on his face, I mutter an apology, and sit back down, placing my head in my hands. Why must he remind me of my father? My father would laugh they exact same way he did, tease me about useless things, never take me seriously and treat me like a piece of trash. Leon is exactly like my mother, who used to stand behind and not say a word because she was scared that he'd hit her. I found it absolutely pathetic and I'm not about to go through it again. "Look at you." Jimmy grabs my face, with a rough hand. "Nothing but a pretty little face, coming to our town and pretending that you're part of it." He smirks, a twitch in his eye. "Take your filthy money, and your sick, sarcastic remarks, and do us a favour and throw yourself off a cliff. Got it babe?" He says, harshly letting go of my face. It feels like he's torn the last piece of self worth I had left.
I guess he's right, I should leave. That's what everybody wants, right?
I stand up, leaving my bags there and just head for the exit, not thinking straight. I hear Leon and Becky and Ellen calling out after me but I don't listen.
I run and run, not even knowing where to go, not knowing who to run to. I just know that I need to get away from here, at least for now.