Elastic Heart

Chapter 7 || Remind me, what's the definition of a jerk again?

Dedicated to @lucibytes

Because today's her birthday and I love her!!

**
The drive to the swampy lake was.. well one for the books. We both used his car for the short journey because I didn't have one and he did.

Once we got into the road he tuned the radio station to a football station. I mean I have nothing against football or anything but why listen to people basically shouting about what you can't see an the commentator spilling absolutely nothing?.

So like a normal person, I reached for the knob to change the station to a music or even news station.

Immediately I changed it, his eyes snapped towards my direction in a death glare and he swatted my hands away which led to an argument over which station is better which was useless. I think he's just in denial.

It got so heated that his focus left the road and his hands left the steering wheel to demonstrate his point. In panic I hit him with my hand and placed his hands on the steerimg wheel.

"Eyes on the road and hands on the wheel douche! No way am I dying in this old beat up truck!" I yelled clearly panicked.

He glared at me once more and started to rant on about how his car is not beat up, his focus on the road this time thankfully.

Truth be told his car was actually pretty cool. I always found Chevy trucks interesting especially because they were few of them in Seattle.

Liams car was faded orange red in colour but inside was warm and cozy and smelt of soft almond cologne, which my brother used to use before... yeah.

But no way would I willingly admit to the annoying jerk beside me all that so I just laid my hands on the window pane and stared outside trying to block his boring rant out.

***

I was woken suddenly when I heard a car door slam shut. I realised that it was Liam that got out of the car not bothering to wake me up or wait for me. Remind me, what's the definition of a jerk again?

Since it was a swampy area, Liam parked his car a little bit far from the area and we had to walk in to the forest like area. I took a look at my outfit and decided that it was okay to get soiled.

"Are you going to come out or just keep checking yourself out?" Liam bellowed a few feets from me and infront of the vast trees.

Stupidly a blush covered my cheeks realising that he was right... sort of and then stepped out of the truck with my bag and jogged to catch up with him.

"So what's next Mr. Know-It-All" I said sarcastically with my hands on my hips.

"Ha ha. Your so halarious. Not. Let's just go in and find the swamp that has the damn frogs".

"Oh really. And did you bring a container or something to put the frog in or were you just planning on carrying the frog in your hands the whole ride like your child?" I asked slyly with raised eyebrows already knowing the answer.

"I thought you did that already" he replied scratching the back of his neck nervously.

"Sure you did" I replied with an eye roll shaking my head. Ladies and gentlemen here lies Liam, the smart but dumb and stupid.

"I, the smart one brought a container and some gloves in my bag" I said removing the items from my brown knitted bag.

He just rolled his eyes and took two globes from my hand.

"What no thank you? I thought you had a little more etiquette than this or did I hurt your man ego?" I said teasingly with a victorious smile.

He just muttered "Piss off" and went into the forest. I laughed loudly, following him.

The forest was just as spooky as I imagined. I now thank Stacy for advising me to wear boots instead of my vans. We had to walk a little into the forest before we started seeing little lakes.

Liam surprisingly was quiet and careful but fast. I tried to keep up with his pace and me being miss clumsy almost tripped on every rock.

When we reached a swampy lake that actually had frogs, I gave Liam the container to get a frog.

He just looked at me with a confused expression. "Why am I the one that has to catch the frog?".

I just looked at him with the 'are you kidding' expression.

"Uhh because you're a guy and you guys are supposed to do these kind of things that's why so stop complaining and get the frog".

Naturally, we got into another argument. His main point of argument being that ladies always want to be first so it means I should do it which isn't even a valid point because every one knows that's not the context its used.

I told him to just get the frog because it's getting late and some of us actually dont have gangs to meet at night. He just flipped me the bird and collected the container.

As he tried and failed to get one frog from the many that were in the lake, I placed my arm on one of the branches of a nearby tree to support me.

When he finally got one he clasped the lid of the container and gave it to me.

"I don't want to hold it. What if it escapes and started jump in on me. No thank you" I said with an eye roll.

He just whined about whatever and for the furst time he convinced me to put it into my bag we were set to go back.

As we were walking back I felt like something or someone was watching me. It was weird like feeling because whenever someone watched me a prank was next.

I moved closer to Liam who just looked at me with a 'what do you think your doing' expression. I ignored him and we kept on walking.

Almost passing the last trees of the forest, an animal or something flew infront of me abruptly making me fall on the hard ground.

I sat in the ground not comprehending what just happened until Liam starts laughing.

At first I was confused on why he was laughing but then when he kept in looking in my direction and laughing, I finally realised that he was laughing at me. A memory suddenly flashed through my mind.

***
We were playing dodge ball. That never ends well for me especially since Carolyn's in my class.

"What do we have here. This little slut probably shaped her uniform. Look at how short it is" one of Carolyns puppets said gossiping with another girl but loudly enough so I could hear.

I looked at my gym short and top consciously and hers. Hers looked like it belonged in a strip club but I kept my mouth shut and pretended not to hear her.

"You're so right. As if that will get any one to notice her. She will always be a second hand. Even her own brother can't even stand to look at her" the other girl replied looking at me with a mocking expression.
With tears blurring my vision as soon as she mentioned my brother I could still make out that Carolyn came towards my direction and stood in front of me.

"Girls I think you are right. I bet if I pushed her she would just fall because of how tight her cloth is."

And she pushed me. I landed on the cold tiles and an excruciating pain shot through my body through my bum.

Tears welled up my eyes as I stared to the ground waiting for Carolyn and her posse to leave so I can get up.

But they didn't. They stood and laughed at me. I was on the floor sobbing for so long until a teacher came in and asked everyone to go play dogdeball.

***

"Uhh Jade? Jade?? Jady!" a voice called.

I snapped back to the present to find myself on the floor and tears rolling down my face.

"No. No! Make it stop. I thought it has stopped. It has to stop!" I screamed and cried at the same time holding my face in my hands and bringing my knees to my face.

Liam came closer to me and asked me whats going on. I cried. He asked and I cried more. Eventually I stopped hearing his voice and sank into unconsciousness.

--

Okayyy. Sooo what do you guys think of this chapter??