The Lake House

Chapter 12

"Can I at least try to walk?" I asked suggestively. He chuckled a laugh and nodded for me to try. I managed to sit up. Pushing down on the hard soil I managed to get myself in an upright position, not standing on my aching ankle. I jumped from where I was standing, about thrity centimtres forward, lost my balance, and ended up face down in the dirt. Hayley and Jakes laughed at me, and I felt my face going red of embarrassment.

"Here you go." Jake said, putting his arm around me and helping me up. He picked me up easily and started walking.

After about ten minutes of walking I couldn't understand why we haven't reached the house yet. I was so deep in thought and listening to the rapid beat of Jakes heart in his chest that I didn't pay any attention to where we were going. I then realised that I hadn't given him any instructions about where the house was.

"Where are we going?" I asked Jake.

"Uhm, I don't know. I was just walking in the direction that you had led us before. Isn't this the right way?" Jake asked, slowing down his pace.

"Oh, no. I think we're lost." I said, realising that I've never been to this side of the forest. Hayley looked exhausted and I knew I wouldn't let her walk any further. She's walked the most out of all of us today. It was already dark and I suggested that we camp here, and then follow our tracks back the way we came. Hopefully we could get back on track and head for the house tomorrow morning.

We found a bit of a clearing where we decided to stay for the night. Hayley had started a fire by rubbing sticks together and we were nice and warm, sitting around the camp fire. I laughed, I used to love sitting around the camp fire and telling scary stories on school camps, but right now I was IN one of those stories. How ironic.

About half an hour after we got the fire going Hayley had fallen asleep in a very awkward position. I felt sorry for her, I knew sleeping out in the middle of nowhere would be tough for her; she's always loved her bed and can sleep in til midday. Tonight would be a restless night for all of us.

"Why do you hate me so much?" Jake asked me, interrupting my thoughts. I looked at him, surprised. "I don't." I replied flatly.

"Okay, let's just pretend that's true. You are really closed up, aren't you? You don't talk very much and you're very stubborn." Jake said seriously.

"You're flattering, aren't you? I'm not close up, I just like to keep things to myself." I said.

"I used to be like you, you know. All shy and closed up. I was the biggest nerd in high school, I could beat anyone at maths with my eyes shut. Everyone always teased me about my glasses and my over weight body. All the popular girls would point at me and laugh, they also spread rumours about me that I slept with our science teacher." Jake said, opening up to me for the first time.

"Wow. What happened? I mean, why did you change?" I asked.

"I wanted to be someone that people laughed with; not at. High school was the worst few years of my life. I never want to go back to that. So after I graduated I started working out, got contacts, went for a run almost every night, and now look at me. I'm handsome." He said with a smirk on his face.

I laughed at him. I was just starting to get to know him, a side of him that I actually liked, when the arrogance returned.

"That's so sad. I guess why I'm so closed up is because every time I learn to trust someone, I regret it. I've been left heart broken so many times that I think it's impossible for me to really fully trust someone again." I said.

"You can trust me." He said, stroking my cheek with the back of his hand.

I looked into his eyes and for a moment I could see all the pain he's been through, all the heart ache and suffering, just like me.

I turned my head away and stood up. "We should go to sleep, we have a lot of walking to do tomorrow."

I found a spot near the fire and just layed there, staring at the fire. Jake had found a spot on the other side of the fire.

"Good night." He said softly.

"Good night." I replied.