Pretend It's Okay (Bluestone 42 Fanfic)

Chapter 14:

Chapter 14 (Karmin's POV)

I awake early the next morning with a grin on my face, jumping out of bed and getting dressed before leaving my quarters. I walk to the tent to find my team looking at me with cross expressions, a small gleam in their eye. "Hey, Bloom. Are you okay?" Nick questions, my eyes looking up at his.

"What do you mean?" I mutter in confusion, the happiness and giddiness bubbling inside of me stopping momentarily as I ponder their concern.

"House told us that you and your boyfriend broke up. We just wanted to make sure you are okay. We can team up and kick his ass if you want us to." He offers, being the amazing captain he is.

"No. it's fine, it'll just give him the attention he's always wanted. Hey, speaking of Gordon, have you seen him?" I ask, Nick turning to me with a wild grin on his face, while he winks.

"So Towerblock, huh? We always knew it-"

"Where is he you asshole?" I laugh, shoving him back by the shoulder as a sister would to a brother.

"Um, try behind you. He's walking the opposite way now, though." Nick frowns with confusion written in his blue eyes.

"I'll see you guys tonight at the party." I bid before I turn, finding Gordon multiple feet ahead of me. I run to catch up with him, jumping on his back when he isn't facing me. However this plan fails as we both fall onto our place beneath the tree, my arms slipping so I land on the ground, him on top of me as he turns and loses his balance, but he catches himself. "Morning!" I chirp, his hazel eyes widening as they land on me, his bottom lip pinned beneath his top teeth.

"What are you doing, Bloom? You could've hurt yourself," He scolds, taken aback by the fact he'd called me 'Bloom' which he'd only done in the first day or when we had our fights/quarrels, but we hadn't had one in a while. He goes to push himself off me, but I wrap my arms around his neck and leave my legs on the floor as deadweight. He falls back down, catching himself above me, but he tries to avoid eye contact. I unwrap one of my arms and cup his cheek, forcing him to look at me.

"What happened?" I breathe, seeing desperation and hurt in his eyes as they try to dart from my own stare of worry.

"Nothing," He lies, and i can tell because he does this thing with his tongue where he rubs it against his left side, bottom row of teeth.

"You're lying, Gordon. So what's really going on?" I inquire, his eyes looking into mine before he sighs and pushes up, this time my legs wrapping around his waist so he could easily lift both of us off the ground since I am too lazy to do it for myself. He sets me beside him, looking back over at the distant plains.

"My dad flew in this morning for Christmas. He wishes to see me, but I've been hiding from him." He sighs, my hand covering his shamelessly. I grab it in support and he turns his head, looking at me from over his shoulder.

"There's nothing to be ashamed of, Gordon. He's an asshole and if anything, he should be ashamed of what he did to you. He should be hiding from you. He doesn't-"

"Karmin, that's just it. He should but he isn't. My father isn't the slightest bit ashamed by how he acted and what he did. Look, I just need to not talk about him right now. So how's your mom?" He inquires with a smile, my eyes rolling.

"Well, she isn't bothering me as much as my sister is, but eh." I shrug, Gordon sighing. "What?"

"Have you realized how screwed up the two of us are, yet we are still here, and ended here together like some reality TV show? We both came from like fairytale darkness, and now are just here as the end of a television finale." He chuckles humorlessly, pain in his eyes as he stares into mine. I snuggle into his side and nudge his neck with the top of my head. He laughs and it's then that I realize he is somewhat tickilish. I pull away from his embrace and poke his sides where he stops laughing, but then I shove him onto the dirt as I poke his neck where he is tickilish. 

I then sit beside him, poking his neck when he tries to get up and I absently straddle his waist, him squirming beneath me. He then grabs my sides and begins to run his fingers all over them, poking me, so I begin to uncontrollably laugh, squirming nearly instantly beneath his touch. He then flips us over, however he stops after a few minutes and pulls me to his side as I calm down. I reach my left arm across his lap, grabbing his left hand before placing our intwined hands on his right thigh. I lay my head on his shoulder, nudging my small fram into his large, muscular one, hoping to just sink into him, and luckily enough, we fit together like two puzzle pieces.

We sit there in comfort and comfortable silence before a man's unfamiliar voice sounds from behind us. "Oh, I didn't realize you had a girlfriend." I feel Gordon tense from my shoulders, his hand grasping mine a bit tighter, but not so tight it is hurting me. "Well introduce her to me son." He demands sternly, my hand slipping from his as he sighs, standing up. Gordon helps me to my feet and we bith turn to face the man who looked incredibly... like nothing compared to Gordon. "Son-"

"She isn't my girlfriend. She's just an incredibly close friend." Gordon sighs, running a hand through his hair in irritation at his father's tone.

"Ohh. I see. You two get dirty in the sheets then. We can talk about all the details of that later. You can tell me how good she is and what she can-"

"DAD! SHE ISN'T SOME GIRL OFF THE STREETS LIKE MY EXES. SHE'S A WELL EDUCATED, SPONTANEOUS. INDEPENDENT WOMAN AND I'D APPRECIATE IT IF YOU DIDN'T TALK ABOUT HER LIKE SHE'S SOME BLOW UP DOLL. SHE'S RIGHT HERE AND SHE'S A STRONG WILLED WOMAN SO TALK TO HER, NOT AT HER OR PAST HER. AND DON'T EVEN THINK OF INSINUATING SOMETHING DIRTY BETWEEN US AGAIN." Gordon interrupts his dad with such fury and disgust in his eyes, it scares me by how much the hazel darkens. He goes to yell further at his dad, but I grab his hand and squeeze it lightly to remind him I am still here.

He gazes down at me and I send him a small smile before stepping forward to his father, offering my left hand to him for a handshake. "I'm Karmin Bloom, sir."

"Nice to meet you." He mumbles, looking at his son before looking over to me awestruck. "I'm sorry son. I've never seen you so upset over something. I didn't mean to hurt you. I just-"

"Like last time? You never do! It "just happens" and you repeat it. You're not sorry and you never will be. So stop acting like you care and get back on your plane, Please, leave." Gordon harshly spats before he begins to leave, pulling from my grasp. I stand there in shock for a minute before turning to his father.

"I'm going to go after him. Nice meeting you." I kindly stutter, racing after my friend. I grab his hand and pull him back, his eyes boring into mine with anger written in them. "Good," I breathe, his eyes blinking before he focuses on me.

"What?"

"You finally let it out Mr. BottleRocket." I grin, his arms wrapping around my waist as mine go around his neck, my lips touching his cheek then the corner of his mouth which is when he lets go of me. "Sorry." I blush, looking away from him before he grabs my wrist and tugs me back.

"It's fine. Just shocked." And with that he presses his lips to the skin of my left cheek, Carla finding us.

"I have to steal your girlfriend. Sorry!" She mumbles, running with me across the camp, my eyes looking back to find Gordon laughing at my frown. I stick my tongue out at him as we round the corner, my best friend  explaining she needed the rest of the day to fix me up.