by Segunda L.
His laughter was cut short. “Not really,” he wiped the tears forming on his eyes from laughing too hard, “but the expression on your face was worth it.” He put his shirt back on as he said, “That was priceless.”
I rolled my eyes at his childish behavior. The rain kept on pouring but we were perfectly dry because of the plastic bags covering our heads. I sat up straighter and studied the makeshift roof. “Where did you get these?” I asked, pointing to the plastic bags.
Jared folded his knee to give us more room. “A fairy suddenly showed up when you fain—,”
Before he could continue with his stupid tales, I gave him a blank stare.
“I brought it with me. I thought we were supposed to use this for containers.” He explained, shrugging.
“And the ropes?”
“Those are vines.”
“The water?”
“A stream nearby.”
Not bad. Jared definitely exceeded my expectations. I wanted to argue with him but I couldn’t find anything to argue about. He actually seemed reliable for once. Before I fainted, I remember blaming him for everything that happened today. Which was true. Okay, maybe not all of it. About eighty percent of it was his fault. I seriously thought he was going to beat me up, when I saw his face covered with bruises, I knew then that it was TJ who did that to him.
So when he caught me with Trix, my body just told me to run. Run for my life. It was survival instincts but it turned out he was faster since he easily catch up to me. I was so scared of him, there was no one I could ask for help. The only think I could do was to cry.
Embarrassing, I know.
What was worse was that he was comforting me when he knew he was the reason I was crying. I received comfort from the culprit himself. It irritated me that he just saw me crying, something I didn’t usually do in front of others. To hide my embarrassment, I complained about everything he did. I was no help at all in our situation.
“Hey, sit.” Jared called out and tapped the space beside him, gesturing for me to sit down. “Your fever hasn’t gone down yet.”
Fever? My energy was draining again so I did as he told me. I placed my hand on my forehead to find it blazing like fire.
“You probably fainted from exhaustion then came down with a fever when you got soaked in the rain.” While stretching his arms, he commented. “Why are you the one who’s sick anyway? I was more drenched than you.”
I honestly didn’t have any answer for that.
“Never mind. Eat this.” He showed me a variety of fruits wrapped around the shirt he was wearing earlier. “I was gathering fruits while you were sleeping.”
The sight of the fresh fruits made my stomach grumble, if Jared heard it, he didn’t make a rude comment on it. “This looks good. Thanks.” I thanked him, picking up a wild berry.
“Start on the guavas first.” He ordered. “It’s good for you. Vitamin C and all that.”
The tone of his voice made me do what he told me to do. I let go of the berry and picked up the guava. Taking a bite from it, the guava was ripe and sweet on my mouth. I savored the taste before taking another bite.
“By the way, watch out for worms.” Jared was munching on his own guava.
I almost spit out what I had just eaten after hearing what Jared said.
“As for me, I don’t really mind the worms. It’s just more protein.” He gave me a toothy grin.
Talking about food made me remember about my snacks which were inside my bag. I think I’m gonna pass on the guavas. I searched for my bag to find it on Jared’s side. I eyed it and was about to pick it up but Jared grabbed the bag closer to him.
“Oh no, you’re not. You will eat those fruits Samara and not those junks inside your bag.” His tone gave me an impression that it was a warning.
“What?” I asked in confusion. “How did you know what’s inside my bag?”
Jared flashed a guilty face, averting my gaze and fidgeted with his guava. “Okay, don’t freak out. You fell in a puddle when you fainted. And I took the liberty of opening your bag and getting you into dry clothes.”
I looked at what I was wearing and just like he said, I was wearing my extra shirt. That only meant one thing. Jared saw…my body. I wanted to die from embarrassment. Every cruel words he said to me came rushing back to me.
Fat ass. Fatty. Fat belly.
Tears formed and I was about to cry again.
Jared saw my reaction and he continued to explain. “I didn’t look, okay? I swear, I didn’t see anything. I-I closed my eyes while changing you. You were having a f-fever and it won’t do you any good if you were still wearing your wet shirt.”
Even though I could see the logic in what he did, it was still embarrassing. And even if he said that he didn’t see anything, there was no way that it could be true. He probably just said that to lessen the awkwardness. Girls in movies freaked out when a guy saw their body but those girls had a good body to start with, while my body was something that I tried to hide from people by wearing large shirts. It was an insecurity, and Jared just saw what I was most insecure about myself.
I fought the urge to cry and put on a brave face. “You promise you didn’t see anything?” Who was I kidding? Of course he saw something.
“Yes, I promise. I saw nothing. Nada. Zilch.” He enforced.
“Okay then, since you didn’t see anything, then we shouldn’t talk about it. I mean you didn’t see anything right? What’s there to talk about then?” I blabbered on.
“True. If I didn’t see anything, then there’s nothing to talk about. Since in the first place, I didn’t see anything.” Jared got infected with my blabbering.
Things got awkward soon. No one bothered to break the silence first. We just sat there, listening to the drops of rain and the steady sound of our breathing. Jared was throwing the guava in the air then catching it again, while I just watched him do it absent-mindedly.
“You snore when you sleep.” He finally broke the ice. The guava fruit was still on his hand, he was playing around with it. Juggling it from time to time then rolling it on his hand.
“No, I don’t.”
“You do.” He replied, without even looking at me. He was still busy with the guava.
“I do not!”
“You talk while you sleep.” He accused again.
“I don’t!”
“You do.”
“Lies!”
“You called for TJ in your sleep.” He said in a low voice, his jaw was set and a shadow passed his face.
Jared raised his head and focused his half lidded eyes on me. He wore a blue shirt which matched the color of his eyes. His right arm rested on his folded right knee. His brown hair was tousled and still wet from the rain. Hanging on his neck was a nametag necklace.
“I-I did?”
He looked away and said, “Yeah. You did.”
I didn’t know what to say. Maybe Jared was telling the truth. I dreamed of TJ while I was sleeping.
“You like him right?” He asked, and then faced outside.
If he heard me say TJ’s name then there was no point in denying it. I folded both my legs and rested my head on my knees. “What does it matter? He’ll never like me.” It was probably because of the place that we were in, or the mood that surrounded us but it felt like I could tell Jared anything right now.
He snorted.
“I’m overweight, a big wimp, a scatterbrain, and more importantly, I got stretch marks.” I said while looking down. He already saw my body anyway, I was sure he had seen the stretch marks on my stomach. Ask any guy and they’d tell you stretch marks were one of their big turn offs. I continued talking. “Guys don’t fall for someone who has a stomach bigger than theirs.”
“You’re not that bad.” He remarked.
What?
“You have a great smile, try smiling more. It’s a killer.” He was playing around with the guava on his hand again. “Your cheeks are nice too. Soft and chubby.” He still didn’t look at me, h
e was smiling as he spoke. “And your lips, they look really—.” He suddenly stopped talking. He cleared his throat before he continued then looked at me. “Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that don’t look down on yourself. Be more confident with how you look.”
I was speechless. Jared was telling me to be confident. It must have had taken a minute before I could talk again. “Just how high is my fever?” I asked. “I’m hearing things. Did you just give me a compliment?”
He laughed. “I just did. But if you want to hear it again then you’re out of luck.”
I studied Jared’s expression. He didn’t look like he was making fun of me. If I had to describe what he looked like right now, he actually looked shy. I blurted out the question that was on my mind since the time he comforted me when I cried in the forest. “Why are you being nice to me?”
“I told you, right? I want us to start over.” He answered.
I accepted his answer as truth, then I said, “Funny. I almost thought you had a crush on me.”
He started coughing.
“Are you okay?” I asked, concerned about his health.
“Y-yeah.” He said while rubbing his throat. “Sore throat.” Once again, he cleared his throat and continued talking, “You like TJ, right? I’ll help you get together to prove to you that I want us to be friends.”
My eyebrows met. “And how would you do that?”
“Just leave it to me.” He answered with confidence.
Chapter Nineteen
Jared
"Just leave it to me." My reply was confident, not a trace of doubt can be observed from my voice. Getting Samara and TJ together was a smart move on my part. I'd be able to wash away the guilt that had been tormenting me if I could make it work (which I was certain that I could) and I'd be able to get the Mercedes-Benz.
To put it simply: Getting Samara and TJ together equals friendship plus forgiveness plus Mercedes-Benz
She gets her man, I get my car. Everyone's happy. It would be a win-win situation for all of us. Especially for me. Gotta hand it to Carrie, after hearing my story just once, she eventually grasped the situation and came up with a plan to help me. I just hoped to God Carrie's plan will work out fine for me. There was just one tiny problem though, she didn't take into consideration my developing feelings for Samara.
I purposely left out that detail since I didn't stand a chance anyway. Samara just mentioned TJ's name while she was asleep. How could I compete with that? She was calling for TJ when I was the one with her right now. My existence obviously didn't matter to her. I already knew she liked him but hearing it from her own lips just killed the little amount of hope that I had.
"I really don't get you." She remarked, then sighed, her voice was hardly audible and the puzzled expression she had was hard to contain. Those big brown eyes of hers stared at me. The color on her face was now returning. When she fainted earlier, she was as pale as a sheet of paper.
Which reminds me...
"Samara, don't ever do that again." I tried to sound as threatening as I can.
"Do what?" She looked even more puzzled than before.
"Fainting out of the blue." The recollection of the events that happened after she fainted came rushing into my head. An unconscious Samara, lying on a puddle made me shudder. I should have believed her when she said she wasn't feeling well. That was probably the reason why she was being grouchy, "You almost gave me a heart attack."
"Just almost?" She sounded disappointed.
"You ungrateful twerp. You should be fawning all over me right now. I'm your knight in shining armor afterall."
"You? A knight?" She made a gag sound and rolled her eyes as she added, "Yeah, right."
"What? I'm not hot enough to be a knight?" My ego would not sit down and listen to her belittling the thing that I was most confident about. Rolling up my sleeves, I folded my arms and flexed the muscles to show her my God sculpted physique. "Pinch it and see for yourself just how qualified I am to be a knight."
"No, no way." Her eyes widened, horrified by the sight.
"Come on. Pinch it." I insisted, leaning closer to her to give her a better view of my manliness.
Smacking (as usual) my arm away, she said, “Keep that thing away!"
I honestly didn’t know whether I should laugh or be insulted with the way she was reacting.
"And you stink, give me some air to breathe." She scrunched her nose.
I what?
Embarrassed by her offensive observation, the blood on my body rose to my face. "I don't stink." I was being defensive. Maybe I did smell like sweat and damp clothes.
"Yeah, you do stink."
I sniffed my shirt to be empowered by a sweet scent of cologne. I didn't stink at all. Oh, I get it. She was trying to get back at me 'cause I told her she drooled in her sleep. "Samara, it's rude to tell people that they stink, you know." I crawled towards her. "Especially if it's not true." Upon reaching her, I said, "I smell like a baby." I tilted my head, my devious smirk was pasted on my face.
"A baby who didn't change his diapers." She said while pinching her nose.
The smirk disappeared from my face almost instantly.
Did I really stink? Now I was starting to have doubts since she said it so bluntly. I backed down and discreetly moved away from her. Stealing a quick glance at Samara, I saw her look outside and stifle a laugh. I cleared my throat to get her attention and dismiss the previous discussion. "Think you can walk now? We'll have to return soon."
She regained her composure and said, "I think I can already."
"Well, I could always carry you if you get tired."
Surprised by my offer, she quickly turned my way.
"How do you think did you get here?" I asked, my voice was smug and cocky. "That's right, Samara. I carried you all the way here when you fainted. In bridal style." I smirked.
This should be the perfect time to show off my biceps. I rolled up my sleeves once again and flexed my muscles. "These babies helped you get through the day." I cooed. "Lucky you." Adrenaline rush took over my body when she fainted, all I thought about was getting her in a safe place and making sure she was alright.
"You were able to carry me?" She sounded suspicious and amazed at the same time.
"Of course. What do you take me for?"
"But I weigh―."
"You were light as a feather. Don't worry about it." I stopped her before she went on about her self-deprecating speech again. So maybe she was a bit heavy than most girls. Actually that was a lie. She was really heavy but I was not gonna tell her that. I was out of breath when I reached a spot where we can settle.
She wasn't making any sound. I guess she was embarrassed all over again. There were tons of things I found out about her today. Plus, I saw her upper body. Not to be a perv or anything, but from what I saw, she had the right bone structure, fats was just in the way. She was probably a C cup.
Okay, so I did look. Kind of hard not to. Understand that I was a man. Given an opportunity to look, I'd look.
"We should get going." She stated, I sensed the worry in her voice. We only had a few hours before dark, and that would make it twice hard for us to find our way back. If only phones worked in this place then we wouldn't have any problems at all. But of course, Ms. Santos just had to pick a place where technology was unheard of. The others must have figured out by now that we were missing. Who knows, maybe they were already sending a search party for us.
"Are you sure you can handle the walking?" I asked. Her fever was still pretty high the last time I checked.
"Yes, I'm sure. I'm still feeling light headed though." She answered, realizing that there was no point on lying about her condition. "Only problem we got is that we don't know where we're going." She finished.
"Never fear, princess. Your courageous knight has found a way back to our friends." I kept the knight charade since I thought it was cool.
"Really?How? And quit the Knight act, it's creeping me out." She said flatly, making
all my enthusiasm disappear.
"Boo. You lack imagination." I scoffed. She answered by looking at me like I was insane. "While you were hibernating, I climbed a tree to get a better view of the place, just like what they do in movies. We were going in the wrong direction, obviously, that's the reason why we didn't find the others. We head north from here and we're good to go." I did not mention about me falling from the tree and getting a wide scratch on my chest since it would ruin my Knight image right now.
"Great!" Genuine bliss coated her voice. "But it's still raining, we're going to get soaked again."
"Ah, you are so lucky to have me." I paused, while thinking deeply. "You can have the umbrella and we'll put holes into those plastic bags and use them for raincoats." I rubbed my chin with my hand to make it look like I was absorbed in some deep thought. "I know, I know, I'm a genius."
She shook her head, I'm not sure whether it was disapproval or a realization that I was in fact, a very dependable companion. "Alright, let's get started with your little invention."
It took us a few minutes to get everything ready. I got rid of all the unnecessary things inside my bag and ate some of Samara's junk foods to make the bags lighter.
"Hmm, not bad." I said as I took in the way my self-made rain coat fitted my body.
"You look funny." Samara remarked.
"So do you. Now let's get moving." Fashion was the least of our worries for now.
~*~*~
It had been an hour since we started walking but we had not travelled that far yet. Samara had been lagging behind so I had to walk real slow. Turtle slow. If we kept up this pace, dark would soon come and we both knew that it would be dangerous for us to keep walking on this kind of place. Behind those trees, there might be a wolf, or a wild boar, or some vulture, lurking, and waiting for an opportunity to make us their dinner. I had seen too many horror movies were wild animals preyed on lost humans. There might even be a crocodile in there! I was beginning to panic, this wasn't going so well. The wretched rain has not stopped yet, making the soil muddy and slippery.
Samara slipped and fell flat on the ground. I ran over to her and tried to help her up. "Are you alright?"
