- - -

05

- - -

I can safely say that I have never been propositioned before, but the way Garrett was confidently looking me in the eye told me that this wasn’t the first proposition he’d made, and it certainly wouldn’t be his last. Whatever he says, I told myself, say no. I could tell that this was proposition wasn’t going to be a lets-be-friends one, as Garrett looked at me as if a cat were looking at a bird a few feet away. I wasn’t his business partner, I was his prey, and he was going to do anything it took to get what he wanted, and he knew exactly how he was going to be doing it.

“I’m not interested,” I said, and turned to walk back to my campsite, but Garrett wasn’t having any of that.

“I think you should hear me out,” he said calmly, his hand still holding onto my wrist. His grip wasn’t hurting me, but it was strong, and I couldn’t tear myself away from him.

“Fine, speak,” I said in a bored tone. “I’m telling you now, my answer will be no.”

Garrett grinned. “Oh, I think you’ll like it.”

“Just spit it out, Garrett,” I snarled.

“You pretty much hate me,” he started, and I muttered “duh”. “I’m not your biggest fan either, but, I think you’re hot. One of the hottest girls here, actually, and I know you think I’m gorgeous. So...how about some nice meaningless hook ups between you and I? If we hate each other, then some lovin’ is going to be brilliant.”

I stared at him, trying to understand what exactly he was saying. I mean, obviously it had to be some kind of joke. Garrett couldn’t be that stupid...could he? I hated him to no end, but I knew he was an intelligent person. He had money; he would have gone to a great school and gotten a great education.

“This is a joke, right?” I asked with raised eyebrows. “You can’t actually think that for one second that I would agree to this, could you?”

Garrett just smiled. “Just think about it,” he said, unperturbed, and gently let go of my wrist. “You’ll be back, and next time, you’ll be saying yes.”

As he walked away, I looked in the direction I’d just come from after swimming with Will, and then back at Garrett. This was getting stranger by the minute.

-

“Isabel, do you really believe that your midnight rendezvous would escape my attention?” Nette asked as she sat herself down next to me.

I raised my eyebrows as I tore my gaze from the novel I was reading to look at her. “What are you, my own personal stalker?” I responded.

“I know everything, about everyone,” she replied flippantly. “I have friends in high places, and these friends have been telling me that you were with Will last night. And Garrett.”

“Ignore her, Isabel,” Bec said as she rolled her eyes and joined us. “She’s just living vicariously through you because she has no life.”

Nette narrowed her eyes at Bec. “Don’t even get me started on what I know about you,” she threatened.

“Ugh, seriously guys? Let it go. Nette, I’m flattered you’re taking such an interest in my life, but there is nothing going on between anyone else and myself,” I said, a hint of annoyance in my tone. I raised my wrist and glanced at my watch, heaving a sigh. “It’s time to go to the challenge anyway.”

As we rounded up the rest of the team, I thought of how last night would have seemed to everyone else. If I wasn’t directly involved, I would assume that something was going on too. But it wasn’t and I was running out of patience in conveying that I was single with no romantic entanglements whatsoever. But as we made our way to the meeting area, I knew there was nothing I could do. I could continually deny it, and get sick of hearing my own voice, or I could just let it go and move on. I mean, they were going to get bored of it soon enough anyway.

Once again, we were the last team to arrive, and Garrett shot me a knowing look. His words from last night circled around in my brain and I gave him a disgusted look in return. Hooking up with Garrett would be like hooking up with Lucas, which was practically incest and disgusting. I banished the scarring thought from my mind, chastising myself for even thinking about the proposition, and turned to Tim as he tried to gain our attention.

“Our challenge today,” he announced, once he’d gained our attention, “is going to be a bit like paintball and a bit like a water bomb fight. Each team has a large bucket filled with little balloons filled with paint. Each team has their own colour, so we won’t get confused. Basically, what you are all aiming to do is to claim the most amount of people. You can capture prisoners, but only if you hit them twice. The game will continue until all of your buckets are empty. Now, I’ve marked your areas, and you are allowed to prowl, so don’t worry. But, you must have at least two people at your base at all times. Are we clear?”

“Can you free prisoners?” Garrett asked.

“No. Once you’re caught, you’re caught,” Tim answered.

“What about trading? Say, if I got caught and another one of my team members offered to swap with me so I can continue, for the greater good of my team. Is that allowed?” Garrett queried, in a manner that revealed that the last thing that would happen would be him getting caught, but also serving as a warning to his team that if he did get caught, one of them had to offer to save him.

Tim shrugged. “I guess you can do that. But, once you’ve swapped, you’ve swapped. You can’t go back and swap once you’ve already done it. You are only allowed one swapping, so use it wisely.”

“Um, question,” Bec called out. “Are we just going to be wearing what we have on now? Or are we going to be given proper suits?”

“You won’t be given proper suits, so I’ll give you all ten minutes to run back to your cabins if you want to change outfits. I’d advise you not to wear white,” Tim replied. “Well, that’s all I have to say, so I’ll see you in ten minutes.”

Several kids bolted back to their cabins, but I stayed put. My black shorts and red tank top would be fine, and I wasn’t bothered too much about getting paint on them. Mara had gone with her team and so had Will, so as the remaining people of my team mingled amongst themselves, Garrett approached me.

He nudged my hand with his and I ignored the tingling sensation which shot up my arm. “Have you thought about my offer some more?” he asked, his lips right near my ear, and his breath sending shivers down my spine. I really disliked the lack of personal space I had.

I gave him a look. “Only about the several ways I was going to turn you down, oh look, here’s my answer: no.”

He put an arm loosely around my waist and pulled me closer to him. “Don’t worry, you’ll come around soon,” he said with a grin. “And I’ll be waiting.”

Pecking a quick kiss on my cheek, he swaggered off to the rest of his team, while I stood there trembling in rage. Where does this guy get off? How dare he think that he can come and flirt with me and then have the nerve to think that I’ll fall into his arms crying “yes, Garrett, yes I’ll be yours”?

The rest of the teams began to return, and Tim allowed us to move over to our base and talk tactics.

“Wow,” Dom said when he glanced in the bucket. “That is a lot of paint bombs.”

“Yeah, so, how are we going to do this?” I asked them. “I’m kind of mediocre when it comes to throwing and aiming at a target.”

“Maybe we should take down the strong ones first?” Erin suggested. “Like, try and capture Will and Garrett and all the strong guys, and then once we’ve done that, it’ll be easy?”

Johnny nodded. “Not a bad idea. But you can’t underestimate people. The little ones can be the strongest, and the sneakiest,” he said wryly. “But definitely try to take down Garrett first.”

“Don’t forget that if Garrett and Will are captured, they can swap,” I pointed out. “So, try and surround them when they swap in order to take them down again. Garrett will definitely force someone to swap with him.”

“Shit, I forgot about that,” Johnny said. “So who is going to swap in this team? Isabel?”

I shook my head. “Nope. I’ll be completely useless, so it’ll be best to save our swapping for someone who actually knows what we’re doing. I don’t know which one of you that is, so maybe I’ll just observe you all and see who is the best and then I’ll get the word around...somehow.”

Everyone nodded.

“Oh, also, who is going to man the base?” I asked.

“Kat and Jason,” Bec grinned evilly.

“No,” Kat said dryly.

“What if I tell you that I’m pretty amazing? Why would you want to force me to sit with her watching prisoners when I could be out there helping you attack people?” Jason protested.

“Fine,” I said, knowing that Jason had a point. “Who wants to man the base then?”

Amelia raised her hand. “I will.”

“Anyone else?”

Nette sighed. “I guess I can do it, too.”

As soon as everyone was set, Tim started the game, and the war began. Everyone circled around first, not wanting to throw the first balloon, and not sure how exactly this was going down.

“Oh for God’s sake,” I cried, and launched a little red balloon at Garrett, hitting him on the back.

Everyone stared at me for a few seconds, and looked at Garrett, who was trying to look at the red paint dripping down his back. I had thrown the first balloon, and once everyone was done looking shocked, coloured balloons were flying everywhere. Some pithy shots landed on the ground, and some landed perfectly. Garrett was on fire, launching green after green at poor little kids, as two of his team members stood in front of him, serving as a shield of protection.

The one person who had surprised me the most was little Tom, who was throwing red balloons at everyone, and pretty much hitting them every single time, and he was still unscathed. At our base, Amelia looked bored and Nette was watching the rest of us wistfully. I, on the other hand, was covered in blue, green and yellow paint, and was currently sitting in the blue dungeon. Kat had looked at me the moment I got caught and mouthed “swap?” to which I shook my head in response. I wasn’t that much of a necessity to the team and I knew we needed to save the swap for people who were actually hitting more than they were being the receiver.

From where I sat, I could see that some people were tiring quickly. All the running and ducking was exhausting, and I knew that most people were going to be hit now. I only hoped that my team was okay and that we had caught a sufficient amount of prisoners. My eye was suddenly on a little blue member, who was skulking around the area, moving closer and closer to Garrett, and being undetected by his guards. As Garrett raised an arm to launch another green bomb, he was suddenly attacked by two balloons, and the blue boy scampered off to avoid being bombarded by Garrett’s guards. Garrett, who had already used his swapping card from when Jeff caught him at the beginning of the game, stormed over to the blue base, and when he saw me sitting there, grinned.

Garrett flopped himself down next to me, and whispered, “How’s it going, Rush?” and wrapped an arm around my shoulders.

I flinched away from him, and looked at the two yellow kids sitting there staring at Garrett with petrified expressions. “I was doing better before you arrived here, Billington. But I must say, I did enjoy seeing you get hit by a kid much smaller than you.”

Garrett beamed. “I only got caught because I knew I could be with you.”

“Right,” I said, keeping an eye on my team.

Garrett continued beaming. “Why do you hate me, Rush?” he asked after a while.

I continued watching Tom duck and dodge paint bombs, until Garrett nudged me and I turned to look at him. “You seriously want me to answer that?” I asked.

He nodded.

I looked into his grey eyes for a few moments before saying, “As much as I hate you, Billington, I’m not that mean.”

His brows furrowed together. “Well, what can I do to make you say yes to my offer?”

I let out a laugh. “Are you being serious? Garrett, really, how desperate are you?”

The next thing I knew, his lips were on mine, his hands cupping my cheeks, and requesting entrance into my mouth. I opened my mouth and tried to pull away, but he held onto me and soon his tongue was in my mouth, kissing me with a passion as I was there having no idea what was happening. One of his hands moved from my cheek and went under my shirt and around my waist, softly caressing the skin with pain-stained hands.

Suddenly a horn pierced the air and I sprung off Garrett, and stood up, listening to Tim announce, “And the Yellow team wins the competition!”

My hand went to my face and my fingers lightly touched my tingling lips as I stared at Garrett with wide eyes while he, panting, watched me with an unreadable expression. I made my way back to my paint covered team, feeling my pulse increase rapidly, and my mind screaming at me. Suddenly, my mind flashed to the other prisoners back in the blue base who bore witness to that scene. Fuck, I thought. This was going to get out very quickly.

The worst part about it?

I liked it. A lot.

-

Once we were all back at our cabins, squeaky clean and paint-free, we sat around listening to Jeff strum chords on his guitar. I found myself sitting next to Erin and subtly requesting her advice on things that I had no idea about. I didn’t open up much, and I wasn’t opening up to Erin, I was just gaining her opinion on something that could change everything. More than it already had been, anyway. I knew that I had to avoid Garrett at all costs.

“You and Johnny?” I asked her quietly.

She blushed prettily and shook her head. “Nothing has happened, if that’s what you’re asking. I just...I know I like him. But he hasn’t said anything.”

“You expect him to say something?” I said.

She shrugged. “I mean, look, we’ve been close, but I don’t know if he’s just being really friendly, or if he actually likes me.”

“Have you tried, I don’t know, telling him?”

She shook her head, eyes wide. “God no. We’ve still got a while left here, Isabel. How the hell will I be able to face him if I tell him and he says no?”

I looked in Johnny’s direction and he quickly turned his head back to Jeff. “Don’t worry, Erin,” I said with a small smile. “I doubt he’ll say no.”

“Yeah, well, I’d still like it if he gave me some sort of sign as to how he’s feeling,” she said. “You know what? Never mind. We’re going home for Christmas break soon, so maybe I should just wait until after that.”

“If you want,” I said, and then stood up. I started heading towards the creek, ignoring the questions that my team was shouting at me. If I was right, I knew Will would be there, and right now, I just needed to be in Will’s presence.

Sure enough, he sat there, watching the water and doodling in a notebook.

“You draw?” I asked, trying to catch a glimpse of the notebook.

Will closed it gently and shrugged. “Sometimes. No hard feelings about today, though, right?”

I scoffed. “Other than the fact that you and your little blue minions left me unprotected with Garrett twice today, we’re fine.”

Will nodded, offering no words.

“What would you do,” I started, “if you were in a position where you didn’t quite know what to do?”

“Is it something that you dislike?” I nodded. “Is it something you’re scared of?” I hesitantly nodded. “Do it.”

“Wait, what?” I blurted. When I came down here, I expected Will to say something which would allow me to go back to normal, and show me what a fool I was, but instead the guy was pulling a ‘do the thing that scares you the most’?

“It’s obviously not that bad if you don’t know what to do,” Will said. “Isabel, you really don’t have to sit and hide between your fears. It’s summer. At least try to have some fun. Besides, we all know you’re smart. You won’t do anything too stupid.”

“But –”

“You’re going to regret it if you don’t do it,” Will said bluntly. “I don’t even know what ‘it’ is, but not everything you do has to be mapped out and calculated. As much as you want to believe it, I don’t have all the answers.” He turned his head and looked straight at me. “I wish I did, but I don’t. I just exist.”

I just exist. I just exist. I just exist.

His sentence haunted me, but instead of protesting, I nodded slowly, and leaned back, resting my weight on my arms, and allowing the sun to warm me up. He opened up his notebook and continued doodling, and we just continued to exist. I enjoyed this comfort I got from just being his presence. No feelings, no strings, just two people existing together. If there was one thing I knew about, it was existing.

-

My team didn’t eat in the dining room that night. I went to Tim and requested that we stayed around our campfire and ate there, because I wanted some “real team bonding time”. Tim felt that it was a fantastic idea and I was happy because it meant that I could avoid Garrett.

“How are you guys?” I asked as we ate our marshmallows.

They all looked at me in confusion before giving a general response of “good”.

“So, does anyone want to tell me how the hell the Yellow Team won?” I asked, seeing as I was kind of, um, busy at the time.

“They got Tom,” Matt said sadly. “He ended up being our only player, and it was between him and a little yellow girl, and the chick won.”

“She was good,” Tom mumbled. “She got pretty much everyone for the Yellow Team.”

I laughed. “Are you upset that the yellow team beat us or that a girl beat you?”

“Both!” Tom said with a mouth full of marshmallows.

I looked at Erin, who was snuggled with Johnny, but I knew they were only doing that as two people who were so into each other that they didn’t know how to deal with it, and wouldn’t say it. Even Bec had on her flirting face with Jeff, as he tugged on a strand of her hair and laughed at her.

What is this? I wondered, Valentine’s Day?

As I looked at all the happy, smiling faces on my team, I was really relieved that everyone got on so well. Save for Kat and Jason, but they were still trying to accept the fact that they loved each other. I watched Kat and Jason further. They weren’t sitting next to each other, but poor Bram was stuck in the middle of them as they leant over him and continued to fight. My mind immediately rushed to Garrett and I wondered how hypocritical I was being.

I mean, I was pretty much saying that Kat and Jason clashing and ‘hating’ each other was really a sign of true love, when wasn’t that exactly what was happening between Garrett and I? I hated him, and he hated me. But then again, he kissed me, so he obviously doesn’t hate me as much as he said he did.

It was completely different, though. It definitely wasn’t the same. Some people you didn’t have to have a potential cliché with. Some people, well, you just hated, and no matter how many fairytales told you that you two would end up blissfully happy, it wouldn’t change. Just like if you were really close friends with someone, it didn’t mean you would instantly fall in love with them. Sometimes, enemies were enemies, and friends were friends, with absolutely no strings attached, and no feelings. Feelings, well, they went away. Not everything lasted, nothing was sustained. We all just existed together, and sometimes we got on, sometimes we didn’t.

As I lay in my bed that night, tossing and turning, and turning into an insomniac because of the heat, I knew I had to do something, I knew I needed to breathe. So I stood up, and walked out of the cabin for the second night in a row, and walked back down to the creek, letting my feet bask in the cold water as I watched the moonlight glint off it and create something magical. I ran my hands through my hair, noticing how the blonde looked white in the moonlight.

I was swallowed up in confusion and lack of direction, I felt like crying and for no reason. My mind played out scenarios in how to handle everything, and my heart beat faster and faster, louder and louder, until I swore that it was so loud that it would wake up the entire camp. I took a deep breath and stepped out of the creek, and made my way back to the path, slowly and deliberately taking my time, pushing back branches and dodging twigs until I was back on the path. I wasn’t thinking, just walking. I passed Will’s area, and then my area. I walked through the main area, past Mara’s sign saying “Welcome to the Yellow Team!” and stood in front of enemy territory.

As I stood in front of the green area, I didn’t know what I was going to say, or what I was going to do. I wanted to end this proposition immediately, remove what had happened earlier that day from our history and continue hating each other. As I took confident steps into his territory, breaking all the rules, I felt like a stalker as I walked past all the cabins, gazing in the windows to try and find which one Garrett was in.

I found him, his bed next to the window which was slightly open to let any air in. He was asleep, and I cringed at how awkward it was going to be to wake him up.

“Garrett,” I whispered as I leaned in through the window, trying not to wake up any of his team mates. “Garrett, wake up.” When he didn’t, I placed my hand on his arm, and shook it lightly, he shot up and came face to face with me.

“Um, hi,” I said awkwardly.

He said nothing, and got out of the bed, and walked out of the cabin, closing the door gently in order to not wake anyone. I felt my pulse race as he walked towards me, grabbed my hand in his and pulled me out of his territory and back in the direction I had came from. I was able to notice, while hating myself, that he wasn’t wearing a shirt, and I was able to see all of his perfectly defined chest. For a few minutes, I thought he might have been taking me to the creek, but he walked past the place where we turn for that, and I wondered how many hiding places these boys had.

As soon as we were out of earshot and sight of anyone who might be awake, he stopped and turned me to face him, my hand still intertwined with his. “Rush,” he said in a low voice.

“Billington,” I replied.

Before he could say anything else, I raised myself up and pressed my lips against his, while my brain screamed “what the fuck are you doing?” and my hormones cheered. Garrett was stunned for a moment but then kissed me back with more fervour. My hands were in his hair and his were under my shirt and around my waist as we kissed and kissed and kissed, our lips fusing together, creating an amazing feeling. My skin felt on fire from where his fingers were and I couldn’t get enough of him.

In a rush of movements, my back was against a tree and my legs around his waist, and his kisses made me ignore the uncomfortable feeling in my back as bits of bark pressed into it. As he kissed me, I hated how good I felt. How right it felt. I didn’t mind kissing Garrett, not at all. And yeah, the guy could kiss, and I wasn’t getting anything from anyone else.

I pulled away and he let me down, his eyes looking right into mine, and a small smile on his lips. “Does this mean,” he said, “that you accept my offer?”

I stopped for a moment and thought about the weight of this decision, but all I could think about was his lips on mine and how I would really prefer them to be back there. Instead of saying anything, I slowly wrapped my arms around his neck, and pulled his face down, inches from mine, and smiled before gently placing my lips back on his, and ignored the fact that this would only bring bad things.

A/N: So today is the first day of my last school holidays before I graduate. (I only have a term left, how scary.) Anyway, I woke up this morning, and took my laptop outside and sat out there and wrote until it was too cold and came inside. Seeing as it is winter here, it was actually pretty warm today, which was nice. I'm really, really sorry for how long this has taken me. I have been writing still, so it isn't as if I was just spending 7 months doing shit all. I've actually been working on my English Extension II short story, which has to be between 6,000 - 8,000 words. And seeing as it has to be perfect, I've been putting all of my creative energy into that, and I really hate that I've neglected my stories and you guys. I can't promise anymore updates, seeing as I don't know when I'll be inspired to sit down and write again, hopefully I will update again in the duration of the upcoming three weeks.

Anyway, I've missed you all. :( And I hope that you'll review, because seriously, the reviews from you guys inspire me so much. Besides, I want to know what you all think of the events of this chapter. ;) And to address this: no, this wasn't something I decided to do at the last minute. This was always going to happen from my planning stages. So I do hope you like it. I'm really just glad to finally have a chapter out.

Thank you to all of you lovely people who reviewed the last chapter. I think I replied to most of you...? If not, then I'm really sorry, but please know how grateful I am.

One issue I do need to address: I live in Australia, therefore, my summer is from December until the end of February, but our summer holidays are only until the end of January. Therefore, my characters will be going home for Christmas in the duration of the story. :) I'm sorry if this is confusing for you or too weird, but that is how this is.

Thank you all for being so wonderful, and I hope you enjoyed the chapter. :)

K.