FicWad

It was a pretty sunshine-y day, and even as weirded out as I was about Jacob, I sat on the front porch and soaked up some Vitamin D. I called Meg and told her to come to my house as soon as she could, because some shit just went down. After that, I called Gerard and asked him if he had any jumper cables, and he said he’d find some and before over here soon. Frankie was bound to come by, so I didn’t bother texting or calling him.

Meg was in my drive way a few short minutes later. “What’s so important?” she asked. Then she saw the beer cans in the flower bed and looked back up at me. “Did you and Gerard get drunk last night after I left?”

“No,” I said. Then I told her about Jacob’s creepy texts and him waking up in my yard, then yelling at me.

“That’s weird. Where’s your mom?”

“Visiting friends,” I answered.

“Let’s get rid of these beer cans before she comes home,” Meg said, picking one up. “Oh, this is gross. I think it’s covered in puke.”

I threw my hands up in exasperation. “Great! My ex-boyfriend gets drunk and pukes in my yard, then begs for me back. Best day ever.”

Meg laughed. “It could be worse,” she said.

“How?” I asked miserably.

“He could have made some stupid speech about how much he loves you and how much you mean to him,” she answered.

I just looked at her and sighed.

“Oh,” she said. She tried to suppress giggles. “My bad.”

Frankie ran out of his house and into my yard, where Meg and I were picking up beer cans and carrying them to the trash can on the curb.

“Aw,” he whined, “did you guys get drunk without me last night?” He frowned and crossed his arms across his chest.

“No, Lily has a stalker,” Meg laughed. “He’s going to leaving poetry on your windshield!” she howled, positively in stitches over my horrific situation.

Though I wouldn’t admit it to any of them, I was scared. When Jacob had pinned me against the wall, I’d lost control, and I wouldn’t have been able to fight him off if he had tried anything. So, instead of reliving another moment like that where I’m vehicle-less, I decided to get someone to fix my car. I had no idea how to do anything relating to anything mechanical (I even had trouble taking apart my mechanical pencils) but Gerard and Frankie were guys, so they should be good at things like that.

Meg told him everything I’d told her, then added the part about the rehearsed speech. Frank frowned again. “That’s weird.”

“I know!” I cried.

Gerard pulled up in my yard, too. “Got the jumper cables!” he called, grabbing him from the bed of his truck. “What’s up with the beer cans? You get drunk without me last night, Lily?”

“Why do you people keep assuming that?” I asked. “No, Jacob passed out in my yard last night. I found him in the flower bed this morning.”

Gerard raised his eyebrows. “That’s a lot of beer cans for one skinny kid,” he said.

“I guess he has a high metabolism or whatever. He threw up, too,” I added. I told him about what went down this morning, and his cheeks turned red.

“What a prick,” he said. “Not a big deal, though. He was probably still drunk from…this.” He picked up a vomit covered beer can with two fingers and held it out away from him.

“Gross,” said Frankie, sitting down on the grass. “Nice day, though.”

Meg lied down beside him, then put her arms behind her head. “We should do something.”

Gerard threw the jumper cables on the ground and lied down on his stomach, stretched across the grass. “Or we could just, you know, chill here for a while.”

I jumped onto the ground, laying my head on Meg’s stomach. “I like that idea.”

“It’s settled then,” Meg said. “We’re just gonna lay on the grass.”

We laid on the ground for a while, just hanging out and talking about stupid teenager things and soaking up the sun. After about ten minutes though, it got a lot hotter, and pretty soon it was sweltering.

I yawned. “We could go swimming at the Reefs,” I suggested. It was a lot hotter on the ground with no breeze.

We all got up. “Yeah, that sounds good. I bet the water’s freezing.” Frankie jumped up and got into Meg’s car. “Meg’s driving!” he cried.

“Fine,” she called, getting in the car. “Don’t have a bathing suit, going in my undergarments!”

“Us, too,” Gerard said, then yelled, “SHOT GUN!”

I laughed. “I could go back in and change into my bathing suit, but I’m lazy. To the Reefs!” I jumped in the backseat with Frankie, who was lounged across the backseat, using Meg’s Algebra II book as a pillow. I sat on his stomach.

“You’re lucky you’re skinny,” he said, frowning. I wiggled and smirked. He grimaced, and then promised me he’d sit up.

“Don’t hurt the poor kid,” Gerard said, laughing. Meg squealed as Frankie leaned forward into the front seat and licked her arm.

“Freak!” she laughed, and turned up the radio. I swear, my ears were close to bleeding. In the middle of Meet the Monster, we pulled up to the Reefs.

The Reefs were the spots were everyone went swimming. It had a nice beach-like thing, the water was shallow with a gradual slope so it eventually became deeper, which was good for kids and parents and stuff. Farther downstream, was a swimming hole, and I use that term quite literally. There was no gradual slope here, just a complete drop off with water that was fifteen to twenty feet deep. Plus, there were huge rocks to jump off of that were somewhere close to thirty feet above the water, and that was the best part. It was hard to climb the giant rock, of course, but so worth it.

Meg parked the car, and due to the fact that it wasn’t quite summer yet, and to some people that meant swimming didn’t feel right, the Reefs were empty. We all took off running for the hole, and when we got there, we stood on the big flat rock and took off the majority of our clothes. Gerard and Frankie stripped down to their boxers, and Meg and I stripped down to our bras and panties.

If Gerard and Frankie and Meg were uncomfortable with seeing each other half naked, they didn’t say anything. I had to make myself stop staring at Gerard’s barely clothed body, but other than that, being half naked wasn’t a big deal.

We jumped into the water as soon as our clothes were off and swam towards the big rock, and I got to the top first.

I looked down at Gerard, Meg, and Frankie, who were climbing up cautiously, because the rock was slippery and there weren’t many crevices for your hands and feet.

We all got to the top, and the usual argument ensued.

“Okay, who’s going first?”

“I’m not going, you go!”

“I went last time!”

“No, I did, dumb ass, you do it!”

“You did not, that was me. It’s always me first.”

“Guys, it was last August, no one remembers who went first last time.”

This happened every time because it was a dangerous, long fall and there was a certain spot you had to jump in to avoid the rocks at the bottom. No one wanted to misjudge.

“Fine, I’ll go first,” I said, rolling my eyes and walking up to the edge of the rock. I’d done this a million times before, and it’d only been like, nine months or so since the last time I’d jumped, how hard could it be? I looked down. Not a good time to remember that I’m afraid of heights. (Though I did this EVERYTIME we came to the Reefs. You’d think I’d remember, but no. I like adventure.)

I gulped, then looked back at my friends, who were just looking at me. “Go on,” Gerard said. “If you live, we’ll be behind you.”

I blinked, and then looked back at the water. “Ehh,” I mumbled.

Meg cocked an eyebrow. “You said you’d go first.”

“I don’t recall this,” I said, stepping away from the edge. “Nope, I’m pretty sure Frankie said he’d do it.”

“No I didn’t!” Frankie cried. He frowned.

“Well I sure as hell didn’t say it.”

“Damn it, Lily,” Meg said. “Guess we’re just gonna sit up here for a while then.”

Gerard walked up to me. “I’ll jump with you. Same time, hand in hand. Okay?”

“Do you remember where to jump?” I asked weakly.

“I think so,” he said softly so that Meg and Frankie couldn’t hear.

“Then go!” Meg and Frankie yelled in unison at us.

“We will!” we yelled back.

Gerard took my hand, laced my fingers with his, and said, “On three. One…two…three!”

We screamed on the way down. I was probably cutting off the circulation to his arm, holding his hand so tight, but he just smiled. We hit the water with our eyes open and we let go of each other, and saw how far we went down. We’d narrowly missed the sharp rocks, but we had. His hair created a messy halo around his head, and we swam to the surface. His wet body glistened in the sun, and I had to go back underwater to keep from staring. We’d barely been above water for thirty seconds when Meg came flying down, followed closely by Frankie.

I smiled as they laughed and splashed each other, and I announced that I was going to jump again. I got out of the water and noticed something strange.

There was something in the woods.

“Hello?” I addressed it. It could have been a deer at first, but then it threw a rock at me and ran away, and I could clearly hear only two legs.

The rock hit me in the shoulder and bounced off. I screamed because it scared me.

Frankie and Gerard, being they valiant men they are, jumped out of the water and onto the flat rock I was standing on, and asked what happened.

Whatever had hit me with a rock had gone. “Nothing. I…saw a spider. Huge one. The size of my hand,” I lied.

Frankie shuddered. “That’s gross.”

“Yeah,” I said. “Scared me. Sorry, guys.”

Gerard just looked me like he didn’t believe me. “We’ll be over here,” he said.


“I’m fine now.”

But I wasn’t, because before the person in the woods had run away, I’d smelled vomit and beer. And I didn’t feel safe anymore.


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yeah, been at dad's. no internet there. this chapter's long. and suckish. and waay late.

i apologize.

but, if you rate and review, i'll be more inspired and write more.

well, that's how i did on It's the Tearing Sound of Love Notes, anyway.

so, rate and review!