Lost With You

Chapter Seven

The weekends gradually stopped by as Jonathan and I went through days of studying and reading—not to mention procrastinating on homework. The teachers finally gave us a break on Friday from the endless writing and catching up of chapters that we had to do since either one of us would daydream during lessons.
    I was glad that our temporary but languorous two-days break had arrived to treat us with a small amount of freedom. But Dad wasn't letting either of us outside because of what had happened previously when we went to the mall without his or Mr. Brad's consent. And as far as I knew, Mr. Brad didn't care about us leaving the premises as long as we didn't get back with bruises, cuts, gashes, or any sort of injury for that matter.
    Both Mr. Brad and Dad only had breaks during the weekends and some other holidays. However, they weren't as free as they pleased to be since they had work to do at home. Regardless of whatever business they had to do, as long as Dad was around, we had no permission to leave the area. Not even Mr. Brad could convince Dad to just leave us be.
    It was unbelievable to have such a thought that doing homework over the current weekends would have actually been sufficient enough to distract me, and moreover, it would also be beneficial since it was productive. But of course, luck was not on my side whenever it came to anything relating to schoolwork or hanging out with friends in general.
    I even whined and ranted to Jonathan about it and all he did was shrug without looking at me. He was in the gaming room and was busy trying to get past a level he was struggling in. He only asked if I wanted to join since I was crazy over games, in his words, and would never give them up over anything.
    I had enough of playing games in all honestly. It was the same thing every day—and not to mention, I didn't like exploring many new games since I was picky about what to play or to simply enjoy. Everything was so repetitive that I just wanted to free myself from the so-called entertainment, at least for today.
    I declined Jonathan's offer without turning back and held back the urge to click my tongue at the helpless situation. My initial plan was to ask Dad if he could just let us off that one time but I didn't want to bother him since he had his eyes glued on the computer screen in his own room.
    Mr. Brad was also doing the same. Their boss had probably decided that he could just take away whatever free time they had left during the two days before their usual working schedule resumed. Frankly speaking, most strict bosses were like that—especially when things needed to be done as soon as possible.
    I walked past the living room where Mr. Brad sat all alone on the soft, scarlet couch with his laptop placed on his thighs. His right leg which rested atop his left leg cradled the back of the monitor as a form of support—not that the monitor would collapse out of nowhere anyway.
    Coincidentally, his gaze shifted from the screen to me when I glanced at him. I only waved at him with a smile, "Good luck with work, Mr. Brad."
    "Work? I'm done already."
    "What? You're really efficient. Even Dad isn't done yet."
    "He likes to take his time since rushing things stresses him out."
    I dipped my head low in a single nod and since I assumed we were finished with our small chat, I turned my heels toward the stairs.
    "Oh, I forgot to tell you—presuming that you haven't fully looked around yet—there's a pool outside."
    I twisted my head in Mr. Brad's direction promptly as my face lit up. "Really?"
    "It's not that big or deep though. But just a suggestion, you might wanna take a swim to temporarily cure your boredom."
    "Offer taken—why didn't you say this earlier, Mr. Brad?"
    "Well, I didn't know you were extremely bored until I noticed that this is the third time you've gone down to the living room and back up within less than fifteen minutes."
    "Oh."
    Mr. Brad chuckled at my plain reaction before pointing his index finger vaguely to his right. "If you exit the backdoor, you'll meet the pool. Besides, you won't get lost in this house," he chuckled as he neared the end of his sentence before adding, "Have fun, kid."
    "Thanks, Mr. Brad." I didn't wait to shoot him another friendly glance before heading out of the backdoor to greet an average sized and plain looking pool. It had a ladder submerged in it for users to climb out of the cold and seemingly blue liquid and that was in it.
    I couldn't bother about how simplistic it looked—it still looked as refreshing to jump into on a hot day. Coincidentally, since it was only half past 11, the sun was still floating high up above the familiar cloudy blue sky. Its heat and light shining upon various buildings and facilities, causing the water to glisten and glimmer. It even looked shiny.
    I contemplated on whether I should quickly make my way back to grab at least a towel to dry myself off. It didn't take long for me to make a predictable decision that I would regret later—I decided that I would ditch the towels for now. Homework wasn't the only thing a lazy person like me would procrastinate doing.
    Without even glancing at the ladder or considering the option of slowly dipping myself into the uncomfortable freezing liquid, I shrugged my shoulders. Before I knew it, I pushed my feet off the ground and promptly pulled them against my chest in a tight embrace as I exclaimed, "Cannonball!"
    I landed in the clear water, splashing a big amount of water out of the pool. I pinched my nose as I felt water rushing into my nostrils and hurriedly swam up to the surface, taking a breath. I let out a sharp curse in reflex at the pain which lasted a few seconds before my nose was emptied of any unwanted substance.
    I felt stupid for even forgetting to squeeze my nose between my fingers to prevent water from rushing up where it doesn't belong only to put pressure against my sinus passage. I let out a tiny groan as I stood on my tiptoes enough for my head to poke out of the calmly waving water. It was fortunate that the depth of the pool wasn't deep because I always struggled staying afloat due to the fact that I easily get tired from the continuous motion to keep my head up and above the surface.
    "You went swimming and didn't invite me? How mean," a sudden voice interrupted with a chuckle to follow.
    Inaudible footsteps hit the previously dry concrete floor, its flat surface superseded by water. The soft patters of footsteps were heard as a person entered my vision where I saw Jonathan in his swimming trunks with two cozy towels sandwiched between his side and arm. The more I stared at Jonathan, the more absurd my inappropriate attire seemed for dipping myself into the now lukewarm water against my skin. However, I was convinced that it wasn't my fault as I didn't have anything else to put on for the occasion. I didn't want to take off my shirt either since it made no difference.
    "Well, you seemed occupied with games, so." I raised my shoulders and dropped them in a quick shrug as I tilted my head up to glace at him. It wasn't long before my eyes slowly guided its way down from his chin to his firm chest and then his slim and nicely built frame. I envied him for having such a quality body. Sure, I didn't have anyone to show it off to but I would be proud if I could achieve at least a bit of muscles.
    "That's one creepy stare you're giving me, Jeremy," Jonathan commented sheepishly before genuine curiosity overtook his voice. "Do you like to stare at people's body or something?"
    "What? No!" I immediately denied, shaking my head as I refused to acknowledge the heat that had crawled into my cheeks. I wasn't a pervert who would ogle at people's appearance—I simply just admired how they maintained such a build.
    "What, do you actually like my body?" Jonathan wiggled his eyebrows in a suggestive but joking manner.
    "What the heck—no way!" I glared at his unamusing sense of humor. "Don't make things sound weird!"
    Sure, I'd admit that maybe I had my eyes where they shouldn't be at Jonathan for too long but it wasn't because of some obscene thoughts. I was never the sort of person to even think of something so indecent. In fact,
I was innocent to most dirty jokes, claimed by others who introduced the jokes. Heck, I still had no idea what those jokes even meant!
    "I'm kidding, man," he laughed and carelessly threw the towels onto the nearby bench. In addition, he even ignored the one that had toppled over the other which laid on half the cushion, also on the verge of falling.
    "Not funny." I rolled my eyes before promptly shielding them with my arm the moment Jonathan plopped himself into the pool, creating another splash. The surrounding water rose and overflowed onto the ground, recreating the small puddles which had been in the process of evaporation.
    "Jealous?" he questioned with inquisitiveness as he walked over slowly.
    "Of, what, your appearance in general?" I asked back with a brow raised, which didn't minimize his interest. On the contrary, his desire to find out more grew at my unexpected reaction.
    "Well, I guess?" he stated, seemingly to question if I knew what he meant.
    "I mean, kind of but not really?" I replied with uncertainty in my voice. "I mean, even if I had the same body type or face type or whatnot, it wouldn't matter much to me. It's just the feeling of satisfaction to have such a perk."
    "I see," he stated in an odd tone, most likely not expecting an actual answer coming out from the stubborn mouth I have. Unknowing what I should say, I gave a shrug before swinging my arm back and shoved, unfortunately, a decent amount of water at Jonathan. This then quickly escalated into a water fight, each of us shoveling water onto our faces.
    As I was about to slap another wave of water onto Jonathan's chest, he managed to beat me to it, thrusting the liquid toward me. However, some of it entered into my mouth as I inhaled, causing me to stop my initial action. I immediately faced away, both hands over my mouth as I choked, coughing and gasping for even the slightest bit of air.
    The splashing of water stopped, seizing the movement of the liquid. As Jonathan realized what had happened, he frantically came over to my side and rubbed my back as I finally stopped my paroxysm of coughing. His reaction had morphed into worry as he immediately asked me if I was okay. Before I could even answer him, a sigh squeezed in from behind us abruptly.
    "I told you to be careful when you're playing with water, didn't I?"
    We turned around to face Dad who had his arms crossed, gaze insouciant, as if he had already expected something worse to happen. Despite showing a lack of care from his expression, he raised his brow in genuine worry and asked, "Are you okay, Jeremy?"
    I nodded, wanting to avoid his gaze as I was prepared for another scolding to ruin the fun. Well, not that the water incident hadn't already.
    Dad only gave us a warning which we nodded to, like kids who had stolen candy and had to own up to it. He then returned back into the house, and just when we were about to start another water fight again as we hadn't learned our lesson, he came back and interfered with our yet-to-do plan.
    He told us to get out of the pool since we were heading out to eat lunch together.
    "Finally! The outside world!" I let out as I punched the air upward, grinning, feeling like I had been trapped in some alien dimension for a long time.
    Dad rolled his eyes and shook his head, probably pretending that he didn't see his son exaggerating over what seemed to be nothing in his point of view. But before he turned his heel, he gave us a set of instructions to follow, such as taking a shower and getting ready.
    I didn't know how to feel about the fact that Dad was talking to us as if he had traveled back in time to lecture a seven year old me and Jonathan. I didn't particularly mind it though. I thought that reprimanding teenagers like elementary school students was something that sat well with Dad's personality.
    Once Dad left, I already had one foot onto the lowest step of the metal ladder. I pulled myself up onto the wet ground easily and scooped the fallen towel with my foot, flinging it into a low height and catching it before it landed onto the floor.
    I draped the towel over my shoulders as I attempted to dry my hair the best I could for now and released a contented sigh. My mood was already so many times better than when I was walking around the house with the spirit of a zombie.
    "Hey."
    I twisted my face to meet Jonathan's guilty gaze and let out an almost innocent sounding "hmm?" as if there was nothing he did that he should feel remorse for.
    "Sorry for earlier," he said with a hand on his nape and a deprecatory smile.
    Just his tone enough was already clear about how ashamed he felt for being the cause of my coughing fit. Whereas I, had already silently forgiven him a while back as his action wasn't deliberate.
    "Dude, it's cool. You don't have to look so down because of it." I gave a light chuckle and patted his shoulder. "Relax."
    "Thanks," he exchanged back a rueful smile, still dripping from head to toe.
    "Come on, man, grab your towel and let's go."
    "Yes, sir." He gave a playful salute like an amateur soldier to which I cringed at before laughing.