𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐭

ᎢᎻᎬ ᏔᎪᎡNᏆNᏩ

"Jack?"

"go away." he grunted his words having a bigger impact on her than she'd thought. But she ignored him walking till she was sitting beside him like they had been that night they had drawn stick figures in the sand.

"do you not understand go away?!" he slightly raised his voice shifting away from her warm body.

He felt torn as he tried to trace his thoughts. She made him completely calm and thinking of her body close to him bought him serenity. But she caused him to loose his mind and he hated the control Iris had over him.

"I do but I'm not going." she said opening the bag beside her, at the sound of his zipper bag his head turned surprised to find the red first aid kit in her hands. She had seen his bruised knuckles in the car, the cuts along his arms and on his lip. remembering the times he'd helped her she found a cotton pad and applied alcohol to the little tissue. Standing up she found herself standing in front of Jack, his head tilted back staring at her looming face, the moonlight dancing behind her.

"what are you doing" his voice quivered as she moved closer. she silenced him pressing her hands along his purple knuckles, wincing out in pain he felt exposed.

"you are hurt, and I owe you" she explained, gulping he moved his legs for her to stand in between, the cotton being placed on his throbbing lip. He hissed at the ointment but she held his angular jaw with her left hand, not letting him stray from her care. Jack felt electrified by the touch of her fingertips and could hardly breath under her touch.

The four boys sat on the grass around the fire all half looking at the two interacting over away from them.

"what do you think they are doing?" Daniel asked suspecting that something bad was happening by the distraught on her face. The group was silent as the spooned stew into the cups and found utensils,

"they are being invested in one another" Zach whispered and Corbyn smiled at his response knowing what he was saying was true.

Unaware of the conversation and spying that was happening on the other side of the grass, Jack tried to cancel his internal ragging but he couldn't. She dabbed his lip and across some of his split knocks continuously before she began wrapping them in bandages.

"I don't need you. or care about you." he stated out coldly the words not surprising her but a tinge of sadness striking her heart. Jack knew that he was lying but he was more informing himself than her and diddn't shift sympathetically. Within their tense moments of friendship, Jack always had a rejecting aroma around him to Iris but it never bothered her as she always just thought it was because of the test happening around them. He never involved himself into conversations or her like the rest of the boys did acting as if their was a constant 2 metres between them except for small moments where his heart actually shone a little like it used to before this horrible world that drew his walls up.

"well maybe you do care about me a little... you didn't seem to hold back when smashing that boy's face into pieces after he hurt me" she coaxed making Jack go dead silent; his breath hitching. She was exactly correct and Jack didn't know how to respond feeling vulnerable and uncovered. The bare truth of her statement felt like he'd just shoved one of the punches he'd laid into the boy, right into himself.

"it's okay Jack, I'll leave soon," she whispered making sure only he heard it, but as the words left her mouth Jack felt a wave of regret fall upon him.

"leave? you can't leave." he asserted taking his hands from hers so she would concentrate on his face.

"but I'm temporary, I'm sure that what you've thought this whole time, like you said you don't need me" she !75 her lip feeling as if it was going to tremble like it had threatened to do earlier in the car. He felt horrible as he realised what he'd been doing the whole time and the discourtesy he had displayed, he didn't want her to go and he didn't know why he suddenly felt like this.