2 days later ~
‘Jack, Jack, Jack!’ Leena screams, Taylor right behind her.
She’s bouncing into the room like a little puppy that found its long lost toy. Jack turns around to face her.
‘It’s the festival today!’ she squeals grinning like crazy. ‘Remy, are you coming with us?’ she asks making her way toward me. I wasn't sure what she was talking about so I look at Jack, confused.
‘It’s where everyone in the town meets to watch a festival, dance, sing, and listen to songs and… yeah… Taylor and Leena are making me go so… you should come.’
Taylor gives him a look and Jack stiffens a bit, ‘No! Not in that way. Jeez Taylor,’ he glares at her and she rolls her eyes before looking at me smiling. I didn’t get what Taylor’s look was for and Jack’s glare but I definitely knew I wanted to go to this festival thing.
‘Um… yeah, sure, sounds fun, I’ll definitely come with you guys.’ I say slowly, smiling. Leena jumps toward me wrapping her arms around my waist and making me take a few steps backward. I laugh and hug her back.
At about 3:30 Jack, Taylor and Leena take me for a walk through the town walking up and down streets, and in and out of shops, laughing and buying clothes for the festival.
We get home around 5:30 and decide it’s time to get ready so we all change into our new clothes.
Taylor bought a cute skirt and top. Leena bought an aqua coloured dress. And Jack being a guy bought a t-shirt with printed words that seem gibberish to me and plain greyish black jeans.
Thanks to Jack I bought a bright yellow dress that had slight flower patterns, it’s tight at the top and puffs up from above my hips down and comes about four inches above my knees; like a summer dress. It has no sleeves or a strap to hold it, it’s pretty and even though I refused for Jack to buy it I'm glad that he did in the end.
After I shower I get changed and brush my teeth. I wasn’t sure how to put my hair but I looked at it in the mirror and contemplated and only then did I notice that my hair curled in ringlets and was pretty long. I put ¼ of my hair on both sides of my neck with the rest behind my back. I looked at the make-up but wasn’t sure whether I as allowed to use it also I didn’t really do make-up, I’ve never tried it before seeing there was no point in wearing any if I wasn’t going anywhere, so I left it there untouched.
When I walk outside Leena, Taylor and Jack are all ready. I didn’t realise they were there and walked out of the bedroom with my head down fixing my earing and staring at my dress to see if it was okay. I stop and see three pairs of feet in front of me.
I look up slowly, smiling, hoping I looked alright for the occasion. When I see their faces they’re all smiling except for Jack; admiring as if he has never seen a girl face-to-face before.
Leena and Taylor are both grinning and complimenting me; ‘you’re so pretty,’ ‘I wish I look like you!’ ‘I love your hair,’ ‘I love the dress,’ ‘you’re so lucky!’ They’re jumping on me touching my hair, hugging me and staring. I look at up at Jack and he still looks the same; standing and staring into outer space, but at me.
Leena pulls on his arm and laughs, ‘Jack, Jack! Don’t you think she looks beautiful?’
I blush and look at Jack; it takes him a while to answer. ‘Err… yeah she is… I mean she does… Come on we should go before we miss the opening,’ he turns around and opens the door for us and then shuts it after we were all out.
We all get in a car and Leena and Taylor make me sit at the front, ‘But isn’t Jack going to sit here?’ I ask concerned. He sticks his head in from the open window of the driver’s seat with the keys hanging from his fingers, ‘Nope, I'm driving.’
‘You drive?’ I ask shocked and amazed, he sees the slight fear flicker in my eyes and his face softens as he takes his place in the driver’s seat light and fast, reminding me of liquid. He holds my gaze steadily, ‘yeah, I do,’ he says with that soft murmur that somewhat made me relax.
‘Where are we going?’ I ask as he pulls out of the drive way and onto the dirt road. ‘Where everyone meets for a celebration; near the country where the town celebrations are always held.’ Taylor replies.
We arrive at a parking lot on a farm and started to walk to where everyone else was going. Leena holds my hand cheerfully, walking with pride and Taylor walks beside Leena looking at Jack every now and then on my other side, Jack walks next to me but makes it look like we don’t even know each other.
We started to get closer to where everyone else was and Jack soon starts to fall behind, I walk slower to stride next to him and Leena and Taylor talk to each other about some movie in front of us.
‘What’s wrong?’ I ask Jack, searching his face in concern.
‘Oh, uh, no, it’s nothing,’ he smiles and walks a normal pace keeping up with Taylor and Leena.
When we get to the country there are a lot of people: kids chasing each other in circles around their mothers, men talking loud in front of portable mini bars in small groups, women talking in big groups chatting quietly but then laughing out loud.
As Taylor, Leena, Jack and I walk into the country everyone stares at us for some reason, and not just the occasional few people it was more like everyone we walked past. They’re all looking at me!
Jack whispers something in my ear, his breath warm on my neck, ‘they like to stare at new people, beautiful people – like you,’ He smiles warmly.
I look down at Leena and Taylor who seem to be enjoying the attention smiling and waving at the people they knew.
As we go deeper into the country Jack walks beside me looking down at his feet about as embarrassed as me.
We soon get to a place where there are a lot of teenagers, about 14 and over and they all stare at me too, I get embarrassed again but I still look up and smile at them. Jack starts to get self-conscious for I can see he keeps looking down as he’s cheeks goes pink. I laugh and hold his arm giving it a little squeeze of reassurance, Leena and Taylor looks at us and smile before running off to a guy about Taylor’s age. He gives Leena a hug and laughs; he too stares at me for a while before walking over to us.
‘Oooh, Jack, who’s your girlfriend?’ he teases winking at me jokingly.
‘Luke this is Remy. Remy – Luke.’
I look at Luke and he bows theatrically, when he stands up straight again with a teasing grin on his face I let go of Jack’s arm, step forward and do a princess bow holding onto both sides of my dress and lowering my head a little. His gaze meets mine and we go quiet for a long moment, his grin gets bigger and I started to laugh breaking off the long awkward gaze, Leena giggles but Taylor punches Luke’s arm in a friendly way; not too hard. ‘You’re such a dork!’ Taylor jokes laughing straight after, Luke pulls a face and jerks away as Taylor goes to swat him on the shoulder.
Jack makes a grunting noise in between ugh and pfft but I wasn’t sure which.
‘Jack! Remy! Come here!’ Leena calls and a split second later Luke and Taylor race each other to Leena like two puppies full of energy.
Jack and I walk together to where they were all standing. ‘He’s one of our close family friends, only talk to him every now and then,’ he explains, ‘I think he likes you, I think everyone in this town likes you,’ he grins as I giggle, flushed.
The festival was so beautiful, fun and energetic. Taylor, Leena, Luke and I danced to the songs in the festival twirling and singing, jumping and laughing, everyone still stares at me looking away when I look at them. But I could still tell they were staring – I could feel rather than see the people all around me watching, some looked curious, and some envious, but I still don’t know why. I could feel their eyes boring down on me, watching my every move.
After a while I got used to it after having people confront me, introducing themselves, and some complimenting. It was usually the guys that would come up to me to talk for a bit, some gave me a friendly hug and when they go back to their mates they all laugh, nudging and punching at each other’s arms.
I found it pretty funny but embarrassing at times, especially when Jack was there.
After a while I was having so much fun I didn’t notice Jack wasn’t dancing with us. ‘Come on, Jack!’ I laugh making my way toward him. ‘Nah, not much of a dancer,’ he looks up at me smiling innocently with a lopsided grin. ‘Aww, come on!’ I plead laughing playfully. He chuckles and shakes his head but I drag him off his chair anyway.
I bring him to the middle of the dancing square and put his hands on my hips as I held him on the shoulders and soon started to sway my hips stepping every now and then.
Jack looks down at our feet watching every step I take and making sure he wouldn’t step on my feet, his hands so soft on my hips it was as if he wasn’t even holding me. I laugh at him playfully, ‘let the music move you.’ He finally looks up and holds my gaze and we step at the same time.
‘You’re dancing,’ I beam holding his warm gaze, he grins and gives me a slow twirl, my dress spinning around with me and flying in the air with me. As I finish my twirl he pulls me closer to his strong and relaxed body and I soon wrap my arms around his neck, eyes locked to each other’s gaze.
Somehow I started to relax and somehow, for once, I felt safe.
The people around were so nice, giving me smiles whenever I looked at them or just looking nice in general. Some of the older guys or the ones the same age gave me weird looks that I didn’t understand, though it made my cheeks go red and Jack’s jaw tense. The thing I also didn’t get though was why they always glared at Jack or walked past scowling, if I caught them they’d pretend it didn’t happen and Jack would go along as well. I didn’t like it because not only did it make Jack uncomfortable it made me uncomfortable too.
There was one group that seemed to like getting my attention by doing funny or silly things; standing out of the crowd. I smiled and laughed at them and they grinned right back, but whenever Jack caught them he’d glare at them angrily and turned my attention to him by swirling me or making a conversation.
Finally Jack started to get sick of the glaring and scowls and stopped pretending it wasn’t happening.
‘Hey, where’s Jack going?’ Luke screams over the music looking at the direction to where Jack was heading. I shrugged my shoulders and turned to look, I saw his firm body calmly taking long strides to a group of guys, some the same age and some a little older – the group that did most of the glares, scowls and weird looks to me. I followed and kept a close eye on Jack, wondering what he was going to do and trying my best not to lose him in the crowd.
Jack got there fast before I could get anywhere near him but the guys in the group all smiled as if giving him a warm welcome. Some had their eyes on Jack but the closer I got all eyes were soon on me. I shivered but kept walking and soon I was standing next to Jack.
‘Just leave us alone, Cullum, go back to Billy. We don’t need the trouble right now.’ Jack was saying calmly but warningly. All of the guys pretended as if he wasn’t there and looked at me instead, all except for the guy called “Cullum” which seemed to do all the talking.
‘Oh, we’re not here for the trouble – of course that’s your job remember,’ the guy said calmly switching his eyes to look at me for a moment; he winks at me as if it were a joke but turns his stare back to Jack. My heart raced as most of the guys stood up straight, their fists clenched faces blank.
‘Look, I didn’t come here for trouble. We don’t need any attention right now; not here. Not with her.’ Jack says eyeing all the guys down, they backed off but only a little as they turned their curious gazes back to him.
‘Remy over here seems to like the attention,’ Cullum says smiling at me before putting his hand out as if to touch my arm innocently. Jack grabs his wrist and pushes it back down before Cullum could get it anywhere near me. I moved back and did my best not to cower away, but the guys at the back stiffened and had ice cold glares for Jack again. I shivered and realised I was grabbing onto Jack’s hand.
‘Don’t touch her.’ Jack warns calmly before pulling me away from them and walking off angrily hands firm around mine. ‘Goodbye Remy, nice meeting you,’ Cullum calls out loud making almost everyone turn around and look at me before him and the guys cracked up laughing – and not in a nice way either.
‘Why’d you follow me?’ Jack asks, brow furrowed, stopping right in the middle of the dance floor. His eyes held my gaze and searched deep in my thoughts, or so it felt, and his hands still clenched onto mine. It was as if the music stopped and it was only us two standing in the middle. ‘I-I don’t know. I just wanted to see where you were going.’ I say quietly dropping my gaze for a moment and then looking back up into his eyes again. ‘You shouldn’t give them your attention Remy, you saw how they acted, don’t go near them okay?’ I nodded, ‘but… who are they? How do they know my name?’ I ask, the music got louder and all the dancing people seemed to suffocate us both as the air got tense. He stays quiet for a moment, ‘let’s talk over there,’ he says tilting his head to where he was looking.
‘They’re part of a gang, a bad gang. Everyone knows they’re no good but it doesn’t stop them from doing stupid things.’ Jack says, ‘They probably know your name from their leader, to them, you’re like fresh meat; gorgeous, pretty, cute – the lot.’ Jack says.
I give him an offended look, shocked by what he just said to me. Was that meant to be offensive? Fresh meat? Their leader? I shivered and looked away from Jack, for some reason angry. ‘No. Remy, I didn’t mean it like that.’ He says softly, I bite the inside of my lip and kept my eyes on the people dancing in front of us; having fun. ‘Don’t worry, they won't come anywhere near you. I swear. But just do your best to stay away from them. All of them,’ he says, that calm and soft murmur dragging my eyes back to him.
I nodded and stayed quiet for a moment. ‘Why are they always glaring at you? How do you even know them?’ He sighs and I saw his eyes flicker in regret, ‘I was-’ he started but stopped exactly two seconds before Luke came, it was as if he knew he was coming even though he had his eyes on me.
‘Hey! Remy, Is it okay if you get me a drink?’ Luke asks innocently doubling over, out of breath from all the dancing. ‘Luke, get it yourself. Don’t be lazy,’ Jack says, Luke straightens up and pouts his bottom lip trying to put a sad face on and looking at Jack for approval, but Jack kept his face neutral.
‘Okay, what drink?’ I ask. His eyes glitter as a big grin stretches across his face. ‘Hmm, coke please.’ I stand up about to leave but Jack grabs my wrist softly, ‘you don’t have to you know, he’s old enough to get himself stuff.’ I grinned like it was no big deal and bent over to kiss him on the cheek, ‘It’s fine,’ I say before walking off.
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Remy's dress on the side. just picture it yellow-y :)