"You gonna skinny dip, Fleas?"
Rhyse paused midway through taking his shirt off to toss a bemused expression at me. "Skinny what?"
"Dip?" I responded meekly, wishing the lake would forge a sunken mouth and devour me whole before I was forced to woefully explain to the Forest Boy just what I meant.
He didn't budge an inch, except his eyes which blinked widely as he waited impatiently for my explanation.
"It's- it's where you go swimming... naked," I murmured.
He puckered his lips and arched his brow in scepticism and then smirked. "We're barely a thing yet Sophia, and you want to see me naked?"
"It was a joke!"
"So you can jest about seeing me in the nude but when I prank you it's too much? Double standards I see." He childishly folded his arms and pouted.
"Oh shut up you big man-baby and let's get in before your mother overhears you complaining from your cabin."
After lounging in the burning sun for a while, talking incessantly about nothing, doing nothing. The uncomfortable sensation of my hands and feet beginning prune ran through my body. It was time to get back to dry land.
With all the energy I had remaining after the sun had siphoned it from me while sunbathing, I dragged myself back to dry land. Back into the shade.
Rhyse swiftly followed, settling not too far from my side. Sluggishly, he perched himself up with his hands. I couldn't help but notice he was much more tanned than when I initially met him.
He turned his head towards me, and my heart fell into my ass. Not because he looked incredibly attractive at that moment, but because he would definitely realise I was checking him out.
"It's pretty when it's curly," Rhyse said. He nodded towards my hair that was occasionally dripping freezing cold droplets of my water down on my shoulder and down my back.
"Thanks," I responded sheepishly, glad he didn't acknowledge my ogling. "It's gonna be a pain in the ass to detangle later on, though."
His eyes didn't leave my head for a second. "I'd learn to do it for you if we had more time together. I do like doing hair."
I smiled at the boy and his generous offer, who was deep in thought about hair. He was a strange boy a lot of the time, but he also had peculiar wholesomeness about him that often came out of the left field. I'd never had a guy offer to do my hair before or even compliment it in its natural state. At most, it had just been non-black boys who wanted to touch it because they had some bizarre idea of what the texture would feel like.
"One day when I get out of here, I'll do it," he stated decidedly. His focus lingered on the expanse of the lake before us. "I want to learn all about you and your culture if you and the sorrel are anything to go by." He turned his head to briefly shoot me a dazzling grin, before settling his eyes on the lake again.
There was something else he was thinking of; his mind had wandered off elsewhere while he spoke to me. A yearning in his voice sounded like he was already imagining himself where he wanted to be in the future. It was odd seeing him be serious for a change without a questionable joke to make me question if he meant what he said. He was genuine. Contemplative.
... also very attractive, but that wasn't important!
It was clear that he wanted to leave the forest and see other things, but that his parents wouldn't let him leave. Presumably, it was his mother. I didn't mention that to him though, instead, I put the focus on something slightly different.
"When you leave here, where would you go?"
"Probably whatever city you're in," he replied, barely leaving himself a second to think.
I chuckled. "London is super expensive and super busy."
In response, he shrugged casually. "I think I could make it work."
"What about your studies?"
"I was homeschooled and did my exams a little early. I think I did pretty okay."
I cocked a brow. "How okay is pretty okay?"
The corner of Rhyse's mouth visibly coiled upwards and I knew then and there he did more than pretty okay. "Two A stars and an A. Kinda average really."
"You are so cocky!" I exclaimed, nudging him jokingly. "With those grades, you could easily go to a prestigious university."
"I could, yeah. I don't know if it would be too much for me to handle. I'd have to get used to not living in seclusion and being away from my parents. I want to do languages, or maybe something to do with books or films. Never really thought about it much." His pensive expression lit up when he revealed what exactly he wanted to study. It was blatantly apparent that he wanted to cross the borders of the forest on a more permanent basis to explore different things and discover what was on the horizon.
"You can study anything you want. You even do it online if in person is too stressful."
"Are you going to go?"
"Hopefully. If get accepted I'll be doing law.
"Are your parents making you? Is it their dream? Like in films where they're like 'no dad, it's your dream, not mine!' And then the dad realises he's in the wrong?" He said, effortlessly putting on an over-emphasised American accent.
I sniggered at the dramatics. "No, I actually like law. I even do a little research for my parents sometimes. They tell me all sorts of insane case law from the past. I don't want to work crazy hours like them though, I hardly see them outside of coming here every year."
"You live with them but don't see them?" He furrowed his brows in perplexity, the concept obviously foreign to him in his personal life.
In a way, I was slightly jealous when I thought about it; I would love to spend all day with both my parents or at least just have the opportunity to. Even while on holiday they often still worked which meant I couldn't just lie around or have quality time with them. Rhyse probably never had to worry about that.
"Yup. That's why we come out here in the summer now."
Rhyse's lips twisted into a frown. "That's... sad. Don't you get scared when they're not there?"
"We had nannies and tutors so... not really. But sometimes when I wanted to talk to my parents or hang out, they weren't there. They missed a lot of events that were important to me."
"Nannies? Tutors? Plural?" His voice raised an octave in shock.
"Yeah?"
"Just what kind of money are your parents earning?" He queried.
I narrowed my eyes, seeing exactly where he was going to go with his question. It wasn't my first time. "Don't worry about it. They work a lot. Like we don't see them until 11 pm most nights. Some nights we don't see them at all if there's a complex case going on."
"I would hate that. Sounds like hell. Why earn all of that money if you can't enjoy it?"
I shrugged, I never really understood it either. "They seem to love it. But I hope as they get older they slow down. It would be nice."
He nodded silently, seemingly satisfied by my answer. A sigh left his body and he fully laid back, using his hands to cushion his head.
"You've done lots of travelling, right? A rich girl like you."
The way he dragged the word 'rich' made it obvious he was being flippant, which was rich coming from himself. His parents most certainly had a lot of money at some point being wanted gang leaders, mine just happened to keep a hold of theirs and kept it legal.
"Plenty."
"If I went, would you come with me?"
"From Forest Boy to City Boy, huh?"
"Is that your cute little nickname for me now? What should I call you then? Kitten? Babe? Honey?"
I wasn't going to lie, they all sounded good coming from his mouth. Even kitten, which ordinarily made me cringe. Never would I admit that, he'd definitely never let it go. Clearly, something in my expression alerted him that I wasn't averse to any of those nicknames as the corners of his mouth twitched. But then I remembered we weren't even a "thing" as he so liked to say.
"I thought we weren't dating."
"Don't have to be dating to give you a cute nickname. You've called me every word in the English dictionary that even remotely rhymes with my name. Not to mention you've called me Forest Boy a few times even before the picnic so." His eyebrows crumpled up in thought as he suddenly began talking towards the sky. "How about you call me Forest Boy, and I call you City Girl." Rhyse's warm eyes once again lingered on me.
"Boring but-"
"Oh, so you want me to give you a nickname?"
"Shut up."
"Aw, why are you all grumpy? I'm sure your parents could have forbidden you from meeting me. Shouldn't you be happy?"
He was right. I could be back at the cabin, wasting my time doing nothing. Instead, Rhyse went out of his way to lie to his parents just to meet me. In around a week, I wouldn't see him again for another year.
"Is it because I said we're not a thing? It's been four weeks Phi-Phi and-" He gasped loudly and sat upright. "Phi Phi! How do you like it? It's cute, right? Not cuter than you when you're grumpy but- "
"Reminds me of a cartoon I used to watch when I was a kid but... it's tolerable."
Fifi and the Flowetots. Whenever I saw that show in the morning as a kid, I knew we were going to be late for school.
"What was that? I didn't hear."
"If you didn't hear, you missed out."
He snickered, and then stopped almost right away."Do you still think I'm weird?"
"What?"
"If you didn't hear then- ow!" He promptly brought his hand up to his chin where I had just flicked, tossing a pout in my direction.
"I heard. I don't get what you mean."
"When we first met, you thought I was weird. I may not be the best a reading social cues and understanding boundaries but, I could tell you thought I was weird."
"You're weird. Very weird." I stated blankly.
"Oh." Rhyse pursed his lips. "Then... help me to not be weird. When we go travelling."
Guilt slowly crept up my chest as I suddenly became unsure if Rhyse knew if I was joking or not. Well, I was half-joking. Rhyse certainly was weird but in a strangely endearing way. I'd grown to like his odd traits. I wouldn't want him to feel like he had to alter his quirky personality because of me.
"There's nothing wrong with being weird."
"But you don't like it."
"I never said that."
"I'm not stupid."
I raised my shoulders and my brows sheepishly. "You kinda are."
Rhyse glanced down at his watch, and his eyes widened. "Darn, I have to be back in time for dinner. I didn't realise the time. Gotta go."
He helped me up to my feet and flung my now dry clothes over to me. We dressed, but Rhyse was done before me. He seemed to be in a rush.
"Okay well, hopefully, I'll see you soon," I said as I dusted myself down.
"Uh, where's my hug?" Rhyse asked teasingly.
"I don't hug uglies."
"Could've fooled me with how much you like to secretly ogle us." He wiggled his brows. "So come on. Don't be shy all of a sudden."
He extended his arms, using them to engulf me in an airtight hug. I groaned when the "hug" became unbearable and tapped out.
The gentle vibrations from Rhyse's amused chuckle rumbled against my cheek as he loosened his grip and was finally given the opportunity to enjoy it. Even if he did smell a little like remnant lake water.
"Stop acting like you don't like this." He batted his eyelashes down at me.
"What? Is that your version or dirty talk?"
"Of what talk?"
I instantly threw the puzzled boy a huge grin. "Google it."
He eyed me, as I turned on my heels smugly and went home. Rhyse was left with a little homework task he hopefully wouldn't try to do on the family computer.
On the walk back to my family, I remembered that I hadn't been in a proper romantic relationship before. It had never been a priority for me since I was usually busy with one thing or another. But the way my heart rate jumped when I was in Rhyse's embrace led me to wonder what else I'd been missing out on. Despite that, the affection was foreign to me, not to mention Rhyse saying we're not a "thing." Whether he was being serious, he was nervous or straight up unsure, I didn't know. He was an exceptionally difficult person to read.
Perhaps it was in my best interest not to put too much thought into it. Not for the time being.
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My bad for not updating yesterday y'all! I hadn't finished editing the chapter and I was super tired. At least you get a nice long chapter though ;)