“Fancy seeing you here,” I chuckled nervously and avoided eye contact with everyone in the room, instead studying my surroundings. Upon discovering me, Peter had immediately ordered me to the front door, letting me in and leading me down a short hallway to the room they were occupying. I looked around at everything in curiosity, but still knew I was in hugetrouble.
SOS please someone save me, it’s not healthy, for me to be here now! I sang in my head, slightly changing the lyrics. At least, I think it was only slightly.
I received blank stares in response to my polite greeting. “Alright fine then. It’s not nice to see you either. And I lied earlier! There’s nothing fancy about seeing you here!”
“Why were you spying on us?” Peter asked.
“You guys were being all suspicious! The real question is why wasn’t I spying on you?” I argued.
“No Georgie, that’s not the question at all.” Dallas spoke to me like I was a small child. I had noticed a slight change in his personality since I accidentally spilled his secret and it worried me. From Breton’s glare towards Dallas, I’m assuming I wasn’t the only one who noticed the difference.
“Well excuse me Dallas, for being slightly immature and confused. It might be because I’m bullied and that caused lots of stress. It could also be because trying to stop from killing myself exerted a lot pressure on my mind and so I resorted to being happy-go-lucky and immature to deal with the life I was given in the hopes that it would get better. But what do I know, I’m just a stupid girl. So why don’t you tell me?”
Silence. I was breathing deeply, shaking my head. I’m okay, I’m okay, I’m okay, I chanted to myself over and over. After a few minutes, I breathed out all the negative thoughts and looked back to the guys, who had stayed quiet.
“Sorry for freaking out on you,” I apologized to Dallas. “School and everything has been really stressful.” I smiled and looked around at my friends, then realized they all looked sick. My smile dropped as I asked if they were okay.
“Y-y-you thought of k-killing yourself?” Breton croaked. Looking down at my feet, I took another deep breath before responding.
“Only once or twice. I called a help line and they really helped me see that I’ve only lived a fraction of my life, and that if I had killed myself I would miss all the good things that were due to happen in the years to come. And I’m really glad I listened because now I’ve got friends, my bullies have left me alone, and my senior year is looking incredibly bright.”
I forced a few more breaths through my lungs before glancing up; right in time to see Breton’s fist smashing into Peter’s face.
“OH MY GOSH!” I shrieked. “What are you doing?”
Peter was now on the floor, and Breton was punching his cousin’s face repeatedly.
“You jerk…what is wrong with you…I could kill you…your fault…” Breton was ranting to Peter, but I only caught bits and pieces.
“Breton! Breton!” Calling his name didn’t even make Breton flinch as I looked around trying to find a way to stop the punches. Peter wasn’t even trying to fight back. His face looked pretty damaged by now and I was getting desperate. “BRETON WHATEVER-YOUR-MIDDLE-NAME-IS JOEL YOU GET AWAY FROM YOUR COUSIN RIGHT NOW!” I yelled as loud as I could. Breton’s fist hung in the air for a moment before falling back onto Peter’s face.
“What should I do, what should I do?” I spoke to myself, turning round in circles trying to find something. Aha! “Dallas, go stop Breton!”
“You want me to do what now? Uh-uh sister, no way. Do you see how fast his fists are flying? I’m not getting in the middle of that,” Dallas replied.
“Come on Dallas, someone needs to stop them!” I was pleading, hands together with puppy dog eyes, but Dallas resisted, quite well actually.
“No. Why don’t you stop them? Isn’t that how it works? The crazy bad boy only stops once the quiet good girl steps in to stop him? Just the sound of her voice saying his name is enough to calm him down, etcetera, etcetera?”
“Dallas, are you crazy?” No, that wasn’t a rhetorical question. When Dallas realized I was actually waiting for an answer, he gave me a look.
“What do you think?”
“Okay, so yes, you are. Because you see, both the boys fighting on the floor right now are like the Hulk compared to my tiny little body.” We looked over at the boys as if just remembering they were there. Breton had his hands wrapped loosely around his cousin’s neck, and was shaking him while Peter kept screaming apologies. “And if I get in the middle of that, I will probably be knocked out, or even die. I’m fragile, you know.”
Dallas sighed. “Fine. But you owe me.” I nodded and backed away carefully as he approached the Joel’s.
I thought maybe Dallas would try to reason with Breton and get him to stop attempting to murder his cousin, but instead he walked up to Breton and punched him right in the face. Breton stopped punching his cousin to clutch his face.
“What the heck Dallas?” Breton and I asked in unison.
“You told me to stop him, I stopped him,” Dallas shrugged. Breton muttered a bad word as I moved closer to examine the damage.
Breton had a huge bruise on his jaw and it was starting to swell up. “You need some ice on that,” I told him. Then I poked his bruise. He cursed.
“What was that for?” he asked.
“You shouldn’t punch people,” I scolded lightly before shoving him away from Peter and repeating my instructions to ice his face.
Peter was definitely in worse shape, with a bloody lip, two black eyes, several cuts all over his face, and lots of blood. “We need to get you cleaned up,” I said, lifting his body from the floor; with help from Dallas of course. “Where’s the bathroom?”
Once everyone was patched up the best I could do, we all returned to the room we were in before, and sat down.
“Alright,” I began. “These last few minutes have all been very dramatic and full of emotion, and so I think we need to talk it out.”
“Why do we need to ‘talk about our emotions?’” Dallas grumbled. “More importantly, why do I have to be here? I was in the middle of something before you forced me to come here.”
I studied Dallas. “Are you okay?”
“Why would you even ask that Georgie? You’re so weird, I swear.” Narrowing my eyes at Dallas, I shook my head, but let his answer pass for now. Maybe he was just having an off day.
“Well, Peter wanted you here to talk about something. And Breton punched Peter for some reason. And you… are acting different. So I think we need to talk it out, before we all become archenemies and spend the last moments of our senior year plotting how to destroy each other.” Looking around the circle we had unconsciously made I asked, “So who wants to go first?”
Breton pointed to Peter, who was pointing at Dallas, who was pointing at the ceiling which was weird. Then I realized that it’s not called pointing if the pointer finger isn’t the one being used.
“Dallas that is really not nice,” I scolded, before looking to Peter. “Peter gets to go first because he was the one who wanted to talk first apparently.”
“What? Why me? Why not Dallas or Breton? This is totally unfair!” complained Peter.
“Too bad. Deal with it,” I instructed sternly. “Now talk.”
Peter sighed. “Alright, but before I begin let me just give you some back story. Once upon a time there was a little boy. His name was Josh.”
“I thought this story was about you,” Dallas interrupted. “You’re name isn’t Josh.”
“Why thank you Captain Obvious!” Peter said sarcastically.
“You’re welcome Sergeant Sarcasm!” replied Dallas, snapping a salute. I rolled my eyes. I am such a bad influence on these boys.
“Look Lieutenant Loser, version one and two, we’ve got stuff to talk about! So if you could just shut it for a few seconds please? Kay, thanks!” I interjected, before turning to Breton. “So, congratulations Breton, you were picked to begin! Your important question to answer is… why did you punch your cousin?”
“Because magmhngmng.” Breton mumbled his explanation, then gestured to Dallas, as though signaling it was Dallas’ turn to talk next.
“Ah-nah nah nah,” I said. “I need like, legible words.”
“Isn’t legible a word mostly used for referring to handwriting and stuff?” Peter asked randomly.
“Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. But yeah, you’re probably right. Basically, I need to be able to understand you Breton! So speak up!” I answered.
Sighing, Breton quickly spoke, in understandable words this time. “I punched him because he was bullying you for three years and I never knew, and the bullying really hurt you. He deserved it.”
“Aww, that’s so sweet,” I cooed with a smile. “No one has ever stood up for me before! Well, not to Peter and the others anyway.” Turning to Dallas, I told him to go next.
“What do you want me to say?” Dallas griped.
“Why have you been acting strangely?” I prompted, my curiosity growing as he stalled before answering the question.
“I just have a lot on my mind,” he groaned before looking at Peter. “Your turn.”
“Alright. Georgie, what’s my question?” Unlike the other two, Peter didn’t seem at all reluctant to join in our little sharing-and-caring session.
“What did you call Dallas and Breton here to talk about?”
As if by magic, it seemed that Peter wasn’t as open to sharing or caring anymore.
“Ah, it wasn’t that important,” he laughed awkwardly. “I just thought Breton and myself should get to know Dallas more. It’s really only been like, three weeks of school and we haven’t talked with him much because the first week none of us spoke except you and Dallas, and Breton and I. Then the second week was full of awkwardness and being unapproachable kind of. The third week, you thought you ruined your friendship with everybody, meaning Breton and Dallas, were bullied again, and we became friends. So, yeah, it was just so we could get to know each other.”
“You dragged me away from Lucas so we could ‘get to know each other’?” Dallas questioned angrily. “You couldn’t have waited until Monday or something?”
“Well, Georgie sort of had an issue that she needed our help with. Not Breton, because of reasons, but you know, me and you,” reasoned Peter.
“Why not me?” Breton said before Dallas could respond.
“It’s not important,” Peter told his cousin.
“What did she need my help with?” demanded Dallas. At this point, I found a pen on the table in front of me, and looked around for my bag.
“Really, I can’t tell you in front of Breton,” said Peter to Dallas, then to Breton, “No offense.”
“Oh no, that’s definitely not offensive Pete. I mean, I love being excluded.”
While the three of them were arguing for what felt like the fiftieth time, I realized that my bag wasn’t in here. I could’ve sworn I brought my bag… maybe it’s still on my bike. Amidst the shouts and protests, I crept out of the room and into the hallway. Once I found the front door, I exited quietly and speedily walked towards my bike. Thankfully, my bag was there.
“I knew I brought it!” I whispered to myself before turning towards the house and beginning the short walk back. As I did, I noticed that it was now becoming slightly dark outside and absently wondered what time it was. We arrived at the bonfire around five, probably left at five-thirty, it was a half and hour bike over here, then after fifteen minutes of my so-called spying I was caught. So at about six-fifteen I entered the house, and we’d probably been chatting for a while. Maybe around seven, seven-thirty? The sun was going to set really soon, and I didn’t want to bike home in the dark.
Creeping back through the house, I took my seat, set my bag on my lap, and rummaged through the contents until I found what I was searching for.
“George!” I whisper cheered. “We have some work to do.” Pausing for a moment before I began to write, I made sure the guys were still discussing…whatever it was they were discussing.
“I still can’t believe you made me think we needed to have a serious talk when all you wanted was to get to know me!” Dallas was saying.
“Why wouldn’t you want me to know? I’m your cousin! Probably your best friend too! And you couldn’t tell me?” ranted Breton.
“Look, there is a really simple explanation for all this,” Peter tried to tell them, but they weren’t listening.
Satisfied that it would be a while until I was noticed again, I set pen to paper and recorded everything I had learned.
Here’s what’s new George.
Dallas:
Dallas is dating Lucas now. Saw that coming. Dallas is also acting differently, more… well he’s kind of a jerk. Says he just “has a lot on his mind.” Suspicious… Will look into it.
Breton:
Breton stood up for me. Basically, he punched Peter after learning there were times that I had contemplated something desperate. Apparently he has a crush on me. Examples - fan-girling after our kiss, “looking at me different” according to Dallas. Not sure how I feel about that. Do I really have a crush on him? More to come later.
Also, no new ideas on what I’m saving him from. Even though he knows about the mission, I’m not going to quit. I will keep my promise to Mr. Joel. *sigh* No matter how hard it is.
Peter:
Peter is my best friend. I guess that was pretty obvious, but I like saying it. I have a best friend! It’s funny, but Peter is a lot like me. We’re both kind of crazy weird, yet awesome. Our level of maturity matches, and although he’s definitely not as naive as I am, he also has a lot to learn. Who doesn’t know what a fudge-sicle is? Popsicle made out of fudge, and he’s never heard of it. Weirdo.
Overall, two out of three friends are hiding something from me. Breton is acting weirdly, and Dallas has had a whole personality makeover. I’ll find out why and get back to you George. Maybe Peter will even help…
Georgie Talbot, signing out.
~~
Ugh, okay so I don't really like parts of this chapter. It all seems really fast, but at the same time it's kind of important. I just don't know!
I love the ending though. Georgie's thoughts on each of the boys. :D What did you think?
I can't wait until the end of this book. I can imagine the reactions... well I won't say anything else, but I'm excited. :D :D :D
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Cover to the side made by @Lujoca!
Also, thanks @OneAndOnlyCyn for specifying the word for when someone is not speaking up and you need to understand. (It's not legible, like Georgie says, it's coherent. Well, when you can't hear them they're incoherent. I knew legible was wrong, but I felt Georgie wouldn't know the word if I didn't so Peter half-corrects her in his next sentence just so that no one gets the wrong idea.)
Thank you all for reading and commenting!!