Chapter 18
Shane, Layla and Alison arrived together at the location where the rock-climbing competition would take place. The place was already crowded with climbers, media photographer, judges and bystanders.
"This place is huge!" Alison gasped looking up at the relatively high walls.
"It is one of the biggest in the State area." Shane replied briefly walking towards Rob, Loraine, Corey and Zoe who were already standing amongst the crowd as Jason walked towards them as well.
"Hey, break a leg bro. Not literally, but hey break a leg." Corey patted Jason's sleeveless shoulder.
"Thanks for coming." Jason said to all his friends, his eyes seemed to linger a while longer at Alison than the rest. He was wearing a sleeveless shirt and shorts which shows off his ripped muscles in the indoor rock-climbing gym. He was a football athlete and a rock climber? No wonder his body is that sturdy.
"You can do it." Alison gave him two thumbs up concurrent with the announcer calling all the participants to gather around. They waited until it was Jason's turn to compete. He stood in line with the other climbers waiting for their cue. His masculine physique stood out among the others who seemed to be much leaner than him. They powdered their hands with chalk, positioned themselves awaiting the horn to blow. Alison watched anxiously as Jason climbed up gracefully with one arm then the other, his feet worked in supple coordination and was already almost reaching the top leaving most of his competitors far behind. The crowd cheered as the other participant reached the top, placing Jason in second place for the speed category. Alison squealed in joy as though she had won the competition.
After a few rounds, Jason got himself ready for the next category which was the bouldering category where they must climb up the steep angle and difficult contour of the wall to get to the top. Jason patted his hands again with the powdered chalk and positioned himself till the horn blew. He stemmed up cautiously calculating the best possible position to place his hands and feet until he was at the most difficult part of the obstacle where his body was literally hanging off the wall with his hands gripping onto the wall holding his whole-body weight. Pulled himself up but unfortunately his left hand slipped but he managed to quickly clawed onto the nearest wall. Alison shuddered at the sight only to find relief when he finally made it to the top. Everyone cheered for him, grateful that he did not fall, though there was the safety rope around his waist. Nonetheless, he cleared all the competitions with pride. He brought home one trophy winning second place for the speed category.
"Congrats! You did it, bro." Shane and Rob patted his shoulder with pride and they continued to get dinner together. As usual, Alison was left riding with Jason, they walked towards his car.
"That was intense sport." She commented.
"That's the fun of it." He smirked opening the door for her.
"You're good at it. How long have you- Jason, your hands!" Alison cringed looking at his hands which were covered with blisters and flappers. She quickly took a small box from her bag, lifted her glasses to the crown of her head, took out a cotton ball and poured the alcohol, taking his hands to hers, gently dabbing onto the affected area and occasionally blowing onto them assuming that it might ease the tingling pain.
"You don't have to do this. I'm used to it, really." He reasoned, nonchalantly.
"Doesn't mean that it shouldn't be treated." She knitted her eyebrows, applying antibiotic ointment on the open areas.
"You brought an aid box everywhere? Wow."
"Not everywhere, just here. Thinking that there might be possible injury."
"You'd be an amazing nurse, being attentive like this." She blushed at his comments and covered both his hands with dozens of plasters.
"There." Feeling proud of her work placing the last plaster on his right palm. He continued to held her hands raising it to the side of his cheek.
"Thanks." He caressed her hands, staring straight into her blue eyes, it seemed like he was debating with himself before he slowly lets her hands go and placed his hand back onto the steering wheel and drove off. They drove to the restaurant in silence occasionally stealing glances at each other and smiled when their eyes met. Though, her mind was trying to figure out how he actually feels towards her. Did the kiss affected him as much as it affected me?
The silence was broken by his phone ringing.
"Hey, what's up? Okay... Alright. Where? Okay, make sure to be home before eleven or I'm coming over to pick your ass up. Make sure Rob sends you home. Alright. Yeah, yeah. Love you too." He ended the call, glancing towards Alison who was grinning from ear to ear.
"Your sister?" She sounded surprised.
"Yeah, she and Rob will be having a double date with Shane or something. Zoe and Corey made plans too. So where do you want to go?"
"Up to you. So, she asked your permission or just telling you?"
"A little bit of both."
"Instead of your parents?" She asked in awe.
"It's just the three of us, and my dad... he's busy with work." He replied flatly.
"So, you're the one responsible for her whereabouts?" She wondered.
"More or less. But I knew Rob so at least that's one less thing to worry about."
"You're like her... dad. Like my dad. Constantly demanding to know where I am and such a pain in the ass." She tried to suppress her laugh noticing that he rolled his eyes at her comment.
"You and Rob were childhood friends?"
"Yeah, we went way back. Still annoying as ever though." He tittered.
"Sorry again for blasting out on you. About Rob."
"It's alright, Ariel. You wanted to defend Rob, that's just who you are." He glanced her way.
"Well, I'm trying to. Not that I was born that way."
"Still, it's something you should be proud of. Though, it can be seen as annoying, but yeah. Good for you." He laughed.
"Gee thanks." She replied with a drop of sarcasm in her voice.
"Well, you're a really great brother. Protective over your sister, concern about her whereabouts and her curfew." She patted his shoulder.
"Yeah I tried to. She's all I've got and I'm all she's got."
"At least you've got each other, right?" She replied completely saddened realizing that she was all alone. Aside from her parents, she had no one else who would care that much about her well-being, at least not anymore.
"I got you too. And Layla, Zoe and the others." He said looking at her sudden gloomy expression.
"Thanks."