Here's Chapter Eleven, read and enjoy!
It was about an hour after the staring incident occurred and I was still lying out on my towel. Jerome walked over to me and threw me over his shoulder. I struggled and his on his back trying to get him to let me down.
"Jerome! Let me down. Stop being a dick!" I shouted, still hitting him on the back with my fists leaving, little red blotches.
"I know you are but what am I?" Jerome shouted back to me, still running.
"No I'm not; I'm to beautiful to be a dick, thank you very much!" I said, biting his shoulder blade from my position.
"Obviously you haven't seen my dick. It's quite beautiful," he said.
Before I could answer him, he threw me into the water. I hit the water and it stung my back. I kept sinking until I felt my butt hit the sandy bottom of the pond. I decide to sit there for a while and make Jerome freak out a little bit.
After about a minute I kicked myself up to the surface. When my head broke into the air, I sucked in a deep breath of it. I looked over and saw Jerome bounding over to me. I saw his anxious expression and knew that I had scared him.
"I thought you hit your head or something. Fuck, you just scared me alright?" Jerome said, pulling me into his arms and holding me close to him.
"I thought that you should get a taste of your own medicine so I sat at the bottom for a while, just to freak you out," I said, wading out of the water and back onto my towel.
"Very tricky move, Jackson. Very tricky," he said, following me out of the water.
"I try my best to impress you honestly," I said giving him the fakest smile I could muster. I know he saw right through it but smiled at me nonetheless.
"Get dressed; this is only the first part of this date. Now we're going into town," he said, pushing me towards the trees.
I started walking towards the grove of trees but remember that I hadn't grabbed my bag before I started walking. I turned on my heel and walked back over to our nest on the pond shore. I stopped dead in my tracks and looked at Jerome. He was pulling on his boxers and they had just covered his butt when I glanced up, so that was a good thing. He looked behind him at that very moment and caught me.
"You just can't stay away can you, Lili?" he asked tugging on his jeans.
I didn't answer him; instead I just grabbed my bag and walked back into the trees. After I got dressed I looked over at the little wildflower patch. All of them were a different color and type of flower, yet they all seemed to fit together.
"They remind me of you," Jerome said appearing behind me and wrapping his arms around my waist.
"Why is that?" I asked, placing my hands on top of his and leaning back into him.
"They grow wherever they want to. They're free and beautiful; they don't care if they're supposed to belong in a certain place, they just flourish where they are," he whispered into my ear. "Just like you."
"I'm hardly wildflower material. I'm not beautiful, nor do I have the guts to flourish anywhere," I said, ticking them off on my fingers. "And I definitely don't fit in everywhere I go."
"How many times do I have to tell you that you're absolutely gorgeous to make you believe it? And as for not thriving anywhere, you obviously haven't saw the way most of the guys at school look at you," Jerome explained as we started walking back into town.
"Until it's true," I murmured. "I only look like I'm thriving, but on the inside I'm not, I'm barely functioning. But then I met you and everything is starting to change."
His smile put the sun to shame. It lit up the whole little town we were now standing in when he said, "I'm so happy to hear you say that. I love that I'm changing you."
"So do I; a while ago when I woke up I just wanted to feel beautiful. But now I wake up in your arms and feel absolutely perfect," I said, grabbing his hand in mine and twining our fingers together.
"I hate what that bastard did to you and I'm trying my best to fix the damage he did," Jerome whispered into my hair, pulling me close and wrapping his arm around me.
"Sometimes you can't fix what's broken, especially if it's as badly broken as I am," I said lowly enough that he couldn't hear me.
We walked around town in some nicely put in sidewalks. We came up to a large building and started walking up the many stairs in the front of it. Once we entered the doors Jerome gave the lady in front some pounds or whatever the British money situation was, and we went in. It was an art museum!
"Damn Jerome, I never pictured you as an art person," I said, scooting closer to him, if that was even possible.
"I love to draw, not that I ever tell anyone that or anything, because it's not cool to be into that kind of stuff in our school," he asked as we walked into the Da Vinci exhibit.
"I think it's one of the most attractive things about a guy. That tattoos and piercings," I said, winking at a dude in the corner with a pretty impressive sleeve.
Jerome let out an exasperated sound and tugged me to the Mona Lisa. "This is my favorite painting of all time. I realize that it's insanely cliché but I really do love it."
I smiled at him and leaned my head on his shoulder as he rattled on about why he loved it so much. He was adorable in this moment, with the light hitting his eyes he looked like a little boy on Christmas morning.
"Well I'm rambling on like a total prat, what's your favorite painting?" he asked, tearing his eyes away from the painting to look at me.
"Starry Starry Night by Vangoh," I said without a thought.
Instead of answering me, he pulled on me until I followed him. While we were walking the assortment of colors surrounded me like a warm blanket. I always loved being around art of any kind, but I hadn't been in such a long time.
When we stopped, I suddenly knew where we were going. He was taking me to the Vangoh exhibit. Once we got there, my eyes settled on the familiar yellow splotched canvas. I got as close to it as I could to it and just stared at it.
"What do you see when you look at it?" he asked.
"I see this army of stars that are protecting this little town, keeping them safe from any harm. It just makes me feel safe. I looked at it a lot after the incident," I said, tugging on the end of my ponytail.
He didn't say anything, but then again he didn't have to. He just had this effect on me that made me completely safe.
Le' Review?