"I think it's great, you know, that you broke up with meathead"
I had laughed when he said it, but it wasn't so funny anymore, because we hadn't really broken up, we had just argued, we had never come up with a solution. Right now we just avoid each other. Jerome finds it kind of hilarious. But it's a bit scary for me; I don't know if I want to end our relationship, but ever since Jerome admitted what he had, I had this feeling around him, it was indescribable. When he touched me I felt so overwhelmed by it. I don't think that he even knew what he was doing to me. Mick brushed up against me once (after we broke up) and I felt nothing, nothing is not good for a boyfriend. I talked to Patricia who said that if I felt nothing with Mick I should forget about him, she fully supports my dating Jerome. But I talked to Amber as well and she said that Jerome was evil and mean and that I shouldn't even consider it. But she might be a bit biased because he had just dumped honey on her hair.
Jerome and I have been closer after he had talked in what we all now referred to as "the living room incident" we walked to class together and talked about our respective families, friends, and enemies. We had chess games and jellybean wars, and ping-pong games. Suddenly we were the best of friends and Jerome held nothing back, he also didn't scam anymore, he still pulled pranks with Alfie but nice pranks, no one got hurt. I laughed at them more now. They were always funny, I just never realized.
Next week was the official Anubis house retreat, it wasn't much of a retreat, we all went to a community swimming pool and hung out. Sometimes parents came, sometimes they didn't. We always tried to tease Victor into getting into the water, but it never really worked. It was interesting, when we went we all assumed that Jerome wouldn't wear a rash guard now that we had all seen his scars. But he wore the same long-sleeved shirt he always wore. Maybe he was still embarrassed about the scars, it was a shame though, I kind of wanted to see his abs again. We were all swimming when some girl about fourteen years old ran up to the pool and called out,
"Gerbil, Gerbil hurry up, you have to help!" we all looked around like; is this girl insane? Except Jerome, he hopped out of the pool as quick as you please and put his hands on her shoulders,
"Poppy, what is it, what do you need?" We all looked around, this was Poppy? She looked as if she was about to faint,
"Arthur." She whispered, Jerome blanched,
"Go into the girls changing room, I'll go into the boys room," he turned to the rest of us, "If anyone asks, I got sick and Poppy brought me back to school, alright?" we all nodded except for Mick, I noticed.
A few minutes later a very handsome but scary man walked up on the arm of a woman in a starched, official looking business suit. He asked where Jerome was; I was about to tell him that he had gone back to school, when Mick spoke up,
"He told us to tell you he went home, but he's hiding in the locker room." Arthur looked at Mick in approval, then nodded curtly to the rest of us as he walked into the locker room, we heard a scream, Poppy came rushing out of the girls room and ran into the boys' we heard another scream and then,
"You lay one hand on her and I'll rip your throat out!" We all looked at the woman and we were shocked to see that she was listening to her iPod, we all looked at Mick, then we swam towards him, I got there first,
"You arse!" I punched him in the face. Then we were all punching him, he looked at me pleadingly, I turned away. Some time later Arthur came out looking satisfied, he took the woman, who I assume was Jerome's mother by the arm and lead her away, we all rushed to the boys' room (except for Mick who was still nursing his wounds) Jerome was lying motionless and bruised on the floor, Poppy standing over him crying,
"Someone call the hospital!"