Chapter 13

Bath Time and the Fat Talk

As much as I wanted to smack Dustin across the face for bringing unwanted attention to my-ahem-odor problem, it appears that somebody already beat me to it.

"Don't say that to her!" Damon snarled and chopped the dark-haired boy on the head.

Dustin was not pleased to have been hit for the 3rd time, "JEEZ I'm not a human pinata people!"

He was right about one thing though, I needed a bath, badly.

After much talking and negotiating peace with Dustin for beating him so much, it was decided that Jem would lead me to the bath area. Damon would look in the market for something to buy for the Gift that had to be taken with us to the White Kingdom ("the sooner we're out of here, the better" he had said), Dustin and Chris would find us a rent-able house for the night as it was getting dark.

As Jem and I walked towards the bath house, I became increasingly worried about the impending "feast" that was to occur later that evening. I didn't have to worry too much though because Jem informed me that we had reached our destination.

"So...how do these things work anyway?" I asked.

Jem answered politely, "They already have the clean water, and it's an individual bath. The employees also supply you with clean towls and a robe."

"Oh, thanks. What about shampoo and stuff?"

"I've got you covered there." Damon suddenly appeared bearing bottles of shampoo, conditioner and bath beads.

"Here," he presented them to me, "I wasn't sure what to get, but there's-uh-vanilla and sugar. Is that okay?"

"Way to not get me anything," Jem grumbled.

I looked at him, "Wait, Jem, you're taking a bath too?"

Damon sent Jem a glare, "No, you can't Jem."

"Why not." Jem inquired, "It's not costing us much and I think i need something to help me relax."

"Because they have only one changing room!"Damon insisted.

Both Jem and I blushed at this.

"I won't look Damon, and we can put up a curtain." Jem mumbled. Wow he must really want that bath if he's willing to put himself in that kind of situation.

Damon sent me an exasperated look, "You're not actually going though with this are you?"

I blushed and mumbled something about it not really mattering if we had a curtain. Damon looked shocked but then stalked off, saying that he needed to do some more shopping.

Jem let out a breath, "I thought he was going to tear me apart. Are you sure you're okay with this, Miss Ter-I mean Scarlet?"

"Yeah sure," I shrugged, "Just don't look."

We put up the curtain and I changed into my robe rather quickly. Eventually I got tired of waiting for Jem so I asked, "Hey, are you ready yet?"

"Hmm?" he replied, "Oh yeah you can go, Scarlet. You don't have to wait for me."

I nodded and gathering up all of my stuff, I began to leave the changing area, but in doing so i accidentally knocked the curtain off of the pole we had suspended it on.

Before we go any further I would like to make it very clear that Jem still had his pants on, so the only thing I could see was his back, and as he turned, his chest. We were both frozen in horror for a little while before Jem grabbed his robe and attempted to cover his lean torso. The blonde boy looked extremely petrified and self-conscious as he stood there, completely mortified.

"Hey, it's okay Jem it's not like you're naked or anything." I pointed out. He only nodded awkwardly, but he still said nothing.

I was just about to turn when he said, "I'm sorry, it's just that... I used to be kinda chubby when I was younger and well...i'm still not..."

"You're not fat Jem," I stated.

He blushed, "I know, I tried to lose the weight a lot when I met the other guys, but...none of the girls ever liked me...not that they weren't friends just...they never looked at me the way Alex looks at Dustin...or you look at Damon."

"Sweetie," I said, trying to ignore the remark about Damon, "You're a great guy, and one day you're going to find a beautiful girl who loves you for you."

He gave me a hopeful glance.

"You just need to work on your confidence a bit. We can practice talking to people later if you want."

Jem beamed, "If you don't mind, then thank you Scarlet."

I ruffled his spiky, yellow head before walking off. When I had finally, finally, dropped down into the vanilla-scented bath water, I felt all my troubles melt away. At that moment, it didn't matter that I couldn't get home, because I had great friends, I was helping Jem, Damon was with me, and for the first time I really felt that I had the capability to save this world.

(A/N) Bet you thought I was never going to do this. WELL YOU'D BE WRONG PEOPLE! I never forget. This was really rushed and I feel kinda bad about that cause it seems so choppy, but as you can see it's been a very long time since I've written something. I really felt that Jem needed a little love so he's going to be the main focus for the next few chapters, and yes there will be more...I just don't know when... BYE!