Chapter eight - Armless Attempt

~*~

Sundays were created so people had one day to be lazy. I, personally, am a big supporter of that. So like on every other Sunday, I place myself on the couch, turn on the TV and enjoy watching some series with a bag of crisps on my lap.

This morning I woke up exceptionally early, which caused me to be in a shitty mood.

When I was walking down the stair, this crazy, out of the mind idea popped into my head.

I thought; why don't I go for a run?

It seems like eating has been my main activity over the last couple of months, so a bit of exercise certainly wouldn't hurt. Puls, the reason I had woken up was Geoffrey slamming the door shut after his morning run.

This morning, as a logical reation, I cursed him and running. Then I got reminded of what God always said; Befriend your enemy. So why not?

That idea left my mind quickly when I saw Geoffrey all sweaty, it was gross. I admit, it might've looked sexy on him, there's still no way in hell I'm going to be covered in sweat.

So I sat down on the couch again, with a bag of crisps and some series on TV.

I snuggle up into my blanket, enjoying the feeling of being in charge of the house.

My mom's at a work trip again and Jerald is in a conference, two states over.

I laugh at something Chandler does and only repose myself when Geoffrey sits down next to me.

He reaches for the remote on the table and after he picks it up, he changes the channel.

"Uhm excuse me, I was watching that," I say, throwing my arms in the air rather dramatically.

"Indeed, you were." He refuses to give me a single glance.

"Give it back!"

"Uh no, I want to watch this," he says. "Why don't you go be productive or something."

"Excuse me once again, but it is Sunday. Maybe you don't know it, since you're Satan, but God created this day for people to relax." He gapes fakily. "Okay then, I'll just go to my room," I say, loud and clear for him to hear. Then I start my plan by walking around the couch over to the side where the remote is located.

I reach for it, trying not to make a single sound. Right before my hand would get in contact with the material of the remote, Geoffrey snatches it away.

"How stupid do you think I am?" He holds it up triumphantly. "By the way, you would make the worst ninja."

I just stand there, pull on a blank expression and put my hands on my hips.

"For your information, I'd beat your ass at being a ninja." He snorts at that, returning his attention to the TV and the stupid show that's currently on it.

"Okay," I say, "I tried to stay friendly but it seems like we'll have to do it the hard way." I place my hands in each other, cracking my bones. I move my neck from left to right, creating the same sound of bones colliding.

He doesn't seem to take my threat seriously, which is a bummer. Two seconds later I launch myself over the couch, landing right on top of him.

"What the-" he yells whereafter I grab the remote out of his hands, probably making the biggest mistake of my life.

Due to my enthusiasm and the amount of adrenaline rushing through my veins, I yank the remote back with a lot of force, making it hit Geoffrey right in the face.

"You son of a bitch," he hisses. In no time, I am standing on my feet, running to be more exactly.

Looks like I'll be getting my morning run after all.

Holding on to the remote as if it'd the only thing that would keep me alive, my long legs make their way through the entire house. The sound of heavy footsteps right behind me make my breath get stuck in my throat.

And then it stops.

No more footsteps, heavy breathing nor cursing.

Only the sound of me shitting my pants.

I find a hiding spot in a small room with only one exit when the beast himself appears in that very same door.

He holds his hand out while trying to catch his breath."Remote. Now."

As a last attempt to escape, I open my lungs, screaming like Tarzan, and crash into him like a retarded fool.

Since I didn't expect I'd ever make this move, Geoffrey surely didn't either, causing me to knock him to the ground; me landing on top of him.

I'm paralyzed. It feels like all common sense has been knocked out of my body since I just stay there, I don't even make an attempt to leave, run or scream.

My breathing's heavy and my eyes are staring at Geoffrey who's doing exactly the same. My finger start inching forwards to his bruised eyebrow and slowly traces it. Did I do that?

His eyes no longer make me feel vulnerable or scared, no, they had something reassuring, something protective in them.

Without realizing it, I let my eyes shift from his eyes to his lips. They're parted slightly, obviously surprised. He licks them and now I know he knows I'm staring at them.

Looking back up to meet his eyes, I expect him to be grinning at me in an overconfident way. I was wrong.

Surprise is still written all over his face. Since I met him, this must be the first time that anger and annoyance aren't the feelings that are hidden behind his beautiful dark and mysterious eyes.

I support my weight with my elbows, hovering over him. Our faces so close that I can feel his every breath fan my bare skin.

He swallows heavily, I carefully watch his Adams apple as it bobbles. Every fib-

"Lana is here!" someone yells, smacking me back to reality in 0,1 seconds to be exact. I sit up, suddenly becoming very aware of the fact that I was sitting on a guy's crotch.

"Uhm-uhm," I mumble. Not knowing what to do, I start moving my arms and head in all directions. "Here," I finish, handing him the remote. "Have a nice day."

"Loren?" Lana yells.

"Coming!" I try to sound confident but it doesn't come out that way thanks to my shaky voice. Geoffrey stands up quickly, brushing past me, looking all cool.

I run over to where Lana is, grabbing my coat and keys.

"Come on," I grab a tight hold of her arm and make her follow me.

"What the hell was that about?" she asks, pulling her arm out my embrace. "And why are you redder then the reddest tomato I've ever seen?"

"I'm not red." She hands me my helmet.

"Oh bitch please, you rarely ever blush, what happened?"

"Nothing," I say, trying to sound as casual as possible, "Geoffrey and I had a fight over the remote." Lifting my helmet on my head, I indicate her to do the same.

"And I have to believe that?"

"Yes," I say, getting on. "So how are things going between you and Wes?" My best friend and a bad boy is the last thing I want to have anything to do with, but rather that than having her start her infamous interrogation.

"Things are great, it's just so thrilling and new and exciting and-"

"Okay I get it," I cut her off. "Did you have sex yet?"

"Nah, I am just not ready for it you know..." I frown at that.

"And he's okay with that?" She hit my arm as I pull out of the garage.

"He's a good guy Loren, stop judging him."

"I'm not judging, just making sure he doesn't hurt you."

"He won't." Her voice might sound sure about it, I don't believe shit of what she is saying. "Now where are we going?"

"Can we go to your place?" I ask.

"My mom's home." That's a bummer. Her mom can't stand the noise we produce. She always compares us to politicians, we're always talking but the content isn't worth that much. "Why cod rk we st ur pace?"

"What?"

"Why couldn't we just stay at your place!" she yells, a lot louder than necessary.

"Geoffrey's home," I simply reply, "I guess we'll go to my dad's!" I doubt she understood that but she remains silent either way.

According to my amazing mental arithmetic skills, my dad should be out of town for another 3 days.

I feel kind of guilty, since I haven't visited him since last eating disaster and now I am using his house as an escape. To hell with him, it's also my house since we all lived there until my parents stopped being a family to me.

The ride is long and surprisingly silent, which helps me organize my thoughts.

Last weeks were complete hell. School didn't go like I wanted it, I couldn't study that well since Geoffrey's music was always playing too loud, his 'ritual' during studying.

Cody has gained new confidence after the party and Latoya managed to make my blood run six m/h faster than usual. She cursed and threatened me in my own house one morning after I ran into her in the kitchen.

I also witnessed Wesley getting a little too friendly with one of the volleyball players. I told Lana, who blamed it all on the girl. According to her, the girl forced herself onto him and Wes didn't do anything wrong.

A blind love sick puppy, I'm telling you.

And maybe worst of all, if I am being completely selfish, is that Geoffrey ruined my potential relationship with one of the football players.

Three weeks back, we got paired up to work on this project in History. The universe had been all against me that day, so I was highly convinced that I would end up with Latoya.

But apparently, my hopeless prayers worked and I got paired up with a sweet guy from the football team. And a friend of Dean Collier.

Lana thought it would be the perfect opportunity to get close to Dean, and at the beginning I thought so too. After a couple of lessons working together with him though, we really bonded. Since we had been talking most of the time, we couldn't finish the project at school. After I found out that his house was being renovated, we had no other option than go to my place.

So I entered my house in anxiety, feeling relieved when I noticed that the beast wasn't home.

We worked on the project for a while, joked around, talked about everything and eventually, I got to discover his cocky side.

He wasn't like that cocky that he became a dickhead, it was on the border of having a healthy portion of confidence.

So there I was, laughing my ass off because he bragged he could pull himself up at least twenty times.

I don't think he considered the possibility of Geoffrey having some kind of pole in the backyard house.

To my utter surprise, he still looked confident standing in front of it and all of a sudden he pulled his shirt off.

I might be kind of used to seeing Geoffrey like this but having Brian O'Connell here shirtless was something from a whole other level which could make me a queen in our school in just five seconds.

I released a last laugh before he got ready to hang on it. His muscles flex as he took a grip of the solid object, making me gasp.

"Ready?" he grinned. I eagerly nodded my head, oh my, this is so hot. But of course, me living this life; it had to be ruined.

"What's going on here?" I heard a deep voice say from behind me. Damn it.

"Uh we were-" I tried to explain.

"Not you," he snapped, in his own rude way, "you," he said, pointing his finger at Brian, "trying to impress her?"

Brian let go of the pole and stood back on his feet, seeming really uncomfortable. "I'm so sorry, I didn't know you two were dating."

I was lucky to have no water in my mouth, because I'd have spit it all over the ground.

"That's not what I meant." Geoffrey shook his head. "Man you're even dumber than I thought. What I was saying is, it's easy to impress a girl."

And then the unthinkable happened: Geoffrey stepped forward, but (to everyone's utter surprise) not to punch him, he just took his damn shirt off.

"But can you impress me?" He grinned.

"Geoffrey just shut up."

"Oh come on Loren, afraid your boyfriend will lose?" I shook my head, this was just too ridiculous.

"Come on pretty boy," he teased while grabbing the pole above his head, "you're on the football team, this should be an easy match for you." Brian was still in inner debate, you could see that. And I was just mentally face palming.

"Well?" Geoffrey said.

"Geoffrey, this is completely ridiculous." I sighed.

"Nah come on, it's just a harmless competition. A real man would never doubt it, unless he's afraid to lose." Brian's fists were clenched. "Are you afraid to lose Brian?"

"Just cu-"

"Bring it on, dickhead." Brian grabbed a hold of the pole again.

Geoffrey looked as self-assured as always and yeah, Brian might be very muscular; but he was nothing compared to Geoffrey.

So there I was. Me, Loren Poole, whose existence was a mystery to the whole school just a couple of months ago, was now witnessing a scene all girls in our school would kill for.

"Loren count to three," Geoffrey ordered.

"Hey don't get me involved in this." I meant it. I knew one of these egos was going to get seriously damaged, and I had this slight idea of whose it was going to be...

"Ready to lose?"

"Please, I'm going to kick your ass," Brian shot back, confidence dripping from both voices as they spoke.

The both of them placed their hands on the pole, ready to start the incredibly dumb battle.

"Loren." Geoffrey nodded in my direction, indicating to start the count.

"3, 2, 1... go," I spoke enthusiastically. Note the sarcasm.

Both of their bodies started moving up and down, almost perfectly in sync and it surprised me that Brian could keep up with him.

As much as I hated to be put in this situation, I quickly realized that I was privileged to witness this scene. Two of the hottest guys of our school in my house, not forgetting to mention they were shirtless...

Yup, I just had to take advantage of that.

After throwing some cheering and encouragements towards Brian, I picked out my phone, pretending to be texting. In reality I sent Lana some snaps and saved them to my gallery.

No way in hell am I letting a chance like this slip away!

Looking back up, I noticed that Brian was beyond pissed. Geoffrey on the other hand, looked like this was enjoying what was happening way too much.

The fact that Brian was slowing down his pace made the confidence on Geoffrey's face even more clear.

And then Brian let go of the pole, landing back on his feet.

"You know what; this is stupid" he said, grabbing his shirt back off the couch.

"Giving up already?" Geoffrey smirked, pulling himself up an extra couple of times before jumping off of it as well.

"It's just a stupid game, I don't have to prove myself." It bothered me how he coped with the fact that he lost.

"Cute," Geoffrey remarked. "Can I give you some advice?" I was expecting something along the lines of 'use a condom so you don't reproduce your worthlessness'.

Brian just snorted. I watched Geoffrey put on his shirt as well.

"Don't try to beat me at my own game." Geoffrey grinned. He sat down and took his phone.

"Listen Loren, as fun as it was working with you, I have to go home now."

"Really?" I said, disappointment dripping from my voice.

"Yeah uh, I'll finish the project at home, don't worry about it." Then he ran out of there like he had never been so embarrassed in his life.

"You idiot!" I slapped Geoffrey across his cheek.

Well, in my head I slapped him, in reality he could grab a hold of my wrist.

Damn Geoffrey and his ninja skills.

"Proud?" I asked, feeling all my blood boiling. How could he ruin my only chance to date someone?

"Kind of." He released my wrist, a smile dancing on his lips. "You should be thanking me, do you really want that pussy to be your boyfriend?"

"That's none of your business!" I made my way out of there as soon as possible.

A week later, Brian handed in the project, telling me that he'd put my name on top of it as well. I haven't heard from him since that... He must've been pretty embarrassed.

I sigh at the memories. During those days that I used to spend time with Brian, there might have been a part of me that started capturing hope of him asking me out. Obviously, that's not going to happen anymore.

We arrive at my dad's place. I park and we both make our way towards the front door.

"Man, it's been ages since I've been here," she says, staring at the house in awe. I can't help but join her, reminding myself of all the great things that happened here, trying to forget the numerous fights between my mom and dad.

I put my key in, unlocking the door, which feels surprisingly weird. It's like opening the portal to the past.

But it isn't. Once I step inside, I amconfronted by the second most disturbing thing (after the time I found Geoffrey and Latoya on my bed) I have ever seen.

"Dad?" I yelp by surprise, my voice sounding twice as high pitched as usual.

~*~

What do you think she saw? :D

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