Finally Falling

19: You?

It was a kid. He looked to be about 6 years old and traumatised. I don't know how much he saw or if he anything at all. I hope he didn't see anything. He walked over to me and examined me, he had a frightened expression on.

"Are you okay?" he asked innocently.

"Me? Yeah, yeah couldn't be better," I said with a bucket full of fake enthusiasm.

"Then why do you have a bruise on your cheek and why have you got tears in your eyes and why are you sitting on the ground clutching your belly?"

Whoa, perceptive much?

"Bruise? Oh no no no, this isn't a bruise, it's just-uh-it's-uh-its dirt. Yeah, my friends and I were just having fun playing hide and seek, that's why I'm alone. And the tears, the tears are me laughing, you know when people laugh too hard and they start crying happy tears? Yup that's what I did and that's why I'm clutching my belly. Its so I don't start laughing too loudly and the seekers hear me." The kid seemed convinced at my improvised lie.

"Can I play hide and seek with you as well?"

"Urmm, we just ended the game and I won, I'm sorry." At the mention of the game ending, he just pouted.

"Hey, what's your name?"

"James."

"Well James, I'm Kate and I need you to help me with two things. First, when we go back, you can't tell anyone about my hiding place or anything that you saw. Okay? I can't let them know how I won."

He just nodded his head smiling. He seemed glad that he could help someone with something.

"And the second thing," I said sheepishly, "can you please help me up?" He immediately rushed to my side and helped me up. My mind went back to Rustin and involuntarily my hand reached up to my cheek. I couldn't help but feel vexed and incensed at myself. How had I let this happen? Ever since that night, I had promised myself that I would uphold a persona of strength. The amount of weakness I had just displayed both mentally and physically disregarded and insulted who I was.

"Are you sure you're okay? You look like your in pain."

"No no no. I'm absolutely fine. Hey, James tell me something about you." I said in an attempt to divert his attention.

"I'm here on vacation with my family. I live in Japan but I'm from Canada. We moved so I had to leave all my friends behind. But it's alright because I made some new friends and I may also have a girlfriend." He must have realised that he said too much when he said, girlfriend because he immediately covered his mouth with his hand. I just laughed at his cuteness. It hurt to laugh. It hurt to walk. It hurt to talk and it basically hurt to do anything. My body hurt everywhere. Especially my stomach and my cheek. I felt like I was going to puke but I managed to hold it in.

We were heading back to where the beach was and I quickly untied my hair and adjusted it so that it covered the bruise. I thought about asking the girls for some makeup but then none of them had brought any because of the water. It even hurt to lift my arms. I was disgusted by myself at this point. Even with James' constant questions, all I could think about was that he touched me.

"How old are you?"

"I'm 17."

"Oh, you're nearly a grown up! It would be really nice to have a grown-up girlfriend. You wanna be my girlfriend?"

I was shocked and amused by his random question. "But, I thought you were really close to having a girlfriend in Japan."

"She can wait, I like you better."

"I don't think my brother would like it very much if I had a boyfriend," I said with a light laugh. Ow. It hurt so badly to laugh.

"It's okay, I can deal with him. Once he sees my muscles he'll run away."

We reached our spot and I saw Cassie typing furiously on her phone. She was in deep concentration so she didn't notice James and I coming. James laughed at Cassie's focused face and got startled when she looked up.

"Oh my gosh, Kate, are you okay? You had us so worried. We were looking everywhere for you," she said as she hugged me tightly. So many hugs. I winced but masked it as soon as she let go. "Hang on, I need to tell the others that your back."

"You set up a search party for me?"

"Yeah, we were all worried sick. We didn't know where you were!"

"She was hi-"

James quickly covered up his mouth with his hands. Cassie didn't seem to pay attention to this as she messaged everyone that I was back and alive.

Soon enough everyone was back and I was being told off by them all. I couldn't tell them about Rustin, so instead, I told them that I was helping James find his mum. James frowned when I said that, but thankfully he was a smart kid and didn't say anything. They all greeted James with warm hellos, all except Brandon. Brandon seemed lost, but he had a slight smile on his face when James spoke up and Tobias kept looking at him with worriment.

After 10 minutes of conversing with James, he said that he had to go otherwise his parents would get mad. Before he left he kissed me on my un-bruised cheek and said something in my ear about him knowing that I was lying and that he had already fallen in love with me but his soon to be girlfriend in Japan would get angry at him so he had to break up with me. We all laughed it off and said goodbye to him.

"Why is your hair like that?" questioned Steph.

"The wind," I replied nonchalantly.

"But wasn't your hair up?"

"Yeah, but the sun was burning the back of my neck, so I let it down."

"Oh, okay," she said with a smile but I could tell by her expression that she didn't buy my lie.

Jace, Brandon and I were in Brandon's car because he was our next door neighbour so everyone thought it was sensible for us to go together and the others to go in another car. We sat down and were fastening our seat belts when the lady on the radio announced that they were doing country songs and somebody requested Achy Breaky Heart. Oh crap.

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