by Segunda L.
We were in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by trees and God knows what other dangerous animals that thrive in this kind of forest. While we were bantering earlier, my eyes caught a snake moving in some trees but I didn’t tell Samara about it since she’d freak out even more.
“This is all your fault!”
My fault again?
Is it always my fault?
Am I always the bad guy here?
Fuck this. This wasn’t even funny anymore. Okay, so maybe I was getting ahead of myself here. You’re probably wondering what the hell is happening right now.
Let’s go back to the beginning.
~*~*~
The five hour trip was uneventful, the only thing that got me entertained was when I caught Samara snoozing during some part of the trip. She sat a few seats away from me. I almost got away taking a picture of her if it wasn’t for Trix blocking the view and giving me the finger. The rest of the trip was not worth mentioning anymore, well, if you counted my ass aching from sitting for a long time as entertaining then feel free to do so. It did give me time to think about how I was going to get into Samara’s radar so it wasn’t too bad.
First, I had to find Samara the instant we got out of the bus before she pulled her ninja moves. And then I’d subtly start making conversations with her, just some small talks and see if she had forgiven me already. We could talk about the grass for all I care as long as we talked. TJ warned me to stay away from her. When we were in school I didn’t do any move and kept my distance from Samara. But TJ was not here, what he didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him.
~*~*~
“Mr. Kippling, get your butt out of this bus. You’re the only one left.” Ms. Santos woke me up from my napping. She eyed me impatiently, and waited for me to leave the bus.
True to her words, I looked around to find out that all students had already gone out and I sat alone like an outcast inside the bus. No one even bothered to wake me up, those little twerps. They were scared of waking up a sleeping lion, maybe? Thinking about it, I had no friends in this class. I hadn’t even made one, I didn’t bother trying. The students enrolled in here were not on my social circles, so I figured there was no point in doing so.
Everyone at least made a buddy or two, they’d be bundled in groups while I’d be alone the whole day collecting whatever I can get my hands on to.
Jared Kippling is an outcast within a group of outcasts? Wow! Karma really hits fast.
But if Samara accepted me into her little circle, which was actually composed of her one friend, Trix, then this wouldn’t be such a bad day.
Speaking of Samara, where did she disappear to now?
Picking up my stuffs, I hurriedly got out of the bus to search for her. It turned out Ms. Santos already gave the final instructions so everyone was already spread out and gathering any organisms they caught, then placing them inside the little bottles that was prepared by the organizers. Hmm, I just assumed we were supposed to use plastic bags as containers. I brought dozens of it. Such a waste, I even brought extras so I can share it with Samara. Nothing seemed to be going my way today. Pushing that bad luck vibe I was feeling, I let my eyes roam around the place to search for her.
Not in here.
She was probably somewhere deeper in the forest. That was like something she would do. I left the safety of the bus and went farther, passing along some students as I did while looking around at the place. We were on a real forest, the real deal. The ones you see on Discovery Channel and Animal planet. I almost thought a gorilla was going to jump on me out of nowhere. Trees, trees, more trees. Spiders, rocks, more rocks. Big rock, small rock. Nothing special. Except for the fact that everything was green, which I wasn’t used to.
Where the hell is she?
I was about to give up when a butterfly flew my way, its wings were really pretty. Different shades of blue with black on the sides of its wings made it look like it was painted by hands. Following it, I ended up on a more level area.
And I saw Samara with her friend Trix on the exact spot.
The scenery caught me off guard. Trees of different types, some bore fruits and some bore flowers. What took me by surprise was the combination of different colors. Wild Orchids of different types, some of them I recognized from our garden, were growing and clinging on to trees. This place was on a different level than the ones I passed by earlier, there were more vegetation and more animals gathered in here. Birds with beautiful feathers, rested on the branches of trees. Red, pink, yellow, blue, with all kinds of hues were spread to my very eyes.
I swallowed the lump on my throat.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Trix asked, making me realize that I had been staring and standing at the place for a while.
I turned my attention to her. She was grinning and looking up at the trees like she had some imaginary friends up there. She was still wearing black tank top and black shorts, almost normal but the net stockings (probably to keep off from mosquitoes, why else would you be wearing it in a forest?) ruined the whole normalcy of it.
“Yeah.” My answer was curt.
“What are you doing here, Kippling?” The smile vanished from her face and she looked at me with a blank stare.
“I was looking for Sama—,” I didn’t finish my sentence, since when I looked around Samara was not on her side anymore.
“Where did you friend go?”
“No idea.” She answered me with the same curt voice as I had.
I caught the sound of leaves rustling, turning my attention towards it, I saw Samara making a dash. She ran deeper into the forest.
Shit, she escaped while I was talking to Trix.
Trix purposely took my attention so I wouldn’t notice Samara’s disappearance. And it worked. Good plan, but there was no way I was going to lose to a woman in a marathon. Without any stalling, I ran after Samara as fast as I can. I looked back once at Trix, the blue butterfly that I was chasing after rested on her shoulder.
Damn. Samara was running (more like bouncing) really fast!
She had a good head start and to top it off, her long legs though chubby were actually useful for running (bouncing). How the hell did she do that? I was panting because the trek of the ground was becoming more ragged. Shameful, I know. I was an athlete and I was about to lose to Samara who was obviously no athlete. And as if mocking me, the words written at the back of her shirt were I’M IN SHAPE. ROUND IS A SHAPE. Shoving aside the leaves that were blocking my way, I maintained the proper breathing to conserve energy and ran faster. The competitive streak in me wasn’t going down just like that. There was no way in hell I was gonna lose.
How long had we been running (bouncing in Samara’s case)? I had no idea anymore. Why were we running (bouncing)? I didn’t know either. How far we had been running (bouncing)? Pretty far. That was for sure.
The gap between us became less and less. Her speed decreased and I knew she was going to stop soon. While I on the other hand was pumped up, knowing that I’d finally be able to catch up. She cut to a tree and I followed suit. She finally halted, her shoulders and chest heaving as she tried to catch up for breath. I stopped too, only a few feet away from her. “H-hey, I got you.” I said, while inhaling and exhaling deeply.
She wouldn’t face me, her back was the only thing I could see from her. Her uneven breathing was replaced by trembling shoulders. An asthma attack?
Okay, calm down. I had seen the first aid for this type of situation. All we needed was her inhaler, and if there was no inhaler then we can improvise. There was a paper bag inside my backpack which Kiana used for my sandwich. I could give it to her for her to breathe in. It was supposed to work for asthma relief. I closed the gap between us. Very lightly, I put my hands on her shoulders to make her face me. What I saw next was something worse than asthma.
Samara was crying. Big, fat, tears rolled down her cheeks. Her shoulders were not trembling because she couldn’t breathe, but because she was bawling her eyes out.
“What the?�
�� I backed away, frozen by the sudden show of waterworks. I also started trembling for a different reason. A crying girl was something I could not handle. All the time, I managed to slip out before the tears come pouring down with the girls that I had been with.
She started sobbing, really hard, like a baby. Using her shirt, she wiped the tears and the snot on her face. Then she said, “You’re going to beat me right? TJ did that bruise on you face and now you’re going to get back at me for it.” She sniffled.
That was the reason why she was running away so hard? She thought I was going to beat her up? She thought I was that low? Never in my life had I raised a hand on a girl. In fact, they were always the one who did a number on me.
“Get started. I can’t run anymore. Beat me as much as you can, no one will hear my screams. I should have run towards the bus instead of here.” She smeared the tears off her cheeks with her palms. I can see that she was trying to be brave in front of me, but more tears came rushing out. She closed her eyes, waiting for me to give the beating that she was expecting to have.
Samara was not the type who showed weakness in front of anyone, this just meant that her fear for me was this great, that she actually cried right in front of me, someone who she considered her mortal enemy.
I wanted to offer her my shoulders for her to cry on. Ironic, isn’t it? I made her cry but I also wanted to comfort her. My hands ached to touch her, hug her, and reassure her that I didn’t intend to do any of the horrible things she imagined me to do. I only wanted to talk for Christ’s sake. How did it end up this way?
Resisting the urge to hug her, for fear that she might take it as a sexual assault, I did what I could do to calm her down.
I patted her head.
“Shh. Don’t cry.” I bended my neck a bit so that we were eye to eye. “I’m not gonna hurt you, okay?” I said in my most reassuring tone. This only resulted to her crying even more. I hushed her, “I promise I won’t hurt you. I never intended to in the first place.” My hand was still on her head, I wasn’t patting her head anymore, I was simply brushing her bangs into one side. She sobbed more and I said nothing. I let her cry her out, until she was satisfied.
Finally, when there was no more tears anymore, I backed away to give her space. She had hiccups and her hands were drenched in tears. Taking out a bottle of water from my bag, I offered it to her. “Here, drink this.”
“I have my own water.” She said, her voice was a bit hostile.
Placing her bag on the ground, she rummaged around it only to come out empty handed. She probably didn’t have her water. To avoid getting embarrassed, she rummaged again to find her nonexistent water.
“Take this.” I offered again. “It’s just an additional weight on my bag, you’ll be doing me a favor if you drink it.” Truth was, that was my last bottle. But who cared about me? She needed it more than me right now.
She accepted it this time. “Alright, I guess I’ll just drink mine later.”
“Sure.” I just shrugged to save her from embarrassment.
With one hand, she picked up her bag from the ground. I took it from her.
“I’ll carry this, you’re probably too tired from all that crying.” She was shocked but didn’t argue which proved my point that she was tired. I slung her bag on my right shoulder then I put mine on my left. “Let’s go back to the others.” I said.
After going around for almost an hour, we couldn’t seem to find our way back. That was a light way of saying we were lost. The trees looked all the same to me, Samara even said that the trees were following us since we were seeing the same tree everywhere we go.
“I think it was around here.”
“You’ve been saying that for the tenth time.” She spat.
Ever since I offered her my water, she’d been spitting spiteful remarks. I figured it must be because she was just stressed so I didn’t argue back.
“We can try, come on.” I lead her on.
“I’m too tired.” She complained again while pouting her lips. With all the walking and complaining, I think it was the complaining part that was making her this tired. She’d been bitching on and on about everything, mostly about everything I said.
“Okay, we’ll rest for now, but only for a little while.” I caved in.
“How long?”
“Five minutes.” I knew she was going to argue so I put it into a minimum.
“Ten minutes.”
Like I thought.
“Okay, ten minutes.” My shoulders were aching from carrying two bags but I ignored the pain. Sitting down on the ground, I relaxed my legs and gently massaged my shoulders. Samara gulped down the remaining water from my last bottle, and the hoarseness of my throat became more evident to me. I was so thirsty, I could drink the ocean.
Then it started raining without any warning. The sight of the rain thrilled me, it meant water for my dry throat.
“Do you have an umbrella? I didn’t bring one with me.” Samara inquired.
~*~*~
That was the whole story, and that was how we got ourselves into this mess. So now, back to Samara’s accusation.
How in the world was this all my fault?
It was her who suddenly started running in here when all I wanted was just to talk! Go figure that one out, because my brain can hardly function with all her complaining. She was finding faults in everything that I did. Even my umbrella was something she complained about. It wasn’t that my umbrella was too small, it was because two persons were sharing it when it was obviously designed for a single person.
“Alright, you can have it!” I caved in, once again. Grabbing her hand, I placed the handle of the umbrella on her palm. She accepted it without hesitation which irked me somehow. “Your bag’s waterproof, right?” She nodded. “It should be fine.” My clothes were already wet anyway, might as well just get it soaked all the way. We continued walking once again, trying to remember which way we went through.
“Jared.” Samara called out.
What now?
“What?” I asked without facing her.
“Psst. Jared. I don’t feel so well.”
An excuse to have another break.
“We can’t stop again, Samara. It’s getting dark and the rain looks like it’s not going to stop anytime soon. We have to get ba―.”
I heard a thud, when I turned back, Samara was on the ground, her body limp and unconscious.
Chapter Eighteen
Samara
When I opened my eyes, I saw blue. A breathtaking shade of blue. The sky? Was I dead? I squinted. No it wasn’t the sky. I was looking at a pair of blue eyes, just a few inches from my face. His lips too were a hair’s breadth away from mine. He was leaning closer and closer to me. Huh? What?
I jumped up and our foreheads pounded.
“Aaw!” Jared fell on his back and made grunting noises.
A sharp pain crossed my head and I was thrown back to the ground. Something soft cushioned the impact.
“Ohh, my head.” Jared sat back up, he was massaging his forehead as he said, “I think I’m seeing stars.”
I tried to speak but my throat was dry and papery. As I groaned in pain, my head started throbbing again, it felt like a hammer was continuously pounding on it.
“Are you thirsty?” Jared came to my side, he was still rubbing his forehead. He didn’t wait for my answer. He handed me a bottle full of water and I recognized it as the one he gave to me earlier.
Pulling myself up, I sat straight and accepted the bottle.
“Wait.” Jared retrieved the bottle and opened the cap for me. “Here.” He offered again.
I took it and drank like there was no tomorrow.
“Woah, easy there.”
Ignoring his comment, I continued drinking, almost draining the bottle then I placed the bottle on the ground. When I had my fill, I felt slightly better. Now I had the energy to argue. “What were you doing?” I asked, frowning.
“What?” Jared seemed genuinely confu
sed. “Uhh, saving your life by giving you water?” He answered with sarcasm.
“Not that. I meant when I woke up, your face was―,”
Jared didn’t let me finish what I was going to say.
“Oh that! I-I-I w-was just checking your condition.” He picked up the bottle and scooted away from me. Scanning my surroundings, I noticed that we were huddled under two trees. I checked my watch and it was past noon. It was still raining but a makeshift roof made of black plastic bags sheltered us from the rain. I stared at it as I asked, “Where are we?”
“Still stuck in the middle of nowhere.” He shrugged.
“What happened to me?”
“You don’t remember?”
My head was still disoriented, and the additional throbbing did not help at all.
I shook my head to say no.
“You mean you don’t remember the time when I saved you from a bear just before you fainted?” He asked, with a smug expression.
“W-what? A bear?” I only remember fainting. There wasn’t any recollection of any bear.
“Uh-huh. Big bad bear. With claws. And paws. The whole shebang. It was going to eat you but I saved you from it because I’m cool like that.” He winked at me. “And oh, you’re welcome.” He added.
“I don’t believe you.” I said, dryly. Did he think I was that stupid? Tropical rainforests didn’t have bears.
“Now, now. Is that any way to treat your savior?” He faked a hurt expression. “I got wounds to prove it.” He shamelessly stripped his shirt, I was about to look away but he revealed a long gash on his torso. “See?”
“I-I’m—,” I looked at his wounds and they were real. Certainly there wasn’t any bear in this forest but he must have had hurt himself somehow.
Jared snorted. Then chuckled. He bit his lips, and a small sound of laughter came out. And finally, he couldn’t hold it anymore, he started laughing on the ground. “Y-you actually believed that?”
“Do you enjoy making fun of people that much?” I asked as I watched him laugh at me.