Chapter 22: Chapter 21 - Nat

Monday 7 December

~*Nat’s POV*~

“Start making plans for finishing your lunches, people. Spence and I will expect you all out on the field in ten minutes.”

Takeshi and Spence stood from their table and walked outside, tossing their rubbish into the trash as they went. Takeshi still held his folder and Spence still looked bored.

I looked around at our table to see who remained eating. Zelda and Tatum were almost done; they would have been finished already had they not stopped to kiss each other after almost every bite. Owen had disappeared on us at the start of lunch. Instead of putting his t-shirt back on after the volleyball game like the rest of us had done, he had tucked it into his jeans back pocket, then paraded from table to table of pretty girls to ‘say hello’.

Cody had stopped eating ages ago; she ate the same way she talked — a lot, and quickly. She was now chattering away to Murph and Bells, who were each still nibbling away at their food. Bells seemed to have the most left, as he had kept up the conversation the most with Cody, but now that Takeshi had called time, Murph had taken up the conversational reins, letting Bells finish his meal.

I glanced at Bells as I put the last bite of my wrap into my mouth. I wanted to ask him what he laughed at earlier, but I wasn’t sure how to broach the subject. Plus, I could see that he was shovelling the last of his food into his mouth, so I didn’t want to distract him too much.

He caught my glance and raised an eyebrow. Lifting a hand to wipe his jaw, he swallowed, then asked, “Do I have mayonnaise on my chin?”

I laughed. “No, nothing like that.” He heaved a sigh of relief. “I’m just wondering why you laughed earlier. Just before our game started.”

Bells laughed. “Oh! That?” I nodded. He took a couple of breaths in to settle his chuckling. “I was laughing at you.”

The smile immediately dropped from my face. “Wh… What…?” My eyes widened in shock.

“Oh, shit! Not like that!” The colour drained from Bells’ face. “No! I meant that the way you reacted to Owen being… well… Owen. That was what made me laugh.”

I squinted at him, not sure if I believed him. “How did I react?”

“You looked like he exasperated you.”

“And…?” I didn’t understand why that was supposed to be funny. Bells wasn’t out of the doghouse yet. I needed more explanation.

“Everyone loves Owen.”

“Why?”

“Because he’s Owen.”

“Not seeing the significance of that.”

Bells laughed. “That. That right there is why I laughed.”

I raised an eyebrow at him. “Still not getting it.”

He sighed. “You seem to be the first person… No. Scratch that. The first woman who hasn’t fallen for his looks immediately. Mostly when Owen meets someone, they can’t help but fall for his ‘boyish good charm’.” He raised his hands and mimicked quotation marks with his fingers as he rolled his eyes. “He’s a great guy, but he can be a right knob when it comes to women.”

“Ah.” I looked down at my lunch rubbish and crumpled the paper up. “From where I stood, it looked like the women didn’t mind.” It was my turn to roll my eyes.

Bells chuckled. “You’d be right. They have a tendency to find him very appealing. But not you. It looks more like he annoys you.”

“That’s because he’s annoying.” I shook my head. “No-one needs to see him topless this early in the day,” I grumbled. “And to see all the women stop and stare… He seems like he wants to be the centre of attention.” I shuddered. I couldn’t think of anything worse.

Bells got up from his seat, motioning for me to follow him outside. I grabbed up the scrunched-up ball of rubbish and went after him, dumping the trash in the bin as we went past.

“You have him pegged exactly right,” Bells said. “He loves being the centre of attention. Especially in a crowd of women. And if showing off his tatt’s is the best way to achieve that, then you know he’s going to do it.”

“Is this your way of preparing me for more of the same?”

Bells laughed. “You better believe it. The man’s a certified exhibitionist.”

“Great,” I groaned.

He snickered and bumped my shoulder with his as we walked over to the fast-filling field. I looked behind me and noticed Cody and Murph were still a fair distance behind us, chatting away. Zelda and Tatum were nowhere to be seen, but I figured they’d be around somewhere.

Owen was cuddling up to a woman I didn’t know, his arm around her shoulders as he whispered into her ear. Whatever he said must have been funny because she laughed so much, she nearly choked. He chuckled and tapped her back to settle her coughing fit as they walked past us.

“See what I mean?” Bells whispered into my ear. I jolted as I hadn’t realised that he’d gotten that close to me. I tilted my head to hear him better, watching Owen as he and his friend walked away from us. “He’d do anything for pussy.”

I lurched away from him, startled. Had he just said that? To me? I blinked a couple of times to clear my addled brain. “Huh? What…?” I could feel the telltale blush of my embarrassment blooming on my cheeks.

Bells chuckled at me. He leaned into my ear again, facing the opposite direction. “You heard me,” he murmured.

I stood stock still, concentrating on what he was saying, but saw Cody and Murph walking past us, still lost in conversation. Cody looked at me curiously. I shrugged at her.

“He’s not the only one,” he breathed, still mere millimetres from the edge of my ear. “I’m a lot more discerning, though.”

I slowly turned to face him, my blush deepening. He brought his eyes level with mine, as he brought his right hand up to tuck some of my hair behind my left ear. His eyes had darkened considerably since our discussion at lunch, his pupils filling his iris almost completely. His fingers brushed my cheek and down to my chin as his gaze held mine, a tiny grin gracing his face.

“Are you guys coming or not?” Cody asked, as she bounced to a stop in front of us. “They’re about to start.”

I jolted again, letting our eye contact break. I let out a breath I hadn’t even realised I was holding as I focused on Cody.

I coughed, still reeling from my embarrassment. “Uh… Sure…” I stammered.

Bells chuckled as he let his hand drop. “Yeah, Cody,” he said to her. He turned to face me one last time. “We’re coming.” He winked at me suggestively, before turning around to follow her back to the crowd, leaving me standing there alone, stunned.

“Right, everyone,” Spence boomed across the yard, deep and gruff. His voice was deeper than I expected it to be. “The courts are still available to anyone who wants them this afternoon. We’ve just finished setting up the abseiling wall. It’s to the left of the courts.” He poked his thumb over his shoulder to indicate where to go. “We have set the archery targets up to the right.” He poked his other thumb in the opposite direction.

“Spence and I will be monitoring all the activities,” Takeshi continued. “So don’t think you can sneak off anywhere else.” He made a point of looking pointedly at several couples in the crowd, including Tatum and Zelda, who had finally made an appearance. “The next break is at four PM. You don’t have to spend the entire time doing just one of these activities. You can shuffle between them as much as you’d like. Just remain where we can see you. Have fun, guys!”

The crowd dispersed in different directions. Cody skipped back to me. “Which one do you want to do? We can see if everyone is interested in playing another game of volleyball…?” Her eyes were as big as saucers, as she hopefully held her hands up in front of her to plead her case to me.

I giggled at her. “Maybe later?”

She pouted and dropped her hands. “I’ll hold you to that!”

“What about archery?” I asked, stretching my arms out. “We could try that for an hour or so, then change to something else. What do you think?”

Cody’s face lit up. “Another one I haven’t done in ages. Sure! Let’s do it.” She spun herself around and headed in the direction of the archery field. “Murph? Bells? You want to join us? We’re going to stab things with sharp, pointy sticks.”

Shaking my head, I couldn’t help but laugh at her description. I mean, she wasn’t wrong, but what a way to describe it.

Bells looked at Murph and shrugged. “Sure, why not?”