Chapter 22 – Should I trust him?

Lucy’s POV

I don’t wake up until eleven o’clock on Sunday morning. Thankfully, both Amy and Jess have seemed to understand my need for extreme sleep, so have allowed me to hibernate today for as long as I want without barging into my room like they do on most days.

Groaning slightly, I sigh and sit up, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes before clambering out of bed. Once I’ve made myself look as presentable as possible, meaning I’ve half tamed my hair into a messy ponytail and washed my face, I head downstairs in search for breakfast, still dressed in my light blue cotton shorts and oversized T-shirt.

“What time you headed out?” Jess asks as soon as I enter the living room with my bowl of coco pops. She too is still dressed in her pyjamas, so I don’t feel quite as lazy despite the fact that she’s probably already been up for two or more hours.

“Not sure,” I reply, just as Amy walks in fully dressed and as bubbly as ever. “Why?”

“Just wondering,” she says with a shrug. “Do you have any idea where you’re going?”

“Not a clue,” I admit, eating a spoonful of cereal.

“More importantly,” Amy adds in, taking a seat in the armchair. “Do you have any idea what you’re going to wear?”

I roll my eyes and sigh at that.

Of course she’d ask that.

“Nope,” I reply honestly, not really caring how my outfit for the day will look. It’s not like I have to dress up particularly, I mean its Justin for crying out loud, I’m not going to dress up for him.

“Well can we-”

“Nope,” I interrupt her, cutting her off mid-question.

There’s no way in hell that I’m letting them pick out my outfit today. I mean, it’s bad enough when I let them choose my outfit for school, but they’d probably treat this like a date or something, and it is definitely not a date…

Therefore, I do not need a date outfit.

“But-” she argues, and I cut her off before she can get any further.

“No, I’m serious,” I reply. “You’re not going anywhere near my wardrobe today.”

She frowns but decides to keep quiet.

“I’m going up town today,” Jess announces, grabbing both our attentions and effectively changing the subject.

“What for?” I ask, and she shrugs.

“I need to get a few things for school, and there’s this really cute pair of shoes that I’ve been waiting to buy,” she explains. “I’ll only be gone for an hour or two.”

“Seriously guys?” Amy whines. “You’re both ditching me today?”

“Hmm…” I reply. “Being ditched, well I wouldn’t know anything about that now, would I?”

She rolls her eyes at me but can’t stop the slight smirk playing round her lips. “Whatever, it got you a date today, didn’t it?”

“It’s not a date!” I exclaim.

“Whatever,” she repeats wickedly at the same time Jess says, “it’s so a date.”

“It’s not!” I deny.

“What is it then?” Amy challenges with a smirk.

“It’s – it’s…” I try, not really knowing what to say. I’m not sure what it is exactly, but it’s definitely not a date… right? Right. This is Justin Detroit we’re talking about here, and he would definitely not ask a girl like me out on a date. Besides, he’s got Melisa and Rachel and all those other girls, he doesn’t need me.

“Exactly,” Amy replies. “You can’t answer because you know it’s a date.”

“No it’s not!”

“You just keep telling yourself that, Luce,” Jess says, her smirk mirroring her sisters perfectly.

Okay, this argument is obviously just pointless.

“Whatever,” I sigh, standing up and heading through to the kitchen to put my bowl in the sink. “I’m going to get changed!” I then call over my shoulder at them as I make my way up the stairs.

Once I’m in my room again, I head over to my wardrobe to pick out an outfit, quickly settling on a long-sleeved stripy top and a pair of blue skinny jeans.

Grabbing the clothes, I head into the bathroom to take a quick shower before changing into them. With that done, all that’s left is to quickly brush any tangles out of my hair and put on a little eyeliner and mascara before I’m ready.

It’s now closing in on twelve so I decide that I might as well send Justin a text now. Picking up my phone off my bed, I quickly scroll for Justin’s name before typing:

‘Hey, ready whenever.’

A few minutes pass before my phone beeps with a reply.

‘Awesome, I’m on way to yours now.’

I shove my phone into the pocket of my jeans before hurriedly pulling on some socks and my converse.

There’s no way in hell that I’m going to risk the chance of either Amy or Jess answering the door to him, I wouldn’t trust them.

When I get downstairs I find that they’re both still sat in the living room with the TV on and, apparently, they’re in the middle of an argument.

“What’s going on?” I ask, leaning on the back of the sofa whilst I wait.

“Amy won’t just let my mate situation drop,” Jess answers in a tight voice.

“That’s because I don’t think you’re being fair!” Amy replies in frustration.

I sigh.

This girl really needs to learn to keep her nose out sometimes.

“Amy…” I warn.

“No!” she argues before turning back to her sister. “You can’t pretend that yesterday never happened just because he’s a rogue, Jess!”

“Just because he’s a rogue?” Jess repeats incredulously. “Amy, that’s a perfectly good reason!”

“Being a rogue doesn’t change the fact that he’s the guy you’re fated to be with!”

“Jesus Christ, Amy!” Jess snaps. “He attacked me yesterday, or had you already forgotten?”

“He didn’t hurt you, did he? He let you go!”

“And you think that makes a difference?” Jess asks. “The only reason he let me go is because he could smell my scent! What if it had been you or Luce, you think he’d of hesitated then? I sure as hell don’t. He’s dangerous Amy!”

Holy hell, I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen Jess this angry. She’s always so laidback and down to earth, the sort of person who just bottles up her emotions instead of letting them show so raw. Amy must’ve really hit a nerve this time.

The sound of the doorbell ringing throughout the house is what officially seems to end the argument, causing the sisters to slip into a silent stare-off instead.

“I’ve got to get going…” I say slowly, filling the now silent room.

I don’t want to leave them like this, the sisters rarely ever get so hostile towards each other, so it doesn’t seem right to just walk out.

“Yeah, I’d better get dressed anyway,” Jess eventually replies with a sigh, standing up and leaving the room without another word.

Another silence fills the room before I decide to break it.

“I’ll see you later?” I say to Amy, not really sure what else I can say right now.

“Sure,” she replies, turning her attention to the TV again.

I take that as my ticket to leave.

Opening the front door, my eyes are immediately drawn to Justin as he patiently leans against the porch railing waiting for me.

He looks good, I can’t deny that, and I quickly take note of the way his dark grey T-shirt clings to him perfectly, leaving his muscles on full display.

“Hey,” I greet him with a smile, pushing down my sudden nerves and reminding myself that this is Justin, I shouldn’t be getting nervous.

“Hey,” he replies with a smile of his own, pushing away from the railing slightly. “You ready to go?”

“Yep,” I say, closing the door behind me before we start walking.

“So, what time did you eventually get up this morning then?” he asks, looking over at me in amusement.

“Erm… eleven?” I reply sheepishly, making it sound more like a question and causing him to chuckle.

“Still not a morning person then I take it?” he asks.

“Definitely not,” I admit, rolling my eyes.

We both fall into a comfortable silence for a few minutes until we reach the cover of the forest and are faced with the same dilemma as on Thursday.

“You know…” he says after a few seconds of slightly less comfortable silence, “we could just stay in human form this time. The walk’s really not too far.”

“Okay…” I reply, my curiosity growing. “Where are we going exactly?”

He smirks as we begin walking again. “It’s a surprise.”

I frown at that before saying, “I hate surprises.”

“I know,” he replies, his smirk growing into a grin. “But you’ll like this one.”

I cross my arms with a huff before trying from a different angle.

“Just give me a hint?” I suggest hopefully, but my hope is shot to the ground when I see him shake his head.

“Nope,” he says.

“Justin…” I whine, not caring that I sound like a four year old.

“Lucy…” he imitates my whine, making me roll my eyes.

“At least tell me how long we’ll be walking for,” I eventually say in resignation.

“Not long,” he replies. “Forty minutes tops.”

Huh, so it really isn’t far then…

Where the hell are we going?

***

For the next half an hour we walk in relative peace, mostly silent with the occasional conversation being thrown in here and there, before Justin stops walking.

“We’re almost there,” he informs, causing my confusion to grow.

Where?

Looking around, I try and take note of anything that looks remotely familiar but nothing does. As far as I can tell, we’re just randomly stood in the middle of the forest.

“Close your eyes,” he says, and I immediately shake my head.

“No way, I’ll walk into a tree or something,” I argue.

“You think I’d let you walk into a tree?” he questions, cocking his head to the side slightly as he watches me.

I shrug.

Rolling his eyes, he walks over to stand behind me and places his hands on my shoulders.

“I won’t let you walk into a tree,” he promises. “Now close your eyes.”

I don’t.

“Lucy,” he sighs. “Trust me.”

Frowning slightly, I think about it for a few seconds.

Should I trust him?

No, I probably shouldn’t, but I close my eyes anyway.

“Okay,” I say.

“Good,” he replies, and it’s not difficult to hear the smile in his voice.

Without another word, he slowly guides me blindly through the last part of our journey.

He wasn’t kidding when he said that we weren’t far as we probably only walk for about five minutes at the most before he removes his hands from my shoulders and, to his credit, I haven’t walked into a single tree.

“Okay, you can open your eyes,” he tells me as he walks around to my side, and I don’t hesitate to do as he says.

As soon as my eyes are open, I involuntarily gasp, recognising the place immediately. Slowly taking in the beautiful clear lake, the slightly worn cabin, and the colourful flowers that are dotted all over the place, I’m hit with such a heavy sense of recollection that it literally leaves me breathless.

The lake cabin. We’re at the lake cabin!

I spent the best summer of my life at this place. I was four and Justin had just turned five when we first came here. David and my dad had somehow stumbled across it and, when they told us, Wendy suggested that we all take a daytrip out here.

It was amazing, the best day ever, and so we decided to come back again, and again, and again… until we’d spent practically our entire summer at this place. Not everyone could always make it, sometimes it’d be just Wendy and my mum that would bring me and Justin down due to David and dad having to deal with Pack business, but we still had just as much fun.

At least twice a week we’d come down and have a barbeque in the evenings to watch the bats flying around, and then I’d usually fall asleep so my dad would have to carry me home.

It was perfect; the perfect summer…

The last summer I got to spend with my parents.

I remember when I was seven years old and the school holidays had just started, I was so upset because all I could think about was that summer. Justin came round to visit to try and cheer me up and said that we could do anything I wanted. Of course, I wanted to come to the lake cabin, and so that’s what we set out to do. We spend days searching but, no matter how hard we looked, we couldn’t find it.
We’d been so young when we came here that we couldn’t really remember where ‘here’ was exactly, and the navigation skills of a seven year old aren’t great as it is, so we eventually gave up.

Both my parents and the lake cabin were lost… until now.

“How did you find it?” I ask, unable to keep the slight quiver out of my voice.

“I have my ways,” he replies with a shrug.

“When did you find it?”

“Yesterday morning,” he admits, and I turn to look at him in surprise. “I decided to go on a run,” he explains.

I nod, looking over at the lake again.

I can’t believe he found it…

“Come on,” he says, taking hold of my hand and towing me over to the rocks by the water, sitting down and pulling me down next to him.

As soon as I’m sat down I don’t hesitate to remove my shoes and socks, roll up my trouser legs slightly, and dip my feet into the lake.

The water’s freezing.

“I used to be so afraid of the lake, can you remember?” I murmur with a slight chuckle, remembering how the first day we came here I refused to go anywhere near the water.

“Of course I remember,” he says with a smile. “You were so sure that you were going to drown, and even though both your parents promised you that you wouldn’t, you wouldn’t listen to them.”

“Yeah…” I agree with a small smile. “How did you even manage to get me in the water anyway?”

“I told you that I wouldn’t let anything bad happen to you,” he answers softly, and I turn my head away from the still water to look at him.

I remember that day as if it were yesterday. It was about our fourth time coming to the lake and he was trying to teach me how to tread water, but I was petrified that if he let go then I’d just sink straight to the bottom. He told me he wouldn’t let anything bad happen to me and… I believed him.

A tension slowly forms between us, a tension that I quickly want to discourage. I don’t want to deal with this right now. Is it too much to ask to just be able to escape my life for a few hours?

As far as I can tell, it’s not, which is why I force the smell of apple and cinnamon to the back of my head and, also ignoring the small cluster of butterflies that are beginning to form in my stomach, I open my mouth to fill the silence.

“I was already in the water at that point,” I remind him, keeping my tone of voice light. “I’m pretty sure that, to get me actually in the water to begin with, you threatened to play skimming stones with my favourite teddy.”

He laughs at that, turning to look out over the water as he replies. “Oh yeah, that sounds about right. Mr snuggles,” he pulls a face at the name. “Damn, he was one creepy bear.”

“He was cute!” I argue indignantly.

“Ugly.”

“Adorable!”

“Evil.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, he was evil?” I reply with a smirk. “You were the one who threatened to throw him in the lake!”

“It worked, didn’t it?” he asks with a smirk of his own.

I roll my eyes and shake my head slightly. “Bully,” I eventually mutter, and am surprised to see him flinch slightly when the accusation hits too close to home.

We sit in silence for a few more seconds before he speaks up again.

“Whatever happened to that bear, anyway?” he asks curiously, and I frown slightly as I try to think.

“I’m not actually sure,” I finally admit. “He’s probably at my old house still.”

“…You been back to the house since…?” he trails off, his voice sounding a lot more careful around this topic.

“No,” I reply honestly. “The house is still under my name until I’m old enough to figure out what I want to do with it, though, so…” I shrug, “I’ll have to go back eventually.”

This time when we lapse into silence, neither of us seems to feel the need to break it. I’m not quite sure how long we sit for, but it must be closing in on an hour now, when I do something that seems to surprise us both.

I lean over slightly to rest my head on his shoulder with a sigh, a lot like I used to do when we were younger.

“Hey, Justin?” I murmur.

“Hmm?” he replies.

“Thank you.”

“For what?” he asks quietly. “Threatening to drown Mr Snuggles? In that case, you’re welcome, that thing truly was an abomination to the eyes.”

I snort and elbow him lightly in the side. “No, not for threatening to drown Mr Snuggles.”

“Then for what?”

I sigh quietly, my lips forming into a small smile. “For bringing me here.”

A few seconds pass in silence before he replies.

“You’re welcome,” he whispers quietly.

(Hey guys! I know that this is yet ANOTHER late update and I'm sorry :( don't hate me. I've literally just finished writing this chapter and am going to get writing the next one in a minute so it shouldn't be such a long wait for the next one. 

Anyways, i hope you liked the chapter cos i enjoyed writing it :) any Votes/Comments will be appreciated as always and thanks to all of you who have been supporting me so far!!! I'm aiming to get the next chapter up on Friday and it'll be a Lucy POV :D

Also, sorry for any mistakes in this chapter, i've quickly proofread but may have missed a few :)

Right, yeah, so i want to keep this as short as possible so i can get it up as soon as possible and i think i've said all i need to so, yeah, byee!)