Chapter 8

Adonis's POV

Trees, grass, hills, it's all green! It's green all around! And the green is suddenly intoxicating me. It all reminds me of last night.

Two bright green orbs underneath thick brown eyelashes.

But it's blue now. Blue similar to mine, blue like Andreas. And it looks dull!

"What are you looking at? Is my contacts and hair alright?" A worried frown takes over his features.

"Yeah...you're looking fine," I say and tilt my face, looking at the far away green hills.

What the heck is wrong with me?!

"Adonis.." he whispers.

"Hmm.." I turn my head back to look at him.

"Look, your crush is holding hands with that guy."

"Who? Which guy?" I say and look in front to see Andrea and Shane Spencer holding hands.

"How dare he!"

"Shh..quiet!" Theodore giggles. I look at him to take in the joyous sight of deep dimples forming on his cheeks.

"C'mon..I need your help now!" I grab his hand and starts walking briskly to catch up with Andrea.

"Wait! Wait! I'm not prepared!" He whispers.

"You don't need to be prepared," I whisper back.

"But...why are you taking your anger upon me?"

"What? I'm not.."

"Then stop squeezing my hands," he says trying to free his hands. It's then I realise, I was gripping his wrist a bit too tightly, almost hurting him.

"I'm sorry," I say, loosening my hold.

"Okay.." he mumbles and I don't fail to notice a pout forming and disappearing on his lips. Gosh! Why is he so cute?

"Wow! You guys already got along so well!"

Somebody says and I tilt my face to see Felix and Hudson pointedly looking at us.

"Are you guys dating? I thought you liked Andrea," Hudson says.

"Guys, we're just friends, okay?" I roll my eyes at Hudson.

"Oh! But Adonis, you haven't left her hands free since the moment we started from Blue hills," Felix chuckles, pointing at our hands.

I leave a sigh and shake my head before quickly dragging Theo along with me. He was looking a bit nervous and uncomfortable now. "It's okay, just ignore them," I tell him and he briefly nods to me.

Mr Alberty stops us on track just as we are about to reach Andrea. "Everyone listen..," he clears his throat. "We are soon going to encounter a wild creek with slippery rocks soon. You should be very cautious there. Don't slip and fall. You see, we can't afford to take you to a hospital right now. So just be very careful."

Just as we are about to walk again, Andrea turn her face and looks at me. She glances at my and Theo's intertwined fingers for a second and then walks away like she doesn't care. Shane was now walking with another girl. So, I leave Theo's hands and quickly catch up with Andrea.

"Hey!" I say.

"Hey!" She responds.

"Had a good sleep?"

"Yeah, what about you?"

"Oh yes! I slept well," I smile. "C'mon, let's hold hands. It's dangerous here."

"Oh..uhm..okay.." she nods and stretches her hands, although a bit hesitant. The creek had already appeared. It was too narrow and there wasn't that much water. Just a lot of small and big rocks ahead.

Together we cross the creek, holding hands and when we reach the other side, I stare at her face. She looked gorgeous like always with flawless skin and beautiful hair. But she was suddenly lacking something. I couldn't tell what. Her blue eyes were sparkling in the light and her face was bright. But she didn't smile cheerfully at me, dimples didn't form on her cheeks, her blue eyes didn't radiate innocence.

"Carefull!" I hear someone shout. I turn around to see Theo standing on a rock in the middle of the creek with a panicked expression on his face.

"Gosh! You'd have slipped now!" The guy on the rock in front of him says. "Okay, hold my hand," he laughs and stretches his hand.

"Thanks.." Theodore nods and takes his hand, gripping on it tightly.

"Why are you so afraid?" The dude again laughs. "You aren't going to die, even if you slip."

I don't like his laugh. By the way who is he?

"That's Eric. He's from Rholden I guess," Andrea says as if reading my mind.

"Oh..how do you know him?" I ask.

"I've met him earlier at a drawing competition," she replies and starts to walk.

"Wait! Where are you going so fast? They all need to come," I say.

She chuckles pointing at the people walking ahead of us. "They are all gone. There are only a few to come. But you can sure wait for her if you want."

"Oh! no! Let's go!" I say and quickly follow her.

We catch up with Violet and Lily and they start ranting to me about random stuff and laughing so noisily, soon making me annoyed. After sometime, I turn around to watch a monkey jump from a tree to another behind me, only to find Theo and that guy from earlier still walking together in the back, holding hands. Why hasn't he left his hands free yet?

Two minutes later, I again turn around to a bird's chirp and this time the two are in the extreme back and are still holding hands.

Oh God, why can't this kid just ask him to leave his hand. He is gonna let himself get caught!

"What happened Adonis? Why are you keeping on looking back?" Violet asks.

"Nothing!" I shake my head and walk forward briskly.

I keep walking but I feel worried about Theo. He is so naive! Without me, he is sure gonna get himself into trouble. I think I need to protect him.

I slow my pace and then bend down, pretending to tie my shoe lace. Andrea and the girls walk ahead, talking and laughing. I keep untying and tying my shoe lace a few more times until Theo and the guy finally reach me.

"Hey!" I say bending up.

"Hi Adonis!" The dude says, still his one hand gripping Theo's.

"You know me?" I ask.

"Yeah, you are famous," he laughs. "By the way, I'm Eric, Eric Adler."

"Oh! Nice to meet you!" I say and offer my hand. Finally, Finally he leaves Theo's hand free to shake hands with me, again giving a weird laugh. Withdrawing my hand, I quickly move to his other side and walk between him and Theo.

"I was in the basketball team for sometime," he says.

"Oh! I see! Then what happened?" I pretend to be amused at his talk.

"I suffered an injury and quit playing."

"Oh..okay. So, you don't play basketball anymore."

"No.." he laughs. "By the way, I didn't know you were good at Art."

"Oh, you aren't the only one who didn't know," I too laugh.

After that, he started talking about random stuff and oh my God, I was so annoyed by his horrible laugh. I just wanted to drag myself and Theo away from him but I somehow endured his talk for straight twenty minutes until we finally reached our first destination where we were having breakfast.

It was a vast empty land covered with short grass and when we reached there, breakfast was already being served by Mr Alberty and Miss Huxley and some other forest staff. I and Theo somehow managed to escape from Eric after getting our breakfast and we joined our last night's dinner team, who were already finishing their plates.

"Why did you walk with him and let him hold your hand for that long? What if he had found out?" I ask Theo after everyone else leave to dispose off their plates.

"He wouldn't leave my hand. What will I do?" He whispers, leaning forward. "And you left me as soon as you saw your crush."

"Anyway, I came back to save you and endured his talk for half an hour. You didn't even thank me."

"Okay, thank you. But he wasn't that bad," he says.

"You don't think his laugh is weird?" I ask.

"No. And he was nice to me."

"Ahh.." I leave a sigh. "He'll be nice only until he finds out you're a boy."

"You don't like blue berries?" He asks pointing at my bowl of berries.

"I'm allergic to them." Instantly he starts picking the blueberries from my bowl and putting them into his own.

"I'll let you eat my raspberries instead. I think you like them, you finished them all," he says and starts digging for his raspberries."

"No, no..you have it. I ate enough," I smile and pat his head. I couldn't help myself from doing that.

"Okay, if you say so.." he smiles at me widely, showing his dimples. I watch him as he cheerfully pick the blue berries with his fork and happily munch on them, his plump lips now red from eating strawberries.