Chapter 67 | Humiliation day p2

Isabella:

a little visual for this chapter, the next and the previous one :)

"I'm going to fall on my ass and die!" I shriek holding onto the penguin walker Lucas forced me to get when I told him I've never ice skated before.

More people turn around to glare at us, although this time not from Lucas looking...well, y'know, but because of the umpteenth time I've screamed dramatically since getting on the ice.

"You're not going to die, I've got you," Lucas assures me, gripping my arms tightly to ensure that I don't fall as he glides us both inch by inch across the ice.

"How do people find this fun?" I groan, strengthening my hold on the walker. "This is a death trap! My finger could get cut off from the skates and that's not fun because I like all my fingers!"

"It is fun Izzy, once you get the hang of it."

"Sure," I reply dryly. "My butt is numb from the cold and bruised from the amount of times I've fallen, that sounds like super fun doesn't it?"

"It's fine," he laughs. "I'll massage your ass for you after we finish if you wan-"

He's cut off by a grunt when I shove him out of the way with my hip, wobbling slightly before gripping back onto the walker for stability.

"I was joking," Lucas huffs.

I ignore him and continue trying to glide forward, watching as families and kids skate past us with ease. I stare at this incredulously wondering how they make it look so easy.

"Ugh today was supposed be a day where I get to enjoy watching you get humiliated, not you watch me be dramatic about falling and cracking my skull open."

Lucas levels me with another look. "It's alright, there's just half an hour left then we can get off," he continues to assure me, not even seeming bothered by my annoying ass complaining.

"Fine," I groan. "But I give up trying to learn, you can skate I'll just...stay here."

"No giving up," Lucas raises a brow and pulls me forward.

"Why not?"

"Because I said so."

"That's not a proper reason."

Lucas sighs. "Because..." he begins, flitting his eyes across the ice rink before gesturing to a 7 year old whizzing around us like he's a pro. "If that little boy can do it, then so can you."

I turn my head to gaze at the kid just as the boy turns around and snickers when he see's the deathly grip I have on the penguin...or Lucas dressed like...that - either way however, I narrow my eyes and give him the finger.

This only causes the child to laugh harder and turn around before skating away.

"That kid is different," I mutter.

"No he's not." Lucas brings my hand down. "And Izz you can't give little children the middle finger!"

"He deserved it," I grumble with a roll of my eyes. "Did you see the way he laughed?"

Lucas shakes his head amusedly. "The kid laughing should make you more determined to listen to me to learn how to ice skate-"

"No its just making me want to chuck the penguin walker at his head-"

"Izzy focus!" He cuts me off and shoots me a look, forcing me to direct my attention back onto him and not at the boy I was seeking out in the crowd to give dirts to.

I huff.

"Right we have 29 minuets left and counting and I'm determined that I'm gonna teach you how to skate before we leave."

"Don't bother wasting your time Luke."

"I'm not," he responds. "Now c'mon...move your feet slowly to make a lemon shape."

I stare at Lucas blankly. "A lemon shape? What kind of bullshit is that."

"It's not bullshit, it's a tactic that works."

"Sure-HEY!" I suddenly cry out in protest when he grabs a hold of my arms and pushes the penguin walker away. "I need that!"

"No you're too reliant on it, you'll be fine without it, I still have my hold on you."

"No I need that!"

"No you don't."

"Yes I do-"

"Lemon," Lucas sings, cutting me off. "Make a lemon shape with your feet."

"I'm making a fucking lemon shutup!"

Lucas laughs and holds me at arms length, his grip on my wrists tightening as I concentrate and try to manoeuvre my feet the way he's directing me to.

"See you got it!" He exclaims when I manage to move just about an inch, grinning so that his eyes crinkle at the corners and his dimples pop out. "Yeah, now do that again."

When I manage to move another millimetre he whoops again. "Good girl, see you're doing it."

"I moved like a third of an inch."

"You still moved," Lucas' grin widens before glancing back down at my feet in the ice. "Now I'm gonna let go of you so you can learn to balance," he begins to instruct and my eyes fly open and I start to shake my head.

"No I'm gonna fall!"

"You're not going to fall."

"Yes I am."

"No you're not!" Before I can blink, he's let go of his grip on my arm. "See you're fine."

"No I'm not!"

"Yes you are!"

"No I'm not!"

"Yes you are!"

"No I'm not!"

"Yes you ar-AH MFGHTH."

"Ouch," I groan.

"What was that for, you were balanced!" Lucas exclaims.

"No I wasn't! If I was I wouldn't have fallen would I? My ass begins to tingle painfully from the harsh impact I had fallen on it when I had collided with the ice.

And then my nose begins to throb, where Lucas' forehead had hit when I, in reflex, had yanked him down with me as I was falling.

...And the back of my head from where I had fallen backwards and hit the ice.

And...well my entire body in general from the 200 pound 6ft boy in a jojo siwa costume squashing me.

"I told you not to let go!" I complain.

"I think I've broken a rib."

"Bitch I cushioned your fall, if anything I think I broke a rib."

Lucas groans, burying his face into my shoulder. "Teaching you to skate is harder than I thought," he murmurs, one hand still resting on my hip.

"I told you. Now please, get off me, my back is soggy and you're hurting me."

A string of expletives leave his mouth as Lucas slowly pushes off of me and gets up from the ice, teetering slightly because the ice is slippy before extending his hand out for me to hold so that I can get up too.

"Izzy I think I'm broken," he tells me as I latch into his hand

"Shut up," I mutter, struggling to sit up. "I bet your tutu gave you enough protection from the fall." I shoot Lucas a dry look. "You've turned me into flat Stanley."

"What the fuck is that?"

I grip his hands tightly and try to lift myself from off of the ground.  "Never mind," I sigh. "Just help me up please."

Lucas tugs me up and wraps an arm around my waist to steady me when I wobble again. I brace my hands against his shoulders and when I'm finally steady, I narrow my eyes as I watch the little boy devil begin to skate in our direction over Lucas' shoulder.

"What you looking at?" I sneer at him when he continues staring and sticks his tongue out at me.

He continues to glide forward in our direction and I'm about to give him a piece of my mind as he get's closer but I've just about opened my mouth when he suddenly shoves Lucas' side with an extreme force.

He watches us both teeter, amusement flaring in his eyes before giving Lucas another shove and laughing when we both fall back on the ice again.

A series of obscenities escape from both Lucas and I, mine cussing the wicked little boy and Lucas crying about how much his body is broken, as we end up on the ground in a heap of limbs and colourful tutus and feather boa's.

"Now I've definitely broken a rib," Lucas grumbles, squashing me mercilessly and cutting off my oxygen supply.

I shove his shoulders and Lucas pushes up from me, allowing me to finally take in a large gulp of air before I begin groaning at how much pain my ass and back is in. I definitely have frostbite on my ass now.

When I can finally breathe again, I immediately turn my head to search for the little boy and when I lock eye contact with him, I scream a loud 'fuck you!' in his direction. Lucas pivots his head also before raising the middle finger at him and narrowing his eyes at the satan reincarnation.

"God I hate children," I mutter, as the kid unaffectedly skates off to the other side of the ice rink. What a pussy, running away from us like that.

"Me too," Lucas mumbles in reply, looking back down at me.

"Can we give up ice skating now please," I say desperately. "I don't think I can last another 20 minutes."

"Yes please," Lucas nods his head eagerly. "I'm sorry Izzy you're just not going to learn how to ice skate today."

"I don't care," I whine. "I just want to go."

"Okay," Lucas nods as I gaze up at him.

His mouth begins to lift into a boyish grin, eye's bouncing across all my features on my face.

"What?" I ask, my eyebrows drawing together.

Lucas chuckles lowly. "Look how close we are," he points out causing me to suddenly take note of how our faces are inches apart and how bodies are still pressed together.

I grimace. "Move your clown looking ass please," I push his chest.

"Right I forgot I looked like that." Lucas' grin drops and I snicker. "You sure this," he gestures down his body. "Isn't a turn on for you?"

"Yes of course, role playing as jojo siwa is what gets me off."

Lucas hums and taps his chin thoughtfully. "I'll make sure to take note of that for future use," he tells me and I throw him a blank look in return causing him to break out into laughter

Shoving his shoulder, I roll my eyes. "Shut up, let's just go."

***

"You're such a slow walker," Lucas looks over his shoulder at me from where I'm a couple of feet behind him, trying to catch up with his long strides.

"Sorry Mr long legs," I respond in a mocking tone. "I'm trying my hardest to catch up."

He pauses on the sidewalk until I've reached him, then we begin to walk side by side together in the direction of the park, target bags clutched in our hands, filled with food and a blanket for our picnic.

After we had left the ice rink, both Lucas and I had been sopping wet so we had decided to grab our picnic items and just walk to the park that was a couple blocks away to let the wind dry us off. My butt was still numb and in pain but walking is better than sitting down so it's okay.

As we continue to walk, my eyes scour the surroundings. We stroll past streets lined with bakery's and grocery stores and I take note that the weather is still dull and monotonous. Grey clouds still loom the sky but the wind has definitely picked up a bit; it howls in the distance and wraps around me, nipping my skin and causing me to shiver from time to time. I'm lucky I'm wearing a a thick jacket and earmuffs to keep me warm and Lucas has his thick tutu to rejuvenate warmth so he seems good too.

It takes us about 20 minuets to get to the park, which is practically deserted as we walk through the gates, not surprising seeing as the weather is complete shit. It's probably not a great day to have a picnic, especially from the way the sky is getting darker and seems like it's going to rain soon but I like how empty it is here.

We walk deeper into the field part of the park, away from the children's playground and when we find a spot that seems like we're in the middle of nowhere, Lucas pauses and drops the bags onto the grounds.

We had been taking about random things on the way and our conversation comes to a pause as we both begin rifling through the bags and pulling out the various items for our picnic.

I pull out out the checkered blanket from one of the bags and lay it down on the slightly damp grass before sitting cross legged on it but not before wincing from the butt pain. I watch as Lucas pulls out the food and drink and paper plates we had bought earlier on and my stomach begins to twist and turn at the sight of all the food.

I can already begin to feel my mind go into fucking over drive and I sigh exhaustedly. I thought I could do it today; this whole week I was doing well. For fucksake I had been the one who wanted to buy food for the picnic because I thought I could manage it but no, now my brain suddenly decides to act up.

I'm chewing on my bottom lip, eyes still trained on all the food when Lucas suddenly clears his throat and draws my attention onto him.

"You know what I've realised?" He says, stretching out his legs in front of him and leaning back on his elbows.

I raise an eyebrow. "What?"

"All we talk about is deep stuff," he continues, the wind ruffling up his hair as he speaks. "Like our issues etc, we never really talk about basic things like our...favourite animals," he says as an example.

I pause in thought, mulling over what he just pointed out and scrunch up my eyebrows. "Huh you're right."

All Lucas and I do is talk about is our problems; his parents, my eating disorder, bad mental health and so on. Our conversations are never simple like that, they're always on the more intense side.

"You wanna talk about basic things then?" I suggest.

"Yeah," Lucas agrees. "Let's just quick fire questions at each other." He pushes the empty target bags to the side and shifts so that he's properly facing my direction to give me his undivided attention.

I shuffle in my seat to mirror his position and to get more comfortable. "Sure," I say drawing the collar of my jacket up to my chin. "You go first though."

"Okay...what's your fave animal then?" He asks but cuts me off before I can answer. "Is it still dolphins?"

"Yes." The corner of my lips slowly lift into a small smile at the fact he still remembers. "Is yours still elephants?"

"Yep." He grins. "Now your go."

"Okay erm...what pet do you want?" I ask after racking through my brain for a question.

"A dog if I wasn't allergic. You?"

"A fish."

"You really like aquarium animals huh?" Lucas smirks with a raise of his eyebrows. He lifts up from his elbows and leans forward to pull a paper plate from its packet.

"Yep, they're so cute."

"So you had fun at the aquarium?" The sound of plastic packets ripping fills the air as Lucas starts assembling various snack items on the plate; a muffin, some macaroons, mini pretzels, some crackers and cheese slices.

"Yeah," I nod with a small smile, grabbing the plate subconsciously as he passes it over to me.

"I could tell," Lucas snickers, stuffing a pretzel bite into his mouth. "You were glued to the glass, watching the fishes swim by and I swear you were going to run off with that starfish when you got to hold it."

"Hey! Bubbles was so frickin' adorable," I respond defensively causing Lucas to laugh.

"You're so lame." He shakes his head amusedly. "You really named it?"

"Shut up," I mumble, crossing my arms across my chest and frowning. "Now you're making me miss her."

Lucas laughs even harder and I chuck a pretzel at his head.

"Okay fine," he says in between chuckles, raising his hand up in defence. "Let's move on to the next question." He pauses to tap his chin in thought. "Who is your comfort character?"

"Lilly Linton," I respond before he even finishes asking the question. "I love Lilly so much and Ambrose too."

"Who are they?"

"They're characters from this book series called Storm and Silence." I press a hand to my heart. "Ugh so good, I love them so much. I am so making you read them. All six books."

"6 books?" Lucas raises an eyebrow. "No thanks, I'm not a nerd like you."

"What's your GPA again?" I cup a hand to my ear. "Oh right 4.0." I respond back to his teasing and shake my head. "Who exactly is your comfort character then?"

"Easy, mines Chandler bing," Lucas says, crossing his legs at his ankles and smirking at me. "You can't make fun of me for that because you love Chandler," he rightfully points out and I huff.

I pick at the chocolate chip muffin at my plate as I think about another question to ask.

"Fine. Next question," I say when I've thought of one. "What's something you do that's kind of random that no one knows?" I lift my head to gaze at Lucas and smirk slyly as I pop a piece of muffin into my mouth. "I bet I can make fun of you for this answer."

"You probably can," Lucas sighs, scratching the back of his neck awkwardly. "Er...I write reviews for movies on google."

My mouth falls open and I chuck another pretzel at his head before slapping my knee. "No! I can't make fun of you for that because mine is that I write book reviews for books on good reads!"

Lucas sticks his tongue out immaturely and takes a bite of his mini pistachio flavoured macaroon. The little things had been on sale at Target and are so fucking cute. But the mini sized macaroons look kind of ridiculous in Lucas' big hands and it causes me to chuckle.

"What's the last book you wrote a review about?" He asks once he's finished chewing.

I cock my head to the side. "I'm not sure. I honestly can't remember, it's been a while since I've written one."

Lucas raises a brow. "How comes?"

"I don't know," I sigh. "I haven't read in a couple of months, just sort of fell out of it I guess but I really wanna get back into reading."

"It's good we're going to a bookshop next then," he reminds me.

"Oh shit yeah." I nod, smiling.

"Okay, next question." He moves on. "What is the prettiest name you can think of?"

"Athena," I respond quickly. "What's the ugliest name you can think of?"

"Bert...Seamen."

"Now what's the sexiest name you can think of?" I then ask, chewing on a purple coloured macaron.

Lucas smirks. "Lucas Miller."

I pause on my chewing and chuck the rest of the macaron at him. Lucas catches it swiftly mid air like he had done with the two pretzels and stuffs it into his mouth.

"If you were to dye your hair what colour would you dye it?"

"A darker version of ash blonde." I reply. "You?"

"Black on one side, pink on the other."

"If LA was a food what food would it be?" I question.

"Cheese."

"Cheese?" I repeat. "Really? I would say smoothie bowls."

Lucas waves his hand dismissively. "What's your favourite line from a book or movie?"

"You have bewitched me body and soul." I smile, thinking about Darcy and Elizabeth. God I love pride and prejudice. "What's yours?"

"You're a wizard harry."

"Who's your celeb crush?" I quickly raise my hand up before he can answer. "Wait is it still Megan fox?"

Lucas grins. "Yeah. Who's yours?"

"I can't choose, I have to many." I shake my head solemnly. "What's your favourite colour?"

"Light blue. Yours?"

"Light blue."

Lucas smile widens at our twinning answers, as does mine. "Okay if you could kill off any character from a current television show, who would it be?"

I wrinkle my nose at his question. "Arturo from money heist."

"Ugh I hate that motherfucker." Lucas scowls. "I would kill him off too."

"What's your favourite feature on your face?"

"My nose." I reply after thinking for a short while. "You?"

"My eyes."

"Whats your favourite feature about me?" Lucas wiggles his eyebrows suggestively.

"Your dimples. What about me?"

He bits his lip as his eyes flit across my face. "Your smile definitely."

"Who would you rather sleep with? Dylan or Aidan."

"Dylan. How about you? Mia or Grace?"

"Mia."

"What's one talent you wished you had?"

"Art. I wish I was good at art." Lucas admits, staring off into the distance as he continues to think, mindlessly chewing on a cracker. "Maybe playing an instrument too," he then snaps his gaze back to me. "What's yours?"

"Singing."

"You can sing," he tilts his head to the side, "...kinda."

I narrow my eyes at him. "I cannot."

"You used to love singing when we were younger."

"I was horrible."

"No you weren't."

"Do you remember our talent shows?" I retort dryly, reminding him of a memory from our childhood. "Dylan used to burst into tears everytime I opened my mouth to sing and Mia would hide behind the sofa."

"That's because they were competitive as fuck and wanted to win and used to do that to you throw you off, not because you were bad," Lucas deadpans.

"Sure." I roll my eyes.

"Hey I liked hearing you sing!"

"Okay." I shake my head and laugh. "Let's move on," I nibble on a square of cheese. "If I were a candy flavour what flavour would I be?"

"Strawberry. What would I be?"

"Blue rasberry."

"I like blue raspberry," Lucas gasps. "It's so tangy."

"What language do you wish you could speak?" I ask next.

"Japanese. How about you?"

"Korean."

"Your favourite thing about a person?"

"Their laugh."

"Their laugh too."

"Your favourtie disney movie?"

"Tangled."

"Tangled."

"Look at us with our twinning answers." Lucas grins, extending his palm out so I can high five him.

"Oh my God I have a good one!" I perk up. "If you were in a female body what would be the first thing you'd do?"

"Take naked pictures and play with my tits," Lucas lists off. "You?"

"If I was in a male body I'd so jerk off."

"If you could get a piercing what would you get?"

"A nose piercing and a tongue piercing."

"You should get one," I nod my head, an image of how Lucas would with those piercings flickering in my mind. "It'd suit you."

Lucas sighs and runs a hand through his hair - well he tries to anyways but the amount of clips and bows attached to each lock makes it pretty hard to. "My dad would flip and probably disown me. He already has an issue with me painting my nails."

"Ugh," I scrunch up my nose and Lucas shrugs sheepishly.

"How about you?"

"I'd get my septum pierced."

Lucas taps his chin. "Would you ever get your clit pierced."

"You can get your clit pierced?" I blink.

Lucas laughs. "Yeah. Would you?"

"No," my voice comes out in a squeak. "That sounds painful. Would you ever get your dick pierced."

"No that sounds painful."

We both shudder.

"Okay moving on, if you could have any superpower, what would it be?"

"To be invisible. You?"

"Mind reading powers."

"What would be the theme of your wedding?" He questions.

"Garden themes, sage greens and whites and creams. You?"

"Hm, I'm not sure but I like garden/outdoor theme too."

"Oo Izz, what's something from London you think I'd like?"

"Nandos." I nod my head. "You, Dylan and Aidan would die over Nando's."

"What's a city or country you want to go at a specific time?" I ask.

"New york at Christmas time. You?"

"Northern Italy in the summer."

"A concert you'd go to?"

"One direction," Lucas answers of course and I send him an amused look. "What about you?"

"One direction and Chase atlantic."

"I'd get horny at a Chase atlantic concert."

"Same," I snicker. "But I feel like the vibe would be so cool there."

"I agree." He nods before taking a leisurely sip out of his Pepsi. I swear he downs the entire drink before he pulls the fan away from his lips. "Okay what's a song that you think has a really cute lyric?"

"Everybdoy in love by JLS. The bit that goes: every minute's like an hour. Every hour's like a day. Every day lasts forever. But what else am I gonna do? I'd wait forever and a day for you."

"That's song is a masterpiece."

"I know right," I gush, clasping my hands together. "Okay what's your comfort movie?"

"The notebook, you?"

"Divergent for some reason. I think it's because of Theo James."

"Theo James is hot."

"Very," I nod my head eagerly in agreement.

"Okay what's a movie scene you'd recreate?"

"That tunnel car scene in the perks of being a wallflower. What about you?"

"Dancing in the street in the rain like in the notebook."

"What's one thing about yourself that you'd change?"

"My stupidity and obliviousness. Like how am I academically smart but in every other way stupid as hell?" Lucas winces and shakes his head. "How about you?"

"I wish I was good with confrontation and didn't run away from problems or push them aside."

"What's one thing you wish you had?"

"Money, lots of money. You?"

"Parents that fucking cared about me."

"What's a feeling you like to feel?"

"What do you mean by that?" Lucas questions, his lips pursed confusedly.

"Like a feeling you like to feel." I repeat and when Lucas throws me a blank look because I didn't exactly explain what I mean, I rack my brain for an example. "Okay so for me, I like to feel nostalgia," I elaborate once I think of one. "I love listening to songs that remind me of a certain time in my life, specifically from my childhood. I like how it makes me feel."

"Oh I get you," he nods his head slowly in understanding. "Then I think I like to feel that too, it's a bittersweet feeling isn't it? Reminiscing about a good time that happened in the past but then remembering that you'll never get that again. That's what I feel when I remember memories of my grandpa and I."

"Yeah you're right," I agree. "It is bittersweet."

Both Lucas and I sigh wistfully at the same time and our simultaneity causes us both to snap our gazes onto each other.

Lucas quirks an eyebrow as a smile draws its way up to my face. "We went deep again didn't we?"

I snicker. "Shit, yeah we did."

━

AUTHORS NOTE:

sorry for not updating i've just been super unmotivated lately and been in one of those moods where i can't be asked to do anything except lay in bed 😩✋ but i was semi productive today so yay!

also this chapter was 7k words but I had to cut it to 4k words because it was taking ages to edit but it's still not well written properly so i apologise. but hey at least I have 3k words ready for the next chapter so i can be update sooner :)