average human’s Reviews > Flourishing Heart > Status Update

It hurt like a motherfucker here.” His finger went down to his wrist bone, poking out where the tip of the koi fishtail ended.
“Is that why you have piercings?” I asked as I eyed them all. He had many, and being so close, I saw some unfilled small hollow holes. His nose had one and one on his bottom lip on the opposite side of his hoop.
What would two hoops feel like as he kissed me?
Lucas’ breath hitched, feeling the heat spike wave from me. The tip of his tongue peeked out, grazing the metal hoop. His blue eyes heated as he stared down at me.
“Yeah, I had a lot more piercings than this.” His hand went to the two helix piercings on his left ear, one steel gray the other a light green. The skin around the light green one was slightly red, but my eyes followed his finger as it continued down to his black earplug in his earlobe.
“They look good on you,” I said honestly, bringing a genuine smile from his lips.
“Why, thank you, Guppy. Have I convinced you to get pierced?” His hand went to my right ear as his finger stroked the curve of my ear, sending a chill down my spine. “You would look cute with one here.” He murmured, still stroking it.
“No way.” I stepped back, causing him to laugh.
“How about this, you get that pierced, and I’ll pierce one of my nipples.”
He said it so openly that it left me speechless. My eyes dipped down to his still erected nipples. The heat inside me bloomed as I imagined a hoop. It would look good on him, but I think anything would look good on Lucas.
“Think about it.” He said with a wink before he stepped away, heading to the cliff, not going down to the water.
“What are you doing?” My voice went high as Lucas edged closer to the drop. He was far too close. What if it crumbled from under him? It looked like a far drop from where I was standing.
“Jumping.” He said it so casually that I refused to believe he said it.
“What?”
“I’m going to cliff jump.” He said, glancing back with a grin. I didn’t know if he was joking as he was feeling playful, but the shake of self-assurance caused me a moment of pause.
He wouldn’t.
Lucas was on the edge, looking down.
He so would.
“Are you going to jump with me?” Lucas asked
“Is it safe?” I surely wasn’t entertaining the thought, was I? No, I needed to know if it was safe for him to jump. Not me.
“No idea, but I’m going to do it anyway.” He shrugged while I sputtered. unable to speak as I watched him look down without a hint of fear. I could feel my mouth agape. He was freaking crazy, plain and simple.
“Why?”
“Why not?” he replied with a shrug, throwing it back in my face.
“You could die!”
Lucas paused before looking back at me with his eyebrows rising in a challenge. “Or I might not.”
“Why would you risk it?”
Lucas’s expression softened as he looked at me. His voice turned to a gentle tone as he spoke, “Because that is what life is about, Guppy. You take risks.”
“Why do you do it?” Lucas was full of life. He took risks all the time.
Lucas looked down again as something dark twisted inside him.
“To feel alive.” He spoke flatly, it sent an ice bolt through me, but his expression went back to his happy self again. But it was too late. I had seen that darkness inside him. Something he didn’t want me to ever see, the regret from him tightened my own throat as we both choked.
“Jump, Grace and live.” Lucas spoke tightly. His hand was outstretched, open for me to hold. I didn’t move, and Lucas didn’t withdraw his hand, his cheeks pulled up into a gentle.
“Trust me.” he whispered like he was worried I would run.
I was thinking about it, but the look Lucas was giving me had halted my feet, and I felt myself drift closer to him. I became unattached to my body, like I wasn’t in the driving seat anymore. I could feel the longing in Lucas, the ache of him needing me to trust him. Of course, it made me want to, but blind trust was a hard thing to give.
“You said you don’t know if it’s safe. How can I trust you if you don’t even know?” I spoke in a whisper. His head still outstretched, waiting for me.
“Jump or don’t. Either way, I’m going to. It will be fun to do it together.”
“Fun jumping into rocks at the bottom.” I deadpanned, but my hand reached for him, and I was starting to question my own sanity. “I don’t think death is a very good date, Lucas.”
Lucas edged closer to the drop, pulling me along with him. I was sure I was cutting his blood flow in his hand as I stopped, ready to pull him back if he slipped.
“I don’t see any rocks,” he said, glancing back at me without dread. The excitement in him made my body tremble. I was vibrating, feeling his emotions. The adrenaline felt like a sugar rush mixed with too much coffee. I shook inside and out as my breaths panted with a quiver making my teeth rattle.
“Well, that’s reassuring,” I said sarcastically trying to pull a brave front while Lucas pulled and turned me to him. My back to his chest, his arms wrapped around mine, caging me in as our body heat mixed. I could feel the fast hard thump of his heart in time with my own as he shimmied us closer to the drop.
“Trust me,” Lucas whispered into my ear, his nose trailing down my neck, bringing goose pimples from his path. He was still shuffling us closer to our deaths, and yet, I didn’t stop him. Instead, the beating of our hearts pounded as we both shook as we fanned our emotions taking us higher. Our breathing turned to one as we felt our bond twist our souls.
For a brief moment, we became one.
For a brief moment, we were in sync.
It was addicting as we both latched on to our connection, but it simmered away, like trying to hold sand in our hands. It left us trembling again, grasping each other as we long to feel that connection again. It made us both alive.
“Live and jump, Grace.” Lucas words sounded so far away, but I felt the heat of him at my back.
With his arms around me, I closed my eyes and we both took the leap. The ground beneath our feet was gone as we both jumped into the open air. The weightless feeling dived into my stomach, lifting it, as the wind caught my breath. A ringing was loud in my ear, but I felt the vibrations coming out of my mouth, we were both yelling. Me in fear and Lucas in excitement.
We fell together.
Lucas’s arms were gone as I hit the cold water. The hit of the icy cold water made me gasp, bringing water into my mouth while I plunged deeper into the lake. I plummeted down quickly till my feet softly hit the lakebed. Tall green grass tickled up my calf before I kicked my legs upwards, the need for air strained my chest. I kicked faster, swimming to break out but my clothes were heavy, dragging me down.
Warm arms came around my abdomen helping to pull me to the surface.
I sputtered, spitting out water in my mouth as I gasped for air. The sound of laughter hit my ears as Lucas musical bellow vibrated, his body trembling with excitement while he held me close to him.
“You’re meant to close your mouth when you hit the water, Guppy.” Lucas spoke with humor. His hair was darkened by the water as it dripped down his face.
“I’m alive!′ I sputtered. I could feel my heart still pounding as I looked up at the cliff edge where we jumped from. It was much higher than I thought.
I did it!
“You are.” Lucas sniggered, his hands tightening on my hips as he brought me closer to him, so I was sitting on his knee in the water. “But you did a lot better than me on my first time.”
“What?” I gaped at him. I still trembled as my mind whirled around me. I was currently on a high my body didn’t know how to handle.
“I sort of lied. I've done this before.” He looked so smug, making me unable to control myself.
“You!” I hissed as I hit his chest, making him burst out laughing as I splashed water at him. “Why didn’t you tell me!”
“I wanted you to trust me. I wouldn’t ever put you in danger if I didn’t know if it was safe. Thank you for trusting me,” Lucas spoke, kissing me, halting my assault on him. He gave a tremendous smug look that I wanted to wash away. “Did it feel good?”
I nodded, the rush we felt was incredible, and I craved to feel it again.
“Can we go again?”

82%

The rest of our date calmed down after our third jump. We ate silently while we came down from our adrenaline high. Lucas was perfectly dry with his clothes on while I sat soaked to the bone, eating the food that Daddy had made for us. Lucas had a lot of amusement in bringing up that I should have taken my clothes off. It was then I decided to bring an extra pair of clothes when I hung around Lucas as I tended to get drenched around him.
Father was not amused at the state of my look when we came back home. One look at me made him go after Lucas, who was already in his car, driving away, waving down the drive. Of course, Da found the whole thing hilarious, and nothing Father could say would pull my smile down.
My high did take a stumble after Kristina’s reply that Dylan was indeed in the city during the riots. He had gotten caught in the crossfire and was exposed to tear gas while walking back to his hotel. Dylan got help by a group of protesters. They stuck together and had apparently crashed in his hotel room while the police arrested anyone they could find on the streets. Dylan would be back today in school, and I was sure Julia would be interrogating him all about it.
September had arrived, and the townsfolk were waiting for the rainy season to be unleashed to get rid of the thick humid air. My family has been here for a month now, but it felt like we have always been here.
“You’re doing it again.” Lucas’s voice brought me back.
We were currently in his car driving to school. Somehow, he had convinced me to stay over at his house tonight. We both were incredibly nervous. I’ve never slept over at someone’s place before. It was my first time being away from my family.
Why did I agree to this?
“Doing what?” I asked, shifting to his blue eyes, they glittered with amusement.
“Thinking too much.” He took a small sip from the piping hot coffee. Even though it was his idea to come to pick me up, he still managed to be late as he went to get a coffee. His reward for being a good citizen, he said. He didn’t even buy me one and was now running late for school.
“Someone’s got to think for the both of us.” I snarked.
“Whoa, Guppy. It’s way too early for us to start this type of talk,” Lucas gave a chuckle before a yawn broke it.
“I hope it burns your tongue.” I grumbled under my breath as he took another sip out of the disposable cup. I knew he heard me by his snicker.
“Relax, Guppy. We will be back for the first bell.” He sounded so sure of himself while putting the cup back into the cupholder.
“It went off three minutes ago,” I stated with a curt huff, checking the time on my phone.
“Okay, for the second one then. The first one is only a warning bell for us to start to head to class anyway.”
I groaned as I plucked his coffee up and took a sip. My nose crinkled at the taste as it was straight black, not a dose of cream or sugar, which was surprising. Lucas seemed to sway more towards the sweet taste than the bitter.
“Hey!” Lucas looked at me in shock as we got to the school’s parking lot. There was still a queue of cars waiting their turn to park. I sent Lucas a look who tried to pull a look of innocence as we edged slowly forward, waiting our turn.
That was when I noticed my group of friends close to the entrance door speaking to Dylan. Feeling rebellious and still a little annoyed at Lucas, I undid my belt and opened his car door.
“Jesus, Guppy!” Lucas braked, allowing me to hastily exist. The sound of Lucas cursing was heard behind me as I made my way towards my friends.
“Running late, Grace?” Julia spoke as she wiggled her eyebrows at me, but my eyes only saw Dylan.
I struggled to breathe at the sight of him. The side of his face held an ugly swollen bruise that was starting to go brown, a mixture of yellow and green around the edges. A few cuts were littered along his jaw, like he fell and scraped it along the sidewalk.
“Are you okay?” I asked Dylan, who beamed down at me like he wasn’t injured. His smile pulled more on his swollen eye making it appear bigger.
“A little roughed up, but I’ll be fine.” His hand touched the bruise with a wince.
“Was it scary?” Julia asked. Hannah and Kristina looked a little sickly.
Dylan nodded. “I was walking past the protestors as the police decided to throw the gas. I got caught up in it all.” He palmed his right eye like he could remember the pain. “It’s a nightmare in the city,” he said with a heavy sigh.
“Me and Guppy saw some of it on the news.” Lucas’s voice came from behind me, “Crazy shit.”
It was then the second bell rang, making me groan as I was most definitely late for the first time in my life. But before Julia and I could head off, Lucas seized me.
“If you ever get out of a moving car again, you will be walking to my house.” He spoke with a stern voice that made me and Julia wide-eyed at him. The snarky remark of mentioning that the car was technically stopped fell flat when Lucas’s eyes narrowed.
I nodded, meekly, which made him go back into his relaxed stance. I was still stunned as Lucas gave me a quick kiss on my cheek before swaggering away.
“That was fucking hot.” Julia muttered as we both watched him while feeling shocked.
I just got lectured by Lucas…
“Wait, you’re going to his house?” Julia seemed to snap out of her shock.
“Yeah, I’m staying over,” I said, still in a stun-like mind.
“Say what?”

83%

How was I still living right now?
I was surprised Lucas hadn’t come to find me with the number of emotional waves I was creating.
Did I want to go further?
In the moment I wanted to. Lucas could make me feel so fearless when I was with him. Every time we were apart, I felt like I could never kiss him again with how scared I was, but I knew I wanted to. He was addicting.
“Maybe?” I whispered, sounding unsure, and it was because I was. When does someone know to take it further? Was it discussed? Lucas and I haven’t spoken about it at all. Did we need to talk about it?
“What are you guys talking about?” Dylan asked as he plopped down on his chair. I squealed in surprise. I completely forgot we were in school!
Dylan sent me an alarmed look before the girls spoke.
“Sex,” both girls said, and not one of them flinched like me. Dylan flushed as he peered over at me. I think we both were contemplating our life choices at this moment.
“Dylan, you’re a boy.” Hannah stated like something clicked in her mind.
“Thanks for noticing.” Dylan said dryly, shuffling in his seat.
I shook my head. I didn’t want him in this conversation.
“Tell Grace blue balls aren’t a thing.” Hannah demanded, making Dylan and me stammer.
“It-it’s not a thing, Grace, if Apollo tells you that he is a dick.” Dylan sputtered.
Julia nodded, “A blue douche dick.”
Please, whoever is listening, take me away.
“He isn’t!” I blurted, sending wide eyes to the girls while I threw glances towards Dylan. I really didn’t want him here if we had to talk about this.
Hannah sent me a wink before she slammed her hands on the table. “Now, blow jobs.”
“I’m out!” Dylan yelled, jumping out of his chair, making a break for it.
Take me with you, I thought hopelessly.
It would take the end of the lunch bell for them to stop.