Bumblebee Pebbles – Chapter Three

Spring

“You two are so cute it’s disgusting,” Luke announced. We were sat in the park, at a bench by the pond and Grace had walked up to us, pressing a quick kiss to my cheek as she sat down. The bench wasn’t really meant for three people, so she had sat across my lap, not that I minded. The trees that had previously been bare were sprouting with green, the new type of green that meant life, not the duller kind of leaves that had been around for a year already. Around the pond, snowdrops were blooming, their delicate flowers dancing in the breeze, and the beginnings of daffodils were growing amongst them. 

Despite the weak sun, it was starting to get warmer. The three of us all had jumpers on, but it didn’t escape my notice that the jumper Grace was wearing was most certainly mine and I wondered when she had stolen it.

“Thanks, Luke, we appreciate the compliment,” Grace replied, pulling her hair over one shoulder. She started digging through her bag and pulling various pieces of food out, laying them out on her lap. Luke rolled his eyes.

“You’re answering as each other? We,” Luke rolled his eyes again and his gaze settled on a packet of crisps Grace had just pulled out of her bag.

“Keep your hands off, only I’m allowed to steal her food,” I warned him, earning myself a smack on the arm as Grace lunged for her crisps.

“You are not, they’re mine and I’m not sharing,” she leant down and put them back in her bag, which was resting on the floor, and I frowned.

“That’s not fair,” I started to complain, but she cut me off.

“If you wanted food, you should’ve brought your own,” she told me and I stuck my tongue out at her. Luke pretended to throw up.

“When’s whats-her-name getting here?” Grace asked Luke as she opened a plastic container of grapes, popping one in her mouth.

“Her name is Jeanie, and I don’t know,” Luke looked over his shoulder to see if anyone was approaching.

“And how long have you been going out with her?” 

“Shut up.”

“Seriously, though,” I said, “how long?” Luke glared at me, obviously trying to decide whether or not he wanted to answer.

“Four days,” he finally mumbled and Grace snickered, covering it up by putting another grape in her mouth when Luke turned his glare onto her. “I actually really like her, though, so don’t completely embarrass me,” he warned and I raised an eyebrow at him as Grace chewed another grape.

“You actually really like her? For real?” he nodded and I made a facial expression that said ‘wow’, not believing my ears.

“Then why are you on a double date with us at the park? You should be somewhere alone, talking to her and getting to know her, not forcing her to put up with us!” Grace told him and I turned to look at her.

“What do you mean ‘put up with us’?” she shrugged innocently and I narrowed my eyes. “We’re not annoying, not at all,” I told her and she nodded, pretending to agree with me. Narrowing my eyes even more, I held my hand out, palm up. “Give me a grape.” Grace looked down at her little pot, seemingly picking a grape for me. Whether she was looking for a nice one or the worst one she could find, I wasn’t sure.

When she finally picked one out, she bit into it, leaving the smallest bit possible to place in my hand, the juice making my palm sticky as I sat staring at her incredulously. 

“Why would you do that?” I asked and she giggled. Luke hit my arm as I put the tiny bit of grape in my mouth, trying to lick the juice off my palm, but only making it more sticky.

“She’s here, be cool,” he whispered, waving someone over, and I turned to look at Grace, expecting the mischievous look on her face as the cogs in her head turned at double speed.

“Be nice, no sarcastic jokes,” I told her, waggling my finger in her face.

“But I was going to ask if his STD is getting better,” she pouted, thankfully talking quietly so Jeanie couldn’t hear what she was saying as she approached. I bit the inside of my lip as I tried not to laugh at her face and Grace could tell, as she was doing the exact same thing. It always amused me how she laughed at her own jokes, usually more than anyone else laughed at them.

“Jeanie! How are you?” Luke asked and Grace and I both turned to look at her, to see who this person was and what it was about her that made Luke want to get to know her mind, not just her body. 

As if someone had mashed a bunch of keys on a keyboard, my brain crashed. The tall, skinny blonde I had been expecting was nowhere to be seen. Instead, a short girl with a smattering of freckles across her face and bright orange hair bouncing at her shoulders was walking over, every step bouncy and making her hair bob up and down.

“What?” Grace whispered in my ear and I blinked several times to make sure what I was seeing was real. “Look at Luke,” she whispered and I turned away from Jeanie to look at Luke. He might as well have been drooling. If I was obsessed with Grace when I met her, Luke was infatuated. 

“Hi!” Jeanie said as she reached us. She was wearing a dress, still very different from the old, stained jeans that Grace had on, but it fell past her knees. Not that Luke was paying much attention to what she was wearing. It was almost comical how he stared at her, a smile on his face, until I realised this is how I probably looked when I was obsessing over Grace. It was less amusing after that.

“Sorry, there’s not much room,” Luke said and Grace immediately grabbed her snacks from her lap and stood up.

“No worries, I wanted to go and see the flowers anyway,” she said, looking down at me expectantly. 

“Oh, yes, the flowers…” I stood up, picking up Grace’s bag from the floor, as her hands were full with the food she had scooped up in her arms. “We’ll go and… look at them, then…” Grace elbowed me and I shut my mouth.

“It was lovely to meet you, Jeanie, we’ll meet up with you both later?” Grace asked and Jeanie looked down at Luke, seemingly confused as to who we were, why we were acting so strangely and why we knew who she was.

“Sure, Grace,” Luke said as Jeanie sat down next to him, crossing her legs and reaching up to tuck her hair behind her ear. Grace flashed them both an award-winning smile and turned to walk away. I followed, looking over my shoulder as Luke shuffled a little closer to Jeanie on the seat. When I was sure Jeanie wasn’t looking, I sent Luke a thumbs up, which I’m certain he saw and simply ignored.

“The flowers?” I asked, “you wanted to look at the flowers?”

“I couldn’t think of anything!” Grace exclaimed, almost dropping one of her little pots.

“Do you want to put those back in the bag?” I asked and she nodded. The both of us stopped and I held open her bag as she let everything fall out of her arms and into it. Why she felt the need to put various fruits in separate little tubs would always confuse me. A pot of apple slices missed the bag and fell to the floor, which Grace leant down to pick up as I slung her bag over my shoulder. 

“Do you think it’ll last?” I asked, taking the pot from her and stuffing it in her bag, which was weighed down from all the useless stuff she kept in it. The fruit I could almost understand, at least it was food. Her purse and keys, yes. Tissues, pens, moisturiser, random pieces of jewellery, a cassette tape? No, I did not see the need for any of those things and, in case you were wondering, her car does not have a cassette player. She does not own a cassette player. The tape is blank.

“Jeanie and Luke?” Grace asked, glancing over her shoulder as our hands found each other. “Maybe, she’s so different from anyone else I’ve ever seen him with.” She started swinging our hands slightly as we walked past the pond and towards the path that led to another pond, a smaller one. 

The park was quiet as we walked, the occasional sound of chatter cropping up when we got closer to another couple or group of people walking. Grace’s bag kept slipping down my shoulder, which was honestly starting to ache from carrying it, but I didn’t want to give it back to her and admit defeat. How she carried it around all day was beyond me. 

The pond was bursting with greenery. While the larger one was open, with no plants, this one was teeming with reeds and grasses, a willow tree growing at the edge and an old wooden bridge lead straight over it. We walked onto the bridge, the sound of our footsteps changing from the crunching of the path to the louder, hollow sound of our shoes on the old wood. I was very tempted to try and shake the bridge because I knew it would annoy Grace, but I wasn’t sure it would actually move and I didn’t want to face the humiliation of being weaker than an old bridge.

“Oh, look at the ducks!” Grace pointed and I stopped walking, looking over the railing at the ducks gliding across the water. “Do I have anything they can eat?” she asked, reaching for her bag. I was glad for a moment, thinking she was going to take it from me, but she just opened it, leaving it on my shoulder as she rifled through it.

“I don’t know if ducks can eat mango, Grace,” I said as I watched her and she threw me a look that said ‘yes, thank you, I know’. “Why on earth did you chop up mango?” I took a closer look at the contents of her bag. “How long did you spend putting fruit into little tubs?” 

“About forty minutes,” she replied, giving up on her quest to try and find something to feed the birds. 

“Why? You could just have put an apple in your bag, why did you cut it?” 

“Because then we can share,” she said, entwining her fingers with mine again as she looked back out at the ducks. 

“I thought you weren’t sharing your food?” I asked as Grace got bored of watching the duck move one way, then turn and move the other way, walking away from the bridge, pulling me along gently by my hand.

“I’m not sharing my crisps. I said nothing about not sharing my apple,” she replied as I half run a step to catch up with her.

“Oh, I see how it is,” I grinned, “share the healthy food, but keep the nice things to yourself, huh?” She looked up at me, grinning and shaking her head.

“If you would try mango, you might like it.”

“How many times do I have to tell you? It looks gross, it’s slimy and horrible and it’s stringy,” I complained, fully aware of the fact that Grace was still smiling.

“One day you will try it and love it, and you will have no choice but to lie about your love for it because of how petty you are being right now,” she barely took a breath as she continued, “and you will have to eat your mangos in secret because otherwise everyone will know that you should’ve listened to us and tried a mango earlier instead of lying to us all about how gross they are.” 

“Are you done?”

“I will never be done, not until you eat some mango.”

“I’ll have blueberries,” I tried, but apparently blueberries are an inferior fruit to mango. Who knew? 

“Hey, Grace?” I stopped walking and she stopped as well, turning to look at me, a slight frown on her face.

“What?”

“Do you think Jeanie and Luke have kissed more than we have today?” I felt a grin tugging at the corner of my lips and Grace rolled her eyes, grinning.

“I think, maybe, we’d better rack up the number, just in case,” she replied, trying to keep a straight face and failing.

“I think that’s a wonderful idea,” my hands came up to cup her face, bringing her up and leaning over to meet her halfway, her lips grinning against mine and her bag sliding down my arm and settling in the crook of my elbow as I tangled my hand in her hair and sighed against her mouth.

And done!

Aren't they just so adorable? I love this chapter so much. It's just so cute!

One more chapter to go now, so make sure to check back in next week for the finale. If you need to catch up on the previous chapters, you can do so HERE!

Anyway, that's all for now...

Bye!

A Review – Hot Demon Bitches Near You by J. E. Erickson

Now, I've not written a book review for my blog in a long long while. So long, I actually had to scroll back to remember how I used to format my posts.

Life got in the way for a bit, but now I am beginning to find the time for reading again. Which in turn has reminded me how much I enjoy reading.

So, without further ado, this is the first review on my blog since May last year (about 9 months ago!)

A possessed phone app, bloodthirsty demons, and a drive for vengeance that reaches beyond the grave.

Libby and Whitney, teen friends with a shared secret, hatch a plot to avenge the violent death of their friend by killing DJ, the architect of her murder. Their plans crumble when the Guardians of Purity – a radical right-wing, neo-fascist, evangelical, white supremacist hate group – crashes the Autumn Ball, takes the high school hostage, and begins assaulting the students.

Salvation comes in the form of three mysterious demons sent from Hell to help Libby and Whitney save themselves, the students, and get their revenge… but at a price they might not be ready to pay.

Grab a copy!

My Review!

This is a book that has been sat on my kindle for a while. I am not sure whether I got myself a copy during a promotion, or whether I was just so intrigued by the cover and the title that I couldn't help myself. But, when looking through my kindle for my next read, it was very difficult to scroll past this one, especially with such a title! But even still, I went into this book not really knowing what to expect, until I came across the content warnings on the first couple of pages. And there were a lot of them!

Libby and Whitney have a dark secret, and a sinister plot. A fake hatred simmers between the two, a front put on for the world to see, as Whitney spends her time with her boyfriend, DJ. He is, of course, unaware that she can't stand him, and that the whole premise of their relationship is built on a lie and a plan. But when the Autumn Ball is brought to an abrupt end, and taken over by a radical hate group, DJ and his father among the intruders, the plans that Libby and Whitney have been concocting must change quickly if they want to make it out alive.

Enter the hot demon bitches. A mysterious, possessed, phone app puts in the order, and three demons arrive to fulfil it. But getting all the students out safely isn't the only requirement of the order. There is something else on Libby and Whitney's minds - revenge. And revenge is something the demons are perfectly capable of, and rather enjoy doing. And revenge comes in the form of bloodshed, gore, and teaching the intruders a lesson that will haunt them in the grave.

This is not a book for the faint of heart. The revenge exacted is done so with a psychotic and horrifying sense of calm and a thirst for violence. Although there is comedic value to some of the conversations, the level of violence and gore is immense. The mental images this novel plants in your mind are truly chilling, and at times, give you pause for thought - just how far is too far? For those who love gore and horror, this is certainly the book to choose. Bodies get mangled in a multitude of creative and imaginative ways, and the horror itself is graphic. A personal favourite scene when it comes to the comedic qualities of the novel includes the demons struggling to bypass a table saw's emergency cut-off, so it can be used as a weapon, the safety features that detect flesh acting against them in their attempts to use the saw on one of the intruders. Moments like this lighten the mood of the story, but it's still firmly a novel that will be enjoyed by those who enjoy dark humour and body horror. The author has not held back, and the careful depictions create a novel of the darkest possible nature. The descriptions of mutilation are morbidly fascinating, and despite the content and gore, you find yourself transfixed by the creativity and variation put into practice with the murders.

Despite the majority of this story being centred around the horrors of the revenge exacted by the three demons, helped by Libby and Whitney, there is also a clear narrative and backstory woven into the story, creating a well-rounded story with meaning behind it, rather than just blatant mutilation. Libby is an incredibly likeable character, and so much happens to her, it would be impossible not to feel a sense of protectiveness over her. Watching as a helpless bystander as the characters you like suffer abuse is heartbreaking. They do, at times, seem to get over things very easily though, with few mental side effects. Physical injuries are one thing, but the events of this novel are sure to haunt the characters. Although there is an element of emotional damage and fear, the full extent of the trauma almost appears to be glossed over in favour of bloodshed. 

There are a few typographical errors in this novel, which do unfortunately pull you out of the story. Occasionally, the perspective or scene switches without a clear break, and it can be difficult to keep up with what is happening. These are minimal though and, looking past them, they do not affect the quality of the story, although they can affect how easy this novel is to read. 

A dark and thrilling account of demons for hire, this novel is a morbidly fascinating account of physical mutilation and a deep desire for revenge, exacted in a timely and bloody fashion. This novel isn't overly long, so once it has drawn you in, you're transfixed throughout. I read the whole thing in an evening, it is easy to find yourself transfixed by the intricate disembowelling that is so carefully depicted! For those who are after a captivatingly dark and thrillingly gruesome quick read, this is certainly the one to go for.

And done!

I know I have said it before, and I didn't exactly stick to it last time, but I am actually going to try and maintain consistent posting for at least a while! I miss chatting away on here!

Anyway, that's all for now...

Bye!

Bumblebee Pebbles – Chapter Two

Winter

“She smacked him across the face and everything,” Grace relayed to me. I hadn’t personally been present at the Luke/Piper break up, but Grace’s retelling of it was sufficient enough. We seemed to share the immense joy in laughing at Luke’s failed relationships, only due to the fact that usually we were on the girl’s side of things. 

We were walking through the park after school, our bags abandoned in Grace’s car. The leaves had mostly fallen off the trees and the air bit at the tips of my fingers and the end of my nose. Grace didn’t seemed as bothered by the cold as I was, but that might have had something to do with the fact that she was wearing a jumper, a coat over the top, gloves and had a hat pulled over her hair, which was loose over her shoulders, bouncing slightly against her back as she walked. 

“What did he do?” I asked, tucking my hands further into my coat pockets, as if there was more warmth the further into the pockets they were. 

“Nothing, he just stood there looking shocked as she walked away, talking very loudly about how she had never loved him anyway,” she said, kicking at a pebble, which clattered along the path in front of us. When we caught up with it, she kicked it again, missing and scuffing her shoe. She stopped dead in her tracks and I stopped as well, a few steps ahead of her, watching as she kicked at the pebble again, determined to hit it. She did so on the third try, although she claimed that she second try didn’t count because the breeze had distracted her.

The pebble clattered along the path and Grace started walking again. I joined her, keeping my eyes on the pebble as we approached it again, stopping to let Grace kick it before we walked after it. 

“Do you ever wonder if you matured past the age of ten?” I asked and she turned to face me, a look of disbelief on her face as I grinned.

“I will pummel you with the rock,” she threatened as I grinned, a smile forcing its way onto her face, despite her attempts to purse her lips to hold it back. “The fact that you insulted me means that you didn’t either,” she said, walking forward and leaning over to pick up the pebble. I ran towards her, wrapping my arms around her middle, pinning her arms to her sides and she shrieked as I spun her around. 

“I dropped it!” She exclaimed and I gasped into her hair, which was very much in my face.

“Oh no, not the stone! Whatever will you pummel me with now?” I asked sarcastically and she giggled as I set her back down on the floor. 

“Oh, there it is,” she said and made to move forwards, but I tightened my hold on her.

“Why on earth would I let you get it?” I asked as she tried to wriggle her way out of my grasp.

“What about on Mars?” She asked and I frowned against her hair.

“What?”

“You said ‘why on earth’. Would you let me get it if we were on Mars?” she asked and I blinked in confusion.

“That doesn’t even make sense,” I said, realising too late that she was just trying to distract me. She had loosened my hold in my distraction and had pushed my arms further up her body, so they weren’t around her middle anymore, but around her shoulders instead. Before I could even think, she had ducked out, under my arms, and lunged for the pebble. 

Deciding it was stupid at this point to try and stop her, I turned and ran instead, leaving the path and sprinting across the grass, my footsteps crunching on the frozen grass, knowing, from experience, that she couldn’t catch up to me. 

“James! That’s not fair!” she yelled, her footsteps behind me slowing to a stop. 

“Why not?” I stopped and turned to yell back.

She stuck her tongue out at me in response, sitting down on the floor and folding her arms. I started walking back towards her, stopping just out of her reach. 

“Show me your hands,” I said and she shook her head, keeping her arms folded, a grin trying to force its way onto her face. “Do you actually still have the stone?” I asked in disbelief and the smile broke out on her face as she unfolded her arms and held out her hand, the pebble resting in her palm.

“It’s so smooth!” She told me, holding it between her hands and examining it. “I’m going to paint it to look like a bee and call it Jerome,” she told me, her expression turning serious, and I frowned through my laughter.

“Why Jerome?”

“Because it’s a funny name,” she looked up at me. “It’s not a silly thing to do, is it?” I raised an eyebrow at her sudden self-consciousness.

“It’s only silly if you don’t let me nickname it Jerry,” I told her and she gasped.

“Jerome is a he, James, don’t call him an it!” she exclaimed and I laughed as she held out a hand for me to pull her to her feet, tucking Jerome into her pocket. I took her hand and she did absolutely nothing to help me pull her up, hanging like a dead weight on the end of my arm.

“Grace, I’m not pulling you up if you’re going to do that,” I told her, trying to free my hand, but she was holding on with a mischievous grin on her face.

“Fine by me,” she grabbed my hand with both of hers and tugged, trying to pull me to the floor. Unfortunately for her, I had predicted this attack and had rooted my feet into the floor. “That’s not fair, you used to fall,” she complained, letting go and crossing her arms again. 

“But I have since learnt your ways and refuse to be embarrassed so easily anymore,” I told her, holding out my hand to her. “Come on, help me find my own Jerome to paint,” she grinned, taking me hand and actually standing up this time, complaining about how the grass had made her jeans wet.

“You’re not calling him Jerome,” she said as we walked back towards the path, neither of us letting go of the other’s hand.

“I wasn’t going to,” I told her, “mine is going to be called Layla.”

“Layla the bee?” she asked. “That name doesn’t really roll off the tongue.”

“Oh, and Jerome the bee does?” I asked sarcastically and she leant into me, trying to knock me off balance for laughing at her. “Besides, mine isn’t going to be a bee, it’s going to be a ladybird.” I continued after we had walked on a bit.

“Layla the ladybird?” she asked, looking up at me.

“Hey, keep looking!” I exclaimed, gesturing to the floor. “We might have just walked past the perfect pebble!” 

“Well you weren’t looking either!” She pointed out and I shrugged, realising that there was an elderly woman looking at us from a bench by the path. 

“Could you be quiet, people are looking at us,” I told her, my voice dropping in volume after I had realised we were being watched. 

“WHO DID YOU SAY WAS LOOKING AT US?” She yelled, looking around as she grinned, and I cringed inwardly as I dragged her away. 

“Why are you like this?” I asked as I took her further away from the path and away from human civilisation.

“I don’t know what you mean,” she grinned innocently, batting her eyelids at me. “I’ve never done anything remotely annoying in my life.”

“Sure, go and find me a rock to paint,” I told her and she grinned before running towards the park’s pond. I walked after her, watching as she reached the pond and her eyes dropped to the floor, circumnavigating the pond with her head bowed. I stopped by one of the benches near the pond, leaning down and resting my arms on it as I watched Grace do a second lap of the pond, in case she missed something, occasionally bending over to pick something up. 

“I have a selection,” she said as she approached, holding out her hands to show that they were both packed with pebbles, some marginally cleaner than others. She sat on the bench and dropped them all on the floor, leaning over as she arranged them in some sort of order that only made sense to her. I sat down next to her, watching in amusement as she counted them and picked out half of them, putting them in her pockets. “Those ones are for you,” she gestured to the ones she had left on the floor. 

“Wow, thanks,” I leant over to pick them up. “Why, exactly, did you pick up the cleanest ones and leave the very dirtiest for me?” I asked, looking down at the rocks in my hands,

“Because I collected them, so I get first pick,” she stated, pulling one of them out of her pocket. “I still feel more connected to Jerome than the others, though.”

“You do realise it’s a rock, right?”

“Don’t talk like that! He can hear you!” she shoved me and I reached up and pulled her hat off her head, dropping my rocks into it. “James! Those are dirty!”

“I know, that’s why I don’t want to hold them,” I told her, grinning, but also feeling a little regretful at the same time.

“You’re going to pay for that!” she grabbed my arm and stood up, trying to pull me off the bench, but when that didn’t work, she opted to stand on the bench and then to walk onto my legs.

“Grace, your shoes!” I glared up at her as she stepped back off me, using my head for support, leaving muddy footprints on my jeans. 

“Now we’re even,” she said and jumped off the bench. She turned and looked at it, looking at the mud she had tracked over, not only me, but also her seat.

“Where are you planning on sitting now?” I asked and she stuck her tongue out, walking over to me and perching on the arm of the bench, next to me. The opportunity was too perfect – I grabbed her arm and pulled her across my lap.

“James! I don’t want mud in my hair!” she exclaimed, pushing herself up so she was sat across my lap, glaring at me. Our noses were so close, if either of us moved forwards they would be touching. The glare slipped off her face and her eyes flicked down to my lips, her breath warm against my frozen face. I leaned forward, my eyes slipping closed as our lips touched, my hand coming up to hold her cup the back of her neck, her hair tangling around my hand as a single word came into my head.

Finally.

And done!

There are only four chapters in this short story, so this is technically the half-way point... keep an eye out for chapter three next week!

Anyway, that's all for now...

Bye!