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!