by Jo Watson
“Are you okay?” Alex asked, still holding onto me. I was lying on top of him now. I lifted my head up and looked him in the eye. This time his gray eyes looked slightly purple, not a garish bright purple, but as if they had a touch of lavender field in them. His lids were heavy, giving him a cute sleepy look. I propped myself up on his chest and looked down at him. I could feel myself smiling, as if it were out of my control.
“You have purple eyes,” I said, lowering my face all the way up to his, touching my nose with his.
Alex widened them so I could look even more. “Your eyes are blue,” he stated. And for some reason, this was again the funniest thing I’d heard all year. I burst out laughing so hard that I could barely hold my head up. It crashed down onto Alex’s shoulder and he began to laugh again too.
“You’re so hot,” I suddenly heard myself say into his neck. His laughter stopped and he moved his head to the side to look at me. Suddenly, I wondered if I should have said that at all.
“Val . . .” he whispered breathily.
“Yes?” my equally breathy voice whispered back.
“You’re so beautiful.” He smiled at me, not the silly goofy smile of before. A warm, genuine, and dare I say, sexy smile.
“Really?” I lifted my head so that I could look at him better.
“So insanely beautiful.” He looked at me and my heart stopped. Wait! This was the look, wasn’t it? The look that I had always wanted to see on Matt’s face, but never had. I blushed. I couldn’t help it. Little prickly flames licked my cheeks and I was sure I’d gone a bright shade of crimson. This was the drugs talking. It must be. Alex and I were travel buddies, weren’t we? And the green ribbon! The fucking ribbon. Rule number one! What was happening?
“VAL!” a voice screamed at me from my subconscious and at first I looked around to see if someone was talking to me.
“Yes?” I replied into the air.
“You know the answer,” the voice said.
“What?” I asked, looking up into the sky this time, as if this was where the voice had come from. Was it a divine voice? Not that I believed in the divine, but bloody hell someone was talking to me, weren’t they?
“Did I say something?” Alex asked, looking confused
“Did you?” I asked, equally confused now.
“I don’t know.” Alex looked around too.
“I think someone is speaking to us,” I whispered in his ear, leaning forward so the voice couldn’t hear me.
“Is it Siri?” Alex whispered and I started laughing again. Alex joined in and once again we were gasping for air. We finally stumbled back up to our feet and smiled at each other goofily.
“Do you really not remember that kiss?” Alex suddenly asked, totally changing the direction of the conversation.
“You sound like me now,” I said with a smile. “Wondering if Matt remembered the kiss.”
Alex stuck a finger out at me and waggled it. “If Matt forgot that kiss, then he has a serious problem. No one can ever forget kissing you. You are, like, the best kisser ever.”
“The best kisser?” I burst out laughing again. No one had ever called me that.
“I’m being serious.” Alex took a step towards me. “That was literally the best kiss of my entire life.”
“No!” I gasped. “You’re kidding. Was it?”
“Yup.” He nodded and his eyes drifted down to the hickey on my neck. My hand automatically came up and touched it as it burned.
“I wish I remembered it now,” I said.
Alex stepped backwards and leaned against one of the trees, his arms were folded, his eyes locked on me. They were almost the color of liquid mercury now. Swirling and glistening and dancing in the ever-changing light. So beautiful to watch. So hypnotizing, so, so . . .
“We could do it again.” I suddenly heard some version of myself say.
He smiled. “We could,” he stated matter-of-factly. “But what if you forget it again?”
I pulled my phone out of my pocket and waved it at him. “We’ll record it,” I said, walking over to him.
His eyes widened in surprise. “Interesting idea.”
I stepped closer to him. Then he stepped. I stepped. He stepped again and soon we were face to face. Only a few centimeters of nothingness separated us. We looked at each other and smiled. I looked down at my phone and flicked my finger across the screen until I arrived at the video. I turned the phone around, as if taking a selfie, and held my arm out to the side. We were still smiling at each other. I could feel the effects of the weed really kicking up a notch now. It pulsed through me, making my body warm and relaxed. I felt like I was standing on a sunny beach somewhere, soaking up the sun. I pressed record and leaned in until our lips touched. His lips brushed mine. Not innocently or softly, but in a hard and demanding way. And then he pulled me closer and before I knew what was happening, his lips slammed into mine, covering my mouth with a hot, hungry kiss.
I opened my mouth and soon he was kissing me harder and deeper, with an urgency that spurned me on. I wrapped my free arm around the back of his head and slid my fingers through his hair, tugging on it tightly as I changed the pace up and took control. Slower this time. I ran my tongue over his lips, tracing them, caressing them. His breathing quickened and he let out a moan. I could feel his sharp breaths against my mouth as I teased him relentlessly with the tip of my tongue, darting it across his lips.
My arm-holding phone was getting tired and I was struggling to keep it up as the kiss intensified again. Our tongues met in one magical moment and suddenly, as they massaged each other, glided over each other, I felt like I was floating on air. My feet were no longer in contact with the ground. His arms were on my hips now, pulling at them. Pulling them closer until they slammed into him. I opened my hand and my phone tumbled to the ground, I didn’t care. I brought my hand down to the side of his face, running my thumb over his lips, pulling at them as our tongues explored the depths of each other’s mouths.
“Oh fuck,” I whimpered in total mind-numbing ecstasy as his tongue left my mouth and his teeth came down on my lip and tugged. I pulled away teasingly, and he grabbed my lip between his teeth again. I giggled this time, as I bit him back. Hard. Oh. My. God. I felt like my I was losing myself in this kiss. I’d never kissed anyone like this before, ever. Not even Matt in the lift. The kiss overwhelmed and overpowered all my senses and I wanted more, more, more of it . . . him.
But nothing seemed like it was enough. No matter how much I sucked, and licked and nibbled and how deeply I explored his mouth, I was still totally unsatisfied. I wanted so much more, of him. I was drowning and he was the oxygen I needed. I was burning and he was the water. I was lost and he was the way. I felt some strange bubble come over us. A hazy, thick, dreamy space that surrounded us and wrapped us up in it. I melted into the space, into him, and I never wanted to leave—
The sound of a car horn suddenly cut through all that and made us both jump backwards from each other in shock. Our eyes met and we stared at each other. I was out of breath, my heart was thumping in my chest and it felt like I had lava pulsing through my veins. Alex looked out of breath and dazed too. His cheeks were flushed and his hair was messy from where my hands had been. We simply stood there and stared at each other for the longest time. Finally, I spoke.
“Wow. Okay,” I said, swaying from side to side. The intoxicating kiss had only made me feel even more stoned now.
“Wow,” Alex repeated, a slow, giddy smile sweeping over his face.
“Wow,” I said again, smiling back at him.
“You already said that,” he chuckled. A deep, low chuckle.
“I know,” I said. I looked down and noticed my phone was on the ground. I picked it up, dusted it off and put it in my pocket.
“Soooo . . .” Alex asked, stretching the word out slowly, languidly, fluidly. So it sounded like liquid letters spilling from his mouth. For some reason this made me giggle.
“Where to now?” he asked.
“I know.” Alex smiled at me. “We did. And it was hot.” He looked me up and down and I felt a little giddy. I stumbled on my feet and then spun around again, sticking my finger out once more. I came to a stop, my finger pointing upwards. “That way!” I declared.
Alex nodded at me, slipped his arm through mine and the two of us started walking across the road to the quaint shopping street in front of us. The streets and the shops and buildings looked even brighter and more colorful now.
We walked in total silence for a while, and I felt so in tune and in touch with Alex that I was sure I could read his thoughts. This was confirmed when we both suddenly stopped walking and stared straight ahead . . .
A revelation revealed itself unto us. Like the magical hand of fate swooping down. I’m sure the heavens were busy opening, angels were polishing their trumpets ready to sing and blow and dance and any moment now, a grand ethereal light would no doubt break through the clouds and bathe this place in its glistening glow of glowiness.
We both turned and looked at each other slowly. And then, we started nodding at the same time. Slowly up, slowly down. There was no need for words. No! We didn’t need such pedestrian things as words, this transcended words. This transcended sentences and paragraphs and entire encyclopedias. No words needed. We both knew what the other one was thinking.
“Yes,” I whispered over to Alex. This hallowed moment felt like it needed whispers.
“I agree,” Alex whispered back.
“Then it’s decided?” I asked dreamily.
“Wait,” Alex said. “We need to read it first.” He looked at me with a serious deadpan look plastered across his face. “Reading it makes it real.”
I nodded at him. Of course this made total sense at the time. I dug in my handbag and pulled the magazine out. It was so well read that the pages automatically opened at the right spot. I scanned the page, trying to bring my heavy eyes into focus, and started reading.
“ ‘Number Nine. Get Lit, AF! Get a makeover. Get a cut; there’s nothing better than stepping out with a brand-new hairdo when feeling down in the dumps. But make sure you take your BFF, in case you go full breakup mode and decide to shave your head or dye it mermaid. Splash out on new make-up, experiment with colors you’ve never used before. Nothing makes you feel better than sexy red lips.’ ”
I rolled the magazine up and slipped it into my bag again. We gave each other one more nod and started walking to the shop in front of us.
Salon Très Chic.
We’d almost reached the door when I heard that voice again. I stopped. I looked around once more to see if I could find the source of it. But there was no one near us.
“VAL!” it screamed at me. “Step away from the salon. Do not, I repeat, do not go inside. You are high as a kite. Do not get a makeover when high! Do not do this.”
But as soon as she’d finished, another voice joined in.
“VAL!” it screamed. “Don’t worry! Do it! It will be fun. Besides, you are at your most creative right now. Do it.”
The other voice answered back. It was almost pleading with me now not to do it. But I wasn’t having any of it—
I grabbed Alex by the arm and we marched inside the salon.
Of course, little did Alex and I know at that stage how much we would regret this terrible decision in the morning.
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
The next morning
The strange knock woke me. Where the hell was I? Everything was so unfamiliar, and hard! What the hell was I lying on? Where was I lying and why was there a policeman staring at me through a window . . . wait, what window was this?
It was small. Not like a hotel window. It was dirty, also not like the hotel window. I rubbed my eyes, trying to remove the sleep from them, trying to make sense of what the hell was going on. I sat up and banged my head against something hard. I grabbed it and rubbed it. I looked up. A roof. A material-covered roof. I looked around. I was in the car. The seats had all been pushed down and I was in the back of the car.
Another loud knock on the window. “All right! All right!” I waved my hand at them, indicating I was coming. I tried to move, but something heavy was draped over my leg. I looked down. Another leg. A big, muscular, hairy man’s leg . . . this was not my leg! I followed the leg from the calf, to the thigh and higher still. Up and up and, mmmm, it was attached to a really nice-looking lower back, and wow, great, big broad shoulders. Alex had such a nice back, I’d never really noticed it until now. The back went up to a head . . . a blond head!
Oh my God!? Whose head was this! I threw the big leg off and crawled to the door. I opened the window and stuck my head out. The two police officers were looking at me now, as if I was in trouble. Was I in trouble? My nose itched and I scratched it, a familiar smell filled my nostrils and I quickly put my hand behind my back. My fingers smelt like marijuana, as if I had been . . .!!!! A moment of clarity! Multiple exclamation marks flying into my mind. Flashing lights. An alarm. I’d been smoking pot!
“Hello, officers,” I said as sweetly as I could. I was trying to radiate innocence.
“You cannot sleep here,” one officer said, looking over my shoulder into the car.
“We can’t?” I asked, unsure of where the hell we were. I stuck my head out of the window even further, and that’s when I became aware of the fact that we were parked on the side of the road.
“Shit!” I hissed under my breath.
“Can you step out the car, please,” the policeman said, opening the door for me.
“Sure thing, sir.” I smiled up at him, forcing myself to exude all the sugarcoated goodness of the word. I was dew on a spring morning, freshly picked blossoms and your grandmother’s homemade cinnamon biscuits! But when I climbed out, a loud din rang out around me. I jumped as I saw things falling, nay, cascading out of the car and onto the ground. The stuff pooled around my feet.
I looked down. A junk food graveyard lay scattered at my feet. Empty cans of fizzy drinks, polystyrene hamburger boxes, chocolate wrappers, a half-eaten rather tasty-looking pastry, more wrappers, a bottle, crisp packets.
“Sorry,” I said, completely embarrassed, and bent down to grab the stuff, shoving it straight back into the car.
“Can you move the car, please, you cannot park here.” The policeman sounded a little firmer this time and my heart began to pound in my chest.
“Yes! Yes, of course!” I said quickly.
“Can I ask what you’re doing here?” the other one asked me. He was looking into the window suspiciously, possibly at the strange blond-haired man who was stretched out in it.
And then it came to me in a whoosh. “We were looking for the campsite, we couldn’t find it,” I said with confidence, because that memory had suddenly come back to me. Alex and I had been looking for a campsite last night, why . . . I do not know though.
Both the policeman stared at each other and then turned and pointed. I followed their arms and looked at where their fingers were pointed.
“Aaaah.” I nodded solemnly when I saw the sign only twenty meters away. A large, you cannot bloody miss it sign with a big tent on it and an arrow pointing down a road. “Must have missed it,” I said sheepishly this time.
“Have you been drinking?” the other policeman asked.
“No!” Had we been drinking? I wasn’t so sure.
“And what about your friend there?” he asked, pointing at the man behind me.
“Oh no!” I gushed. “He hasn’t drunk. No!” Who was that man?
I had a cold, sinking feeling this wasn’t going well and suddenly I had images of being hauled into a police station and thrown into jail.
“Look,” I said really calmly. “I’m here on holiday from South Africa, my friend and I (no name yet) were looking for the campground and we couldn’t find it. It was getting late and we didn’t know what to do, so we parked the car here and slept. That’s all. I’m really
, really sorry, sir. I mean, sirs.”
The policeman glanced at each other once more and another look passed between them. Shit! This was not going well.
“It was really dark,” I suddenly said. “No street lights here, we must have stopped just before seeing the sign, but we’d driven so long and far and we were really tired and it wasn’t safe to keep driving like that. I’m really sorry.” I was trying to reason with them. I didn’t want to go to jail.
They looked at me and then their faces seemed to soften somewhat.
“Okay,” one said. “As long as you drive off, no harm done.”
“Yes! Yes of course.” I was so happy to hear this that I had to fight the urge not to run up to them and hug them both. “We’ll move now. Thank you. We won’t do it again.”
The policeman began to move off. They climbed into their car and pulled away. I smiled and nodded at them and then, when they were out of sight, I turned my attention back to the blond man who was asleep in the car.
Who the hell was he?
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
I slowly, tentatively walked up to the car and looked in again. He was the same size as Alex. Same muscular physique, but his hair was a bright, brilliant bleached white. I stuck my head into the car again . . . What the hell was that sound? A faint, clinking. Like a wind chime.
I cleared my throat, hoping to make the person stir. They did not. I leaned in a little more . . . What the hell was that sound? I cleared my throat again, much louder this time. Still nothing.
I picked up an empty can and very softly tossed it at the sleeping back. The can hit and bounced off. The back flinched and stirred. The man moaned sleepily. He wiggled. He moved his legs and then he slowly turned.
I gasped. The sight was so awfully horrifying. It was a nightmare. The worst thing I’d ever seen in all my living years. It was shocking and terrifying and truly utterly undoubtedly horrendous. It was Alex. But not like I knew him.
It was Alex with a full head of bleached white hair. He looked like a nineties raver en route to Ibiza. I started shaking my head from side to side; the shock of it was so overwhelming that I—what the fuck was that sound?