by Cooper Eaton
Wait, is that really him? The man from the woods! He was walking right in front of me! He glanced over at me briefly but looked away instantly. I wanted to follow him, but one look at the beefy bodyguards directing him crushed that idea.
Chapter 6: Cheater
All I could think about was the colors. As I showered, the colors vanished allowing me a brief period of peace. I became so focused on thoughts of what I was going to do about the hallucinations that I didn’t even hear her enter.
“Hello? Hello? Who’s out there?” I started to panic as I heard footsteps closing in!
“Hey, it's Cecilia!” I paused. Who is Cecilia? “From the party. My brother went to the same school as you. Remember?”
“Oh. That Cecilia. What’s up?”
“Rasben said he wanted to show me his coin collection, so I came to check it out. Is he here?” She asked clearly, already knowing the answer.
I stepped from the shower and quickly dried before wrapping myself and answering her through the door. “No, he isn’t, but he should be back soon I think. You’re good to wait if you want.” I finished, as I opened the door to see her staring back at me.
Suddenly self-conscious of the fact that all I was wearing was a towel, I hurried to my luggage case grabbing clothes quickly off the top.
“Are you shy, William?” She giggled as she walked closer to me. “You really shouldn’t be, you’re quite fit,” She complimented.
I felt a hot blush begin to burn. “It’s not that, it’s just that I have to get dressed, would you mind stepping outside for a sec?”
“I’d rather we talked like this.” She giggled once again and moved closer. I blushed harder and tried to move a little bit further away from her but tripped on my bed! Luckily it was there to catch me, but now there was nowhere to escape to!¶Don’t get me wrong, Cecilia was definitely a beautiful girl. She was a brunette with dark brown eyes and wore pants that didn’t leave much to the imagination. I should have totally been into her, but something in the back of my mind was telling me to stay as far away from her as possible.
“You were awesome today! It was so cool how you stood up to Matthew for Jessica. If he hadn’t blindsided you, I’m sure you wouldn’t have been beaten.” She continued to flatter as she sat next to me on the bed. ¶“Thanks, Cecilia. But to be honest, I really don’t know. Matthew is pretty strong. Although, it was kind of a cheap shot. My head is still a little shaken.”
“Oooh, you poor thing.” She soothed as she turned my head and looked at the damage. “Ooh, I bet that really hurts?” She reached over and poked my tender head.
“Oww.” I yelped.
“I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to.” She apologized profusely as she unexpectedly reached out her arms and embraced me in a soft and warm hug. The hug was so unexpected I didn’t pull away.
“You poor thing.”
I allowed myself to float for a moment in her embrace. It felt like I was floating on clouds. She quickly pulled away, but the damage had already been done. I couldn’t stop the sudden flow of emotions. I felt my heart begin to beat rapidly as blood rushed ten times faster throughout my veins. My arms trembled with a sudden excitement. Our eyes met, and my hands found her waist! We both leaned towards one another and our lips met!
Hers were soft, warm and tasted of cinnamon! The need for air seemed to vanish as I closed my eyes and let myself drift in emotions.
“Whoosh!” The door swung open!
“Hey William I brought you dinner since you missed…” Jessica said joyfully as she burst into my room! I broke my lips away from Cecilia’s looking up in shock! Her mouth was hanging open and she stumbled over her words “What the… what is… happening...what is going on!”
“Jessica it's not what it looks like.” I tried instinctively.
I saw fire rush into her confused eyes. “Oh really, then what is it?” She asked as tears began to fill her soft green eyes.
“It’s… a… nothing.” I stumbled trying to make up something believable.
“You’re a pig William, Just like the rest of them! You’re an animal!” She shouted, tears streaking down her face.
Not waiting for me to respond she grabbed one of the cookies she’d brought and hurled it at me! The cookie bounced off my shoulder and shattered against the wall behind me! Turning, she fled from the room.
I stood to go after her, when I remembered Cecilia. “I have to go, can you please leave and we pretend like this never happened.”
“Why?”
“I have to clear some things up. What just happened shouldn’t have. I’m sorry, and I’m sure you're a great girl, but this can never happen again.”
“Just forget about her, we can pick up right where we left off.” She started to reach for me again.
“Stop, please just stop. That girl isn’t as crazy as she just looked. She’s smart, spunky, and funny, and that's why I like her. She has a hold of me, and I just screwed up big time. Please leave.” I said slightly, raising my voice.
“Fine, be that way. Boys and their miss perfect's.” Cecilia whispered to herself as she quickly fled from the room.
When she was out of sight, I immediately took off down the girl's corridor. Which room is Jessica’s? I ran down the hallway hoping to see some sign of which room was hers. I was about to come to the end of the curved hallway when I heard a sob.
That’s her. Without thinking, I approached the door to my left and knocked softly. The sobbing inside halted and a small torn voice reached my ears. “Who is it?”
“Jessica, it’s me. Jessica please talk to me.” I begged.
“Go away.” She once more broke down.
“I need to talk to you.” I said, feeling completely embarrassed as girls walked past me staring as if they already knew what I’d done and should be treated like scum of the earth.
“You kissed another girl, there is nothing to talk about, all hope of there ever being anything between us ends here. I cannot believe you William!”
“I did kiss her, but it wasn’t on purpose. I hardly even know that girl. I just got caught up in the moment. I swear, she means nothing to me.”
“So you just go around kissing girls you hardly even know, and because that’s the norm for you that makes it okay?” ¶“I’m sorry. I did what I did, but how was I supposed to know you would care. You’ve barely even acknowledged me!”
Her crying increased.
Normally, the sound of someone cry bugs me to death, but hers was that of someone in desperate need. And I desperately wanted to bust down the door separating us and be there for her. I wanted to be her shoulder to cry on. I wanted to pick her up and make all of her troubles disappear, but how could I do that when I was the reason for her sadness! What can I do?
After waiting a few more minutes and thinking of nothing I could do or say, I made the slow and painful walk back to my room. Oh, how I wish I could go back in time and fix my stupid mistake.
Chapter 7: The Climb
“The mission is simple. We have to climb this mountain, get into a fortified building and grab a little device shaped like a small cube. Any questions?” Jessica wouldn’t even look at me.
I still felt sick to my stomach about what I’d done. How could I have done something like that and even look at myself in the morning. These thoughts of self-doubt had run through my head all last night and this morning at breakfast. The entire time Jack, Chris and even Rasben, my roommate, had tried to boost my spirits, but to no avail.
I was ashamed, and there was nothing they could do about it.
The mountain before our team only reminded me of what getting back on Jessica’s good side would take. The giant rock was covered in acres of snow. The only places devoid of the white freeze was the sheer rock cliffs. This mountain is really going to test my leadership. I think I’m screwed.
If anyone was going to get killed this was definitely the place it would happen. Granted, each of us were in the bodies of muscular sh
erpas, but none of us really knew what we were doing, so, the danger was still there.
“Alright,” I began again in the stony silence with my new garbled voice, “if there aren’t any questions let's start moving. The other teams will also be climbing this mountain. So, we will be racing with them. We can’t lose; everyone ready?”
“Sure,” Came Rasben’s sarcastic reply.
With his words of doubt, we set off on a small game trail that seemed to skirt the majority of the obstacles. There is no way we can lose this; we must have the easiest climb because this is a piece of cake.
Then 30 minutes later, as if I was cursed, the trail disappeared before our eyes!
“Dang it, that sucks.” Rachel seemed impatient. “William you have the map, right?” He called through the hood of his immense parka.
“Yeah, give me a sec.” I reached in my bag and expected to feel the map I’d placed there, but my hand came up empty! Immediately I felt my stomach seize in panic! Where is it? I left it right here!
I brought my backpack from my shoulders and began to frantically search. Kneeling in the powder, my fingers dug through every pouch.
“Guys, slight problem, I can’t find the map.”
“What!” Jessica snapped and pushed me out of the way! She then proceeded to dig frantically through my bag. “Where is it William? You’re kidding, right?”
“This isn’t a joke, I honestly don’t know where it is, I put it there and now it's gone.”
Jessica turned on me in a sudden fit of anger! “How could you be so careless, why didn’t you think things through? Why couldn’t you have thought about me?” She shouted, clearly not just talking about the map.
Then, like a cheetah her now dark Sherpa hands popped up and shoved me backwards! Briefly losing my balance, I stumbled backwards.
Seeing my unbalanced state, Jessica pressed her advantage and stood over me. “I’ll never forgive you William. You were careless with the map, you’re careless with your words, and you’re careless with your lips! When are you gonna realize that you aren’t fit to be our leader, you're not even fit to lead yourself. This is all your fault!” She shouted, stepping closer to me!
“Jessica stop!” Rasben shouted, but didn’t move forward to interfere. His eyes were focused on something on the ground but I was too busy to see what it was.
“Jessica stop! I’m sorry about what I did, but you need to calm down.” I yelled; panic creeping into my strange Sherpan accent.
My words seemed to slightly calm down the hurricane brewing. “We would be better off without you. You're just dragging the team down with your lack of integrity.” ¶“Jessica, I’m sorry, let me make it up to you. It won’t ever happen again. Please stop this.” I could see the anger in her eyes start to melt and she eased her grip on my parka’s lapels.
“Guys you have to get off of that ledge. It’s not stable” Rasben yelled panicking, as he stared at the ground in front of us and that's when I saw what he was looking at!
There was a crack in the snow! This ledge was mostly snow and ice and it was breaking! I pushed Jessica forward right as the ledge started to break! I dove, but felt the ground give way beneath me! Uh oh.
“Ahhhh!” I reached for something, anything! But the snow gave way completely and I fell backwards! My stomach jumped out of my throat and pure and utter panic took over. This was it! This is the end- “Puff!” “Ahhh!” I landed extremely hard! “Poof!” Someone landed beside me sending up a cloud of snow!
From the snow broke someone's head. “Ahhhh! Cold, cold, cold!”
Jessica! And judging by the contempt in her sparkling green eyes she was blaming me for this. The devil herself had made this journey to hell with me, great.
I tore my eyes from hers to scan our surroundings, which were quite beautiful. Mountains lay opposite us as did endless miles of frozen tundra that stretched out far below us. The view was unbelievable, but frighteningly so. Our breaths frosted the air in front of us. There was nothing around us, except a sheer cliff leading to sure death. We were trapped on a ledge that had no exits.
“This is your fault William!”
“I don’t see how it's my fault, you were the one who had a melt down and started attacking me”
“That’s just like a…” she began before her voice was cut off by another.
“Hello?” The voice echoed from above. Most likely Rasben from his Sherpa body.
“We’re alive!” I desperately yelled!
It took a while but eventually Rasben responded. “Good… Do you have a plan?”
Jessica took over. “The only way back up is by scaling the cliff between us. We’ll have to wait till tomorrow before we can begin the climb!”
“Okay,” was the slightly quieter reply from Rachel’s avatar. “We’ll talk to you in the morning, good luck!”
Turning back to one another, I made my case. “There’s no way we’ll be able to climb back up! And if we die we’re out of the competition. We should just stay down here. Please don’t make me climb this.”
“It’ll be easy for me. I’m sure I can make it. You on the other hand may not, which wouldn’t be any tragedy for me.” She replied smugly.
“You're insane.”
“I may be insane, if you mean insanely good at climbing.”
“Whatever.”
“Here!” She said as a granola bar smacked me in the back. “Have a granola bar.” She said chuckling lightly. Surprisingly enough the small granola bar box hadn’t been crushed and so we had a small dinner.
As we ate, an awkward silence grew between us that lasted for at least an hour. I finally laid down in the freezing snow as the sun fell from the now darkened sky. I wanted to break the silence between the two of us, but the task seemed daunting. She lay on the other side of the ledge, which was quickly becoming colder. Without the sun’s warmth the air temperature began to drastically spiral downward.
Looking over I saw Jessica begin to shake. I seemed unable to control my teeth. Man click, click, click, it is freezing, click click, click.
Eventually, I could no longer stand it. “Jessica, I know you hate me right now but we need huddle together in order to stay warm. If we don’t we may die.”
To my surprise, she did not object. “Fine, get over here.”
I slowly rose on creaking joints and hobbled slowly to her. She turned away as I lay next to her. As I put my arm over her I immediately felt her heat seep into me.
“Don’t you dare think of this as anything more than what it is.” She said trying to stay defiant.
“Why are you so hostile?”
“Let's see, maybe because I walked in on the guy I liked kissing another girl.”
“Wait, what? You like me?” ¶She craned her head over her shoulder to address me. “It might be hard for you to notice since you're so caught up with yourself, but I’ve liked you for quite a while.”
“Well, that's not the message I’ve been getting! Every time I’m near you, you treat me like I’m some sort of disease! You make me feel as though you despise me all the time. How was I supposed to know you had feelings for me?”
As we talked I slowly snuggled closer trying to draw as much heat from her as possible.
Time seemed to tick slowly by as the stars overhead slowly lit up the world around us. Lying there silently, the moon rose as if beckoning us to gaze upon the beauty surrounding us. It glowed a bright yellow white that was truly beautiful, and in that moment, despite the problems promised by the following day, everything felt right.
I finally couldn’t help it, “Wow, this is overwhelming!” I whispered.
“What is?” Jessica replied confused.
“Laying here looking at the dazzling world around and aboce us and realizing that it doesn’t come close to the girl lying next to me. She tensed slightly at my words.
“Wow, you actually said something nice, but, you complimented the Sherpa body I’m in, and not my own
. Thanks.”
“Well, I judge on more than outer beauty.
“So what do you like about me on the inside?” She asked clearly trying to trip me up.
“I like your spunk, I like your tenacity, I like your thoughtfulness, I like how you try and act tough but you have a sweet side.” I squeezed her a little bit. “I also like that you're not afraid of things that most girls are, I like that you’re outgoing and nice, I like that you're not afraid to be yourself and I like that you have a sense of humor.” I paused for a second. “What I’m trying to say is that when I see you, I don’t see your outside features, although those are beautiful too, I see you for something else. And I see you as someone I want to be with.”
“Wow.., I don’t know what to say, that was really sweet.” She turned her head to look me in the eyes. “You really do have a soft side. I can’t believe you’re so open about your feelings. I don’t know where things will go, but I want you to know that what you’re saying really means a lot to me. Thank you.” She finished shyly.
I leaned in for what I thought was for sure the “kiss moment” but she turned her head away and I awkwardly landed one on her cheek. “Don’t push it, Will.” She said as she faced forward again.
I tensed slightly.
“What?” She turned back.
“Nothing, it’s just, you reminded me of my parents and my past life when you called me Will.”
“Is that a bad thing?”
“No, I love my parents and the life I had. I wish I’d have never left.”
“What happened?”
“You want the long version or the short version.”
“I’ve got all night.” ¶“Alright, the long version it is. Everything started the night before I got my invitation. You see, I played basketball for my school, and my team was playing for the championship. Everyone was there to watch me, my mom, my dad, my friends, even my girlfriend.” I paused, but Jessica didn’t react. “Anyways, we were playing against the Mountain Ray Bulldogs. They were all super tall, and the game didn’t start well for us. I couldn’t get open and our team was struggling to move the ball. Going into halftime we were down 10 points. I helped pump the team up at halftime since I was the team captain, and we went back out onto the court. Everyone watching knew we needed to win this year because the majority of us were 16 years old and about to graduate and possible go to higher learning. We the players also knew that that game would be our last, and so we played harder than we’d ever played. We got back those 10 points, and got ahead.” Jessica sensing my excitement turned towards me.