by Maya Riley
Maura, on the other hand, was trying her best to conceal a smile, but the up and down movement of her shoulders gave away her silent laughter. Once she realized I was watching her, she pointed toward me. I looked down to see bare skin. I’d taken off my shirt, but still had a bra on. “Oh, fuck. Really guys? It’s a bra. It’s not like I’m naked.” I looked to Lincoln. “And it’s not like you haven’t seen more than this before.”
Lincoln’s head snapped around to look at me and he stopped scratching at his thigh. “We’re trying to be considerate.”
I smiled at him. “You don’t have to be so considerate all the damn time. As long as none of you do anything that isn’t welcome, we’ll be good.” I hooked my thumbs into the waistband of my pants and began to push down. “Now, I’m going to need to get clean, get these clothes washed, and then change into something else. You guys can either keep making this more awkward than needed, or you can do the same.” I kicked the pants to the side, then reached down and pulled out a knife. After placing the knife on top of my messy clothing pile for easier access, I turned around and jumped into the cool water with my legs tucked to make a splash.
The coolness of the river surrounded me, and I could feel the several days’, or even weeks’ worth of dirt and grime slowly dislodge from the top of my skin. I sluggishly blew air out to sink down a little bit more, trailing small bubbles above me. The water felt so good, and I was surprised I wasn’t floating from the sheer elation filling me. Taking a bath had become the greatest, simple luxury.
After a few moments, I untucked my legs and kicked against the water, pushing myself back to the surface. The water was so deep, I hadn’t even touched the bottom. My head broke the water and I took in a breath and turned around, wiping the water from my eyes and smoothing my hair back. “Hey, guys, the water feels great. What are you waiting for?” I pushed both my hands along the surface, trying to splash them again. Water was already dripping from their heads from my cannonball splash.
They looked at each other for a moment, and then shared a smile that should worry me. Lincoln pulled up a pant leg, unlatched his prosthetic, and jumped into Mateo’s arms. That seemed super odd and I was confused. While it would probably look reasonable to outsiders, I felt there was an ulterior motive I wasn’t seeing yet.
Then all at once, all four guys ran over and jumped in. I let out a scream and tried to swim away, but I wasn’t fast enough. Four grown men jumped into the water all around me, spraying water everywhere. It seemed like more water rained down on me than what the waterfall provided.
I waited for the guys to surface. A few moments later, three heads popped up. Only three heads though, and I began to worry. “Wait, where’s Li—” My scream cut of my sentence, as I felt hands wrap around my leg and then pull me under. Water went above my head as I was pulled down.
I fought against it for a few brief seconds before familiar lips landed on mine, and I relaxed, kissing him back. Lincoln’s hands wound themselves around me, one supporting my back while the other tangled itself in my hair. We slowly rose up, letting the water guide us back.
We broke the surface like that, our mouths still attached to one another, and the world around us fell away while we continued our public make out session above the water. I was vaguely aware of the other guys, and once I realized what we were doing in front of them when I still hadn’t had much of a chance to talk with the rest of them, I broke away from the kiss, feeling slightly guilty.
Not wanting to panic or make a big deal out of it, I giggled, gave a playful slap to his chest, and swam away. An equal concoction of embarrassment and wanting to continue the kiss filled me.
Again, surviving a rotter-pocalypse was already difficult enough, why’d we have to go and throw relationships into the mix? I wasn’t sure if we even had a relationship. Not to mention I wasn’t even technically human.
All my secret insecurities started rising to the surface, and it was all I could do to tamp them down and not let my mind spin into an endless circle of self-doubt.
I swam toward the waterfall, welcoming the pounding of the falling liquid on my head, as though it could wash away my worries. I continued to swim through the heavy curtain of water to get to the other side, surprised to see a formation of rocks creating a ledge, and a hole big enough to be a small cave. This could be a good hideout.
Despite the constant flowing water only feet away, the rock on this side was practically dry. I rubbed my hand across, feeling every bit of the smooth stone beneath my palm.
We preferred not to camp outside when we could help it, but of all the places we had, this may be one of the best. Definitely better, more convenient, and more comfortable than sleeping on a tree branch. How none of us had fallen out of a tree yet still baffled me. Must have had better balance than we thought.
“Hey…” A soft voice from behind startled me out of my thoughts and I spun around. Adam was in this newly found space with the waterfall at his back.
“Hey,” I responded, as eloquently as usual. “What’s up?”
He swam over to a spot of the rock ledge that was off to the side of me, a couple feet away. Spinning around, he leaned his back against it and propped both elbows up on the ledge, which was just barely close enough to the water that it could still be comfortable. “You sped away so fast, we were all worried something might be wrong.” His sky-blue eyes remained locked on mine, waiting for some kind of response.
“I was just doing some exploring. There’s a small cave in here, just big enough to possibly fit all of us. It seems interesting.” I ran my palm back the other way, this time with the tips of my fingers grazing the slightly rougher rock above my hand.
“So, it had nothing to do with Lincoln?” he pressed. “Or any of the rest of us?”
I sighed. He’d hit the nail on the head. What kind of metaphor was that anyway? I supposed guessing the correct thing could feel like a blow, but wouldn’t it be a good blow? Or was it a nail because nails build things and somehow guessing the correct thing had something to do with building things? Building relationships? Hmmm. That could possibly be it. Or maybe it wasn’t. Either way, I was perfectly happy to keep threading together every possible theory and prolong an actual conversation.
“Blyss?”
“Huh?” His first-time use of my name surprised me into focusing on what was going on.
“Are you okay? Are you… avoiding something?”
My heart clenched at the twinge of worry in his eyes.
“Did any of us do something to upset you?”
“Oh, no. None of you did. I was just… I’m awkward. I didn’t want to make anything any more awkward than I probably already did. Nobody did anything wrong, I promise.” I gave him a sincere smile to try and let him know I meant what I said. “I don’t know how relationships play into all of this, and I don’t want to fuck anything up. Believe it or not, I like all of you and don’t want to lose you. Any of you. And that’s the truth.”
And now I’d just bared my heart to him. I felt incredibly naked and vulnerable. Even more naked than when I’d first stripped down to only my underwear.
The silence felt as though it were stretching on for minutes, hours, or days even. The rock that made up this ledge had little divots, which caught the drops of water as they fell from my hand when I ran it across to feel the smooth surface once again. The water droplets filled up one hole, until it overflowed and ran along the stone to fill up the next little hole, and so on.
The rock surface felt so smooth, but when looking at it closely, I could see all the little holes that I didn’t see before.
A hand landed on my upper arm, as soft and gentle as the one who it belonged to. My heart sped up and I tried to swallow around the lump in my throat.
Very slowly, I turned around and was met with Adam’s smiling face. “Have I told you how amazing you are?” His smile slowly transformed into a lopsided, goofy grin. “You’re so strong and so brave, and really caring. You fought Mateo every inch o
f the way to get here, and still somehow managed to get into his head. In a good way. You’ve had a lot of tragedy, but still welcomed four strangers into your life.”
“I didn’t have a choice in that last one.”
He chuckled. “No, maybe not. But you still stuck around, even when you didn’t have to.”
“I did run away at one point.”
“You’re making this really difficult.” His smile only broadened.
“It’s what I do.”
He laughed, his shoulders bouncing up and down from the force of it. He moved forward slightly, lifted his hand, and placed it on the side of my head, his fingers tangling into my hair in the process. “It’s been killing me not telling you something. I’m trying to get somewhere here, and to make a point to you.”
“Oh yeah?” I questioned, my voice turning breathy at the proximity of our bodies. “What’s that?”
He brought his face in closer to mine, and whispered, “I’ll show you.” He closed the distance and his lips landed on mine. My eyes fluttered closed and for a moment I was lost.
Despite everywhere we’d been, everything we’d gone through, and now spending time in the water trying to wash off, he still smelled like pepper. The pepper smell filled my senses, and I wrapped both of my arms around his neck and sunk into him.
This was my Pepper. My skittle supplier. I’d always be safe with him. And he didn’t want to let me go.
I pushed into him hard, wanting to feel more. His other arm wrapped around my waist, and his thumb poked up underneath the back of my bra, sending a shiver down my spine. Every place he caressed on me was instantly cooled in the wake of his touch, battling with the heat of my skin. My arms tightened around him, and I opened my mouth, giving him entry. Our tongues collided, fueled by the passion we’d each waited so long to share. It was ridiculous to have waited so long for something we both wanted.
I twisted my fingers in his stringy blond hair, wanting something to hold on to, and then rested my fisted knuckles against the back of his neck. My fingertips tingled at the contact.
His fingers gently dug into my back, gripping me harder. I wrapped my legs around his waist, immediately feeling his own desire. My moan caught in my throat as our mouths pressed harder against each other. Despite the cool water surrounding us, my body was heated, feeling the need for more.
We remained like that, touching, groping, and kissing each other, with the pounding of the waterfall blocking out the rest of the world and drowning out our small moans.
We finally broke the last barrier between us, and I didn’t want to put it back up.
Blyss
Adam and I emerged from the waterfall and every eye in the area turned to look at us.
“So?” Lincoln asked hesitantly. “How’d it go?”
Is everything alright? Jonah signed.
“Are you pissy with us?” Mateo inquired.
“Well, aren’t you a nosy bunch,” I responded, unable to keep the grin off my face.
“Did you kiss or what?” Maura blurted out. She was even less eloquent than I normally was.
Then, Adam placed a kiss on the corner of my mouth, and a chorus of cheers and clapping rang out.
“Damn, if that’s the kind of reaction I get, I should kiss you guys more often.”
“I’m not opposed to that,” Lincoln commented with a smile.
A blush tinged Jonah’s ears as his eyes widened.
“Ha, ha. Let’s try not to turn this into an orgy in front of my little sister.”
“Yes, please don’t,” Maura agreed.
I glanced over at her and raised an eyebrow. “Are you in the water while fully clothed?” I could see some dark-colored fabric poking out of the water from her shoulders.
“You may be comfortable enough to take your clothes off in front of a bunch of guys who are gaga over you, but I’m not.”
“Ah, no worries.” I threw a thumb over my shoulder to indicate the waterfall. “There’s actually a nice little space behind the waterfall. Plenty of water space to swim in and fully clean off, with a nice ledge and a small cave in the wall. Either you could hide behind there if you wanted to do your thing, or we could go behind there for a while and give you some privacy out here? Maybe get that orgy going.”
She hopped out of the water, her water-logged clothes slowing her down. She reached into her pack and produced a bar of soap. “No thanks, I don’t want to think about what you’d all be doing back there, it’d be too weird for me. But by all means, I’m happy for you and whatever happens. I’ll go back there. Just please try to keep it PG when I come back out.” She dropped back down into the water again and swam away, then disappeared behind the waterfall.
“Well, I’m glad she didn’t make things anymore awkward,” I joked, before swimming over to the edge to grab my own bar of soap. “I’ve been waiting way too long for this moment.”
“To kiss me?”
“To clean myself.”
“Ah…” Adam said, and I threw him a smile before hopping back down into the water again.
“Wait, I never got an answer about the soap.”
“It’s biodegradable soap,” Mateo answered. “It was one of the options when we were going through supplies boxes at the store a little while ago. Figured it’d be the best one to use.” He paused with a worried look and glanced toward the waterfall before shouting, “Hey, Maura, don’t forget to dilute a tiny bit of that soap before introducing it to this pond thing.”
“Gotcha,” she called back.
Yes, Jonah signed, no killing the plant or fish life.
“Are there fish in here?” I looked down at the water, more carefully focused. Near the edge of the water were dozens of small minnows. They swam away as I moved my hand toward them.
I set the soap back down at the edge to work on a minute later. First, I reached down, pulled my underwear off, and tossed it onto the bank with my pile of clothes.
“Holy sh—”
“What the—”
“See? I knew you were trouble.”
Jonah, on the other hand, politely turned his head as a deep red blush ravaged every inch of skin I could see on him.
I held the soap above dry ground and wet it with some droplets falling from my hand, doing my best to dilute a tiny bit of it, and rubbed it between my palms. I then proceeded to wipe myself down. I scrubbed my arms until I could see the normal, tanned color underneath all the dirt. I had no idea when I even got a tan, I’d been so much dirtier than I thought I’d been, and I hadn’t even looked into a mirror since before I meet the guys.
The guys did the same, only they kept their boxers on. I assumed they’d reach into the waistband of their boxers to finish up, which was super awkward to think about, and if I kept it up, I’d be turning the same shade of red Jonah did, if not more so.
It took a while, since we each had so much dirt to scrub off. I still hadn’t even started on my hair. It would be a lot of hair to wash. It’d gotten pretty long, now falling to my waist. Not only that, but underneath the dirt that had once caked my skin, there was a layer of dried blood I hadn’t even realized was there, and I didn’t even know what it was from nor how long it had been there.
In the meantime, Puppy was up on land, chasing the fucking butterflies.
Once I was sure I’d gotten all the dirt off my body, I leaned my head back and began to scrub my hair as best as I could. I scratched my nails in my mane and rubbed my knuckles across my scalp. It was super awkward to do, and I was pretty sure my hair hadn’t been properly cleaned since before the outbreak, but it was the best I could do. At least it was no longer a badger’s nest of tangled strands. More importantly, at least I now had a hairbrush to keep that from happening again.
I did my best, scrubbing the soap in my hands until the bubbles formed and then running them through my hair again. Right when I was about to give up and call it acceptable, I felt another pair of hands running through my hair. I tilted my head back and saw Jonah’s upside-do
wn face smiling at me.
He continued to rake his fingers through my hair, spreading the soap across at a much easier angle. I closed my eyes and relaxed while he worked. He even massaged my scalp, and I could’ve fallen asleep right there. Which actually would have been a not so great thing to do. Maybe if I were on land.
“Think he’s going to put Trouble to sleep?”
Voices reached my ears, but they sounded so far away. I wasn’t worried about them right now though. Jonah was here, my hair was getting washed, and birds sang as though they didn’t have a care in the world. It vaguely occurred to me that these may be the most actively happy birds I’d heard in a long time.
I could feel every small wave that went by underneath my hands that rested on the surface of the water. The gentle rise and the slow fall. A smooth glide.
It was so calm.
So peaceful.
The hands disappeared from my hair and moved underneath my back and legs, supporting me in the water. We glided gracefully, and I was pulled into a chest. One of my arms moved and wrapped around a back, so it didn’t get squished, and my other hand slid forward and rested against skin.
Soft lips touched my forehead before I was lifted out of the water. Gravity claimed me once more as I was lowered down into someone’s lap. It must have been my Tough Guy, from the smell and feel of him. He currently had that smell of stepping outside after a rainstorm, when wet dirt would squish between your toes.
A hand pressed against my head until my cheek was once again against someone’s chest.
Whispers were carried on the wind around me, but they didn’t fully penetrate my mind. I couldn’t make out what was being said, and I didn’t want to. Arms wrapped protectively around me. I was in and out of awareness, still in that state where I could sense things going on around me, but I wasn’t able to actually move. For some reason, I didn’t even feel the desire to move. I was perfectly content with where and how I was.