The Jupiter Program

Chapter 3

Christian comes back and makes a pile of leaves.

"That's all I can do," he says apologetically to Will, patting down the pile.

"It's ok." Will lies down and is asleep in seconds.

Christian and I walk to the entrance of the cave. After a while, I start to realise we're running out of time. I'm on the verge of asking if we should wake Will up, since we've both killed our three, but he's only killed one, but then Christian speaks.

"I heard Blair was upset today," he says, "Did she catch you?"

"Huh?" I say. I don't know what he's talking about. "What do you mean?"

"Did she catch Will cheating?" He says. Now I'm really confused.

"What do you mean?" I say, lost. Christian must have seen my confusion, because he turns away.

"Never mind." He says in a slightly irritated voice.

"What is it?" I ask, even more confused than before.

"I said never mind!" He snaps.

"Christian!" I say, so loudly Will rolls over in his sleep.

"Look at me," I say in a lowered voice. He turns away again. "Look at me!" I grabbed his arm and forcefully turn him towards me. His expression is of mingled sadness and self disgust. He quickly changes it to a look of annoyance.

"What is it?" I ask forcefully.

"Well, you know," he says shyly, squirming under my gaze. "I just thought, I mean, you guys are practically inseparable..."

"You think we're dating?" I asked, surprised. "Are you crazy? Why?"

He looks at me like I'm the crazy one. "Have you looked at the way he stares at you? He obviously loves you!" he says.

I stare. I must say, I never thought the thought that look in Will's eyes was love. I thought it was just genuine happiness. I mean, he's my best friend. We've been friends since I can remember. Friends aren't supposed to like each other like that, especially not me and Will. It would make the whole situation super awkward if we break up, because I really can't really do anything without him, but which, as Will and Blair demonstrated today, would almost be inevitable. You can only have one soulmate, after all. Right?

The look on Christian's face reminds me that it's not only Will's eyes I saw it in.

I stared into his eyes.

"What?" Christian says irritated.

"Oh, nothing." I say, "Just, with this new revelation on identifying love, I can identify it...in people other than Will." I say with a smile on my face.

He blushes so red, I swear I can smell burning hair. I start to laugh a bit, then laugh harder, so hard I have to sit down.

"What?" Asks Christian indignantly. He's still blushing even harder than when I brought it up, which proves he's not as clueless as he says.

"You look like a bush that someone set on fire," I laugh. "Don't worry, though," I snicker, "It's kinda...cute." My cheeks becoming a bit pink and hot.

He blushes harder.

"What are you talking about?" He asks, trying to sound confused and indigent. It would have been more believable if he didn't still look like a sunburnt tomato.

I giggle.

Christian feigns ignorance for the rest of the time we're on guard. I keep sneaking glances at him, and catching him glancing at me. And maybe being caught myself once or twice. But only maybe. All in all, when Will begins to wake up, we've both been looking like sunburnt tomatoes for the past hour.