CH. THIRTY
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"So you kissed him?"
"No. Well— yes. Wait— he kissed me and I kissed him. We kind of kissed each other at the same time," she explains, throwing more wood into the fire her and Camil made in a small corner of the Glade.
"I need details!" He adds. "How'd it start?"
"We went to check out my wall. He teased that I wasn't checking it out well enough because I'm 'small'. So I told him to do it, and he suddenly had me trapped between his arms. That looked hot, by the way. The light of the candle was glowing on him."
"Girl, you're smitten." He laughs. "Alright, continue."
"I told him we should check it out even better."
"So you were planning to kiss him."
"Obviously. And he touched my freaking waist and then lifted me up. Pressed me against the wall, and then we kissed. Three times."
"Damn." He whistles. "And? How was it?"
"Awesome." Her smile grows even bigger. "He was soft at first, then his kiss got harder but he still touched me softly."
"Where?"
"My waist and neck."
He gasps. "Damn! Didn't know Gally knew about all that kind of stuff."
She blushes. "Right? And you heard the rest."
"Wow." Camil smiles, too. "Good for you, girl! You really pulled him like that. I thought he was an emotionless prick."
"Emotionless? Gally's not emotionless at all."
"Seems like it. Sometimes. But I'm glad he talks to you about that, then! Otherwise, something would be wrong."
"We never had an extremely deep talk, though." She shrugs. "We should. The only way we share those deep crap is because of that connection. Still wonder why we have it, though."
"I'm curious too," he admits. "However, it's
kinda cool. Can you always feel what he feels?"
"If I concentrate. But we're both learning to turn it off, so the other won't be bothered too much."
"You kidding? Imagine you get freaky and you feel both feelings—"
"Too far!" She peeps. "I try not to feel what he feels. Both need privacy sometimes!"
"I have very inappropriate things to say right now, but I won't." He holds up his hands. "Here, I got us marshmallows."
"You stole them from Fry."
"Yeah, I did."
"Awesome." She happily takes a marshmallow, followed by a stick he cleaned, and starts roasting it. "This is nicer than Bonfires, I've got to say."
"Yeah. Catching up with the tea."
"About that, anything going on in your life? I don't want to talk about me all the time," she says. "Any cute guys walkin' around?"
"Who said I'm gay?" An offended look. "I'll see what happens. So far, I've got a great life! Even with messed up legs.
"From where exactly are you paralyzed?"
"My waist."
"Do you feel when you have to pee? Can you pee?"
"Girl!"
"What? It's just a question. I'm curious!"
"Yes, I can pee. And yes, I can feel when I need to." He chuckles, the blue eyes lighting up by the fire. "So don't feel bad for me. I hate when people do."
"I won't," she assures.
They're silent for a while, both watching the fire with smiles on their faces.
"Wow," she then says. "I really am his girlfriend now. Went kinda fast."
"Well, don't start feeling trapped." He shrugs. "Look how easily he let you leave to hang out with me! You're not chained to him from now on, don't worry."
She laughs. "I wouldn't mind if I were. Though I do want to get to know him better. I don't know much. And I kinda let my intrusive thoughts win."
"As always."
"As always," she confirms with a smile.
"You will have to tell me everything."
"Everything?"
"Everything! All the details." A heavy nod. "And if he disrespects you, I'll kill him."
"Let's not."
"Absolutely I will, if he hurts you! You're like my little sister," Camil states sternly, crossing his arms.
Her head tilts. "Ahw, really?"
"Of course!"
"Amazing," she decides. Her smile is so big that her cheekbones are starting to hurt. "Tell you a secret?"
He hums. "Spill."
"I only started trusting you a month ago."
"That's one way to ruin the happy mood."
She snickers. "I did trust you before, but not with my feelings, you know?"
"I don't think I know."
"Like, have we ever talked about how we felt? As in... really how we felt? Emotionally?"
"Nope. But I'm fine, emotionally." A frown curves on his face. "Are you?"
"Mostly. Just got a lot of nightmares from the Changing. I try to ignore them. Don't really like talking about it, too. I snapped at Minho the other day."
"Well, you can always talk to me," he says softly. "Some kids totally lost it from the Changing. I was really surprised how fast you... healed, kind of. Gally was never really happy after the Changing. Barely smiled. Until you showed up."
"He hated me at first."
"Yeah, alright. But after that."
A warm feeling floods into her stomach. Bubbles to her chest and face, which lights up. "That's nice to know. And I'm not sure why I recovered that fast."
"Have you recovered?"
No, because the Changing never stops. Sometimes, she gets new memories. Or wakes up from them, at least. Or the times in the lake.
But she, as she mentioned, tries not to think about them. Tries not to cry whenever she wants to. She did a few times, then it made her feel weak, and now she's hoping to contain her emotions more.
Kind of worked. Barely anyone has seen her cry.
"I think so," she eventually says. "I just don't like talking about much things. Because I don't... I don't know why. Kinda get at a loss of words when it comes to how I feel."
"Trust issues at it's finest," he comments.
"Maybe." The smile starts to return. "Moving on, pass me another marshmallow."
❀
"Good morning." She joins Gally the next morning, a ton of nervous, yet happy butterflies in her stomach.
"For once, it indeed is a good morning," he agrees. "So, good morning."
She smiles. So far (two sentences), it doesn't seem like much has changed. Only that she's free to kiss him whenever she wants.
Did she want to do that before? Yeah, sure. He looks good. And she knows she'll only fall harder by the time.
"Anything on the planning today?" She wonders.
"Day off," he says.
Joan pulls a face. "And you're still up this early? You could sleep in!"
"I don't like sleeping in."
"How can you not like sleeping in?"
"Half of my day is wasted," he explains.
"Alright, makes sense."
"Unless I'd wake up next to you," he adds, for sure proud of this comment.
She laughs, though a blush forms on her cheeks. "Well, then we should try that out sometime. Any plans for your day off?"
"Gonna try to piss at least five boys off."
"Well, that won't be a problem."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
She gives him a sweet smile. "Nothing at all."
He hums. "And what are you gonna do?"
"Got an axe to sharpen, have to make lavender oil with Joe so he can help his ankle, gonna do an attempt to make mint tea bags, and pluck some flowers," she says, following the mental note she makes in her mind every morning. After six months of practicing, her memory has gotten quite good.
"You got it all planned out." He nods in approval.
"And then I'm going to paint my wall pink since you messed it up."
"I did not," he defends. "We ran out of dark brown wood so I used a lighter tint! It's about the quality, not the looks."
"Exactly why I choose you."
"Excuse you?"
"Kidding!" She puts a hand in front of her mouth to stop her laughs. "But I'm still painting it pink. I'm gonna paint all my walls pink, so the dick will be gone, too."
"Now that I'm gonna be in your hut more often, good idea. What kind of pink?"
"Light pink. Almost white," she explains. "So your poor eyes that are allergic to pink won't be blinded."
"If you want 'em bright pink, that's fine. Don't depend it on me."
"No, I like light pink," she says. "Want me to paint your hut, too?"
"Don't have to."
"It would be nice! What color?"
"Brown is fine."
"What about navy blue?"
"Shut. Up." He groans. "Can we forget about that?"
"You were staring!"
"I was not! I was doing everything I could to stare at the tree."
"So you did want to stare."
"Yes— no! Well, maybe, but it wasn't a sight I get every day! Besides, you're hot."
"Bold."
"Expect more of that," he replies. "But let's forget about the navy blue incident."
"Sure. You remember the red one, though?"
He groans another time.
She laughs under her breath. "Alright, I'll stop now. Got things to do!"
"Mhm." Smiling, he watches her get up and deliver her empty plate to Frypan. "Good luck, woman. Don't blow anything up."
"No promises."