Natalie was soft underneath my touch. Her hair, her skin, her lips. As mushy as it sounds, I never wanted to stop kissing her. When we pulled away my brain started looking for words, but all I could manage was, "Sorry."
Natalie shook her head a little and stepped closer into me. She muttered, "Don't be," before kissing me again. This time her hands were clutching my sweater and she was leading me back into the house.
"I know what you're doing," I mumbled against her.
She only slightly pulled away. "I'm not doing anything."
I held her head so that her eyes would look at me. "I've got to go."
Natalie stood up onto her toes to kiss me one more time. She kept trying to draw me into the house, but I couldn't help but laugh against her. Turning so that I was closer to the door, I pulled away. "Nice try."
"It was, wasn't it?"
With a huff, she stepped out of the doorway for me and said, "Don't do anything stupid."
I had to laugh at that. "Thanks, I'll try."
After getting a few steps in front of the house I turned around and told her, "We should do this again." I motioned to the spot where the two of us had been standing.
"I'll consider it," Natalie shrugged with a knowing gleam in her eye.
I wasn't walking long before I could really feel the coldness of the winter settling into my skin. The wind wasn't helping much either, but it was short-lived because not too long after me starting to hope gloves and scarves would fall out of the sky, a beat up car pulled up next to me from the road.
Natalie rolled down the window and called to me, "Need a lift?"
I frowned. "Go home."
She grinned. "Sorry, what was that? The car that I'm in is too loud. You know, the car that will get me to camp before you."
"You are so stubborn," I told her, stepping into the passenger's seat.
She shrugged me off and hit the accelerator. "Let's do this thing."
After a moment of silence I told her, "You're not leaving this car, you know that, right?"
Natalie sighed. "You don't have the upperhand in this situation."
"I don't?"
"Not unless you find a way to control my body."
"I don't want to control your body. I want you to be safe."
She gave a bitter laugh. "No matter what I do, Jake, I'm not safe."
"Throwing you into a fight would only make your safety even harder to attain."
"What about your safety?"
"I go to camp for this stuff!"
"And I go to a New York public school. So..."
"I don't like this..."
"I don't like being shoved into a corner. Or locked into my house, for that matter."
"What would you do if you were in my shoes?" I challenged.
She shrugged. "Probably trip a lot. Your feet are way bigger than mine."
"Seriously. I want to know what you would do."
It was quiet for minute. I could tell she was only partially thinking about my question.
Finally she answered, "I'd sacrifice your body. Use you as a sheild."
"Nice."
She laughed. "We should have a plan, though."
"How about you stay in the car."
"...and run monsters over?" she finished.
I groaned. "Sure."
"How will I keep from hitting campers?"
"They're the ones in orange shirts," I answered.
I watched the road we were driving down and the turns she was taking.
"How do you know where you're going?" I asked.
Natalie kind of smirked at that. "My step-brother is a demigod who goes to an awesome camp. Austin and I have tried to smuggle myself in more than once."
"Really?"
"I mean, yeah, but we did it to see if we could. Not because I had a burning desire to go to your camp."
"I feel like that should have set off an alarm or something."
She shrugged. "That's neither here nor there. What we need to focus on is what our plan is for when we get out of my car."
"Seriously, you should just stay in the car."
"Okay, so let's pretend like I'll do that. What will you be doing?"
"Seeing who needs help. We don't really know what we're up against."
Natalie didn't have anything to say to that.
I was starting to worry that the fighting would be inside camp boarders and I'd have to leave Natalie behind, but my concern was for nothing. Before we could reach camp boundaries a flaming tree was being thrown over our car.
"What the..." Natalie muttered, casually easing into the brakes.
"You should," I said, "You should stay here."
"Sure thing."
I couldn't tell if she was sassing me or not. The both of us were looking to the sky in case another flaming tree decided to pay us a visit.
When I opened the car door Natalie opened hers.
"Where are you going?" I questioned.
"Chill," she told me. "I'm just trying to find places to hide. Trying to figure out where I am."
I was okay with that reply so I walked around to her side of the car to meet her.
"Don't believe everything you see," I told her. "The Mist is weird. It alters your brain to make you see things that could be worse than they actually are. If it's too much, leave. Got it?"
I could tell she was getting frustrated with me, but she nodded anyways and got back into the car. Once the door was closed Natalie rolled down the window.
"Where will you be?"
I turned to look down the road. Through the trees, I could see a few people in orange shirts running around. I pointed to them.
"Over there."
Natalie sighed. "Don't do anything stupid."
I leaned towards the window. "Can't make any promises."
I was pretty sure Natalie was going to kiss me again, but something hit the back of my head and the lights went out.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When I woke up, I was in the forest. There were screams around me and the the smell of smoke. It made me miss campfires.
About fifty yards ahead of me I could see a camper rolling away from a line of fire. I couldn't tell who it was or what kind of monster they were dealing with, my eyes were too blurry. I tried listen for different voices, but the only sound I heard was the throbbing of my head.
I had no idea why my head hurt so bad. My spine hurt from the way I was leaning and my chin was being forced into my chest.
Once I got myself up, I decided I felt fine and would be able to join the fight to help out. However, I was pretty much useless. As soon as I was on my feet, the forest was still.
Everything was silent. Everybody exchanged tired and concerned looks with each other.
I looked around to find Natalie across the road from me. When we made eye contact she started walking towards me. Dropping whatever was in her hands, she started fixing her ponytail.
I tried moving forward.
"You okay?" she asked, coming to a hault in front of me.
"I'm good. You?"
"Never better." I watched her eyes slowly shut as she pulled on her hair, then flutter open.
"Is it over now?" I asked.
"It's over now," Connor answered as he walked by the two of us and towards the tree that was holding his girlfriend. I looked up to Skylar to see if all was well. She had her head resting against the tree's trunk and her bow hanging on a nearby branch.
"It's over now," I repeated under my breath. When I turned back to Natalie she wrapped her arms around my waist with a tired heaviness. I couldn't help but lean on her for support.
"That was fun," she laughed.
"I can't believe I missed it."
Natalie pulled away and linked her hands behind my neck. Her hands were gentle as she rubbed the spot on my head that had been hit.
"You're okay?"
"I'm fine. What about you? What happened? Is everyone okay?"
She nodded. "I think everyone is going to be okay, from what I can tell. I don't know what it's like inside the camp. I'm not entirely sure what happened."
I nodded. I wanted to know more, but I knew Natalie couldn't really help with the details. I would talk to Connor some other time.
"I, um, I'm sorry," Natalie admitted to me with bright eyes. "I should have trusted you and stayed out of this."
I shook my head. "No, I shouldn't have tried to control you. Plus, you were more help than I was, so it was a good thing you came."
Natalie pursed her lips and thought about it. "Yeah, that's true. Apology accepted."
I rolled my eyes to get her to laugh. When it worked she slid her hands down to my shoulders and held me closer. Using my thumb, I reached up to wipe a smear of dirt off of her cheek, but it only smudged it around.
"Thanks," she told me, not knowing how little I had done for her.
"Thanks for helping out."
"It was fun."
"I'm sure it was."
She raised an eyebrow. "So, what do I do now?"
"I'm not sure."
"I should probably get back home."
"I should probably get back to my cabin."
Natalie groaned and rested her forehead against mine.
I gave a tired laugh. "You should probably kiss me."
She laughed and held onto my shirt. "Oh my goodness." Her eyes were bright looking up to me. "So forward!"
"That's the only way."
Natalie stood up on her toes to bring her face closer to mine. "You brute."
I was getting too nervous to talk, so I just stepped forward and kissed her.
Natalie's shoulders relaxed beneath me. As she let go of the breath she had been holding, I felt her shrink in size.
I was well aware of the campers around us, but I had seen plenty of them making out with their boyfriends or girlfriends. I was allowed this one moment with Natalie.
A moment that didn't last nearly as long as I would have liked.
"Natalie?" a voice questioned from behind me.
The girl in question abruptly pulled away and peered over my shoulder.
"Oh, hey," she awkwardly laughed to whoever was behind me. I could see her blush.
When I turned to see who it was, I immediately wanted to run away.
"Jake?" a terrified Austin Brown exclaimed. "What- what is my sister doing here?"
I ran a hand through my hair. "Austin, I tried to keep her out of this. I really did. She's..."
"Stubborn," Natalie answered for me.
I didn't make any motion to agree with her. Austin had his eyebrows scrunched together and his jaw clenched.
"How...how long has this been happening?"
"Ever since Luke came, I was assigned to watch over your sister. And we were attacked, more than once, so I had to tell her what all was happening. Then she got interested and started to want to help and be more a part of this."
Austin shook his head. "No, no. I knew that. I want to know when this started." With his hands, he motioned to me and his sister. "How long have you two been...involved?"
I let out an awkward choke as Natalie gave a hardy laugh.
"You'd like to know, wouldn't you?" Natalie teased.
He scratched his head. "I don't know. Should I, uh..." He looked to me. "Don't screw with her. Got it?"
I swallowed. "Oh, yeah of course. No way. I uh, I'm sorry."
Austin frowned. "For what?"
Shoving my hands into my pockets I stepped back towards Natalie. "Nothing. I don't know why I said it."
He peered at me and started walking away, giving his sister a look in the process.
Once he was gone, Natalie laughed. She teased, "Er, um, eh, I, uh, I'm sorry," in a mocking voice.
I rolled my eyes to hide the embarrassment. "Shut up."
Natalie bumped her hip to mine. "No, it was cute."
"Was it?"
She grinned. "Super cute."
"I am pretty cute."
"Well, I wouldn't go that far."
I hooked my arm around her neck and pulled her closer to me as we started walking. "Cute or not," I told her, "I'm super dizzy and I think I'm going to puke."
She patted my back as we made our way towards her car.
"You've probably got a concussion."
"Great."
"Don't even think about throwing up in my car."