The night drew in. The moon hung high in the sky, bathing everything in a silvery glow. We lit a fire in the middle of our camp. It crackled and danced and warmed everything. I was entranced by the orange hue. It reminded me of Clara, like she was fire that had come to life. Would I get burned if I got too close? She came down and sat beside me. We were sitting on logs. Parts of me were warmed by the fire; other parts were cold, but when Clara took a seat beside me and her leg touched mine everything went hot at the same time. We passed around meat on a plate and served up rudimentary food. It was hardly gourmet stuff but it had a magical quality to it as well. This was our food and nobody could take that away from us. The fire danced in our eyes. The meat sizzled and it burned the roof of my mouth as I took a bite. I didn't know whether to spit it out or swallow it. In the end I endured the pain and felt it scorch my throat. I imagined it was the same feeling that would come from kissing Clara. She wasn't like a lady at all. This was her place. This was where she belonged and she reveled in it. She tore the meat off the bones like a carnivore. A wild animal. And yet there was something sensual about her as well as she chewed the meat in her mouth. Our eyes met and wickedness flashed in hers. For the first time it was like she was looking at me and only at me. Kira, Simone, and Lisa fell away and there was just the two of us.
They joked and chatted among themselves but it felt like me and Clara were having our own conversation, even though we weren't saying anything. I dropped my paper plate to the floor when I finished with it and when I rose back up I was met by Clara's thumb so close to my mouth that she might as well have put it in there. I wanted to kiss it and suck it.
“You had some food there,” she said, and tended to my messiness with tenderness and understanding. I dipped my head in submissive gratitude and licked my lips, making sure there was nothing else there. But I could still feel her thumb. Our legs were still touching and it seemed perfectly natural. I knew that the moment they were ripped apart it would feel like I had lost one of my own limbs. Clara leaned forward and toasted a marshmallow. She pulled it back and bit half of it, then offered it to me. It was chewy and messy and I could feel its stickiness in my teeth. Clara smiled and showed me the mess in her mouth, like she was inviting me to join it. I mimicked her position and it was like I was young again, playing with the girls, seeing who could be the most disgusting.
We swallowed our marshmallows and continued to look at each other in the flickering light. Both knowing that something was happening. I was scared. Was she? I couldn't imagine so. I wanted the other three to be gone so I could be myself with Clara and show her everything that had been burning inside me since we had first met. Had it only been a matter of hours? It felt as though I had been aware of her for eons. Perhaps we were two souls destined to dance throughout life, twisting and gliding across the floor only to part when the music ended, getting close to being together and then falling apart.
The night stretched endlessly before us and it seemed like the darkness would never end but I knew that it would have to. The light of the sun would rise up and claim this mystical, ethereal feeling from us. I only had limited time. We talked about everything and nothing. I don't even remember what was said I only know that I was enchanted. She said words in her lilting voice. I replied with stumbling words, somehow I managed to say the right things and made her laugh.
She got closer and closer until we were whispering, sharing secrets with each other, creating a world of our own. Before this day we had been strangers and neither of us had known the other had existed yet now we were linked in an extricable way. Our lives would never be the same after this. I knew that for sure. She slipped her hand over my thigh. I nestled more closely to her, dipping my head towards her, giving her a coy look with my wide eyes. My breath was halting and I was so afraid that something would come and interrupt this perfect, blissful moment.
But it didn't.
Chapter 8
Her arm slipped around my waist. I sidled so close to her that I was almost on her lap. I pressed my head into her neck and smelled her fragrance, a mixture of that same fruity perfume that had so overwhelmed me in the car earlier, but now it was mixed in with an earthy smell and a salty smell, but it was all her, and I was intoxicated. My eyes were glassy and hazy. The other girls had gone to bed. I didn't know when. Had they ever been there? The fire was dwindling, turning to embers, soon there would only be ashes left but not of our passion. Not of our...dare I say it...love.
“I'm going to make you do something you've never done before,” she said, and gripped my hand. I looked up at her, resisting like usual, but she gave me a pouting look and I knew that I wasn't going to be able to refuse this invitation. I let myself be pulled up and we ran away into the darkness.