Chapter Five

I stood there, blinking astonishedly. I think my jaw may have dropped. All this time that I was trying to sum up the courage to ask out the one girl who showed any signs of being interested in me, and now it turns out that my best friend likes her, too. I snorted. How could I have been so blind? Now that I think back, it was so obvious that Tancred liked Emma. The way he looked at her when she laughed at one of his dumb jokes, even the way he acted when she playfully flirted with somebody. Reacting violently, I slammed my fist into a wall, wincing with pain as the skin on my knuckles was sliced off. Numbly, I stared at my hand as the incisions began to bleed. I shook it off and strolled out of the room to join the others. I found them outside, setting up their sleeping bags. Emma spotted me and said, “There you are, Robby! Bring your stuff over here so you can be by me and Tanc.” Face void of emotion, Tanc nodded coolly at me, then turned away to fix his pillow. I walked over and dropped my sleeping bag on the side of Emma opposite of Tancred, noticing that this was the way that we had always sat or walked. It was then that I silently vowed to give him a run for his money. I wasn’t going to let Emma slip away that easily. At least, not this time. Emma laughed at something that Mikey, who was behind us, said, then turned to me and became aware of my bleeding hand. “Robert!” she exclaimed in a worried yet superior voice. She grabbed my hand. “You’re hurt!” I looked at my wounds blankly, then responded, “Yeah. I must have cut myself on something in the room.” Emma glanced into my eyes, then reached under her pillow and brought out a small first-aid kit. Tanc laughed, and she threw him a disapproving look. “I always keep one with me,” she explained. As she worked on bandaging my fist, I looked at how her hair fell over her face, covering her eyes. Murmuring softly so that only she could hear me, I whispered, “You have such nice eyes. Why hide them all the time?” Emma’s face flushed, and she bent over more. She glanced about and saw that we were the only ones sitting on the blanket she had put on the smooth sand. She gave a small smile and said, “Robby, stop it. You’re making me blush.” I smiled and checked out the others’ positions. Curled up in his sleeping bag so that you could only see the top of his head, Mikey looked as if he were already asleep. Jessica was talking animatedly on the phone to one of her girlfriends again, and Tancred was heading back to the cabin, most likely to get some chow. My heart fluttering and my head fearful of rejection, I leaned in closer towards Emma. She stopped what she was doing and gazed up at me. She stared into my eyes, green into blue, a fire so intense it took all my reserve not to look away. Blood rushing to my head, I opened my suddenly dry mouth to say something, but Emma whispered, “Shhh,” softly and placed a cool, slender finger on my burning lips. Moving forward agonizingly sluggishly, she rested her forehead on my own, all the while keeping her eyes fixated to mine. Slowly but surely, her eyelids began to lower. Feeling like I was sprinting the mile run in P.E. again, I closed my eyes and tilted my head, and Emma’s soft, luscious lips met mine. A sweeping sensation flooded my body when Emma clasped her hands behind my neck and pulled our bodies closer. Breathing in raggedly, I ran my hands down the side of her torso until I reached her hips. I pulled her into my lap while simultaneously raising my head so I wouldn’t break our connection. I kissed her deeply, not wanting to ever let go. With a small pant, Emma drew away, gasping for breath. I matched her shortness of oxygen, wheezing heavily. Blushing slightly, I felt a pang in my gut, still scared of being refused. I guess Emma deduced what I was thinking because, with a giggle, she said, “Wow, Robby.” Her eyes glistening with emotion, she leaned in nearer and whispered in my ear, “That was amazing.” Grinning, I could feel my face burn up. Suddenly, Emma pushed me away from her and she straightened up the blanket. Confused, I gaped at her until I saw Tancred jogging towards us with a weird expression on his face. “Um, guys?” he called uncertainly. “How come Chad’s not in the cabin?”