Maurice is Missing!

Chapter Five

The First Kiss

In case you actually got this far and forgot what's going on, let me give ya a quick recap. First, I was knocked out of my sleep by my baby brother jumping on me. I discovered that it was the Fourth of July, meaning that we're going to Wishing Waters. About two or so hours later, we went with my parents to said water park. After dealing with the heat, we made it to the wave pool. There, I was told that I have to watch said brother like I was a baby sitter. Sometime after fighting the waves to save him, I met quite possibly the hottest boy on the face of the earth. Of course, it turned out that he was a complete psychopath, but for some God forsaken reason, I want to be with him.

After we flirted a little, we were tossed out of the wave pool by the lifeguards for some odd reason I have yet to figure out. I then had to deal with taking Maurice to the water slides. That's when everything went to hell. He pulled ahead of me and got lost in the crowd! And now, with the hot guy from the wave pool (whose name I still don't know yet!), we're trying to find him. At the moment, we were just walking around, looking for any sign of my brother.

"Man, where could he be?" Red said worriedly. I raised an eyebrow at him.

"I appreciate the concern, but why?" I asked.

"Well, you'll get in big trouble for losing him, right?" He replied. I nodded. "So it's important that we find our brother before you get your head chewed off."

He's got a point there. We gotta find our—Wait a minute!

"What do you mean 'our'?" I asked, expecting a stupid response.

"Well yeah." He started. "Sometime after we get together, we'll get married, meaning that he'll be my baby brother-in-law. So, I thought that I might as well start calling him my brother."

I don't know whether to be majorly freaked out or flattered by that whole thing. He just more or less gave me his ten-year plan!

"Wow. It's amazing how you're sooo organized." I said sarcastically. He grinned at me.

"Yeah, I know." He said, ignoring the sarcasm.

"Oy…" I slapped my head.

By now, we were in line for another ride. This one consisted of a zip line that people can ride over a pool to get to the other side of a chasm. I looked around as we waited.

"Are you sure he went on this one?" There's no way Maurice is tall enough for this ride!

"Of course not." Red replied. "He wouldn't survive the twenty foot drop."

"Then what are we doing here?" I asked confusedly. He sighed exasperatedly.

"It's simple. This is the closest ride to the tube slides, meaning that he had to come this way. If he did indeed come here, it's apparent that he went on the one over there." He pointed to his right. There was a ride identical to this one, except the drop was ten feet instead of twenty. "We're going on this ride so that we can get to him on the other side." I raised an eyebrow at him.

"Ummm… When did you get serious…and smart?" He glared at me.

"Funny. I told you I'm home schooled, remember?"

"Oh yeah…" I said holding a hand to my chin as we moved forward. "Anyway, it's almost my turn. I'll wait for you on the other end." He seemed to have a saddened look on him as we got closer to the zip line. I wonder what's eating him.

Soon, we made it to the zip line. We were behind one person when I looked across the chasm. I saw the bane of my existence walking away.

"Maurice!" I yelled. I pushed the guy ahead into the chasm and gripped the handles of the ride. "Here I go!" I jumped and started moving. I grunted as I fought against the forces of gravity.

"Wait!" I heard Red shout. Next thing I knew, I felt a great weight on me. It was harder to hang on. I stared ahead with a glower. Please tell me he didn't. Tell me he did NOT do what I think he did. I looked down.

"Hi." He said, grinning stupidly. His arms were around my waist.

I can't believe he just jumped like that!

"What the hell's your problem!.?" I yelled. "Are you crazy!.?.!"

"Yep. Crazy for you!" He said cheerfully.

"It's hard enough to stay hanging on to this thing by myself! How do you expect me to get over there with you hanging on!.?"

"I don't know. It was just a spur of the moment thing." He said with a shrug. How he managed to do that this high up is beyond me. Ugh! I just got dragged down.

"Let go already! You're too heavy!" He glared at me.

"Are you calling me fat?"

"Ugh! If I thought you were fat, we wouldn't be having this conversation!" I grunted. "I would've—Ugh!—left you back at the wave pool!"

"Ohhh… Well anyway, I can't let go. We'll be able to find Maurice faster if you didn't have to wait for me. Besides, I can't stand to be away from you for more than a minute." If I wasn't hanging on for dear life, I'd slap my head.

Just then, I felt my swimming trunks going low! Oh crap! Don't let them fall off! I'm not wearing anything under them! Luckily, I had tied them up this morning. But how long could they stay up with his weight pulling them down?

"Yo! Don't let my swimming trunks fall!" I yelled at him. I saw him blink before he licked his lips.

"Hmmmm… A naked Lars. Now there's an idea." He chuckled evilly as he raised a hand towards the drawstring. I blushed as my eyes grew as wide as saucers.

"DON'T YOU DARE!.!.!" I roared, swaying my body wildly. He held on desperately.

"Alright! Alright! I was just joking!"

"You better have been, ya perv!"

I am in extreme pain right now! My arms felt like they were gonna fall off! I swear, I'm gonna kill both of them! First, I'm gonna kill Maurice for getting lost in the first place and then I'm gonna kill this one for always having sex on the brain! They will both die slow, painful deaths!

We soon reached the end of the ride. My arms felt like they've been stretched to the limit. I rubbed them as we ran in the direction Maurice was heading.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

A few hours have passed and I'm freaking out! We tried every possible place we could think of to find Maurice. We tried a few restaurants. He wasn't in any of them. A few times, Red begged me to buy him lunch. I was a bit hungry too, but I was on a mission! Besides, I didn't have any money on me. I dragged him out of the last restaurant in the park and decided to try the souvenir shops.

Things were even worse there! Not only did we not find that little brat, but I still had to deal with this boy's whining! He kept bugging me to buy him the most expensive things. In each case, I glared and dragged him out by his dreadlocks. Now, we were just walking around. It was almost sunset. The park will close soon. I'm running out of time!

"Man… You didn't have to be so rough…" Red said, rubbing his head with his left hand. His right was holding my left. I sighed with boredom.

"Sorry, but if I told you I didn't have money when we were in the restaurants, what makes you think I'd have any in the souvenir stores?"

"Maybe you found some guy's wallet between stores?" He offered with another one of those grins. I rolled my eyes and faced ahead.

"Whatever. So, any ideas on where we could find this menace on my life?"

"Hmmmm…" He put on a thinking pose. We stopped and I faced him. A few seconds passed before he gave me a lopsided grin. "Nope. Not a clue." I slapped my forehead in response.

"Why am I even bothering with you?"

"Because you love me." He said jokingly. I groaned. "Hey look! I think I saw him!" He pointed ahead.

"Where!.?" I yelled, spinning my head in the direction he was pointing. We walked forward along a wooden fence. I noticed a sign that said, "Keep out! Area under construction."

"I'm sure I saw him go in here." Red said, pushing a loose board. He went into the restricted area. He popped his head back out. "You coming or not?" I blinked.

"Uhhh… Right." I replied, following him inside.

The place was empty. Ahead of us was a pool that was full of water. Nearby was the entrance to a water slide that wasn't finished yet. We walked past the pool and up the stairway. Water was dripping onto the stairs. It was starting to get a little slippery. It didn't matter though. If Maurice is here, I have to get to him before he hurts himself!

We got halfway up and still no sign of my brother. I was starting to get worried. I turned to my companion.

"Are you sure you saw him?" I asked.

"Yeah dude. I know I saw him walk in here." He replied with a nod. "Why don't you try calling for him?"

"Good idea." I said before I took a deep breath. "Maurice!.!.! Are you here!.?.!" My voice echoed throughout the area. There was no answer. He didn't even yell out his favorite word. I gulped. What if he got hurt? I decided to try again.

"Maurice!.!.!" Again, there was no answer. I panicked. "Maurice! If you can hear me, say something! Anything!"

I ran up the stairs. I kept calling out his name as I continued my ascent. I soon reached the top and looked around. I didn't see Maurice anywhere. I sat down and tried to catch my breath. A few seconds passed before I felt a hand on my shoulder.

"Sorry. I really thought I saw him." I turned and faced the boy. Like earlier, I held his hand. I looked into his eyes and saw disappointment mixed with sorrow. He really tried this time. I sighed and nodded.

"It's alright. Thanks for trying anyway." I got up. "Come on. We still got time before I have to face the music." I let go of his hand and went down the stairs. We got about halfway down when the unthinkable happened.

"Woah! I think I'm slipping!" My eyes widened as I turned towards him. He was desperately trying to maintain his balance on the slippery surface. He started moving towards the banister!

"Hang on! I got you!" I yelled, holding my hand towards him. I was mere inches away when he went over the edge!

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!" He screamed as he fell. I looked over the edge in time to see the splash. I waited for him to resurface, but he didn't.

"Aw crap!" I shouted. I had no idea what to do! I stood there panicking for a few seconds before I decided on a course of action.

"Don't worry! I'll save you!" I climbed over the railing and dove towards the pool. I must've gone down at least twenty-five feet before I hit the water. It hurt a little, but I was able to handle it.

I looked around the pool's bottom frantically, trying to find him. I soon found him floating there. He was knocked unconscious! I had to get him out before he drowned! I swam towards him and put an arm around his neck. I then kicked up towards the surface as fast as humanly possible. I was almost of air when I finally broke through and breathed deeply. I quickly swam to the wall and pulled the redhead out.

"Come on… Wake up." I said, nudging him. He wasn't moving at all. I looked around, trying to think of something. Maybe I should get a lifeguard? No! I'd never make it back in time! I stayed there for a few seconds before the only I could do came to mind.

'I guess I could try giving him mouth-to-mouth. I've seen it done on TV so many times.' I thought. I gulped as I turned towards him. 'I just hope this works.'

I opened his mouth and took a deep breath. I moved towards him, getting ready to exhale, when he got up and pressed his lips against mine!

"MMPH!.?.!"

I swear to God, I'm gonna kill him! He pretends to drown and nearly gets me killed just to kiss me!.? I bet he didn't even see Maurice walk in here! That freakin' perv! Just wait until he stops kissing me! I'm gonna…! I'm gonna…! Awww screw it. I closed my eyes as I deepened the kiss. I embraced him as he licked my lips. I gladly parted them and I got a taste of his mouth. Our tongues battled for a good two minutes before we parted for air. We just laid there in each other's arms, taking in the sight of each other. A few minutes passed before I caught my breath.

"You know I'm going have to kill you now, right?" I said. He grinned at me.

"Yeah, but it was so worth it." He sighed contently. I ran a finger through one of his dreadlocks.

"Maybe, but did you really have to go through all that just to do it?"

"What other way was there?" He asked. I gave him an innocent look.

"You could've just asked."

"Oh hell no!" He yelled, glaring at me. "You mean to tell me I coulda kissed ya sooner if I just asked!.?.!" I gave him a goofy grin as I nodded.

"Pretty much, yeah."

"I don't believe this!" He yelled as he sat up and turned away with his arms crossed. I kept my grin as I too sat up.

"What's the matter, babe? I thought you'd be happy that you finally got a taste of me." I teased, putting my arms around his waist. He turned to me with a pout.

"Of course I'm happy, but I wasted all this time flirting when I coulda kissed ya from square one."

"Well, it's not my fault you were acting like a perverted old man the whole time." I said with a shrug. He only glared.

"Don't compare me to an old man." He warned. I smirked.

"Alright, alright. Besides, you'd be extremely ugly if you were old." He gaped at me. "I'm talking hair growing out of your ears and everything. Even your hair would be gray." He looked shocked at that.

"M-my hair?" He ran his hands through his dreadlocks. I chuckled.

"Yep. That is, if it doesn't fall out first." His eyes widened at that.

"Fall out?" I nodded.

"Oh of course. And then there's the sponge baths."

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!" He screamed as he jumped up. "Stop! I don't wanna hear anymore!" I was rolling, laughing at his fright. I soon stood up and walked over to him.

"Don't worry. You won't get old for a long time." I said, kissing his cheek. He sighed with relief.

"Thank God." He turned to me. "Lars, would you still love me, even if I got that ugly?" I gave a small laugh.

"Of course I'd still love you. I bet you'd still be hot when you get old, anyway." He grinned and our lips met again. When we separated, he started pulling me out of the area.

"Come on. We still gotta find your brother!" Oh crap! He was right! We gotta hurry! We both ran down the path.

"Maurice!" I yelled.

"Maurice!" Red yelled.

"Maurice! Where are you?"

"Come on out, Maurice!"

It seemed like all hope was lost.

"Twista!.!.!"