Chapter Twenty-Six

The First And Hoped-To-Be Last Kiss

"Hey," Squid said, climbing up onto The Thumb.

Chase looked up in surprise. She had been laying on top of Big Thumb for what seemed like hours now, just peacefully thinking the afternoon away as she watched the sun slowly edge away from it's lordly perch up in the atmosphere. But now, as the most uninvited person Chase could think of climbed up over the little ridge dividing the tip of the thumb from it's rocky body, she sat up quickly, disgruntled and irritated by Squid's very presence. Didn't he have better things to do then follow her around every day?

"I never asked for you to follow me everywhere!" Chase retorted, propping herself up on her elbows and fixing Squid with the most menacing expression she could muster in the dizzying heat of the afternoon.

Squid grinned as he found himself a seat beside Chase on the creviced rock. "I know," he said slowly, glancing at Chase like a little schoolboy on the verge of pulling a prank.

Chase glared at him. "So then why are you following me?" She wasn't too certain about the way Squid was eyeing her: It made her feel antsy and fervent, almost like a deer caught in headlights.

Squid shrugged his shoulders, he was sitting close to Chase now, having moved towards her in the angry confusion of his arrival, looking her up and down.

"What?" Chase asked a little shyly, her bemused curiosity betraying her tough-girl act in a millisecond.

Squid shook his head absently, indicating no explanation and only infuriating Chase further. He wasn't sure exactly of what he was doing, his only intention was to sit next to Chase for a while and reenact his old days of high school, back when his biggest agents of charm were playful little glances and daring smiles. He knew very logically that these methods of flirtation would have absolutely no effect on Chase and her hardcore attitude but he thought it would be humorous to joke around with her. It had been months since he'd been able to really push someone's buttons and he felt that now, on this lazy afternoon, was the perfect time; despite Chase's already aggravated state of mind.

Chase continued to glare ceaselessly at Squid, a vein in her temple suddenly throbbing as she felt the combined effects of the deathly afternoon sun rays passing over her dry skin and the merciless hatred for Squid that exuded from her very pores. She loathed his childish grin and taunting glances and wished, imploringly, that he would just get up and leave before she tried something rash. But at the moment, the thing Chase abhorred the most about Squid and his corny attempts at catching her eye was the sickening way that he was staring her up and down, making her feel rather exposed and peculiar sitting beneath the open sky.

"Why don't you just take a freaking picture?" she snapped, bringing Squid's gaze back to her face in an instant.

"You got a camera?" Squid asked slyly, unable to restrain a broad, jesting smile.

Chase could have keeled over in exhaust and exasperation. "Just go away!" she demanded, shoving Squid in the ribs.

But he wasn't that easy to get rid of and he stayed where he sat, just eyeing Chase with a mock expression of ironic befuddlement spread across his face.

"You don't want me to bite your lip off like I did that other guy?" Chase said suddenly, not sure of how the short and abrupt conversation had lead her to remember that: Squid certainly wasn't approaching for a kiss at the moment, was he?

"You didn't bite his lip off," Squid said, grinning at her indignant stubbornness. "You just cut him a little." He watched the simple way the shimmering pinks of the beckoning sunset pirouetted off the outline of Chase's dusty skin and a sudden admiration fell over him. His ambitious desire to poke fun was abolished in seconds and soon he found that he was no longer watching the young girl who he liked to tease and annoy but rather a strangely practical and lovely young woman of whom he wished nothing of but a simple embrace. "Besides," he said slowly, his words becoming tangled like the confusion of his emotions. "I wouldn't care if you bit my lip off as long as I was kissin' you."

Chase stared at Squid and his suddenly slack expression with a sort of grotesque horror. So now he wanted to kiss her? Why had she ever had the idiocy to even mention the slobbery and vile incident that had taken place back at Camp Green Lake only a few weeks before? She couldn't believe herself but even more powerful was her disbelief in what Squid had said and what, no doubt, he was thinking. In a whirl of disaffection and animosity Chase leapt to her feet and stormed over to the crumbling ridge that shaped what could be identified as a thumbnail and began a furious descent down the mountainside.

"Just leave me the Hell alone!" she grumbled ferociously, stumbling a little as she hurried to find her footing.

Squid appeared at the ledge of the thumb, staring down at Chase with a sort of patient humor. "No," he replied, loudly enough for Chase to hear over the cacophony of crumbling rocks that pursued her. "I won't leave you the Hell alone," he said, the game of pestering Chase unfurling itself in his determination once again. "Not unless you kiss me."

"NO!" Chase shrieked, answering Squid's request and trying to dissuade his close pursuit. She reached a quarry of large pieces of broken rock and began to crawl over them at an unnerving pace, trying her hardest to reach the level ground before Squid caught up with her. She jumped down from the last boulder and took off at a sprint across the the pebble-strewn earth, racing towards the clearing where she knew the rest of D-tent would be waiting, and hoping desperately that the sounds of feet behind her were just echoes from far off.

But they weren't and the next thing Chase knew she was being grabbed tightly about the waste as she was pulled aside to a shadowy wall of stone, hidden from The Oasis.

Squid spun her around in his arms so that she was facing him, her sweet breath brushing against his neck every few seconds. The dim light of the evening reflected off Chase's deep blue eyes and paled her skin, providing Squid with a more beautiful image then he could have imagined. He stood there, staring at her, unable to think of any place in the world he'd rather be and yet unsure of what to do next.

Chase stood limply in his grasp until she caught her breath just enough to take a violent swing at his face. She didn't care that he had caught her at last and she wasn't going to give into him without a fight. She couldn't forget that smug grin upon his face when he'd been eyeing her up and down only a few minutes ago beneath the glorious sunset and she wasn't about to give him the satisfaction of getting to see what he'd been imagining.

But Squid ducked the blow and caught her wrist in his hand, holding it more gently then Chase would have suspected of a young criminal boy. Chase struggled fervently, furious that her first attempt at freedom had only provided Squid with the chance to draw her closer to him and hold her more tightly. She tried to wriggle free, attempting to hit him once more, but her struggles only left her wearier until finally she just lost the will to fight and stood weakly in Squid's embrace.

Chase was torn. Part of her wanted to pull at Squid's hair, smack him across the face, knee him in the stomach and ultimately hurt him in any way that would offer her an easy escape and give her the satisfaction of leaving him behind to kneel in pain. But the other side of her twisted emotions wanted to stand there in his gentle embrace forever, feeling safe and comfortable and anticipating his kiss. After all, Chase couldn't help noticing just how handsome he looked in the blue shadows of the ledge overhead, his dark eyes making her feel limp and powerless and yet giving her the reassuring sense of safety. She became slack as he moved toward her and thought vaguely of how stupid she was to allow anyone to get so close. But when their lips touched her mind was left blank and for a moment she stood there with absolutely no recognition of what was going on. Chase's stillness didn't last long, however, for the next thing she knew she was wrapping her arms around Squid and clinging to him tightly as she kissed him back.

Chase opened her eyes slowly, feeling more peaceful then she had in months and enjoying every bit of her kiss with... With... Chase stared in shock and ripped herself away from Squid, feeling too disgusted for words. She stumbled back against the stony wall for a moment, surveying Squid with a look of terror spread across her face, before she broke away from the cool blue shadows beneath the wall and sprinted out across the level terrain of the mountain, not even glancing back once. When Chase presumed that she had ran far enough in no particular direction, she chanced a look backwards, experiencing the unnerving feeling that someone was following her, and instantly felt the ground begin to slip away beneath her.

Chase looked down at the steadily decreasing pile of small rocks that she had unknowingly dashed onto, all of which were cascading downwards to the desert miles below. Chase didn't even have time to scream: she threw her hands out, desperately groping for something-anything-to grab onto as she began to fall away with the narrow ledge, a feeling of lightheadedness and disease befuddling her thoughts and confusing her actions so that all she could sense was deathly drop below. Chase was so hopelessly lost within the falling sensation that she didn't even notice when someone grabbed painfully about the shoulders and pulled her back up onto the mountainside.

Chase fell back onto the ground, still wrapped tightly in her savior's arms, and hit her elbow against the rocky surface, pain shooting up through her arm.

"You okay?" Zigzag asked struggling to his own feet before helping Chase up. He was sweating profusely, his childish face streaked with dust that had been kicked up from the rock slide and his eyes were wider then their usual paranoid breadth.

"Yeah," Chase said shakily. Her mind was still dizzied by the confusion of the fall and her stomach still jolted as it had with the collapse.

"Gotta' watch where you step," Zigzag said, deciding that no damage had been done and picking an onion he'd brought along up off the ground before taking a bite of it.

"Thanks," Chase said, catching her breath and clutching her bruised elbow. She stared at Zigzag for a moment as he enjoyed his onion, confused as to why he'd been wandering about the mountain alone and yet thankful for his sudden appearance. "What are you doing all the way out here?"she asked him, finally steadying her shaky breath to an even pace and furrowing her brow.

"Just takin' a walk is all," Zigzag replied, his mouth full. " An' lookin' for Squid.

"Oh," Chase said slowly, the memory of what had previously occurred within the shadows of the mountain flooded back into her mind, making her feel even queasier then she already did.

"You seen him?" Zigzag asked, eyeing Chase peculiarly as he eyed everyone.

"Um... Yeah," Chase said, biting her lower lip and feeling her face get warm. "I think I saw him over there," she gestured in the direction she had run from. "Somewhere back behind those big rocks, I think."

"Thanks," Zigzag said, he was about to turn and walk off in that direction when he stopped. "You sure you're okay? You look really upset..."

"Yeah, I'm okay," Chase lied. "It's just the shock from the fall, that's all."

"Okay..." Zigzag said , still eyeing Chase as if he knew her secret. "Well, bye then, and don't walk anywhere near the ledge!" He winked at her before turning and walking off towards the spot where Chase had left Squid, munching noisily on his onion the whole way.

"I can't believe we leave tomorrow!" Lei said as she filled her back pack with onions. "It seems like we just got here!"

"I know what you mean," Fidget said, she too was packing.

"Hey Chase!" Zippy cried excitedly as Chase came walking into The Oasis. She made to bound up to her but stopped suddenly when she noticed the clumsy way Chase was moving through the weeds. "You okay?" she asked as she watched Chase stumble over her own feet and catch herself against a large boulder that Armpit was leaning back on, watching her precariously.

"Yeah," Chase said, but she seemed distracted. Everyone watched her in confusion as she tripped and fell down to her knees in the muddy pool of water without noticing a thing.

"She's possessed," Twitch whispered just loudly enough for the whole Oasis to hear.

"Huh?" Chase asked, staring at him dizzily as she crawled out of the water and sat down next to Zippy in a large thicket of coarse grass. "I'm not possessed..."

"Of coarse you're not," Magnetic said sarcastically, eyeing Chase with distaste.

"What happened?" Zippy asked urgently, lowering her voice so that only Chase could hear her and fixing Chase with a serious expression.

"Nothing," Chase slurred, clutching her stomach and throwing her arm out to catch herself from keeling over.

"Tell me!" Zippy whined, tugging at Chase's grimy tennis-shoe.

"I just-" Chase took a deep breath. "I was just running and I... I almost fell off the mountain cause I—I wasn't looking and Zig—Zigzag saved me and now I just feel kind of... Kind of..."

"Shaky? Freaked out? Sick?" Zippy suggested, shrill excitement rising in her voice again.

"Yeah," Chase replied dully.

Zippy sat there in silence for a moment, thought overcoming her as she watched Chase intently.

"Well," she began slowly after she'd had enough time to contemplate things. "Why were you running?"

Chase hadn't been prepared to answer this and she now struggled, trying to find the words that would help her avoid going into details about the kiss.

"Was it Squid?" Zippy asked before Chase even had a chance to come up with some suitable explanation for her fervent race across the mountainside.

"What?" Chase cried suddenly, despite her aching head. "What made you think of Squid?"

Zippy shrugged. "I dunno," she replied shortly. "It's just... Well, he's not here now, is he?" she stated, glancing about the Oasis with a logical air. "And he's the only person that I can think of who would make you decide to go off running... Unless of coarse Armpit was trying to eat you..." She trailed off into a dawning silence, her face expressionless as she stared off into space.

"Zippy, I-" Chase began, trying to will herself into telling the truth.

"Armpit didn't try to eat you did he?" Zippy asked in shock, a look of utter terror in her eyes.

Chase sighed wearily. "No, Zip," she said blandly shaking her head as slowly as her flighty mind would allow. "Armpit did not try to eat me."

"Oh," Zippy said with a sigh of relief as she surveyed Armpit's placid rest from across the pool suspiciously. "Cause I was gonna say..." Zippy trailed off into silence once more. "So it was Squid then!" she cried abruptly, coming to a sudden realization without any warning or consent to Chase's upset state. "What happened? How'd he make you run? Tell me everything!"

Chase laid back in the grass and stared up at the darkening sky above, thinking tiredly of all the events that had happened just a half an hour before, when the sun had began it's daily decline through the clouds.

"He kissed me," she said softly, feeling the warm evening breeze sweep lightly across her face.

"What?" Zippy cried, looking suddenly shocked and alert. "Could ya' say that again please?"

"He kissed me," Chase barely whispered, the sound of these words echoing throughout her head.

"WHAT?" Zippy shrieked excitedly, Chase bolted up and clamped a hand down over Zippy's mouth to prevent her from squealing with plea. As ready as Chase was to admit to Zippy what had happened, she still had no intentions of letting any of the other campers in on her secret.

"Sorry," Zippy whispered, her usual grin spreading all the way across her face once again. "So what did you do?" she asked fervently. "Did you kiss him back?"

Chase delicately considered the answer to this question. Had she kissed him back? She had been so confused during the whole fiasco that she could hardly remember anything that had happened other then the simple kiss itself. "Well... Sort of, I guess."

"Eeeeeeeeee!" Zippy shrieked with delight, startling a snoozing Magnet nearby.

"But I left him there," Chase said, unsure of her words as the memories of the event were slowly coming back to her.

"Huh?" Zippy cried, the excitement melting from her face to be replaced by confusion and then sourness. "You left him where? Chase, what did you do this time?"

"Nothing!" Chase cried defensively. "I was just—just confused, that's all! So I ran for it. I didn't do anything though!"

"Okay, okay," Zippy interrupted, hurrying to calm Chase down. "I'm not accusing you or anything. Sheesh, hold on to your underwear would ya'?" she shook her head in a dismissive manner as if she were a parent chastising her child's guilty reactions to a simple crime. "So," she asked carefully, edging along steadily in her questions as to make sure Chase stayed calm. "Where is Squid?"

"I don't know," Chase sigh pitifully, pulling at a limp weed in the dirt. "When I left him he was back behind those big rocks over there," she nodded away from the Oasis, indicating to a large hill of stone that from this side of the mountain appeared to be covered in the same coarse grass that Chase and Zippy sat in and miniature wildflowers that grew here and there across it's face.

"You guys were right behind that thing?" Zippy asked, raising her eyebrow.

Chase nodded. "It looks really narrow from here but that little cliff stretches pretty far out. That's why it took me so long to run over here."

"Oh," Zippy mouthed, casting a weary eye about the other D-tent members, all of whom were either packing their backpacks and chatting peacefully or sleeping. Suddenly Zippy gasped and turned to stare wide-eyed at Chase.

Sensing danger Chase bolted upright once again, only to find that Zippy was putting on a performance as Zigzag and Squid came climbing over the large rocks that surrounded the Oasis, Zigzag still chewing on onion.

Chase became tense as she watched Squid move into the clearing: Had he told Zigzag what had happened? And if he had, what would Zigzag think?

But, to Chase's surprise, Squid looked as if nothing had happened and Zigzag looked as clueless and gawky as ever, both of them laughing at a joke just shared.

"Hey Squid, where've you been?" Armpit asked, raising his head to look up at Squid and Zigzag as they approached.

"Just walking around," Squid replied shortly.

"And wastin' your energy! Man, we have to start walkin' for days and days tomorrow!" Armpit cried, acting utterly shocked at Squid's response (he, himself, had been lying around all day).

Squid smiled before picking a spot next to X-ray to sit down, and choosing an onion from the heavy supply growing about him.

Chase tried, urgently, to catch Squid's eye and somehow let him know that she was sorry about leaving him like that, but no matter how long she stared in his direction or made loud noises to try and catch his attention, he just wouldn't look at her. Soon, because of the haze of the evening and the agonizing pain of her headache, Chase gave up, coming to the conclusion that Squid was ignoring her, and fell asleep in the coarse grass where she sat, the warm evening breeze pirouetting across her skin and whispering the words, "He kissed me..."