Quake (20 page)

    He was watching her, all right. Staring at her. At her face, not at the areas below the water line. She wasn't sure whether she ought to feel pleased or disappointed. And she found that she felt a little bit of both.

    'What do you think?' she asked.

    'It's sure funny,' he said. 'Maybe the monsters got them.'

    His face broke into a smile. 'That's probably it.'

    'I wonder where Heather is.’

    'Maybe the cat ate her,' Pete said.

    And Barbara laughed. 'Oh, that's real nice. A minute you were sticking up for her.'

    'Actually, I like it better when she isn't around.'

    'Me, too.'

    Pete's eyes seemed to be searching her eyes, almost as if trying to get into them.

    'I really…' His voice quit. 'What?'

    He shook his head and looked away. 'I don't know. It's… just I wanta… I mean, it's really awful, all this stuff that's happened. And how we're kind of stuck out here and things are sort of dangerous. And we don't know if our families are okay or anything. But… it's just that… I'm not glad any of it happened, nothing like that, but… I'm sort of glad we got a chance to… I've had a chance to, you know, be with you like this.'

    'Me, too,' Barbara said.

    Pete looked stunned. 'Really?'

    'Really.'

    'Oh, man.'

    'Yeah,' Barbara said.

    'Cause, what I mean to say… I really sort of like you, you know?'

    'I really sort of like you, too.'

    'You do?'

    Barbara reached out through the water. Pete's arm swept forward and he took her hand. She gave his hand a gentle pull that brought him toward her, walking up the slope of the pool's floor but staying low and keeping his head level with Barbara's.

    A single stride away from her, he stopped. He had a very strange look on his face. Barbara couldn't tell whether he was terrified or ecstatic.

    'Oh, man,' he said, his voice shaky.

    Barbara's lips felt dry. She licked them.

    'I can't believe this is happening,' Pete said.

    'What?'

    'This. You. Would it be… is it okay if I… Do you want to kiss?'

    'Yeah.'

    Still holding her hand, he put his other hand against the back of her head. His face came closer. It was sprinkled with tiny bright sparkles of water. His eyelashes came together in tiny, dark points. His eyes jumped a little bit from side to side as if he couldn't make up his mind which of her eyes to look at. He licked his lips. And Barbara shut her eyes. And waited. And wondered why he wasn't kissing her yet. This'll be my first, she realized. My first real kiss - not Mom or Dad or a relative or a friend of the family or whatever but a boy. A real boy kissing me. And now she felt his mouth against her lips. Moist and cool, then warm, pressing gently as he held the back of her head. This is it, she thought. This is really it. My first kiss, and I'm almost sixteen and it's Pete in a swimming pool on the day of the big quake. And here am thinking about it instead of just enjoying it - but it's nice. Nice because of how it feels, she wondered, or nice because it's Pete? Stop thinking! He's being very much a gentleman, she thought. Just a nice kiss, no funny stuff. She wondered if anyone was watching. From one of the apartments, maybe. It's not like we're doing something wrong. Our bodies aren't even touching, she realized. Just our mouths and hands, and his other hand back there in my hair. It'd be nice to be up against him. Just as she thought about moving in closer and maybe hugging him, he took his mouth away.

    'Maybe we'd better stop,' he whispered. He lowered his hand from the back of her head. It went silently down toward his side.

    'Okay,' Barbara said. 'Man.'

    'What?'

    'Nothing.'

    'Come on, tell.'

    'I never…: that was sure a kiss.'

    'In what way?' she asked.

    He rolled his eyes. 'I don't know!'

    'Was it a good kiss?'

    'Are you kidding?'

    'Felt pretty good to me,' she said.

    'It was incredible,' he whispered. 'You're incredible. I mean, God!'

    'We'd better pretend nothing happened.'

    'What do you mean?'

    'Heather. She'd go nuts if she found out we kissed.' Pete looked surprised. 'Do you think so?'

    'Oh, sure. She's got a thing for you.'

    'She does?'

    'Of course she does. And you know it.'

    'Yeah, I guess so.' Then he added, 'I'm very hard to resist,' and laughed as if he thought it a good joke. 'You are.'

    'Right.' He laughed again, and shook his head.

    'So anyway, if we don't want to see what Heather's a jealous rage, we'd better cool it.'

    'I guess that means no more kissing.'

    'She'd probably pop up right when we're in the middle of one.'

    'Yeah. Like on TV.'

    'We'll have to just save it for some other time,' Barbara said.

    'Any time is fine with me.'

    'I'll bet.'

    'So… what should we do now?'

    'Swim around?'

    Pete looked toward the front gate. His smile slipped 'I wonder what's taking her so long.'

    'She must be having trouble with the cat.'

    'It's probably not extremely eager to get caught,' Pete said 'No kidding. Cats hate water. One sinking was probably enough for it.'

    After a moment, Pete said, 'I hope nothing's happened her. She has been gone an awfully long time. I mean,'

    'If she couldn't catch the cat, don't you think she'd come back?'

    'I don't know. She seems like the stubborn type.’

    'Something really might have happened to her, though.'

    'Do you think we should go and look for her?' Barbara asked.

    'I don't much want to.'

    'Me, neither. Besides, we said we'd wait here. What if shows up while we're gone?'

    'Can't let that happen.'

    Barbara raised her eyebrows. 'Of course, one of us could go looking for her while the other stays here.'

    'I'm not sure that's such a good idea,' Pete said.

    'It's a rotten idea.'

    He suddenly smiled again. 'It was your idea.'

    'Figured somebody oughta bring it up. Doesn't mean I'm in favor of it. I'm totally against splitting up.'

    'It'd be stupid to split up.'

    'Exactly. Asking for trouble. Besides, she'll probably get back any minute.'

    'If we're lucky, without the cat.'

    Barbara laughed. 'Exactly.'

    Pete boosted himself up and sat on the edge of the pool. Barbara, floating on her back near the other end, flipped over and swam to him. She stood up in the waist-high water and checked her blouse. It was unbuttoned and clinging and open a few inches. Just wide enough. Not so wide that it showed enough to be embarrassing. She put her hands on Pete's knees. 'What do you think?' she asked.

    'I don't like it.’

    'I don't, either.’

    'Where could she be?'

    'We can't just stay here all day,' Barbara said.

    'It hasn't been all that long.'

    'Long enough. Between this and all the time we spent… you know, at Mrs Klein's… we could've been home by now.’

    'I've sort of liked it here,' Pete said.

    'Me, too. I feel about a million times better than I did.’

    'That's what kissing me will do for you.'

    She let out a laugh. 'Yeah, right. That wasn't bad, either.’

    She squeezed his knees, gave them a playful shake that jostled the water between his legs, then let go and moved sideways. She stepped forward to the wall of the pool. Aware of Pete watching, she planted her hands on the concrete near his hip, and jumped. She braced herself up beside him, arms stiff, the edge of the pool hard against her thighs. Then she stayed that way - because of how Pete was trying not to stare at her. She didn't look down at herself. Didn't need to. Just by the feel, she knew that her arms, in tight against her sides, were pushing her breasts together and thrusting them forward. She took a deep breath. The smoky air made her lungs hurt, but she filled them anyway, expanding her chest to improve the view even more. Pete turned his head away.

    'I think we'd better go and find Heather,' Barbara said just to make him look at her. It worked. Pete faced her again. He met her eyes and nodded. 'Yeah. Guess we'd better.' He glanced down, began to turn away, then looked again and stared for a few moments before forcing his gaze away and studying the other end of the pool. Barbara smiled. She swung a leg up, slapped a bare foot onto the ledge, and climbed out of the pool. She stood up straight, her legs apart. Water raced down her body and spilled off her clothes, splashing the concrete between her feet. Must look like I'm peeing, she thought. So she took a few steps away from the pool. After turning around, she pressed her legs together. Pete was already walking toward her. His soaked trousers dripped water. They were glued to his legs. Their front bulged, shoved outward by the knobs of Pete's fists which were jammed into the front pockets. Why the fists? Barbara wondered. She felt a quick stir of worry.

    'You okay?' she asked.

    'What do you mean?'

    'Planning to punch me out?'

    'Huh?' He looked confused. Then he blushed and glanced down at the front of his pants. 'Oh, that. Nah. I wouldn't hit you. Are you kidding?' He smiled nervously and shook head. But his fists remained in his pockets.

    'Planning to punch out somebody else?'

    'I'm not gonna slug anyone. just…, it's nothing, okay?

    You want me to bring over your shoes and stuff?'

    'We can both go,' Barbara said.

    Pete turned away. Taking his hands out of his pockets, he walked toward the corner of the pool. Barbara followed him past the corner, and along the side. His back was tanned and shiny. He left trails of water drops. Halfway to the other end of the pool, Barbara looked into the water. She could see where the bottom began to slope downward. That's where we were standing. That's where we kissed. She wondered if she would be able to find this apartment complex again - this pool. It'd be nice to come back with him some time, she thought. What if we got married some day and came back to right here in this building? And we could sneak into the pool late at night when everyone else was asleep, and go to our special place right there…? Wild, she thought. It'll probably never happen. But it might. It might, if want it to badly enough. Dad says you can make almost anything happen if you're willing to go for it. This is a stupid time to even be thinking about stuff that, she told herself.

    No, it's not. As good a time as any… Pete sat down on the concrete to put on his socks and shoes. Barbara sat nearby, but facing him. The concrete felt warm and rather nice through the wet seat of her shorts. She used one of her socks to wipe her feet.

    'Maybe we can go somewhere,' Pete said, tying one of his Reeboks.

    'Like where?'

    'I don't know. Anywhere. How about the beach?'

    'Are you crazy?'

    'What do you mean?' Pete asked.

    'The beach? I've gotta get home. And anyway, the beach is miles…'

    'Not today,' Pete said. 'Jeez! That would be crazy. I meant like, you know, after all this is over.'

    'Oh!'

    'What do you think?'

    He's asking me out.

    'Yeah!' she blurted, and saw his face light up.

    'Great! That's great!'

    'I'm not sure about the beach, though. We'd have to figure out something that'll be okay with my Mom and Dad.'If I'll still have a Morn and Dad. Of course I will. Sure I will. They're fine. They have to be.

    'They might have to go along, or something,' she said.

    'Depending on what we wanta do. They're awfully protective.’

    'That's okay. don't mind.'

    'Maybe you could come over to my place,' she suggested. 'You know, for starters. They'd go along with that. As long as one of them is home.'

    'That'd be great,' Pete said. 'I don't care where we…'

    A clamor of iron stopped his words. They snapped their heads sideways. The front gate, flung open by Heather, squawled on its hinges and rang out as it crashed against the fence bars. Barbara cringed at the noise.

    She heard Pete mutter, 'Oh, man.'

    Something was wrong. Huffing and red-faced and streaming sweat, Heather ran toward them with her head thrown back, her mouth sagging, her arms swinging about wildly, her breasts jumping up and down as if trying to rip free of her clothes, her feet pounding down flat so that the soles of her shoes made heavy whapping sounds with each stride. She was still bloody from the cat. The cat didn't seem to be with her, though. Maybe it's chasing her, Barbara thought. Something must be chasing her. But nothing followed Heather through the gate. It clanged shut as she chugged alongside the pool, hurrying toward Barbara and Pete. They finished with their shoes. Pete grabbed his shirt and started to get up. Barbara reached for the denim strap of her purse. She looked again at Heather. No purse. It had been hanging from Heather's shoulder when she left to go chasing after Susie, but now it was gone. Does she know she lost it? Maybe it got snatched, and that's why she's acting so weird and scared. The kid who snatched mine is dead. Maybe his ghost…, yeah, right. Pete and Barbara were on their feet by the time Heather staggered to a halt by the corner of the pool. Wheezing, she bent over and clutched her knees. She shook her head.

    'Gotta get… outa here,' she gasped. 'They're coming.' Barbara felt a sudden, sinking coldness inside.

    'Who's coming?' Pete asked. 'What do you mean?'

    'Guys. Whole bunch of 'em. Like a gang. saw 'em… pulled people outa cars… Killed 'em… Can't let 'em get us… Can't… If they get us… Gotta hide.'

    'Where are they?' Pete asked.

    Still bent over, she let go of one knee and raised her arm. She flopped her hand in the direction of the front gate, then clutched her knee again. 'How far away?'

    'Don't know. Couple blocks?'