“Holy crap, you told your own dad to suck it?” Jonathan laughed in spite of himself. This was serious stuff, he shouldn’t have laughed, but he couldn’t help himself.
Sarah giggled too. “Yeah. I told him to suck it and to get off my friggin’ back, only, I didn’t say ‘friggin’.”
“Man, Sarah, you have balls. What did your dad do?”
“Thank you, Jonathan. I consider the fact that I have balls to be a compliment – even if the idea is kinda gross. To answer your question, my dad slapped me across the face and then chased me through the house. I locked myself in my bedroom and he punched a hole in the door.”
“Holy crap, your dad isn’t just a douchebag – he’s a psycho. What did your mom do?”
“That’s the thing – she did
nothing
. She takes pills for anxiety and stress, so whenever my dad starts being a jerk, she says she has a headache, pops some pills, and goes to bed.”
Jonathan couldn’t think of anything to say. He couldn’t imagine what he would do if his mother was like that. He’d always just assumed she’d be there and always be, well, a mother. No wonder Sarah didn’t really miss her parents.
“That’s … well … that’s just horrible Sarah. A girl should be able to count on her mother; at least, it seems like that should be the case.”
“Yeah, well … ” she shrugged her shoulders.
“If you’re interested, I have some thoughts on this matter that you’ve shared with me, but first I have another question.”
“Okay, shoot.”
“What does Kevin think about all of this? I mean, he seems to get along with your dad pretty well, but I can’t see him just sitting there and letting all this happen to you.”
“Kevin actually doesn’t know about a lot of it. Most of the incidents happened when he was out of the house. My mom covers everything up, and I’m threatened with everything under the sun to keep my mouth shut. My dad is fond of reminding me that it wouldn’t surprise him if I ended up breaking up the whole family.”
Jonathan shook his head in sympathy. “Well, in my humble opinion, your dad has mental problems and your mom is missing some critical DNA – the part that causes a mother to protect her young against dangerous predators.”
Sarah smiled at him as he continued.
“Whatever happened with your dad, whatever happened at school, that doesn’t change the fundamental, irrefutable facts: you’re smart, you’re beautiful, you’re sexy, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with your personality, you’re just bossy. But lots of bossy women end up being chief executive officers of large, successful corporations, so I think you shouldn’t look at it as a negative.”
Jonathan turned around to grab another water bottle. He turned back towards Sarah as he continued to talk. “And another thi … ”
Suddenly, he found himself face to face with Sarah. She was mere inches away.
“Um, hello,” the sweat instantly started breaking out in his armpits. “I, uh, … ”
“You just said I’m smart.”
“Yeah … because you are.”
“And you said I’m beautiful and sexy too.”
Jonathan cleared his throat. It felt like there was a frog in it. “Ahem … yes, I did.”
“So, why don’t you like me?” She raised her eyebrow, a challenge clearly being broadcast.
Jonathan felt the sweat bead up on his upper lip. Then he felt it break out on his scalp, slowly trickling down his back. He fought against stepping back – for one reason, he knew that rejecting Sarah now would cause her to not believe anything he had just said, and he really did mean it. For another reason, he liked being this close to her, he just didn’t have the guts to make the move himself. But for some reason, right now, in this moment, Sarah didn’t seem as intimidating as usual.
She seems vulnerable.
“Sarah, I do like you.”
“No, I mean
like me
like me.”
Jonathan rolled his eyes up to the heavens for inspiration. This was his moment. Now or never. Tell her now or lose her forever, like in Top Gun.
“I do
like you
like you.” His voice raised up at the end like he was back in seventh grade when his voice cracked all the time.
Sarah got her cocky look back on her face. “So, what are you going to do about it?”
Jonathan dropped the water bottle he had been holding, ignoring the water spilling out of it onto the ground. He gently raised his hands and placed them on her upper arms. He pulled her towards him, slowly, and as he did, he lowered his head. He moved his eyes from hers to look at her lips, and felt the heat rise up everywhere in his body.
Sarah’s lips parted ever so slightly, in anticipation. He could smell her. It was making him crazy, her salty, wind-scented skin. She was several inches shorter than him, which made him feel powerful. She was beautiful and delicate.
Jonathan knew this moment was going to be one of the most important ones of his life. His first real kiss with the most beautiful girl in the world. He could feel her breath on his mouth, a split second before his lips finally touched hers.
It was dizzying. Her whole mouth was sweet, her lips soft. This was nothing like the kiss on the cruise with that other girl whose name he couldn’t even recall. This was something entirely different, intoxicating. He felt the tip of her tongue against his lips, and he opened his mouth to deepen the kiss.
She pressed closer to Jonathan’s body, telling him she wanted to feel all of him. His hands moved from her arms to the middle of her back. Then they stroked down until one was on her lower back and one was pushing on her butt. She sighed in pleasure.
Her body was exquisite. She was soft in all the right places. He could feel her breasts pressed against his chest. He felt them rising and falling with her quickened breaths. He reached a hand around to take one in his hand. She let out a whimper, or maybe it was a moan. He didn’t know what it was, only that it meant he was doing something she liked.
A crashing through the underbrush and the sound of Candi’s voice snuffed out the flame that had begun to grow in an instant.
***
“Hey, where are you guys? Did you get that water yet? We were thinking we should go over to the … ”
Candi came through the trees into the water collection area, just in time to see Jonathan and Sarah hastily break apart. Both of them had very flushed faces and seemed very distracted. They instantly started acting very busy, collecting bottles from the ground and making excuses.
“Wow, look at that, I dropped one of the bottles. I’m so clumsy sometimes,” said Sarah.
“Yep, we’re done here, got all the water. Look – three full bottles. That’s one for each of us.”
Sarah smiled nervously at Candi, looking nervous and unsure of herself.
Candi smiled. She was pretty sure she’d just broken up a serious lip lock between her brother and Sarah. It’s about time the two of them worked out their differences. “Cool. Yeah, Kevin and I were saying tomorrow maybe we should go over and look into the jungle farther, see if there’s any reason to put platforms up in that area. Also, Kevin thinks we should try to catch some rats one of these days. Not sure I agree with him, but … ” She trailed off, giving them an opening to start talking again. It looked like they were back on solid ground now.
Jonathan took the water bottles that Sarah was holding and gestured for her to walk in front of him.
“I think both of the ideas are good ones,” said Jonathan. “Now that we have a lot of the treehouse done, at least the basics, I think we need to start planning for the platforms. And having the rats is good for testing food, like you suggested, Sarah.”
“I still wish we had a monkey.”
“No, you don’t want a monkey. They bite and they get into trouble.”
“And rats don’t?”
They started walked back to the treehouse as they discussed the pros and cons of different food tasters.
“Well sure, but they don’t take off fingers when they bite, and they get into little rat trouble, not nearly-human trouble.”
Sarah wasn’t ready to give in. “Monkeys are cuter.”
“Not when they’re throwing monkey poo at you, they’re not.”
Sarah got a disgusted look on her face. “Monkey poo? Are you kidding? Monkeys don’t throw poo; you’re nuts.”
“No, really. Candi and I were at the zoo one time, and … ”
Candi laughed as their conversation faded in the distance she put between them, walking faster so they could be alone. She remembered that trip to the zoo, when the monkeys had started slinging monkey poo on the zoo visitors. It seemed like Jonathan’s inability to stop sharing every detail of his knowledge had not turned Sarah off, if that lip-lock she caught the end of was any indication.
Good for them. They’re good together, even if they are a bit of an odd couple.
Actually, now that she thought about it, she realized Sarah and Jonathan weren’t such an odd couple after all. Maybe in high school they were, but out here, in the real world – the most real world she’d ever been in – they were perfectly matched, like yin and yang. He was quiet and she was outspoken, but it worked. They had a lot of similarities too. They were both smart, both athletic, and nowadays, both pretty good looking. She had always thought Jonathan was cute, but now with his tan and growing physique, he was what most teenagers would consider pretty hot, actually.
Huh. Weird.
Candi reached up, self-consciously touching her hair. She knew it looked terrible. Sarah had suggested dreadlocks, and so far Candi had resisted. But she knew if she didn’t make an effort to do something soon, she’d just have a matted mess and nothing to fix. She decided then and there to have Sarah put it in dreadlocks. When she got back home she could just cut them all off and start over.
When she reached the treehouse, she found Kevin chopping thin stalks of bamboo into short lengths. He already had about ten of them on the ground.
“Whatcha makin’?” asked Candi.
“I’m making the materials for a rat cage. I found more rat crap down here by our fire. I thought we should try to trap some of them and see what’s what.”
Jonathan and Sarah came through the trees to join them.
“Sarah, do you think you can make rat traps if I give you some specifications?” asked Jonathan.
“Probably, if you ask nicely.”
Jonathan just looked at her and raised one eyebrow.
Candi watched as they exchanged a look that told her things were getting steamy in the jungle. She looked over at Kevin, but he seemed oblivious.
The group spent the next hour debating the best rat trap design while Sarah built the box that was going to serve as a cage.
“I think the Wiley Coyote Looney Tunes style is the best,” said Jonathan.
“What the heck are you talking about?” asked Kevin.
“You know … Looney Tunes? They’re classic cartoons. Old-school.”
“I don’t remember an episode with rat trips … sorry.”
“It was a Road Runner trap. Anyway, you have a box that’s propped up by a stick that has a string tied to it and food attached to the string. The idea is that a rat will grab the food and run away with it, pulling the string, causing the stick to fall, thereby causing the box to fall down on top of the rat, trapping him inside.”
Kevin thought about it for second and then started nodding slowly. “You really think that could work?”
“Yes. We’ve got the box.” He gestured to Sarah’s newly finished project. “So, now we just need to tie some fish guts to a string that’s attached to a stick, and we’ll be all set.”
“Well, I was going to go fishing again anyway, so maybe today’s a good day for all of us to have a lesson – I’ve gotten pretty good at it, if I do say so myself,” said Candi.
“Yeah, maybe us men can give you some pointers down there while we’re at it.”
Candi scoffed at Kevin’s comment. “Yeah, we’ll see about that. Come on, let’s go now.”
Everyone stood up and went over to grab a fishing spear from the collection Candi kept handy and sharp. They waited for Sarah to stow her rat box and then headed down to the shallows as a group.
Candi had found an area that had several rocks scattered in shallow pools of water that deepened around the base of the rocks. These spots seemed to be the favorite haunts of the fish.
“Okay, first lesson – don’t let them see your shadow. And don’t sing. I found out eventually that they don’t like noise.”
Everyone got up on one of the big rocks in the water with Candi.
“Now you have to sit and wait for a fish to come. Sometimes they’re hard to see, since they’re basically the same color as the sand most of the time. Just look for movement. The only thing you can really see is the black of their eyes.”
“I can’t see shit,” said Sarah.
“Yeah, me neither,” said Kevin.
Jonathan was staring so intently into the water, he looked like he was in a trance. “Yeah, sorry, Candi. I can’t see a thing.”
“Well, it’s not like there are a million of them out here, you have to be patient. Oh, wait! Look. One’s coming now.”
She gestured a little to the left, to an area that was near the deeper water.
“I still can’t see shit.”
“You will. Wait until it’s closer.” Candi had lowered her voice to a whisper. “Now, when it’s close enough, slowly raise your spear – slowly – they don’t like sudden movements. And remember, the water distorts their actual position, so you have to aim kind of behind where you actually think they are.”
Candi stood poised on the rock, spear raised above her head. She was staring intently at the water. She could feel Kevin watching her from the other side of the rock.
She lunged. The spear flew out of her hand and sliced neatly into the water. Candi jumped in after the spear and quickly picked it up, lifting the tip towards the sky.
She shook the water out of her eyes and hair. “You have to get the spear turned upside down pretty quick, otherwise they wiggle off the end and you lose ‘em – or you have to go running all over the place to chase them down.”
A shiny fish was flipping back and forth about five inches from the end of her spear point. Candi was smiling up at the group on the rock. “See? Easy! Now you guys try.”