The smoke is so thick that my eyes water and I launch into an uncontrollable coughing fit. Someone pulls me out of the smoke to where I can breathe. I am hoisted into their lap and rocked gently from side to side. I feel safe in these strong arms, I feel invincible. As long as I am here there is nothing that can shake me.
"Don't worry you're safe, I'll keep you safe. I love you, Panami."
With that the memory slips away and I am left cold and alone when Chance pulls away from me. He stands back away from me and when I try to hug him he flinches away. I felt tears running down my face but I turned away so that he wouldn't see me cry.
I still believed that if you cried in front of people you were considered to be weak. So, I try really hard to be strong enough for all of us. Without even thinking, I said:
"Do you feel like you always have to protect me? Am I just a little kid to you?"
I feel hands grab the back of my elbows and slowly spin me to the one person I don't want to talk to right now. Nor ever again since he put out the fire that burned within me. The fire that burned for him. His fingers gently brush the tears away and he slowly lifts my face until I am looking into his eyes. When he's sure that I am looking at him he says:
"The answers to your questions are simply no. I don't think you're just a kid anymore."
"Then why do you always try to be away from me?!"
"I was trying to keep myself from falling in love with you…"
I inhale deeply and try not to cry again.
"...but, you were so persistent that you slowly broke down all the walls around my heart. So that's why I tried to stay away from you. I thought you didn't feel the same way I do…"
I cut him off. I had to interrupt before he beat me to saying something that I thought I would never get to say to him.
"I love you almost as much as I love ice cream."
Chance chuckled and said:
"No, you love me more than ice cream."
"And how do you know?"
"Because you wouldn't have interrupted me to say 'I love you' first. Which is against the rules by the way."
"What rules?"
"The ones that say 'you cannot interrupt someone who is about to make a love confession'."
I giggled then. I couldn't help it. And I was still giggling when Chance pressed his lips against mine. I stopped giggling and just let myself live in that moment.
The ice surrounding my heart was slowly thawed and the barricade was a pile of dust laying at our feet. I never realized that this actually existed. I couldn't believe that love existed and was mine to cherish and hold. I realized then that I never really knew what love was, but in that moment my heart was truly set free to feel whatever it wanted to.
I let myself just be with him until we both had to come up for air. He pulled me into a tight hug, the kind that you only see couples do on TV or in public when trying to make someone jealous. I pulled back and pressed my lips to his again.
I can't help it, I love him too much.
⬖⬘⬗
Light hit my eyelids with a painful glare. I moved to sit up when arms tightened around my middle and held me down.
"Five more minutes…" Chance mumbled.
I looked over to his sleep-tousled hair and the peacefulness of his features. He cracked open his eyes and smiled at me.
"Gah! Don't do that!"
"Do what?"
"Smile like that!"
"Why? Do I have something in my teeth?"
"No. Your smile is really white and you nearly blinded me from the angle you're laying in!"
"You mean the angle we're laying in."
I felt my face heat up when he laughed a full on, hearty, gut laugh. I wiggled trying to get away from him, but he held me close. His eyes were all seriousness when he scooted over and pecked my lips. I felt my face get even redder when I looked up and saw the kids standing there.
Chance laughed even harder while I pushed him away from me. I got up and grabbed my bag so we could get going, Adeline looks like she wants to say something to me, but I just walk right past her.
I walked over to the edge of the platform where the rope-ladder was and munched on a protein bar. Chance's arms came around my middle while he put his head on my shoulder. He inched my bag off my shoulder and set it on the ground. His hands went to my waist and he spun me to face him. I had just put gum in my mouth when he had come up to me.
He pressed his forehead against mine and just held me there. I brought my gum package up and asked:
"Gum?"
"Yes, please! I need it!"
He popped the gum in his mouth and smiled at me. I don't understand why his teeth are so white! If he stands with the sunlight hitting his face then he could blind people with his smile.
Anywho, He wrapped his arms around me and just looked into my eyes. I stood on my tiptoes and twined my arms around his neck. One of his hands drifted up my back to my neck where he brought me closer to him. His lips brushed mine before he whispered:
"Do you still want to know what Panami means?"
"Yeah."
His mouth closed over mine and I was lost in a memory again. Colors swirled form where the darkness engulfed me.
⬖⬘⬗
I was immediately engulfed in the smoke and started having a coughing fit again. I was then taken out of the smoke and gently rocked from side to side. A voice whispered in my ear and I felt like I would never be alone again. I asked what the nickname Panami meant and that's when the stranger looked into my eyes and said:
"It means my kind knight."
"Like the night sky?"
"No, like in medieval times. You know, the guys that kill things with swords, Melyssia"
"How do you know my name?"
"Because, I've been looking for you for a very long time."
"Why?"
"I'll tell you when you're sixteen."
"But that's eight years from now!"
"It is very far away, but nowhere close to how long I've waited for you."
"How long have you waited?"
"Thousands of years."
"Wow! You're really old."
Chance chuckled then looked at me with that one look that makes my heart flutter and my stomach do flips. (His hair hangs down in his eyes and he bites his bottom lip while looking at you with big blue eyes.) I put my hands on his face and feel the curve of his jawline and trace his cheekbones. He kisses my forehead then pulls me back in a hug. I just feel content sitting there with him. Soon, I shut my eyes and am pulled back to the platform with Chance's forehead pressed against mine.
We're both breathing heavy as we just hold each other, almost as if we were about to be ripped away from each other. I reach my hands up and feel the curve of his jawline and trace his cheekbones. He smiles at me and kisses my forehead. I don't want to break the moment but I have to ask him something:
"Wait, how could you've been waiting for thousands of years when your birth records say that you were born seventeen years ago?"
"Because they're fake."
I push back to look into his eyes. When I look at him I was expecting to see laughter in his eyes, but he was all seriousness. I fully push away from him and pick up my bag when he grabs my arm and says:
"I know you don't think I'm being honest, but it's true. I'll try to explain it to you, just don't walk away."
I rip my arm free and turn towards the edge of the platform, ready to get away from him. Right now, I just want to hurt him in the worst way possible. Frankly, I don't have another guy to fling myself all over in front of Chance, so this is the next best thing.
Before I'm able to drop down, an arrow strikes my jacket and pins me against the branch of the tree behind me. Chance already has an arrow strung and fires back at the direction it came from. I manage to pull out the arrow just in time to see Chance double over. An arrow sticks out of his side as he falls backwards.
Before he falls over the edge I grab him and heave him up. I manage to pull him up, but not before another arrow strikes his shoulder and sticks through to hit me. The arrow slices across my eyelid to the endpoint of my cheekbone. Blood starts pouring down my face and I can't open my left eye. Not because it hurt, but because of how much blood there is. Chance opens his eyes and looks at me. He sees my face and instantly grabs his bow and fires another arrow. This time we hear a thud, like a body hitting the ground from a long fall.
Chance pulled the arrow out of his side, but the arrow in his shoulder will take some work. He spun around and pulled me up off the ground. His hand went over my eye and I immediately felt better. He grabbed a cloth out of his bag and dumped a water bottle over it from my bag. He then started wiping the blood off of my face.
When I tried to move away, he gripped my face while he finished cleaning it. The arrow was still sticking through his shoulder, but he didn't seem to care.
When he was finished I pulled away while he tossed the cloth somewhere else on the platform. When he tossed the cloth, I noticed a marking on the inside of his left wrist. It looked like a dragon curled around a sword. It looked like the dragon was screaming. The marking was glowing with a blue fire. Chance noticed I was staring and reached out his arm towards me. By this time the blue flames were almost extinguished and I traced the lines of the marking. Energy still hummed where I touched the marking. I moved my fingers down the middle of the dragon and that was when Chance jerked away.
"I have nothing against you touching the mark, it's just that it hurts when you touch the middle."
"I'm sorry."
"You didn't know, therefore it's not your fault."
He grimaces as he tries to move his right arm. I grab the first aid kit out of his bag and grab the scissors. He looks at me while I cut his shirt open so I can get to his wound. His brown hair falls into his eyes as he tries to help me. When we finally get his shirt peeled off, I'm able to see how bad his wound really is. I gasp when I see the blood dripping down his chest. Not because I'm afraid of blood or anything, but because his blood is purple. I look up into his midnight blue eyes when he whispers:
"I was hoping the first time you saw me shirtless, we would be in a very different situation."
Even though he's injured I still smack him. He just grabs my waist and kisses my temple. I reach to his shoulder and unattach the tip of the arrow from the pole. I wind my arms around the back of his neck before whispering:
"You wish"
I then grab the back of the arrow and pull it out. He grunts and leans against me for support. I manage to toss the bloody pole away when I fall from him leaning on me. He uses his arms to brace himself from completely crushing me and that's when I notice that the wound on shoulder looks like a scratch now. Like it never really happened. Like he'd never been injured. Like he wasn't ever shot.
I lightly run my fingers across it when his fingers tangle in my hair and his mouth is pressed on mine. I again, let myself get lost in his kiss when I hear the shuffle of feet close to my head. I break away and see Adeline standing there while absentmindedly nudging a rock around.
I push against Chance's chest as I try to get up. I blush as I try not to think of the smooth, defined muscle that Chance keeps hidden underneath baggy sweatshirts and t-shirts.
I grab Adeline and pull her into a hug. Soon, the other kids join in and I almost elbow Chance when he joins in. This is the first time Chance has joined in a group hug. I guess it's about time that all of us change. Especially with what's about to happen next.