Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Love Story Part 3

I woke up in the morning completely stuffed up. That is what happens when you are jammed into a room with fifteen other girls and someone turns the heat WAY up. The condensation on the windows was starting to clear as someone decided to air out the room. I lay in bed for a moment thinking about Mongoose. I imagined the way he looked at me the night before. It was different, I had never had a boy look at me with such....what was it exactly? It was like he could actually see me.

He wasn't like Tyler. Tyler. Uh oh. I was technically still dating him, I was also supposed to have called him every night. He was expecting it. I felt a little bad and decided I would do it when I had some free time later that day.

The day went by in a blur and any thoughts of Mongoose were interrupted by how to handle homesickness and how to sing "I'm getting eaten by a boa constrictor." There wasn't much time for romance, not until we had a break. It was sunny and warm out and like foolish youth we decided to swim in the lake. Well, the boys swam showing off who could go farthest and fastest. The girls layed out in bikinis and soaked in the sun. Occasionally a boy would dare a girl to jump in the freezing lake. It was one of those happy moments in life where you think about nothing but the sun. Well the sun and boys. Mongoose was of course showing off in the water and at one point had jumped in the lake only to discover the large rock that everyone was warned about. He scraped his foot pretty badly but managed to survive.

I was keeping my eye on him. He was a flirtatious boy that was for sure. Doubts began sinking in as I watched him throw Waffles in the lake. She was pretty, naturally blonde, and loved to laugh. She was also older than him but he seemed to like her and she seemed to like his attention. There was also Kennedy. She was your typical girl-next-door. A little shy, but very sweet and pretty. He flirted with her also. Doubts dissolved however, because my towel was right next to his. He came back from a race to the floating dock to rest. He lay down next to me and smiled. I was shielding my eyes from the sun, I had forgotten my sunglasses.

" Need some help?"
"Huh?," I was startled from my thoughts.
"Here, I can block the sun from your eyes for you." He stated. It didn't seem like much, but I was in heaven. He was showing extra attention to me and even blocking the sun from my delicate eyes. How chivalrous right?

We chatted a little and then he decided I needed to get in the lake. It was cold, there was no way I was going in. But like any sixteen-year-old girl, she thrives on this type of flirting. When the boy has his arms around you and you are struggling and giggling trying to break free, shrieking at the very thought of the ice cold water.

Splash.

I was in, but I had pulled him in with him. He smiled and splashed me in the water for a moment before we both realized it was ridiculously cold. I pulled myself out and wrapped up in a towel. I shivered on the dock and after Mongoose warmed himself up, he took every effort to rub my back in attempts to amend him throwing me in.

Everything was working out perfectly.


The next day I was assigned to help create some blindfolds. We stripped the heavyweight cotton fabric that covered some old mattresses and used some heavy duty scissors to cut. We finished our task and were talking when I decided to play around with the scissors. Who plays around with heavy duty scissors I have no idea? But I underestimated their power and eventually I managed to practically chop off the top of one of my fingers. I was bleeding. Pretty badly. I ran to the first-aid kitchen to see what I could do.

I stepped into the room to discover Mongoose sitting on the counter pouring something onto the cut in his foot he had received from the lake the day before. He winced a little and then smiled when he saw me. My heart skipped a beat as I casually walked to the first-aid cupboard next to him. A brown paper towel was wrapped around my finger as I clumsily tried to find something to fix my finger.

"Here, let me help. I'm trained in first aid." He goofily remarked. We all were. We had to be to work up at camp. But of course I let him take over. Partly because I really had no idea how to bandage my finger and partly because I really wanted him to bandage it for me.
"Sit up on the counter, I need to examine this." I hopped up on the counter and he unwrapped my finger.
"WOW! This is a real cut! How did you manage this?"
I explained my stupidity in playing with the heavy duty scissors. Turns out I had cut about a half an inch into the top of my left ring finger. It flapped open like jewlery box to expose the pinks and reds of my hand. Mongoose grabbed the bottle he had been using before.
"What is that?" I questioned.
"Well, this is hydrogen peroxide. We need to clean out your finger first to get rid of any bacteria that might cause infection. It kinda stings but it makes sure your wound it clean."
"No way. I saw your face when you were pouring it on your cut, I do not want that stuff."
"Come on, I'll do it and you can just scream away," He flashed that smile and I melted.
He held my hand over the sink and poured away.
"Ow. OW. OWWWWW!" I jumped off the counter and started contorting in a strange dance to attempt to relieve the painful sensation of tiny bubbles attacking your finger. He laughed and told me I could rinse it out.
I sighed in relief and he told me to sit back on the counter so he could dress the wound.
I hopped up and waited as he sorted through the cabinet. He seemed to know his stuff. He wasn't just some blonde jock, he was kinda smart. And nice. And cute. And...my thoughts stopped as he took my finger in his hand and started wrapped a piece of gauze around it.

He looked up into my eyes.
His eyes were blue, and so crisp.
I gulped. He continued to bandage my finger slowly.
Everything seemed so slow.
It was like time was frozen and in we were the only two people who existed in the entire world.
My whole body started to feel really funny. It started to buzz. It was an electricty that I will never forget. I was possessed by some other energy besides my own. My mind was blank except for the sound of my pounding heart. This moment went on forever.
He seemed to notice it too. Our eyes had not separated and his expression no longer a smile but a look of surprise.
He had felt it too, that buzzing. That electricity.
I thought he might kiss me, but he didn't. The moment was too intense for that, although a kiss would have been perfectly fine with me.

It was like our souls connected and saw each other. Whatever it was, the moment had to end eventually. He strangely muttered, "There ya go," and I equally as strangely replied with a quick, "Thanks." He cleaned up the kitchen and I wandered outside in daze.

I felt like I had just gotten in a car accident. You know the feeling? After it happens and your body is totally charged with adrenaline and you realize the rest of the world was still moving while you got jerked by a seat belt. Your body shivers to regain control, your mind alternatly races and is completely serene. You move thinking, "Did that just happen?" and you can't believe it because it all just seems too surreal.

That was what it was like walking out of that kitchen. I think however the strangest moment was when I looked down at my finger and realized it was my left ring finger. My LEFT RING finger. The finger that someone someday will hold as they slip a diamond onto after they have asked the infamous question, "Will you marry me?"

 Click here for Part 4

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