Page 15 of Protect

“Fuck!” I call out. My one leg lands in the ash while the other is still under me, contorted in a weird way. My arms are thrown over my head and that’s when I feel it.

It feels like I’m moving closer and closer to a giant whistling kettle. Until I’m walking right through the heat of its steam, until it’s like my face is in front of the spout and I’m inhaling all that steam with one deep breath. It feels like my insides are melting on contact. The white hot powdery ash from the pit singes every part of me and my left leg is burning.

I think I call out for help, but I can’t be sure. Faces flash behind my eyelids and the burning continues as everything begins to fade to black.

Harsh realization hits me as I start slipping from consciousness. I’m going to die the same way Jacob did, because I’ve just fallen into an ash pit.

“There are tadpoles in the water, it can't bethatpolluted,” Violette says, standing at the edge of the creek.

The end of May sun is hot, and it lands on her bare shoulders in a dappled pattern as it filters through the trees. She’s got her long, wavy hair in a big ponytail, and she’s wearing an oversized Green Day tank top. I can’t help but check her out a little from behind. If she tucked it in it would show off her curves a little more. She always seems to want to cover them, and I can’t for the life of me figure out why.

I chuckle and point to the edge of the Elk Creek. “There are also beer cans, so yeah, it can.”

Violette wrinkles her nose. But she knows I’m right.

“Bush parties… kids come down here and party all the time,” I tell her, knowing she has never gone to one. Violette is the quiet twin compared to Jacob’s more ready for anythingpersonality. “The town is talking about having security posted to stop the parties and the littering.”

“They should,” she says, like it genuinely bothers her. “I don’t know why the crew you run with thinks they just own everything and have the right to mess with it. These woods and this creek belong to the animals that live here,” she says in a heated tone.

In the two weeks we’ve been spending time together she’s gotten a little bolder, but I can tell sometimes she still stops herself from saying exactly how she feels.

I raise my hands in defense. “I haven’t been to one since New Year’s. I’m too busy with rugby and trying to pass bio, but I’ll be sure to note that at the next school shithead convention.”

She laughs in spite of herself, trying to maintain that pissed off, tree hugging vibe. I never noticed how pretty Violette was when she laughed before. I mean, I’ve seen her a lot, obviously, it’s not like being around her is a new thing. I practically live at her house with Jacob when I’m not playing rugby—at least, I did before he started hanging around that dumbass Max Peters all the time—but I’ve never really been alone with her before, not this often. I thought it would be weird, but it’s actually been kind of fun.

The thing I think I like the most? We always have a lot to talk about. It’s easy for us to have an actual conversation. A smart conversation, which is hard to come by at our school. Violette doesn’t care about the latest trends or what sheshouldsay, it’s like she can’t help but be herself and that makes me less afraid to be myself around her.

“Double or nothing, Elk Creek has more pollutants than Petersburg Creek.”

“You’re on,” she says, pulling a glass vial out of her backpack and filling it at the water’s edge.

We’ve been betting all afternoon on which soils and water samples would contain the most hazardous pollutants, and we’ve had to go to some pretty unsavory places. Mainly, I’ve had to. She made me take a sample from the disgusting locker room floor at the local gym. Some weird shit goes on in that locker room and I had to wait for two bare assed older men to hit the showers to get it.

“For someone who ‘doesn’t even understand protons and electrons,’” she says in a voice that I think is supposed to be mine, but it’s a piss poor attempt. “You’re pretty confident.” She nudges me with her elbow and I get a crazy idea.

“When—not if—I win this bet, we’re going to see the newAnnabellemovie and you’re keeping your eyes open the whole time,” I say to her.

Violette looks up at me, the smile falling from her full, pink lips.

Am I actually asking Violette on a date?

She looks up at me with those pretty eyes, and they widen in surprise. She’s Jacob’s sister and it’s possible I’m reading this whole vibe between us wrong, so maybe I should take it back, but I don’t. I just wait, curious to see if she wants to spend more time with me too.

“Why would you want that as your prize?” she asks without hesitation. I give her points for being straightforward.

I shrug and shape the brim of my hat, looking out at the water. “I don’t know.” I turn to face her. “Just thought it could be fun to hang out when we aren’t scaling the fences at the waste station or trying to locate the town’s deadliest soils, don’t you think?”

Violette shrugs but it’s like she’s searching for a response. Something about catching her off guard is appealing to me. The hot, early summer sun shines onto her face, a thin layer of sweat glimmers on her cheeks and her forehead. A vision, thatI’m in no way prepared for, of Violette getting sweaty in other scenarios, runs through my mind.

“I’ll go if you win, but there’s not a chance I’ll be keeping my eyes open the whole time, Kingsley. I could barely make it through that movie you and Jacob watched last weekend.” Her words cut into my daydream of me pulling the scrunchie from her long hair and watching it fall around her shoulders.

Fuck.I blink to push it out of my head.

“Jeepers Creeperswasn’t even scary.” I laugh, remembering her tucked into the couch like a little burrito hiding behind a pillow.

“And you have to get your own popcorn, I’m not sharing with you. You eat way too much,” she adds.

It’s true, I do eat a lot.

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