Page 23 of All Your Days
He points to the trailer Malcolm is currently sitting on top of, a short distance from the camp. Jacob’s laughing at me, too, and I glare at him, even though I can feel the first bubbles of laughter inside me. The water is cooling rapidly, though, and it’s leaving me with goosebumps everywhere.
“Yeah sure.” Jacob nods at Lou half heartedly and starts walking towards me.
And suddenly, I don’t feel quite so cold anymore. No, Jacob’s stare is more than enough to heat me right up again.
“Didn’t you say that your job is washin’ the testing vials? How’re you so bad at this?” Jacob teases—teases!—as he approaches, and I just about fall over dead. I didn’t even know he knewhowto tease.
I gasp loudly in pretend horror. “Are you sayin’ I’m bad at my job?”
That’s right, Jacob, just two more steps…I watch as he unwittingly closes the gap between us, then just when he’s in reach, I give into the wild impulse in me and flick two big handfuls of water at his chest.
There is no possible way to hold back my laughter this time. Not when he stops mid stride, his eyes impossibly wide with shock. I double over in a wheezing fit of giggles, completely unwilling to get a hold of myself.
“I can’t believe you just—” he gasps again when I get him for a second time.
Water splatters his shirt and pants, making the fabric cling to his body. I can’t even enjoy it—my eyes are squeezed shut and filled with tears.
“That’s it, you’re gonna—” Jacob doesn’t finish the threat, just flings a cup full of cooling water at my head and darts backwards, waiting for my retaliation.
And it’son.
I snag up a cup of my own and we’re both dodging each other as we race to scoop water and toss it at each other before the next person has a chance. We dance around the dishes bench, darting this way and that, trying to stop the other person from filling their cup while collecting our own.
It’s childish and stupid—not just because we’re now saturated with dirty dish water—but it’sfun. It might just be the most fun I’ve had since I can remember.
Breathless, I manage to fake going one way, before darting around the other side of the long trestle bench, arriving victoriously at the basin.
Except, when I get there the water is gone.
“Bugger.Ooft.” Accidentally—or not, I really don’t mind—Jacob hasn’t realised I’ve stopped, and he slams into my back, pinning me between his chest and the table.
Really, really not a terrible place to be.
“Oh.” Looking down over my shoulder into the nearly empty basin, the whisper of his disappointment tickles my ear.
I can pinpoint the exact moment he realises our position. His body turns rock solid with tension and time stops. My eyes fall shut and I hold perfectly still, not daring to even breathe.
Once, when I was out foraging as a teen, we almost got caught in a storm. Not the red rains, just a regular thunderstorm. We barely had enough time to run back to the safety of the walls. We heard the first rumbles and the air changed. It was like it was vibrating. Our hair stood on end as we all bolted for cover. Lightning struck just as the last of us made it in.
This moment feels just like that one. Electrified.
I swear I can feel the thudding of his heart against my spine.
My body feels so wound tight, I’m about to snap. All I have to do is turn my head and he isright there. But I am too scared of scaring him off. Too scared that it’s in my head, that I’ve madethis whole thing between us up out of some childhood hero-worshipping fantasy.
The breath held in my lungs shudders out of me when he presses in closer. His chest pushes against my back, forcing me to lean forward over the bench just slightly. Just enough to get a taste of what it would be like for him toreallybend me over the bench. My cock swells rapidly, all too eager to give it a try. Malcolm on watch be damned.
But then something soft traces my cheek. A cloth? What?
“We should probably get dry. It’s a clear night. It’s gonna get cold.”
What in the actual fuck? I am really not imagining the stiff length against my ass, or the way he angles his hips into me with one final push, before he shoves himself off and away from me.
My back is immediately freezing where his wet shirt soaked into mine.
I don’t turn. I can’t. I feel… I don’t know, but it’s too much and it’s all jumbled up inside of me. He runs from me. I can hear the sound of his boots as he retreats to his tent, right next to mine. Only inches between his cot and mine.
There’s the zip of his tent and then, “Night, Eli.”
