Island Rush (57 page)

His hand was in mine as we moved between the edge of the trees and the bank of the river.  The ground was uneven and required my hand to stay in Casey’s since there were rocks we stepped along occasionally.  Like I observed before, it was different from what the creek was like back at camp.  This was a stronger river with a stronger current.  Also, the banks by our shelter were just smooth walking and long grass. The land was rough up here.

“Tell me something bizarre that only you can do and nobody else?” he asked.

“You mean like wiggling your ears for example?” I asked.

“Yeah, something like that,” he said as he helped me over a rock and the intruding roots.

“Well... I can bend my middle finger back until it touches the top of my hand.”

He stopped walking and turned to face me, stopping me as well.  A smile crept across his face.  “You are lying.  Show me.”

I chuckled and grabbed my middle finger with my other hand, bending it back.  I pushed it back until it hit the top of my hand and I glanced up to Casey.  With his eyes growing, brows raising, and his smile stretching, he looked from my hand up to my eyes.  He shook his head and looked back at my hand.  “Oh my god!  That’s really amazing!  Could you always do that?”

Chuckling, I let my hands fall to my sides. “Yeah, I don’t know why.  People usually find it creepy.  I guess because it isn’t natural.”

“Just because it isn’t natural doesn’t make it creepy – to me anyway.  It makes you unique.”

I smiled and met his eyes.  “What about you?”   

Taking my hand and walking again, he spoke.  “That, my lady, is something you will find hard to understand.”

“What do you mean?”

“I can run across the world and back before you even notice.  I am so fast, you won’t even be able to tell when I leave and when I am back.”

I bit my lip, holding back my smile. “Oh really?” We stopped once more, me facing him and crossing my arms. 

“Yeah, watch me.  I’ll do it right now.”

I stood, watching him just stand there silently.  I felt my need to laugh but held it in.  He kept his face serious while his eyes were filled with amusement.  As a couple seconds passed of just standing there, staring at each other, he nodded and smiled brightly.

“See that?  I was so fast, you didn’t even notice I was gone.”

I let shock and surprise take over my face with obvious sarcasm.  “What?!  There is no way! Oh, my god!  T-That is just too awesome!  You know what would be even better?!  If you take me with you.  Now, that would be amazing to feel.”

He gave me a look that was impressed at where I took this little game of his.  He offered me a stare that scolded me for challenging his unbelievable talent.  “I wish I could but, you see… we are short on time.  You know, with our long walk we need to continue, looking for berries…. 
Then
we need to make a fire, eat our fish,
and then
of course test out our bed.”

“Right, right....” I nodded.  “Because there is just absolutely no time to run around the world and waste more time, which I’m guessing is under a second to accomplish the task.” The sarcasm was loud and clear as our game went on.

He played his card next, his eyes dancing in mine.  “Well, your weight would drag me down, so…”

I elbowed him and let out my laughter.  “Casey!”

He broke as well and chuckled.  “What?  It’s true!  I’m not calling you fat but just saying, it would waste time!”

I was doubled over laughing. “Then I’ll try to be careful not to crush you tonight.”

He laughed and wrapped his fingers around mine again, holding my hand as we continued walking. 

“So, in other words, you have nothing really bizarre about yourself?”

“Other than that, nope,” he said.

We continued on up the river in the shade of trees we were next to.  That was how we spent the majority of the day: walking, talking and looking around us for any signs of the berries.  It was just us joking and finding out more about each other.  I loved every second of it.

It was near evening by the time we turned around and headed back along the river the same way we came.  With the hours of walking, we found no berries yet, but our mood never died down.  Well, that was until we saw something towards the start of the waterfall on our way back.

Tucked into the thick trees, I spotted something not common in this dark forest up here.  There was a small clearing, one filled with light.  We didn’t notice it when we walked by the first time, but it was clear now that there was an opening. It was a grassy stretch of land that moved away from the river and into the woods except, it wasn’t crowded.  There were trees that were widely spaced out in the long grass.

We decided to go that way since we would be able to find our way back to the river.  We saw that it was more of a meadow as we walked deeper.  While we walked through the patches of sun and the spots of grass, we asked more questions and kept our eyes searching.

“What are you allergic to?” I asked.

“Feathers and green beans,” he said.  “So if we ever find any more food on the island, and it happens to be green beans, I would be one angry man,” he laughed.  “What about you?”

“Some medications but mostly cats.”

“You’re allergic to cats?”

“Yeah,” I said.  “Wait, very important question: are you a dog person or a cat person?”

“Cat person.  I have two cats.  Since you are allergic to cats, do you like dogs more?”

Walking along in the longer grass through the patches of shade and rays of sun bleeding through, the trees became more spaced out.  A slight breeze erupted, blowing our hair around.

“Yeah I love dogs but never had one.  I don’t like cats anyway, though.  They are too independent, and some don’t like to play.  The main issue though is they make me sick.”

He smiled as he looked down at me.  ”Well, in case you were worried, if we ever make it back home, and when eventually, we would move in together, I would give my cats up for you.”

I blushed and smiled, my heart swelling at the fact that he said the word ‘when’ and not ‘if’ like he was for sure we would be living together.  I had no doubt either but just to hear him say that... it sent sparks over me.  Though we are already kind of living together, back home is a different type of place.  It would feel more official.   

“I can’t even imagine moving in with you back home.  That would be too amazing to believe.”

He smiled brightly, the thought of it crossing his mind as it showed on his face.  “It would be so different from living together here.  I would sell my house and buy us a better one.”

I smiled.  “What color is our house?”

He thought for a minute.  “A pretty white house.  It would be two stories but nothing big that we couldn’t afford.  We would have wooden floors and big windows.”

“And a big fridge full of food,” I added.

He chuckled.  “Absolutely.  No fish would be allowed in that fridge.”

“We could have a master bedroom with a nice big bed and blankets that would actually cover us and keep us warm.  We could have a huge deck against the house.”

He grinned widely.  “Then I could have my parents over for dinner, and we could sit out on the deck, have a cookout, just talk….  I really want you to meet them.”

I smiled sadly at him.  “I want to meet them too.  I don’t know if they would be too thrilled to meet me, though.”

Realization crawled over his face, but he didn’t let it affect his mood.  His smile never faltered at the thought of that future.  “They would get over your age.  Of course, that would all have to be after you graduate and they would know I had a relationship with my student before that.  But they would love you.  I know they would.”

My heart wouldn’t slow at the thought, the small, impossible thought of it.  I was happy enough, very satisfied, here on the island as it was starting to grow on me.  That didn’t mean I preferred a couple feet of space under a log wall over a beautiful, comfortable house.  I wanted to meet his parents.  The thought was scary too.

“That would be so nice,” I nodded.

“It would be.  You know—”

He cut himself off, pausing his words and stride.  Standing still in the grass and staring at something ahead, I stopped with him.  I glanced to where he was looking and when I didn’t see anything, I looked back to his face, wondering what he was seeing.

“Casey?”

“There is no way.”

“What?”  I wasn’t sure what he was talking about.  His face stayed blank.

He didn’t answer me, and I wasn’t sure if he heard me.  He grasped my hand harder, moving forward with purpose through the grass, guiding me at a quick pace ahead.  As we passed a few trees and a couple more, there was more brush ahead.  Bushes scattered.  I saw what drew his attention.

“Oh! Oh!”  I began laughing in joy, and I threw my arms up, jumping up and down and moving in excitement.  I heard him laugh as well, hugging me in glee.

Once I calmed down, we moved forward, approaching the bright red dotted bushes and scanning over all of them.  The plants were growing berries continuously.  There was a large group of these bushes, some red and some black.  We stared, not believing this.

“We got so lucky,” he said.  “We are not more than ten minutes away from the shelter.  Even though there was a good chance of finding berries since we are relatively close to where we found the others, this is just plain awesome luck.”

We moved forward and approached the bush closest to us.  We began to pick a couple berries, throwing each one into mouths.  Our hands were fast it seemed, eating the berries maybe too quickly. The taste though was different from what I recall… different from before and I realized why.  We were without berries for a while and to once again eat them, the taste was different since all we had been eating was fish.  It tasted much better now than I remembered.  Apparently, Casey felt the same.

His mouth full, his words struggled to be release.  “It’s so good!”

“We need to take some back,” I said, and we did just that.

We got back as the sky began to shift colors. I had gone back to the shelter and returned to the bushes with Casey.  We picked the berries we knew we were going to eat within a few days and dropped them into an empty carry-on bag.  When it was barely over a quarter full, we decided that would be more than enough.

He had set the carry-on of berries next to the fire, which he lit soon after.  Now, the fire was burning and brushing the sky with strokes of color.  Casey was sitting next to me after bringing the fish he caught earlier from where he anchored it in the lake.  He held the cooker with the fish over the fire, making our dinner.  As he did, we went on asking questions.

“Have you ever done anything illegal?” he asked.

I chuckled.  “Well, I am in a relationship with my teacher.  Does that count?”

He smiled.  “I guess.  Anything else?”

“Well, not reporting my mother’s murder, but I think I had good reason not to.  Other than that, not really.  What about you?”

He took the fish off the fire when it was finished and split it.  He handed me a piece before he took a bite of his.  Pressing into my side, his smile grew at my question. 

“Besides being with my student, having sex with you, not reporting a murder, and smoking weed… that’s about it.”

I chuckled as we ate our fish.  I reached beside us, taking a hand full of berries and throwing one by one in my mouth after I swallowed all of my fish.  Looking to him, I saw he wanted to say something but seemed reluctant to ask.  He eventually did.  “How would you feel about adding something to your list of illegal activities?”

I was caught off guard by his words.  “Well, that depends.”

“You said you were curious about smoking weed before.”

My eyes grew.  “Seriously?”

“Well, like I found out, nothing extra was in it.  It was completely fine, and that was the first time in years I did it.  I just wanted you to know that if you still wanted to, we could.  Only if you want to.”

My smile grew into a bright grin.  He wasn’t manipulating me, pushing me into trying to get me high or anything.  He wasn’t saying that to give him an excuse to do it.  The man was just saying that if I still wanted to, we could.  I did want to at least experience it. 

I bit my lip.  “Are you sure?”

“Yeah.  It’s just an option that’s there if you want to try.”

I placed my hand over his.  “Well then... I’m ready when you are.”

Chapter 58

“Ready?” I asked after I rolled the joint.  We were both sitting side by side on the outside of the shelter around the fire so the sky would catch the smoke.  My legs were crossed and his outstretched by the fire, his back pressed against one of the trees supporting our shelter.  I lit the joint and carefully offered it to Casey first. 

He took a deep breath before taking it.  He looked to me and smiled.  “Are
you
ready?”

I didn't only want to do this for the experience.  I was excited because I could experience this with Casey.  I was curious as to how it would feel.  At home, I always saw my dad and his friends smoking it.  Though I was curious, I was smart enough to say no when his friends asked if I wanted a hit.  I wasn’t going to trust them one bit.

I wasn’t with them now or my dad.  I was with Casey, a man I know I could completely trust.  When I nodded and gave him the final okay that I was ready and wanted to do this with him, he lifted it to his mouth, parting his lips slightly and breathing in.  His eyes closed as the feeling entered him before he opened them and moved it away from his lips.  He released the smoke from his mouth with a small cough.  He smiled to me before he handed me the joint.

Taking it, I carefully lifted it up to my lips, pressing it against my mouth before I slightly parted my lips and inhaled.  That same second, though, I moved the joint away, coughing obnoxiously.  Releasing the smoke unevenly with the coughing, I looked up to Casey. He wasn’t surprised. 

Holding it away from me as I coughed for a minute, I felt Casey’s hand gently graze over my back.  “You okay?  Coughing is normal.”

 ”Then I guess I am okay,” I chuckled slightly through the coughing. 

As my cough died down, I took a deep breath, catching my breath.  I sat there for a minute, letting my system calm down.  But a feeling soon began to float through my head.  One of dizziness. 

“Is it okay to feel a little dizzy?”

“Yeah, sometimes it happens.  It will go away after a while.”

I handed him the joint, still catching my breath as he inhaled again.  He occupied it for a bit and in that time, I noticed it started to take effect on Casey eventually.  A lazy smile started to spread over his lips.  His chest rose slightly as he breathed it in before lowering it and letting the smoke leave his mouth.  A second later, his eyes were on mine, a playful glint shining to me.  “Last time when I was high, I couldn’t give you the affection that I wanted to give you.  Now that we have no injury to worry about… I can give you as much affection as I want,” he smiled, his voice a mellow whisper when he spoke.  Making my grin widely, he cupped my neck with the joint in his other hand.  He leaned towards me, pulling my lips to his, kissing me. 

His lips consumed mine, pushing my lips open with his. I moved my mouth with his for that small second.  Then he pushed his sweet breath into my mouth.  Though the dizziness faded, the feeling of that breath swarmed in my head and scattered over my body.

When we broke away from each other, I couldn’t help but cough again.  “Oh God,” I choked out through the coughing. 

Making sure I was more prepared after my cough died, I took the joint from him and lifted it to my lips.  Though it resulted in slightly coughing again, I continued to do that until it no longer happened.  Something else though was obviously happening to me,

By that point, I started to feel it.  It was hard to explain the feeling that was shooting through my body, but it was… unbelievable.  The hairs on my arms and legs stood on end with a sweet sensation moving over me.  There was a form of release like there was nothing but this moment, and all the other parts of my life were irrelevant.  No bad memories, no worries, and no stress.  It was more than a little nice. 

“I feel so…”

“High?” he asked.  “Don’t worry, it’s just my kissing that causes that.”

I laughed.  “Your kissing causes a lot of things.”

He laughed with me, his eyes lazy with his smile in the firelight.  He took another hit after I gave him the joint, sighing with the release of smoke.  “Half the time it causes my friend in my pants to get high too.”

As our laughter filled the air with the smoke from the fire, we both looked to where he indicated.  Nope, no bump in his pants yet.  No high mountain to conquer yet.  No pogo stick yet.  We looked back up at each other.  “He’s a little shy right now.  Don’t worry.  If we keep smoking this, he’ll come out,” Casey said.  Jesus, it just made us laugh harder at what we joking around about.

We laughed hard enough that I had tears burning my eyes slightly.  I shifted, letting my legs stretch out before me like Casey’s.  Only I turned sideways, leaning until I was laying on my back.  I rested my head on top of his thigh, my eyes searching the sky and looking over the tiny diamonds.  But the main sight of the night would always be my personal dancer and occasional teacher. 

Looking up at him with my head resting on his outstretched thigh, he handed me the joint when he looked down to me. As I took it, his other hand lightly brushed my cheek.  I watched him, eyes digging in mine as I lifted it to my lips and took a hit again.  

His hand brushed my cheek and made more sparks fly over my body.  I moaned at the touch as he smiled down to me.  “Your skin is so smooth.  I could run my hands all over you with no interruption.  My little trouble maker is so beautiful,” he chuckled with me.

“What if everyone in the world was sexy or beautiful?”

“It wouldn’t make you any less sexy or beautiful.”

“Good,” I said looking up at him.  “Hey, have you ever ate mashed potatoes before?”

He laughed and raised his eyebrows.  “Who hasn’t?  Of course, I have.  That was the best part about dinner as a kid.  Making a mountain of mashed potatoes, drowning it in gravy, taking a few bites, then throwing the rest against the wall.”

We erupted into laughter again.  I found my side hurting already from how hard we have been laughing.  “You would throw your mashed potatoes against the wall?”

“Well, I had a right.  I was three or four.”

“That gave you a right?”

“Uh yeah, it sure did!  Mom’s cooking was terrible.”

I laughed.  “Well, I want some mashed potatoes.”

“Yeah?  I want to be able to shower you with mashed potatoes.  I’m sorry to inform you that we are out at the moment.”

Out of all the things that we found growing on this island, potatoes wasn’t one of them.  And I wanted some mashed potatoes right now.  “The first thing we do if we get off this island is fly to another island that grows the things.” Seriously, was it so much to ask for?  We survived for this long; where was the reward?  Where were the mashed potatoes?  That was the million dollar question.

“You could smash up the berries and pretend they are mashed potatoes,” he suggested.  “Man, you’re so sexy when you want mashed potatoes.”

I chuckled.  “You’re sexy all the time.  Beat that.”

Laughing, he moved his hand under me where his leg was, grasping the top of my back.  He lifted me up from my comfortable position laying against him with my head on his thigh.  He stopped an inch from my face, his arm around me holding me up to him.

“Hey, I was comfortable there!”

“This doesn’t make up for it?” he said before he brought his lips down to mine.

He kissed me deeply as he kept me held against him with his one arm.  A soft vibration made its way against my lips when I heard him lightly moan.  It left warm shivers all over my body.  I kissed him back fiercely, my hand that didn’t hold the joint wrapping around his neck.

 ”Oh,” I moaned when our lips broke slightly, his face still a few inches from mine.

“You are hotter than that lovely fire we made, hotter than that annoying sun every day, hotter than any woman I have ever seen. And yes, you are hotter than my amazing dancing moves.  Understand?  Beat that,” he smirked, though his words were very genuine.  “Wasn’t that worth a few seconds of no comfort?”

I laughed as I watched his loving smile.  I pecked him on his lips once more before he lowered me back to my laying position.  Resting my head against his lap again, I handed him the joint.

“It was worth it, but that still doesn’t solve our mashed potato problem.”

We talked and fooled around for who knows how long despite my need for potatoes.  I tried distracting myself from the craving.  The feeling faded as we continued talking and taking hits.  I couldn’t remember how much time passed.  The night stayed strong as I continued laying on the ground with my head resting on his thigh, looking up to him as we passed the joint or set it down beside us.

“Dude, your nose looks huge from this angle,” I said, looking up at him from where my head rested in his lap.

He scoffed.  “Is that a problem?”

“Not at all.  It’s cool looking.”

“That’s what I thought,” he said.

“Though it’s a mystery why you snore sometimes.  Your nose is huge.”

He laughed, his teeth shining in the firelight.  “Well, that makes me feel great.”

“Hey, you know you are just as beautiful to me as I am to you.”

He shrugged.  “From any angle, you look like a princess.”

“Shut up,” I said and laughed.  “Stop being sweet to me.”

“Why?  I like to see you blush.  Plus, you know I mean it.”

“What about in school?  I know you fell for me during the school year but did you find me attractive before that?”

“Not at first.  When I did fall for you, I started to notice you more, notice all the fine details. I wasn’t sure how I hadn’t seen it before, but I eventually saw you as the most beautiful woman. I checked you out enough to make it obvious. Unfortunately, you always caught me.”

We chuckled as my memory took me back to around that time.  I recalled calling him out on it that one day.  “I always secretly wondered if it was just me you looked at or if you were a pervert and looked at every female student of yours.”

“Nope.  Just you.  When you would catch me, I always felt so much worse.  I felt the guilt much deeper, knowing it was noticeable.  What about you?  I’m suspicious, Janice.  I didn’t catch you looking at me nearly as often as you caught me,” he teased.  “You know, I always secretly hoped you did.”

I laughed harder.  “Of course, I did!  I tried looking at you all the time.  But you were staring at me the whole time, I didn’t have much of chance to check you out without you noticing.  When you would write on the board, though, I always got a great view,” I said, smirking with a snicker.  “I would always check you out though when you were super busy and too occupied to notice.  You were the most perfect man that I had ever seen so I couldn’t help it,” I chuckled.  “I hated how perfect you looked.  It didn’t seem natural a lot of the time.  That didn’t stop me from thinking that you had to be a great guy in bed.”

Laughing and handing me the joint after a while, he asked, “Was I?”

“Yes,” I smiled brightly.  “I can’t even begin to describe how wonderful that felt.”

He ran his hand through my hair, draping it across his lap as he ran his fingers through it.  “You were the best sex I ever had,” he said. 

My eyes grew after setting the joint aside.  “Seriously?”

“What do you mean ‘seriously’? Yes! Of course, you were,” he said in a voice that told me that should be obvious.  “How can you ask?  I didn’t think I would ever stop.”

It was a shocking.  I had no experience, no reason to be good at it.  For this man to tell me I was his best, a man in which could get any woman he wants, was shocking.  I didn’t understand. 

“I was so positive that it would be Jill or someone else.  I mean, it wouldn’t really bother me because I know you pick me and love me over everybody else.  But sex?  It’s hard to believe.”

Looking at him, I saw him blush, but his smile grew.  He began to laugh.  “Hard to believe?  Guess what else is hard?  Just thinking about it is making my naughty little friend come out of his hiding place,” he laughed.

My heart jumped at that.  When I lifted my head and slowly turned over, laying on my stomach, I propped myself up on my elbows.  I looked to where his bulge was showing.  Hello, mini Casey.  I smiled and waved at it.

We chuckled at the bump in his pants as I looked up to his face and smirked as his eyes met mine.  “See, I told you.  Just thinking about it makes me excited,” he said.

I chuckled and looked back at the hard bump in his pants.  “Bad boy,” I scolded the bulge.  Casey laughed harder.  “You’ve just got your master in a lot of trouble,” I told it, laughing.

“I’m in a lot of trouble?  What did I do?  It was his fault!” he said, outraged, pointing in accusation to his pants.

I bit my lip.  “Then I guess we will just have to tame the little beast won't we?” I said, not feeling at all nervous at what I was about to do.  I felt confident and excited.  I moved my hand over his bulge, staring up into his eyes.  I knelt up from where I was on my stomach, looking at him evenly. 

His eyes grew instantly.  It was clear he loved the feeling of my hand, especially when his lips parted.  I could hear his breath move unevenly before he let out a soft moan.  “Punish him, baby,” he said, weakly laughing with how much he was enjoying this too.  “He wants to do bad things to you.”