With Flecks of Gold

“Are you going to kiss me?” I blurted. I couldn’t help it, I was on a roll. Really, I was expecting to catch him off guard with such a question, but it didn’t faze him in the least. He smiled gently. I could feel my stomach bouncing, flipping, and hitting the walls of my insides.

It was weird… I had kissed guys before. I had had boyfriends before. But you still get the same feeling when you kiss someone different, like it’s your first.

And normally, I wouldn't kiss a stranger, ever. Not even someone who I had known for months. But, I figured, I was stranded out here on an island for God knows how long, so what the hell, right? What have I got to lose?

He stared into me until I felt like there was nothing else to look at. He knew everything about me in that moment. He knew all my secrets. It was scary… I felt violated, but at the same time, I needed someone to know me. I needed someone to know who I was and still love me. Sadly, I didn’t really think that was going to happen anytime soon.

“Should I?” His words tickled my face. Surprisingly, even after spending perhaps months trapped in a forest, his breath still smelled shockingly minty and delicious. Unfortunately, this only increased the temptation that I had to kiss him.

“You probably don’t want to.” I tried my best to rip my gaze from him like paper. But the attempt was more like trying to tear a phonebook. “I’m weird.” He stared at me curiously for a few seconds until a playful smile danced across his complexion.

“What a coincidence.” He started, trailing a finger up my arm. “So am I.”

Damn his fingers.

He trailed them up my skin, leaving goose-bumps raising behind them. He drew a pattern all the way up my arm, across my neck, and to the tip of my chin. “What a nice pair of lips ya’ got dere'.” He started leaning forward. “Can I taste em’?”

His lips were nearly inches from mine when I stopped him. “Are you sure you wanna do that?” He smiled and laughed again.

“I’m positive, love.”

My walls crumbled into his words and I gave up the fight. If he wanted to kiss me, he could kiss me. I guess I didn’t really have that much of a problem with it. Infact, I wanted it.

His lips were just a breath away from mine.

Each moment passed by in a flash. Was I going to regret this later? Probably, Lauren, probably.

Our lips brushed. I stared into his ocean blue, abysmal eyes and I couldn’t pull away. He took a long breath, and went for it.

His lips were warm and gentle compared to the cold, harsh air around me. He tasted like melted chocolate on an icy winter day. The kind of melted chocolate that you would take in a big cup full, the kind that's really thick and smooth. The kind that you would slowly tip the mug back and it would dribble down your chin.

Pure ecstasy.

My eyes slowly fluttered closed as my mind and body fully registered the situation. I leaned in a little closer, closing an all too obvious gap between us. He wrapped a hand around my head to guide me towards him. Once I felt my upper torso press a little too comfortably into his bare chest, I knew this had to stop.

I abruptly pulled away. This was too much. But the look on his face right then was even worse. He looked at me with sad, puppy dog eyes. Even in the darkness of nighttime I could see his lips were beginning to become red and raw. That was my doing.

“I-is there a problem, love?” His tone was insecure.

“No…” I trailed off. Letting myself become suddenly interested in the rest of the tent, I avoided his gaze. I found myself thinking again about Harry. How roughly and rudely he had assaulted me just a couple days ago. My wounds still throbbed but I had been trying my best not to think about it.

“Did I do something wrong?” He suddenly became panicked. It was sweet, really, how he didn’t want to mess this up.

“No, No!” I reassured, laughing a little in attempt to lighten the tension. “It’s just, the last time someone kissed me…”

Harry’s oppressive nature bore through my thoughts. I cringed.

Niall placed a soothing hand on my shoulder and coaxed me to continue. “’Da’ last time someone kissed ya’ what, love?” He began to move his hand in a small circular motion.

I sighed and tried again. “The last time someone kissed me… is kinda the reason I have all of these bruises.” Niall’s hand stopped moving.

“Oh, my god.” He sounded disgusted with himself. “Love, I swear, if I had known dat’ I would have never—“

“It’s okay, Niall…” I attempted to soothe him in return “I—I liked it.” What is it with me and letting words just fall out of my mouth?

His head shot over to meet my gaze. “I-I mean—“ I began to stutter. “It’s not like I LIKED it liked it. Well, I DID like it but in the sense that it was okay… like… It wasn’t a BAD thing to… you know…” It was his turn to laugh at me know.

“It’s okay darlin’ I understand. But still, if I had known dat’ was what happened to ya’ then I wouldn’t have done anything… ya’ know… even if I wanted to.” He let silence fill the tent for not even a second. “So… I mean… well… how DID this happen… The whole… bruises… thing…” I could tell that question had been on his mind for a while now. I guess it was time to tell him.

“Well, let’s see…It all started when I was doing homework in my mom’s laboratory." I began without hesitation, wanting to get this over with. "I found an article of hers that could possibly alter life as we know it, so I went to confront her about it when she totally brushed me off and this really creepy co-worker of hers came over to me after he found me snooping in places I wasn’t supposed to be and he well… Kinda tried to beat the crap outta me and rape me at the same time… And the rest is sort of a blur…”

There was an awkward silence before someone spoke again. I really had an interesting way with words.

“What was the article about?” Niall pressed. His tone was odd, almost cautious, and slightly panicked. As the break of dawn began to bleed across the sky I could read something that looked like realization on his face.

“A super-volcano eruption.” Niall stared blankly to the door of the tent, opposite of where we were sleeping.

“Lauren,” He started again, looking deep into my eyes. “Do you remember the boy's name that did this to you?”

“It was Harry.” I choked at his name. Niall put his face in his palms and took a deep breath.

“Lauren, we have to get ya’ back ta’ Nebraska right now and we need ta’ get back ta’ dat’ lab.” He suddenly got up and began to frantically fumble through his duffle bag.

“Wait… what?” I sat myself up on my knees and focused my gaze on him. “What are you talking about? What’s going on?” He threw my dirty pants in my direction as he dressed himself.

Struggling into his pant leg, he stated; “Look, I can tell ya’ on da’ way but we need ta' go. NOW. Just, come on.” He yanked me upward and pulled me out of the tent. I had barely gotten my pants on.

He ferociously yanked me through the trees and shrubs and back towards the beach.

“Niall wait—“

“Dere’s no time ta’ wait.”

“The tent, Niall, the tent!”

“I’m comin' back, don’t worry.”

“Why in the world would you come back here?”

“I have business ta' attend to, look, I’ll tell ya' everything on da' way dere’.”

I sighed in frustration and just went with it. Whatever he was planning, I wasn’t going to know until we were ‘on da' way dere’’.

He yanked me to shore and I could still see where me and my tail were washed up on the beach. He planted me in the middle of the sand and held out his hands in front of him. “Wait here.” He demanded. I nodded and noted him digging through the bushes just beside the coast. I laughed to myself as he dragged out a motorboat. He really DID come prepared.

He hefted the metal structure to the waters edge with ease. “Come on,” He coaxed. I ran over to where he was standing. “Get in.” He demanded. I wordlessly followed his orders. After I had seated myself comfortably, he pushed the boat into the water and jumped in himself.

I watched him curiously as he took out a compass, used an oar to point the boat, and started the motor.

‘This would be so much easier if I could just get in the water.’ I thought. ‘But then again, I have no idea where I’m going.’

After he had gotten his duffle bag and other supplies in order he sat comfortably across from me. I eyed him again as he took out a water bottle, and after taking a huge swig, handed it to me and proceeded in steering the boat every once in a while, keeping a hand on the motor.

Frankly, he looked pretty hot doing all of this stuff, if I may say so myself. But right now wasn’t really the time or place to be having those sort of feelings for someone. But as I looked around to the barren wasteland around us, I began to question that thought.

“So, Niall, care to explain now what this is all about?”

“Explain what?” God, guys are so clueless.

“Well, first of all, why are we in such a hurry?” Niall shook his head.

“Look, let’s just say I know Harry, and he’s up ta’ no good.” My eyes widened at his response.

“What?! You know Harry?!”

“Ya’, I know him.”

“From what?”

“It’s a long story, love.”

“Tell me, please? We have a long time.” Niall sighed, took the water bottle from me and took another gulp from it.

“We were band-mates.”

“And what does that have to do with anything?”

“You’d be surprised, love.”

“Can you just tell me?” He sighed again and sat to face me more comfortably.

“We were in a band together. Not just any band, like one of those garage bands dat’ play in cafés, but a pop band. A world famous pop band.”

“Well, I didn’t know who you were.” Niall laughed.

“And, honestly, I was a little relieved at that, love.” I crossed my arms and signaled him to continue. “Anyway,” He began again. “As a world famous pop band, we had our connections.” He squeezed his eyes shut and opened them again. “We had connections with other bands… celebrities…” He paused again. “Da’ government.” This was beginning to frighten me a little. I urged him to continue. “Let’s just say dat’ da’ government doesn’t really think things are goin’ dat’ well.”

“Which government?” I blurted. Niall laughed darkly.

“All of em’.” My mind was racing but I forced myself to keep listening.

“Do ya’ know da’ story of Adam and Eve, Lauren?” That was a strange question.

“Well, yes… but why is that relevant?”

“It’s sorta like dat’ in dis’ case, see, da’ government isn’t too happy with da' way our society is turnin' out. At all. So long story short, they figure it would be best if dey’ save everyone dey’ thought was ‘fit’ such as celebrites, doctors, officials, scientists and whatnot, then kill off all the rest in order ta’ start a new, better world full of people.”

I stared at him blankly, but apparently he wasn’t finished.

“You see, dis’ ‘super-volcano’ you were tellin’ me about is pretty much da' table-turner. It’s not natural. Dat’ volcano, in reality, is dormant. Inactive. It most likely would never erupt ever again, naturally, that is.” He gave me a moment, I assume to let everything soak in. But I don’t think that even years would be long enough. “You see, da’ government is workin’ behind da’ scenes. Very advanced earth scientists, such as your mom I’m assumin', are workin’ under cover, literally beneath the volcano. Dey’ are gonna get dat’ baby ta’ erupt, one way or another.”

Notes

Hey, guys.

So the truth is, I was thinking of giving up on this story. But, today, I was feeling bored so I decided that maybe it was a good idea to perhaps pick it up again.

So here I am.

Anyway, those of you who are still reading, I hope that you're interested in how the story is unfolding because I have a ton of ideas in my head that I'm hoping to incorporate in here.

But anyway, please please PLEASE comment and tell me what you think. :)