Chris chambers once upon a body

Toothpaste, a Story, and Leeches

At some point, early in the morning, the freight train woke us up. I looked around and didn't see Gordie. By the time I got to my feet, he was emerging from the woods. I figured he had just gone to the bathroom. I grabbed a little tube of toothpaste, that I keep stored in a pocket of my sleeping bag, and I grabbed my canteen of water. I did my best to brush my teeth or minimum rinse out any morning breath I had. I passed it around and everyone but Teddy grabbed some. 

"Teddy, are you not rinsing?" I asked

"No."

"Okay, why not?"

"yeah Teddy no one wants to smell your morning breath" commented Vern as he was still rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

"When a soldier is out in the wilderness, he does not possess those tools, he simply survives without them" responded Teddy attempting to stand in a cool and collected way

"Maybe so, but soldiers also don't go to the dentist and have teeth pulled because of cavities," I said taunting him slightly since I know he's afraid of the dentist. 

With that comment, he quickly snatched the toothpaste and canteen from my hands and stormed off in a slight huff.

"That's what I thought" I said quietly enough for myself 

I had Gordie cover for me so I could try to find somewhere to go to the bathroom. When I got back, Chris was holding all my stuff, neatly packed under his arm, and he had the other canteen ready for me to rinse my hands. I barely registered the events from the night before so I gave him a warm smile, feeling a slight blush paint my cheeks. 

I knew the necklace around my neck wasn't real gold, and anyone could tell it wasn't real. Logically speaking we could never afford it anyway since we're so young. Still, the necklace means a lot to me, its one thing for my brothers to get me something they think I would like, we get along well enough, and for anyone who I think sees me as their sister to get me something since its platonic, but with Chris, I know that our relationship isn't exactly dating, but we also aren't just friends. He's the only person to give me something that's not either related to me or sees me as their sister. And the fact that he gave it to me simply because he thought I would look nice in it and that I would like it. The thought made my heart feel swollen and brought a smile to my face. 

In no time we were back on the track and headed on our way. It was mostly quiet, most of us still tired from an almost sleepless night. Chris and I hung back behind the group, our pinkies linked as we walked, the rest of the guys walked up front together, Teddy on one side of the tracks, Gordie in the middle, and Vern on the other side. At one point, I started telling Chris a story Gordie once came up with. He had called it "The Unforgettable Miss". 

"Well there once was a young girl who grew up to be a very happy and successful woman that married a man she loved, but in her youth, she had claimed the hearts of many young men who claimed they were in love with her, even if she never dated any of them. She didn't have to, she had met her husband when they were young and they stayed happily together until death. However, those men stayed in love with her. Some men, even married men, claimed that if the miss ever came back, they would risk it all to marry her, and when asked why, they all stated that it was because she was simply unforgettable. They all said that her smile was so bright, they would never need the sun again, her hair so soft they would never need to feel silk, and her skin so fine, she had to be treated with utmost care so she would never mark that skin. Even as she aged and her skin would begin to be marked by her years, they held the same fire in their hearts for her. For the Miss, however, she only had eyes for her husband, the only man that treated her with care but not like she was a piece of glass, listened to her but also taught her when she was wrong, and someone who could defend her when she needed it but also let her fight her battles until she couldn't. Even in her youth, this caused rifts between friends, both hers and her future husbands alike, both only fought for the happiness of the other. When they finished school, they got married and managed to find a small apartment in the city thanks to the inheritance the young miss received from her parents who had passed the day after her graduation. Both the young Miss and her husband went to college and worked as they studied, eventually, the young Miss and her husband took on respectable jobs and started a family. Everyone in town knew who she was and even the younger generations would tell the tale of the unforgettable Miss"