His Cure

Blind man's bluff

Arthur and I still hadn't spoken a word to each other since the incident a week ago. Obviously the girls asked me why we weren't speaking so I told them that Arthur had found the photo. They had apologised for taking it after they realised that it was no longer funny but that didn't fix things. The only thing Arthur and I exchanged was the odd awkward or frustrated look. But for some reason, I was suddenly staring at him as he chopped firewood by the lake. "You know, they say that a drunk man's actions are a sober man's thoughts." Karen piped up from next to me. "What?" I replied, being broken from my stare and looking at her. She gave me an all knowing look. I wasn't quite sure what to make of that but I knew what she was insinuating. I quickly glanced back over to Arthur and, to my surprise, he was looking back at me. I looked away before promptly standing, clearing my throat and saying, "Excuse me." as I made my way towards my tent.

The rest of the day went by as a blur as it was pretty uneventful and it was soon dark.
I wandered over to the campfire and sat myself on the ground, warming myself as I did so. A few minutes passed as idle chat began amongst the gang.
"Ah, Mr Morgan. Join us!" Pearson called out. I watched as Arthur analysed the group and it looked like he was about to take Pearson up on his offer when suddenly, his eyes landed upon me. "I'm alright, thanks." He stated quickly. I rolled my eyes before quickly standing and walking towards Arthur. "For god's sake, this is getting ridiculous!" I exclaimed. Arthur was clearly shocked as I walked right past him and made my way towards the forest. I could feel his eyes burning into the back of my head but the lack of footsteps I heard showed that he hadn't moved. I turned on my heels to face him before adding "Are you coming or not?" He pondered it for a moment, as if he was about to step into a cage with a hungry tiger, before following behind me like a lost puppy.

I finally stopped walking when we were far enough away so as to not be heard by anyone else and turned to face him. "We can't just ignore each other for the rest of our lives!" I exclaimed as he stared at me. He sighed, before quickly replying. "Alright, look listen, we were drunk, it didn't mean nothin' so lets just move on yeah?" You would have thought that I would have been happy with that reply but, for some reason, I wasn't. I quickly thought back to what Karen had said and before I could stop myself, the next word had left my lips. "Nothin'?"
I quickly shut my mouth, not wanting to let anything else escape. "We were drunk. Neither of us remember it. If it weren't for that photo, nothin' would have changed." "Yeah." I replied in my most convincing voice but unfortunately, he could see straight through me. "What is it Liz?" He asked. My head was telling me to shut the hell up but my heart forced me to continue. "Do you not think we should at least talk 'bout it?" I asked, looking at the floor. "What is there to talk 'bout?" He replied after a moment. "You really think everythin' will just go back to normal?" I asked, slightly losing my patience. "Yes! I thought that's what you wanted?" He was right but, suddenly, that didn't feel correct at all. "So kissing means nothin' to you?" I asked, but I already knew the answer. He probably kisses people all the damn time.
"Oh, come on, you must have gotten drunk and fooled around before?" He questioned. "I-" I began to reply before stopping myself so that I could figure out what to say next. The truth was, no, I hadn't. "Liz?" He asked as he realized that I hadn't replied. "So you can kiss someone and then have it mean nothin'?" I asked which got a slight nod from him. I thought for a second before I said, "Prove it." "What?" He answered, confused and slightly shocked. "Prove it." I repeated. "If it really can mean nothing then kiss me. Kiss me and then let's go back to normal." Of course I was bluffing, I just wanted to get through to him. "Liz..." He replied, still shocked. 'Aha', I thought to myself. I had gotten through to him. "See? It ain't as simple as that!" I smirked slightly but my smile turned into confusion as I saw his shocked look morph into a smug one. Not wanting to back down, I quickly added, "Maybe it didn't mean anything, all I'm saying is we–" But I was cut off.
Suddenly it felt like all of the air had left my body. With one quick movement, he stepped forward and began to kiss me. Shit. He had called my bluff.