Drea

Chapter sixteen: Thirst

Thirst claws at my throat and my tongue aches from the dryness. I pop another bit of ice in my mouth, it melts almost instantly, leaving me just as thirsty as before. I can't do this. I've voiced this thought many times to Thane and his reply is always the same, "We just have to tough it out until tomorrow, we're almost home." Then I'll start sulking and moaning, then Thane will sigh and tell me to think of Cyan and what he must be going through, so I've toughed it out for Cyan and now we should be at Mt Fleet in less than twenty minutes. Yay. Then all we have to do is conquer the mountain and we're home. Yay again.

We haven't talked about it yet, but it's an inevitable conversation. We have to talk about what happened before we left this morning.......... Ya know....... The almost kiss. The, why the hell did I pull away, almost kiss.
He's obviously avoiding the conversation and to be honest, I'm not exactly trying to jump into it either, I mean, I'm not very good in awkward situations.
My stomach rumbles and my mood darkens even more. On top of having no water, we also have no food. I guess we're gonna have to do some hunting. It's probably a good thing in a way. We need to eat something other than canned soup and dried fruit. My mouth starts to water at the thought of meat. Deer preferably.
I know it's kind of disgusting, but I keep thinking about food so my mouth will keep watering. After my tongue is wet with saliva, I'll swallow it and..... You get the gist. It's just that I'm so fricken thirsty!
When I get home, I'm going straight to the fridge, then I'm going to drink a gallon of water and then maybe I'll get into the our winter meat supply and cook a humongous feast of steak and chips, my specialty. Maybe I'll even invite Thane over.... Just like old times.....
I glance down at my cold hands. I abandoned Thanes gloves into the depths of his backpack earlier on because, after all you can't pick the dirt and leaves out of the snow, you're planning on eating/drinking, with fat, pudgy wool fingers.
My finger nails are short and damaged from my nail biting habit and my palms have blisters and calluses all over them. They look gross.
I perk up as I think of Naomi. She's the girl who works at the salon in the next town over and she's also Cyan's girlfriend of the past few months. She's a nice girl and very, very popular. When Cyan first told me he had a girlfriend and she was coming over for dinner, frankly I was pissed. I thought she was going to be some money grubbing whore, but it turns out I was completely wrong, thank the gods. She's awesome, except for the fact that I can't cuss in front of her. It's her pet hate, ya know being Christian and all. I don't know why she likes Cyan so much, he's basically the exact opposite of her, but I'm glad she puts up with him. He needs someone like her in his life.
She's like my best friend.... Besides Kira and Lily of course. She'll hate the way my nails look and of course that's why she won't be able to resist fixing them. A smile stretches out my lips as I remember the relief I felt when I first met her.

"Hi my name is Naomi." The shyness in her voice surprises me.
"Um, hi... I'm, ah, Drea."
"That's a pretty name." She says, a blush rising on her cheeks.
"..... Thanks....."
'She seems sweet.' I think in slight relief.
Silence stretches out and awkwardness drains the air from the room. Finally Cyan interrupts, "Well, let's go eat then."
"Yes." We both say at the same time. We all laugh and that breaks a bit of the awkwardness.

We ate quietly, with only the slightest bit of small talk.
Just when I thought I was going to suffocate from the silence, Naomi's voice shattered it into a million pieces, "Holy Jesus in heaven!" She stood up suddenly, staring at me in complete horror.
"What?" I say, going into immediate defence.
"What do you mean what!?"
"What?" I say again, this time in complete confusion.
"What the hell are those?" She points at my hands accusingly.
I glance down at my hands which are clasping a cheese and ham toasted sandwich.
"Umm, cheese and ham." I state in a "duh" sort of tone.
"Your nails! Your nails are disgusting!"
I stare at her in shock for a minute before bursting out laughing.
"Oh yeah, I guess they are pretty ugly, aren't they?" I manage through my giggles.
"Oh they're hideous."
That just made me laugh even more.
"I approve Cyan." I finally said, as I gasped for air, still wiping tears of laughter from my eyes.

"Up or around?" Thanes voice snaps me back to reality.
"What?"
"Should we go up the mountain, which will be harder but will also save us time, or, should we go around the mountain, which will be easier but will take more time. I glance up ahead and Mt Fleet looms over my head like a threat. I didn't even realise we were here.
I ponder it for a second before replying, "Up."
Bring it on Fleet.
"We need to get back as soon as possible."
"Up it is then." He says a little coldly. He must still be angry. Great.