At All Costs

Nearly

Clementine quickly dried herself off, using the towel that Gabe had handed her. However, as she began to put the spare top on, she noticed the other teenager peeking at her getting changed out of the corner of his eye. She smirked slightly. Knowing that he hadn't seen that she'd caught him, she continued putting the top on, and felt the warmth that it emitted spread through her body. Little did Gabe know, she had no intention of returning the hoodie, no matter what he would say or do. It was now hers, and hers for good.

'All done,' she said, and took AJs' shirt off, wrapping him in the other towel to keep him dry and warm.

'Feeling better?' Gabe smiled.

'Yes thank you Gabe, much better,' she said. 

As she was rubbing AJ dry, she leaned towards Gabe. His heart skipped a beat or two in anticipation for what could happen next. Unfortunately for him, he was left disappointed.

'I saw you looking,' she whispered into his ear, almost in a seductive tone. She leaned back to see Gabes' face completely flushed with colour, with his cheeks not a long way off the colour of his beanie and her new hoodie. Gabe stayed silent for a moment, with the deep shade of red continuing to occupy his face.

'I - I... uhh... w - wasn't...' he faltered. He looked down, clearly ashamed of what he'd done, but words were failing him, unable to help him get out of the hole that his eyes and mind had put him in.

Clementine gently placed her index finger over his lips, making his broken attempt at speech stop, and his eyes widen.

'Shhh,' she soothed. 'It's ok, I don't mind.' Gabes' face crumpled with confusion at this, but she carried on. ' I'm just obviously too good for you to take your eyes off of me,' she murmured, again into his ear, but this time in a low voice, winking as she pulled away. Gabe wouldn't admit it, but he loved it when she did that. It sent shivers shooting down his spine like lightning bolts. It made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. It made him nervous, yet excited at the same time. She sensed that this sent the teenage boys' mind into overdrive and chuckled, but stayed in a postion in which their faces were just inches apart. 

The rain lashed down around the tent that they were in, but the two teenagers didn't seem to notice, seemingly lost in their own bubble. They slowly crept closer and closer together. Thoughts swirled around their heads as they gazed into each others' eyes. Gabe could pick out the flashes of dull orange and the contrasting, bright green in Clems' eyes, and she could see the streaks of lightened shades that scarred his dark brown eyes. The two kept edging towards each other, eyes beginning to close. Their lips were about to touch when...

AJ began to cry, splitting the mood into two broken, sharp pieces. The girl had to pull away from Gabe and tend to him, to calm him down. Gabe leant back and cursed his luck.

'Damn,' they both thought simultaneously. 'So close.'