The Event

chapter 19.

I was so stunned by his sudden movements and the sensation of yet another person's lips on mine within the same hour that it took me a solid second to even respond.

This was Tommy, my Tommy. And now he's kissing me.

And it felt...

Weird.

Weird as hell, actually.

He pulled back, smiling down at me, a drop of icy water clinging to his eyebrow ring. Despite myself, I laughed, reaching up and flicking it. A movement to my left caught my attention as I brought my hand down from his face and I turned to see Kayne as he walked away from the door.

Had he seen?

"So," Tommy chuckled, not having even noticed Kayne. "I hope you're going to tell me that was as awkward for you as it was for me."

Relief rushed over me. I love this boy more than anything, but it's not romantic. "Best friends?" I asked, avoiding the question to keep from having to relive the whole thing in my mind again.

He draped his long lanky arm over my shoulders and squeezed as we walked back into the motel. "No way are you getting rid of me that easy." He smiled. "I still love you even though you're a bad kisser."

I dropped my jaw and spun beneath his arm to punch him in the ribs. "Screw you!" I yelled but his raucous laughter only made me smile instead of the grimace I was going for. "I hate you." I said through the grin.

Tommy shook his head slowly, pursing his lips. "No you don't." He called the bluff easily. I rolled my eyes and turned to leave him, thinking I should go talk to Kayne about everything that had happened. The feelings I got from kissing Tommy may not have made my stomach flip or my head go foggy, but Kayne's had. "Hey," Tommy called me back to him. He looked down at me, a nervous smirk on his face. "I just wanted to...you know, I'm sorry." He laughed it off, rubbing his arm with his hand. "I guess when I saw you," He stepped closer to whisper to me even though no one else was in the hallway. "When I saw you kissing that guy I realized I'd never given any thought to if you and me were more than just the best friends on the planet, even before there were so few, or if I might have had feelings I'd never acknowledged before. I just wanted to be sure I wasn't going to miss out before even trying."

Tommy being vulnerable has always tugged at my heart strings. He's always so funny and assured that in moments like this when he's looking at the ground and talking fast and grimacing as words flow out, all I want to do is make the Tommy I know come back out. I reached out and hugged his waist. "I'm not mad." I told him honestly. I'm glad he'd done what he did. Otherwise I'd probably have come around to wondering the same thing about him. "Just don't pull that shit again." I winked up at him and he blushed but rolled his eyes.

"Don't worry." He laughed, pushing me back playfully. "I'm saving myself for someone truly special."

"Is that right?"

"Oh, yeah, for sure." He chuckled. "You might have tried to corrupt me, but I'm stronger than that." He rubbed his forehead. "Hey, maybe if the whole plan works and the other Mundi come here, I just might be able to find myself a hot alien of my own."

He laughed to himself as he turned to walk up the hall towards the stairs, but I stayed put for a minute. An alien of his own. Is that what I have? It's always one step forward, two steps back for me with Kayne. I can't let myself forget what he's done, what he's a part of, but I also can't stop thinking of him in general. He proved over and over that he isn't a bad person, but how can I just overlook the rest?

There are less than twenty human beings left on the planet earth.

The magnitude of that alone is enough to make any normal person run full speed in the opposite direction from the people who are responsible for such a thing. But I guess with less than twenty people, there is bound to be at least one insane person between us, and as I ran up the back stairs, taking them two at a time, I guess that makes me it.