Dark as the Night

41

James opened the door to his room to find Tai lounging on his couch, tablet in hand, reading. "Is that mine?" he asked in way of greeting.

Tai looked up. "Yeah." He clicked a button on the side of the tablet and set it back on the coffee table. "I thought you'd be home by now, but when you weren't, I decided to see what you've been reading."

"Since when are you so nosy?" James snorted, taking off his boots and putting them neatly in his closet by the door. He closed the door and looked back at Tai, who had ignored him. The other boy was staring at him with a brow raised in question. "What?" he asked.

Tai smirked. "Do you need to take a shower?"

"I'm not that covered in saliva," James rolled his eyes. "Or sweat, or any other bodily fluids." He paused but at Tai's incredulous silence, continued, "believe it or not, we've never actually had sex. That's not part of the post-breakup routine. I let her talk and vent, then I go down on her to make her feel better, and she goes down on me. It's like a ritual of defiance or something." He moved to the kitchenette and got himself a glass of water.

Tai leaned back and crossed his arms behind his head. "And she licks your abs."

"Yeah," James grinned, "that too. But what girl wouldn't want to get her hands and mouth on these?" He lifted his shirt and looked down at his stomach then back at Tai cockily. Then he frowned. "Except Leila, because that's gross." Tai snickered.

"Somehow I think Odessa is a bit traumatized by the idea."

James suddenly laughed, nearly choking on his water. "Yeah, that was pretty funny. I don't think I could ever imagine having her mouth on my body, though. That's just... weird." He cringed at the thought.

Tai dropped his relaxed pose. "You should be more careful around her. She's really..."

"Naïve?"

"...Innocent." Tai scowled.

"Literally the same thing," James deadpanned. "But she's 17. She's going to learn someday. You're not her dad, you know. You can't shelter her from growing up." He paused then added, "Or from remembering her past."

Tai stood up, bristling, and grabbed his jacket from the couch. "What's wrong with wanting to protect her?"

"Is that the only reason you're here – to moderate me?" At Tai's stony silence, he sighed. "Nothing is wrong with wanting to protect her. But she needs to learn about life and she needs to remember so she can get stronger and protect herself. We won't always be there to shield her from the world."

"Speak for yourself," Tai muttered, storming out the door without a backward glance as James stood there, dumbfounded.

----------------

Odessa left the women's bath and traipsed back to her room, her mind still whirling from everything Leila had taught her that evening. She was equal parts embarrassed, horrified, and intrigued about all she had learned.

She turned on her light, dropped her keys in a dish Tai had given her, and put her toiletries away in the miniscule water closet off her kitchenette. She grumbled inwardly about the fact that James had a room with its own shower, tiny as it was. She immediately chided herself because she knew that those special rooms were afforded to those who contributed above and beyond the norm to the camp. It would be easy to blame James's luxury on being a McKenna, but everyone knew how many classes he taught, and how little free time he had outside of work and school. He earned that shower.

A hot flush of embarrassment spread along her shoulders and neck. Speaking of James and showers... The thought of what he and Ashlyn might (probably) be doing made her antsy and anxious, and that fact just bothered her all the more. Why did she care what he was doing with other girls? The thought of doing those things with James herself was kind of gross. Odessa had seen his abs the other night when she went to his room, and yes they were impressive. She tried to imagine licking them and shuddered at the thought. It's James! She thought. He was so infuriatingly cocky, hot-headed, and sarcastic. He was also loyal, kind, funny, and amazingly sensible when he wanted to be. He had held her and comforted her like a brother.

And then it made sense. James was like a brother to her, and thinking of him doing anything sexual was gross. Odessa nodded to herself. That's why it bothered her. But it still didn't explain why it bothered her so much. Maybe she was just irritable. Maybe it's PMS? She wondered, and walked to the calendar on her desk.

She flipped back a page, and began counting the days, then stopped as the memory of her mother's morning sickness filled her mind. A wave of sadness washed over her. It wasn't just sadness over the death of her mother and the little sibling she would never have, but a memory of sadness. Even through her joy when watching her mother, there had been an underlying melancholy. Reflexively, she touched a razor-thin scar below her belly button and her breath stuttered as memory caught up to the present.

Heart pounding, she counted the days back to when she arrived at Camp McKenna. The timing was right... but the scar... and the memory...

Odessa ran to the intra-camp phone hanging by her closet, and furiously dialed. A cold sweat slipped down her neck as she waited impatiently for the other person to pick up. She glanced at the clock; it was only 10 – they'd only closed up an hour before. After the third ring, a woman's voice answered. "Odessa?"

"Leila?" Odessa breathed. "What organ am I missing?"

**********
Holy sudden realizations, Batman!  Have you figured out which organ she's missing? Theories as to why?

This completes chapter 10.  Read on for an author's note about my plans for this book going forward, and if you like what you're reading so far, please hit that little star and give this chapter a vote!

-Evie