Chosen.

Chosen. Chapter 21

Chapter Twenty-One

Autumn

I'm walking around the waterfall kicking rocks this way and that, as I try to avoid looking into hazy eyes. We aren't really talking much, but the silence is comfortable, and I find myself thinking about kissing him. His mind must be on the same wavelength, because after a second he grabs my wrist in one hand and then draws my chin up to his face with the other. My breathing starts to get all gasp-y, and I'm not sure if I'm actually ready for this!

It's not that I've never kissed a boy before, but I guess I wouldn't really count my experience with Michael G under the slide at the elementary school playground or Daniel outside of the Junior High Dance in the same category as kissing 'him.'

I raise my gaze slowly, and his hands then slide up my arms making me shiver. I instinctively put my hands on his broad shoulders to steady myself. He feels so solid, and I feel small in his embrace. His face is now only inches from mine, but he leaves the last bit of distance to give me the choice to lift my lips to his and seal our fate....

Monday, 01/12, 6:25 AM.

CAWWWCAWWW!!! A bird call in the distance jolts me from my dream....or, should I say, fantasy? I sit up, rub my face and think to myself, 'Oh, Autumn, this is sooo not good!' As I'm sitting here replaying the details I remember before I woke up, I realize that I never actually focused in on his face. Was it Lance or Arris that was holding me for a kiss? More importantly, who would I actually want it to be??

Blahh, I immediately decide not to delve too deeply into my subconscious for that answer. After all, it's only 6:00 in the morning, and I've got much more important things to focus on than whose eyes are haunting my dreams. And, let's face it, that most certainly is NOT how things went down at the waterfall last night. Ugghhhh, I'd just rather forget that whole unfortunate encounter altogether.

I look around, and realize Kyle and Heath are both missing from our tent. To clear my mind of last night's dreamy nonsense, I decide to get up and head out to find them. Hopefully, they've already come up with a plan for finding food or something.

I head towards the stream and recognize the silhouettes of Kyle and Heath sitting together on the bank instantly. I sit down beside them, but quickly get into a heated discussion with Kyle about terminating. Heath, as usual, remains on the sidelines and just takes it all in. I finally decide to draw Heath into the convo (trying to get Kyle off my back mostly) and ask him what he would do. That's when things get dicey....

We hear "invaders" coming towards us, and we're all immediately up on our feet, though not able to really make anyone out yet because they're coming out of the barely morning lit jungle. Quickly, the three of us huddle together, and Kyle puts his hand on Heath's shoulder, "Hurry, go back to the tents and wake everyone up. It looks like you're right, and we're already going to have to stake our claim on this spot." Heath nods his head and takes off without a word.

Kyle then turns to me, "Autumn, just don't say anything, okay? I'm going to try to play the tough guy for a sec, and maybe they'll decide it isn't worth it." I'm about to disagree with him on my silent role in this--I mean, come on, I'm not some fainting damsel in distress here--but the group is almost on us and there isn't time to argue. I take a step back and let Kyle take the lead.

The first unwanted visitor comes into view. He looks so familiar, but I have no idea where I've seen him before. Maybe it was in the last recap of the Trials we saw or something. Kyle boldly walks forward on our side of the stream (I'm sure about to go all macho) when the guy suddenly recognizes him and yells across before Kyle can get a word in, "I knew I would see you again, Hijueputa." (Uhh, we later learned that meant son of a b*tch.) "Remember me, American? I'm Freddy Matos, and you stole the last craft from my family on the first day. I surely didn't forget you."