To Have and To Hold

Chapitre Neuf

Jeremiah's breath was heavy as he jogged behind me, and mine was too, but I pushed further. We were almost there, almost there. My feet pounded against the wood, and each step I took echoed, one of the few noises to be heard. "Alice!" Jeremiah panted, my hand gripping his, dragging him along. "Where are we going?"

It was true, I hadn't had a destination in mind when I rose from the muddy creek bed, dress sopping, heart pounding. We hadn't been far from the pier, but when I grabbed ahold of his hand, I had no clear thought in my head. Not a single one. They were just a hodge-podge of thoughts. Jeremiah—he likes taking my picture—he's probably my soulmate—naked old lady. That prompted me to let out a wicked laugh, making me sound crazed. I heard him join in.

But now, as we were racing down the dock of the pier, not a soul in sight, I wondered if we truly were insane. "To the end!"

There were lights strung across the railings and lamplights that rose far above our heads. All of the food stands had been closed up, all of the benches were now empty. Not even early-rising fishermen had come out to claim their spot at the end of the pier yet; we'd beaten them to it.

And when we finally came to a rest at the end, my palms latching on the wood railing, my lungs screamed. Jeremiah bent down over his knees, forearms across his legs. "Were you in track?" he panted, desperately trying to pull in a deep breath. "I think you were in track. I, however, was not."

I grinned down at him, at the way his shoulders curved with exhaustion. "Cross country."

"Oh. So basically the same thing."

I turned back to look at the ocean view, the way the waves crashed up onto the pier's posts, admiring the way the salt turned the wood green. The sound was like music to my ears. "This," I breathed. "Is where I'd love to take a picture."

Jeremiah lifted his head, and I saw that his elastic band had loosened as we ran; now his braids were half hanging in his face. His glasses were far down his nose. "You ran all this way to take more pictures? I'm rubbing off on you."

I stepped toward him, my hand outstretched. "Give me your camera," I said.

He straightened up at that, and one hand immediately went to the device as if to keep me from ripping it off his neck. "I don't let just anyone touch my camera."

That sobered me, if only for a moment. It made me remember how little we knew about each other, how we'd only met mere hours ago. But in those hours, it felt like my entire life had been shared. "I'm not just anyone," I objected. "I'm Alice, the girl who killed her hamster with love. And you're Jeremiah, the boy who peeped in on an old lady doing the dirty."

That startled a laugh out of him.

I looked him deep in the eye, voice sober. "I promise not to break it or pitch it over the side of the pier."

Hazel eyes were level on mine, as if searching in their depths to see if I could actually be cruel enough to launch his camera into the ocean. I would've laid money on the fact that those thoughts were going through his mind. His hand lifted it, only slightly. "This is my baby," he said seriously. "My baby."

"I'll treat her with the utmost care," I swore.

Jeremiah lifted his neon blue camera strap around from his neck, gripping the camera with a tight hand, and offered it out to me. My fingertips gazed the edge of the lens piece. "As you hold my baby, I just want you to understand that you are the only other living being to have touched this camera."

I grabbed it with both hands, and immediately looped the strap around my neck. "It's heavier than I thought it would be."

Jeremiah stepped close. "This button—" he pointed. "Turns it on. And this one, the big silver one, takes the picture."