Rising Shards

Ovie wasn’t sure what to feel as she sat in her tent with 09, Risa, Chellsi, and Mikeila-Keila. She knew she felt incredibly embarrassed, and tried to push away thoughts of shame about kissing someone other than Jeans.

The mood in the tent was suitably awkward, as if everyone was hoping someone else would talk first. Finally, Risa cleared her throat.

”So...” Risa said. ”I have some thoughts.”

”I don’t,” Ovie said.

”It might be good to maybe talk about it, like a little bit,” 09 shrugged.

Ovie thought 09’s hand was about to reach out to hold hers, so she swatted her away.

”I don’t think that’s necessary,” Ovie said.

”It might be good though, for something so...unexpected?” 09 said. ”Where did that come from, anyways? Kalei pushed you, sure, but I don’t think she was pushing you to do that.”

Ovie growled. She wanted to storm out of the tent, but for some reason didn’t move.

”I think you wanted to do that for a while, and Kalei gave you the perfect excuse to give in,” Risa said.

Give in. Ovie thought. Something about those words affected her, like Risa dangled a forbidden fruit in front of her face.

09’s voice was clear in her mind in response. It’s nice, isn’t it? Just let loose tonight and don’t worry about it.

Just let loose, huh? Ovie thought back.

And if you kiss me again, that’d be great. 09 said in her mind.

I don’t think so.

”It was just a friendly kiss,” Ovie said quietly.

”You must really like your friends,” Risa said.

”In that case, you weren’t jealous that I kissed Risa, then?” 09 asked.

”Why would I be?” Ovie asked, surprised at how indignant her voice was.

”You’re blushing,” Risa said.

”I’m not!” Ovie said. ”The campfire is just hot.”

”Um...there isn’t a campfire in here,” Chellsi said. ”That’d be like...dangerous.”

”Ovie, like, what is going on?” Mikeila-Keila asked. ”I’m like, super confused.”

Trust me, I’m confused too.

Ovie would have liked to just move onto anything else, but everyone in the tent with her had a shared annoying persistence.

”So are we like, dating now?” 09 asked.

”You and I are dating as much as I’m dating Chellsi and Mikeila-Keila.”

”Do we get kisses then?” Mikeila-Keila asked, eyes lighting up in excitement.

No offense, Mikeila-Keila, but I never even thought about kissing you before.

But you’re thinking about it now. 09’s voice in her head.

Damn this stupid mental link we have, can’t we make it go away yet? Ovie thought.

But it’s so fun! I haven’t even used what you were thinking while we were kissing as a debate tactic, that’s pretty good of me, right? 09 thought.

Don’t you dare. Ovie couldn’t even remember what she was thinking during it, other than rage at Kalei Koridia for being a jackass as normal.

Fine, I’ll just say this. 09 thought.

”Trips like these are great for trying something you never thought you’d do,” 09 said.

”Sure, why not, everyone gets kisses,” Ovie said.

”Seriously?” Chellsi squeaked.

”We’ll all make out this whole trip,” Ovie said.

”Like, as a joke or are you for real?” Risa said.

”I don’t know which one!” Ovie said. ”But if you all won’t shut up about kissing, maybe you need to kiss a lot to get it out of your system. Just friend kisses, though, got it?”

Ovie thought they’d chicken out before they did anything else, but her longtime friends Chellsi and Mikeila-Keila scooted forward, pleading eyes so pathetic it almost made Ovie sad. For some reason, Ovie looked over to 09.

”You don’t need my approval,” 09 said.

”Like I’d need that, ugh!” Ovie said. ”Which one of you wants to go first?”

”We won’t watch,” 09 said. ”Risa and I will just...continue where we left off.”

09’s crooked grin saying that really pissed Ovie off.

Literally what the hell is going on?

Both Chellsi and Mikeila-Keila’s lips were soft as the three took turns kissing. They didn’t kiss as deeply as Ovie did with 09, but there was something sweeter about it. The duo’s shared lip gloss tasted nice. For all the time they’d been friends, it was nice to be together like this.

When they finished, 09 and Risa were still making out, the obnoxious gross kind of kisses Ovie hated, the kind only the worst couples at school engaged in openly in the hallways.

”When we’re back go on as normal. Pretend this never happened.” Ovie scoffed.

”Kay, but we’re not back yet, so can we keep going?” Mikeila-Keila asked.