Chapter Three

‘Getting Acquainted’

“So did you always live in Paris?” I say. My hair is whipping wildly in the wind, all though not as much as Leigh’s is. We’re sitting in a small motorboat; Leigh hired a guy to drive us to the other Island. From there we take a train to a remote town, from there a couple busses and then, the great unknown.

I have to hand it to her, she executed ‘leaving tomorrow’ perfectly. She planned the whole trip in less then a night. I figure now that we’ll have so much traveling time on our hands, we might as well get to know each other a bit better.

“Yes,” she replies. “I went to art school in London for a year, but I found it much the same as Paris.”

“I see. Art school huh?”

“Yeah,” she grins, staring me down with those crazy green eyes of her. “Do you not like art Mr. Garwin?”

She lights a cigarette and shields it from the wind.

“Art’s fine.” I mumble lamely. I wouldn’t know the first thing about it.

“It’s okay,” she sighed. “Neither to do. I traded art in for photography a few years back.”

“Photographer huh?”

“Yes. I came out here to find something interesting to photograph.” She smirks, inhaling deeply on her smoke.

“You pick up that habit in Paris to?” I taunt, gesturing at her cigarette.

She scowls at me but then laughs.

“Your very good at guessing Mr. Garwin.”

“Please,” I groan. “Call me Reid.”

“Fine. I was only trying to make you feel important,” she laughs. Her voice is melodic and gentle yet I can sense something mysterious within it.

Attraction is a funny thing. You can see someone, and instantly be drawn by his or her looks and appearance. Leigh was gorgeous; it was a simple fact. But what was really compelling me towards her was her presence. She carried herself as if she was hiding a vault full of secrets, just waiting for someone to dare to get close enough to try and unlock them.

“So what about yourself? Massachusetts, USA, correct?”

“How did you—”?

She laughs. “I needed your passport in order to book the train tickets. I swiped it from you the other day.”

“How the hell did you manage that?”

She shrugs coolly. “I’m sneaky.”

“Well aren’t you full of surprises.” I say, not bothering to hide how impressed I am.

“Some would say that,” she smiles that devil-like smile. Her blood red lips enclose over her cigarette. The smoke twists around her face like a thin veil.

“So,” I ask, huddling my jacket tighter to my body. “How much longer on this crazy boat ride?”

She smiles and takes a moment before replying.

“About 5 more minutes, exactly.”

Sure enough, 5 minutes later were standing on a little jetty, whose planks are rotting away to nothing. It’s a tricky walk across them to get to the shore without a foot falling through. The hot Thailand sun beats down on us as we make our way to the beach that is lined with little straw houses. Already we’ve left the jungle, a.k.a. the city. I pull out my Gucci men sunglasses to shield my baby blues from the sun. Leigh looks at me and then starts to giggle.

“What?” I demand.

“Gucci. Nice taste, I’m actually impressed. I just thought you were more of a rough and tough guy.”

“Well, I am!” I laugh. “Am I not aloud to have a little bit of class along with that?”

“I suppose. Your pretty full of surprises yourself.” She adds and then walks swiftly along the path into the small village. I have to hurry to keep up with her, seeing how I’m carrying most of the luggage.

“So what next?” I pant, trying to step into pace with her stride.

“The train station.” She states simply.

“They have a train station here? But it’s the middle of nowhere.”

“Not yet it’s not,” she grins and points to the road in front of us. Approaching our view is a surprisingly busy little market place. I sigh. You can’t escape tourism anywhere these days.

We board the train at a quarter past three in the afternoon. We ate lunch at a little café that serves a lot of fish and speaks very little English. Thankfully they did understand the words ‘coffee’ and ‘extra sugar.’

We manage to get two seats that face each other by the window with a little table in the middle. I’m keen on firing more questions at her and she doesn’t resist when I begin. So we spend the first hours sipping on our coffees while I ask her countless numbers of questions that don’t really have anything to do with anything. After a while, she interrupts me.

“Reid, you already asked me what my favorite colour was.” She laughs softly.

“Oh, sorry.” I can feel myself stirring up a sheepish smile.

“It’s okay. Don’t you think it’s time I had a turn though?”

“If you like,” I say politely. “I’m not that interesting though.”

“Oh, please Reid.” She groans. “Your modesty doesn’t fool me in the slightest. I know very well that you’re extremely rebellious and arrogant. Yet deep down inside, you’ve got an overall good heart.”

I blink, taken aback. Her lips curve upwards. She bats her thick eyelashes that cover her vivid green eyes up and me coyly.

“I read people very well,” she adds casually, as if that were an explanation.

“Apparently! You’ve known me for less then a week and already your able to sum me up exactly the same way people who’ve known me my entire life would.”

“Like I said,” she shrugged. “I’m very good.”

She snuggles back into her seat and stars at me closely.

“So these best friends of yours, you mentioned them briefly. You left them to come out here, yes?”

“That’s right.”

“Tell me about them. I’m interested.”

“Okay, well. There’s Caleb, Pogue, and Tyler. Caleb’s sort of like the leader type and he gets on my case a lot, but we’re still closer then brothers. Pogue’s a laid back guy but he’s got his wild side. And baby boy Tyler has been my best friend since day one.”

“I see. Is that really all your going to tell me?”

“You want to know more?” I shrug. “They’re boring in comparison to me.”

She lifts her chin and laughs. “I am interested in you. And your life, and I can tell these three are a big part of it. So,” she waves her hand. “Go on.”

“Well, we sort of ruled our school so to speak. We’re sort of like legends, our families formed the original Ipswich colony, and so we were sort of brought up on that reputation. I guess that’s where the arrogance comes from.” I pause and grin.

“We’ve all known each other for our whole lives so we’re more like brothers than best friends. We fight like brothers, that’s for damn sure.”

She smiles and nods encouragingly for me to continue.

“Anyway, we’re all heading off to Harvard in the fall. So it’s not like we’ll be apart for that long, I just needed a break from everyday life, you know?”

“I agree completely. I needed a break from the city.” She sighs, looking out the window.

“So this map of yours,” she continues, lowering her voice slightly. “Suppose it’s not a bunch of hogwash and we actually find this so-called paradise. Then what?”

I blink at her. I’ve never really put much thought as to what we’d actually do once we got there. I figure it will be just so perfect we won’t have to do a goddamn thing.

“I guess we’ll find out,” I shrug.

“It is rather thrilling isn’t it?” She whispers, her green are sparklingly with excitement.

“Very,” I add with a wink.

“I’m very glad I ran into you when I did.” She says simply, leaning back in her seat and casually lighting a cigarette.

“It must have been good fortune that’s all.” I say.

“Let’s order drinks.” She says enthusiastically, picking up a drink menu off the table. “Do you like beer?”

I smile. I’m beginning to like this girl more and more.

We make it to a hotel late that night at around midnight. The ‘hotel’ is actually more of a series of beach huts and we each get our own with a built in shower. I peel off my sweaty traveling clothes and gratefully step into the warm water.

After my shower I change and walk a few feet across the beach to say goodnight to Leigh. She’s sitting outside of her hut, smoking another cigarette and gazing up at the stars. I notice she has her camera out and is taking pictures with an expensive looking lens.

“Why take pictures of the sky?” I muse, sitting down next to her on the cool sand.

“Why not?” She retorts, clicking her camera as she captures the shot she wants.

“I don’t know. Stars don’t really appeal to me I guess.”

“Maybe they should,” she adds as she reloads the film.

I look over to her and she ignores me, keeping busy with her work.

“I once sold a photograph of a meteor shower for 500 dollars.” She grins. “Many people find the sky of interest.”

“Doesn’t sound to shabby,” I say.

“However,” she yawns. “I think it is time for me to go to sleep. We have another busy day ahead of us tomorrow.”

She stands up and I follow suit.

She puts out her smoke and packs up her camera quietly.

“Goodnight Reid.” She smiles before disappearing into her hut.

“Goodnight,” I call after her, and walk back to my own.

A/N: I know it's short, but I felt obligated to update. Please read and review!