Ophelia Adrift by Helen Goltz Page A

we?” she asked with a nervous glance out to sea.
    “I hope so,” I answered which made her laugh. I read her thoughts then, she agreed. I guess when you lose everything, it takes a while to rejoin the living.
    We lowered ourselves to the rock; I didn’t let go of her hand. We sat there in silence for a short while, smelling the salt air, feeling the closeness of each other, and how alone we were. It was magic. It was a strange sensation to feel so intensely for someone so quickly. Sure, I’ve felt attraction before—I thought it was love—but this was different, this was like greed. I was worried about her, I wanted to protect her, keep her ... I just wanted to be with her all the time even if we just stayed here like we were now, forever.
     
    OPHELIA
     
    I couldn’t look at him because I desperately wanted to kiss him and I didn’t want it to happen too fast ... I want to remember every moment of it. My first kiss, my first real kiss that wasn’t Christian McDonald in year eight pinning me against the wall and claiming he loved me.
     
    Without even touching my lips, Jack sucked the air from my lungs, I could barely breath beside him and the chills I felt I was sure weren’t from the ocean breeze. I thought I should say something or we might not talk all night, which could be a little weird.
    “The waves, that is the tide, it seems higher tonight if that makes sense?” I looked out to sea.
    “They are bigger than usual,” Jack agreed.
    “Why? How is the tide created?” I asked just so I could hear him talk really.
    Jack smiled. “Simply put, the earth and the moon are attracted to each other. The moon tries to pull everything on the earth closer, like a magnet. The earth doesn’t let it. Except when it comes to water, the earth has trouble holding on to it because it is always moving. So each day the tides rise and fall at the moon’s whim I guess you could say.”
    “That’s kind of romantic,” I said. Everything was romantic around Jack, I was hopeless.
    “We’re the earth and the moon, attracted to each other, me pulling you in and hoping you will stay,” he teased.
    I smiled at him and held his gaze until he broke it. Again, we sat in silence for a while.
    “Why were you at my school today?” I asked without looking at him.
    He stretched his legs out on the rock in front of him and leaned back, supporting his weight on his arms.
    “You don’t have to tell me,” I shrugged.
    “It wasn’t another girl,” he said.
    “I know,” I looked at him. I didn’t know, but I wasn’t going to let on that I would be shattered.
    He smiled at me and sat forward again. “I missed you, I told you that.”
    I frowned. “So you figured if you just showed up and sat on a bench in the grandstand, sometime during the day you might see me?”
    “I knew exactly where you were and that you could see me from your classroom,” he said as he looked at the ocean then directly at me.
    “How?” I asked.
    “It doesn’t matter.”
    “Okay,” I shut down. We sat again in silence for a while.
    “Sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to ... well, I’m out of practice. I wasn’t stalking you, I just wanted to see you.”
    I couldn’t help but smile. I wanted that answer. I stammered in my hurry to assure him I felt the same. “I wanted to see you too. I was worried that you might not return.” I stopped, I didn’t want to say too much and put him off.
    He rub my hand with his thumb—his hand was so cold—sending a chilled volt through me, but I turned my hand up to wrap my fingers around his. I wanted him to kiss me now, right now. I wanted to feel his fingers on my neck, on my skin, touching my face. I wanted to drink in his kiss in this perfect setting and I would never forget it.
    And then he placed his thumb upon my lips, watching me with his deep ocean blue eyes. He moved closer to me, so close I could feel the strands of his hair touching my skin. Could he hear my heart pounding? It was so loud