Love without a Compass. Lindy Zart

what?”

      As if she doesn’t know the power she has.

      I go to my knees, hunch over, and tighten my hands into fists to steady them. Tremors run through my frame and they have nothing to do with being cold. I don’t get how I can want someone so bad while at the same time be unable to stand them. It’s madness.

      “You didn’t need to throw me off you like I’m a sack of potatoes,” she grumbles.

      I laugh as I get to my feet, looking at her through the rain. “Trust me when I say that no one could ever compare your body to a sack of potatoes.”

      “That almost sounded like a compliment.” Avery carefully stands, showing me her backside.

      I choke back more laughter at the sight of her brown shorts. They will never be white again.

      From over her shoulder, Avery gives me an irritated look. “What’s so funny?”

      I simply point.

      She cranes her neck and looks down with dismay. And she sighs. That’s it. Just sighs. That anticlimactic response softens me a bit toward her. I expected her to whine, or complain, maybe even cry. Avery is contradictory in every sense of the word.

      “Come on,” I say in a voice roughened by need I’ll deny having until my last day on this earth. “The storm isn’t going to stop for us.”

      With quick, awkward steps, we navigate toward temporary salvation. Avery finds my hand again. I blink and keep moving, carefully holding it.

      She pulls back at the entrance to the cave, forcing me to stop. “Wait. Maybe we should find somewhere else to wait out the storm. We don’t know what’s in there.”

      I eye the shallow cave, catching flashes of rock each time lightning pierces the sky. It looks empty to me. “I’m going in. You can stay out here if you want.”

      Ducking under the low lip of the cave, I enter a small, dark space that is downright cold compared to the stormy weather happening around it. It only goes back about four feet, and other than dirt, leaves, and other debris, there is nothing inside it. The ceiling is low enough that I have to be hunched over to fit under it. Tight quarters, but mostly dry.

      “Did anything eat you, or are you still alive?”

      “Yeah, I got eaten by a one-eyed crow. It’s just ghost Ben in here now.”

      “Ha ha.” Her golden hair is like a flashlight as she enters the cave. “Maybe ghost Ben can see if there’s any food in the backpack.”

      Avery sits across from me, her muddy shoes near my legs. They are no longer pink, that’s for sure. She looks as if she decided to roll around in a mud puddle, jump in a lake, and then roll around in the mud puddle some more. It’s interesting to see her this unkempt. It’s sexy, and I’m not even sure why. I look longer than I should at her sleek legs, only turning my attention to my own mud-splattered legs when she notices.

      “I think there is a big bag of trail mix in the bag.” I grab the backpack and unzip it. For some reason, it seems lighter than it should.

      Her nose crinkles. “I’m not that hungry.”

      I snort and zip the bag back up. Food doesn’t sound especially good to me right now either. “It’s nice to see you haven’t lost your discriminatory outlook on things you consider beneath you. What’s wrong with trail mix?”

      “I eat food that tastes good. I care little about nutritional value.”

      “Well, what about when you’re hungry and that’s all that’s around?”

      “I might consider it.” Avery brings her knees to her chest. She rests her chin on the tops of her knees and closes her eyes. “Is there any jerky left?”

      “No, we finished that earlier. There’s water in the backpack. Do you want some?”

      She shakes her head without opening her eyes.

      Shifting to get more comfortable on a naturally uncomfortable surface, I watch the grassy scene beyond the opening of the cave, the trees and ground as bright as daylight each time lightning hits. Neither of us speak as the rain competes with the thunder. At least if we aren’t eating or drinking what little supplies we have, they’ll last for a while. I wonder how long it’ll be before we’re found.

      I wonder if we will be found.