Unus Amor

“We are going to use the eye liner as war paint. The once we all look like spies, we will commence the covert operation. Patrick will get her attention by saying one of us fell over board. While she is freaking out, Jerry will mess with her little podium and rewire the system. You and I will go through the ceiling vents to put fake snow. Garrison will keep watch. The code word is pineapple.”

“I am allergic to pineapple.”

“I am sorry to hear that.”

“What exactly were the kisses for?” Not once were they mentioned in the plan.

“They are for eating. I am hungry.”

“Wow really? You made me run around the whole ship because you were hungry?”

“Yup pretty much.” I would be upset if he wasn’t so cute.

“I will have you know I almost bought 12 bags for this. But I only bought two because I wasn’t sure what they were for and because I was using your account. By the way, it cost $11.98.”

“You used my account! Did you go in my room?” I couldn’t tell if he was angry.

“Um- yeah, one of your friends had a girl up there. He was mad I interrupted, but seemed okay with me making the call.”

“Alright, whatever.” What’s his deal? “We have a few minutes before show time. Want some kisses?”

“We have two bags, we might as well get cracking.” We sat down at the little bar, that had all sorts of soda behind it. The chairs were very modern and quite uncomfortable.

“So where are you from?”

“I am from Connecticut, you?”

“Arizona.” I have never been to Arizona.

“Cool, I need to get away from the East coast. I plan on heading west for college. I want to go to Stanford or UC San Diego.”

“I don’t think I am going to go to college.” Not go to college?! Well I guess he is already involved with whatever he wants to do in life.

“What are you going to do instead of college?”

“Travel... enough of that, what do you like to do?” I wonder why he is avoiding that question. I was about to answer when I boy I had never seen before started talking.

“Ash, this is Garrison.” Ash? He gave me a nickname?! Aw. I wonder if he likes me.

“Hey, alright now that introductions are done. ‘Jerry’ and ‘Patrick‘ are ready to go.” I wonder why his emphasized their names, like it was some inside joke. Maybe I am reading into that too much.

“All right, lets get the war paint on!” I apply the eye liner to his gorgeous face, and he puts it on mine. “It’s go time.”

We sneak off into a sketchy part of the boat that I had never been to before. Apparently Jack had already mapped everything out. We opened a door that appeared to be a cleaning closet. I was confused until I looked up and saw a large air vent. In order to get up there we would need to climb up the shelves.

“Here you go up first, so I can help you.” He hoists me up and I open the vent door. It was a pretty large opening, but we obviously had to go single file. I struggle to get in, but Jack gives me a good push and I am up. He gracefully scales the shelves and is up in 5 seconds flat.

He pulls out a very rough drawing of the vent system with a green line indicating the path we need to take. He pulls out a walkie talkie and tells Garrison we are in the vent.

“Do you do this often?”

“What? Go around ceiling vents with a pretty girl?” I hope he can’t see me blushing. I can’t believe he thinks I am cute.

“No, do you go around in ceiling vents pranking workers often?”

“Not really, this is the first time, just thought it would be fun. Take a right, here.”

We turn and continue to crawl and pray these are strong enough to maintain our weight.

Once we got in position we let Garrison know. He then told Patrick to commence the freak out. I have never met Patrick, but I heard he was very good at freaking out.

“So what do we do now?”

“We wait. Garrison will let us know when we need to start the fake snow.”

“Alright, what do you want to do?”

“This.”

He leaned in and placed his lips on mine. It was a short, sweet, tender kiss. When he pulled away I felt my cheeks burn. I had kissed a lot of boys before, but none of them felt like this. I felt some strange electric pull to him. I grabbed his face in my hands and kissed him again. He bit my lip causing me to give an involuntary moan. I touched his bottom lip with my tongue and wrapped my fingers in his beautiful hair. He took a break from the kiss and found that special spot on my neck.

Of course all good things must come to an end, the walkie talkie went off signaling it was time to drop the fake snow. I grabbed a handful and sent it through the fan. Jack did the same. I can’t believe this one cruise would lead to me being in an air duct with a hot boy.

“So...”

“So...”

“I really like you Ash.”

“I really like you too Jack.”

“Alright, we need to book it out of here, before we get caught. Our alibi is that we were in my room. I was showing you a new cd.” I nod.