Enthralled

Dawn came, and she hadn't returned yet. With a sigh, he lumbered to his feet and stretched, rubbing at the indentations in his shoulders from leaning against the tree all night. Yawning, he navigated his way through the campground to the large orange 6-sleeper they'd borrowed for the trip down state. It wasn't as easy to find as he expected, and at one point he almost walked into the wrong one and had to back away, apologizing to the bleary eyed and unamused occupant.

At last he saw people he recognized and headed that way. They looked up as he approached, and Kevin grinned. "Christopher, man, where've you been?"

He plunked himself down by the smoldering remains of the fire and accepted a beer for breakfast. Lightheaded from lack of sleep, he merely shrugged at the question.

"Seriously," Jeanette pressed, a bit sharply. "You haven't even slept here." Unspoken, though not concealed, was her irritation at his absence.

"I haven't slept much, period," he sighed.

Kevin chuckled. "Yeah, dude, awesome."

"No," he said quickly, as Jeanette's eyes began to narrow, "I've just been up really late talking and stuff. I met this girl..."

"You should bring her around," Jeanette said at once. Kevin raised an eyebrow, but Christopher hardly needed the warning.

"She's sort of private," he explained. "Actually, it's weird how private she is. She won't even tell me her name." He wasn't exaggerating. She wouldn't tell him anything, wouldn't talk about her family or where she'd grown up or even where she'd been the week before. Whenever he tried to ask her a question, she simply changed the subject or, with a light smile, asked him why he needed to know.

Needed. There were very few things he actually needed, like air, food, drink, shelter. And her company. That was rapidly becoming a need. He needed the touch of her hand on his arm and the way his heart raced when she looked at him. When she left for the night it felt like part of him went suddenly missing. His whole body yearned for her return.

"Yeah, that's weird," Kevin agreed. "She's hot?" Christopher nodded. "That'll excuse a lot."

"She's probably just looking for a Festival hook up," Jeanette offered. "You should enjoy it."

"I'm feeling a lot more than just a hook up with her. She's...I don't know, it's hard to describe. She's just not the hook-up type."

Kevin rattled his empty beer can to collect the last drops. "A hook up would do you good," he said casually. "Help you forget the train wreck that was Sara."

Jeanette nodded, giving him a sort of pitying look that he found completely unnecessary. He was over Sara. Way over her. That relationship had gone down in flames and he'd learned a good lesson from it. He had no intention of ever pursuing anyone so unstable again.

And he couldn't entirely say yet that his festival goddess wasn't unstable. Certainly, she was hiding something. Either that, or she was messing with him. He should consider that seriously, that he was being played and she was having a fine laugh with her friends and betting on how far she could string him along.

Jeanette misinterpreted his frown and tried to change the subject. "Carl and Mindy are meeting us by the main stage when Fearsome Deeds starts up, if you want to join us."

"No. Thanks, though. I'm just going to catch a few hours sleep." He threw his empty onto the pile for refunds and ambled into the tent, nearly tripping over Josh, who was still sleeping. He settled himself on his sleeping bag and threw a hand over his eyes to block the sun. Maybe she was playing him. That didn't match her personality, though. He didn't sense any guile in her. On the contrary, she seemed almost too naive, as though she'd been sheltered by overbearing parents who never even let her watch TV.

And that was a distinct possibility, now that he thought about it. She might have escaped one of those fanatical cults where they still did arranged marriages or something. Maybe she wouldn't give her name because she didn't want any record of her whereabouts. But that didn't make sense...she could have just changed her name or given him a fake one...unless she was truly so honest that she couldn't even tell a necessary lie. That matched her personality. In the constant hours they'd spent together, he'd never heard her once poke fun at anything or complain about the heat or the crowds or the music. He couldn't see her laughing with her friends at his expense.

So it remained a mystery, and one that he found increasingly problematic. Despite his reluctance to admit it to his friends, he did not think a hook up would do him any good. That wasn't what he wanted with her at all. And what were his chances of seeing her again if she wouldn't even tell him her name?

Today, he decided. He would figure something out. The thought of this being the last time he saw her was simply unacceptable.

He was not prepared for it to end.