Summary: All Elle was looking for was a first kiss. Instead, she ended up dead. The thing is if she’s dead why is her rotting corpse still in her control? Perhaps there’s more to death than she thought. Doesn’t mean she’s hanging around. She still wants that first kiss!

Rating: Teen

~o~

Love and Death are intertwined

Like vines about a towering tree

Yet, if the tree dies

The vines may still hang and linger

~o~

Elle did not care of trees or vines, and strangely, not too long ago, she never even gave mind to the subject of love. Unlike most girls her age, she had not fallen into the fawning as soon as most: not at age twelve, neither thirteen, and certainly not fourteen. It was at the decaying end of her fifteenth year that she seemed to trip over some invisible vine in her path. The dust settling up from her fallen form, Elle looked upward with star encrusted eyes and before her – in her mind’s eye - she saw a boy clad in a knight’s armor.

Since then, her eyes followed that boy – soon to be man – of seventeen like some easily impressionable stalker. She would follow him wherever he may, her eyes wide and daring. She had never felt this before. She had never wanted anything but the newest novel from her favorite author or a CD with the music of a seemingly godly creature. Yet now, they meant little to this caramel haired teen with her wide green eyes. All that matter was that boy … and how she was going to get her first kiss from him before he graduated and whisked himself away from her bubble in this town where she would be unable to touch him.

She would get Chris Courbet to kiss her before the semester’s end.

~o~

Alice picked at her cafeteria food, a frown planted firmly on her olive colored face, eyes squinting as if mentally commanding the rubbery vegetables to crawl offer her plate and find some other poor soul to haunt. They stubbornly remained like a wrinkle in a just fixed bed. Sighing exuberantly, she gave up on the last morsel on her plate and gave a bored look to her long term friend.

Yep … still glossy eyed and dotting on a boy that didn’t know more about her besides her bust size.

Alice turned from the stock still form of Elle Willows to give a cruel pout to the boy at the far east table. He was laughing, perfect white teeth shining as he slapped one of his buddies on the back. The little Asian girl had come to hate that boy and his ever engulfing pretty-boy looks for the last two weeks now. Ella and she might have been nobodies – neither popular nor picking worthy; perfectly, average and invisible, one might say – but at least they had each other. They were perfect friends. Where one failed, the other succeeded. In fact, anyone could probably joke that they completed each other; they were each other’s Thelma and Louise.

With a snort of disgust, Alice looked back down at her plate with hurt feeling forming in her chest. She knew she shouldn’t be jealous, of a boy no less, but it was as if a huge chunk had been cut out of her now that Ella had ‘better’ things to worry about then their friendship. It felt almost like someone had cut into her birthday cake before her and taken a piece before she could say no.

Alice slumped her shoulders, a suffocating feeling devouring her chest as if some new beast harbored within the cavity. They were still freshmen, the end of the school year drawing near. Would she have to spend the last three years of this cruel mockery they called an Education System alone without backup? Would Elle turn into one of those girls? The kind of girls that stuffed their bra, fell to the strangle hold of beauty magazines, and bought make-up which they slathered on like paste over their flawless skin before throwing themselves at the nearest buck like some in-heat animal?

The shorter girl with soft brown eyes looked upward at her best friend. Elle looked … happy. She had this doughy grin on. It was a happy grin. It was the kind dreamers could only obtain. Would it be cruel of her to lash out and tell the tame-haired girl about what her precious Chris was really like? Alice had an older sister who was a junior this year … and Maggie didn’t care who overheard her phone conversations as long as no one got between her and said phone. From those overheard conversations of Maggie’s, Alice discovered that Chris was the kind of boy that didn’t take just a bite and be done with it … he took the whole cake.

And he was the type of boy never to try a flavor twice.

“They can’t be that bad,” came an intruding voice like a wave crashing against a sand castle and pulling it down.

With a small jump, Alice turned to look at a pair of green eyes. Elle was staring at her like some kind of demanding enslaver.

“Wha?” said Alice more to herself than Elle.

“The green beans, they are dead so stop poking at them,” said Elle, her eyes a-glow as if she had just been struck by an epiphany. She leaned in with a wicked grin as if she was a cruel and cunning vampire, her sights now on Alice’s neck.

Alice drew back at the gleam in her best pal’s eye, her mind already not liking this. Elle, despite her love-struck facade as of late, was a downright trickster at times. The dark-haired being liked to think that perhaps Ella just bored easily and was not just some trickster-god incarnate.

But there were times she wondered … like that Halloween escapade they tried to pull off last year. Ugh, she rather not go into that; she finally managed to block those memories out a few weeks ago. Shaking her head as if to rid herself of the scarring memory, Alice simply blurted out, “No. Whatever it is, no.”

A soft puppy-like whine filled the other girl’s throat, and she put out a pouty lip like she was a ten year old, stating, “B-but I haven’t even told you what I was thinking.”

“Exactly,” replied her long time friend. “And its best that way. That way my mind doesn’t suffer any mental scars.”

Elle shook her head in disbelief, “You’re still sour about last Halloween, aren’t you?”

“Yes, I’m still sour! The fire department had to come get me out of a tree and everyone saw my panties!” all but screamed the ill humored youth.

The cafeteria went silent for a moment, all eyes landing on the duo with surprised glances. They all continued to stare for a moment more like fish staring out of a goldfish jar, wanting more, but when it was obvious that Alice wanted nothing more than to transform into rotting ooze and disappear into the cracks in the floor, the noise returned. It was chicken nugget day after all.

Elle merely sat there with this expression that was between horror and disgust … she was trying to hold in a smile and probably a laugh as well. Yet, she was patient. She knew Alice well. Alice could be conned into almost anything if one put on a desperate act. Well, Elle was desperate. Here she was, nearly sixteen, and she had never been kissed. Was that really so much to ask for? Was it too demanding to want to feel someone else’s lips, their rough hands in hers forming a completeness. At least that what people told her love was: completeness.

She knew Chris probably wouldn’t date her, but she wanted her first kiss from him; then she could spend the rest of her days alone like some kind of nun in teenager’s clothing. She just wanted this one thing. Was that too much to ask? Well, Alice seemed to have calmed down … maybe she could ask now?

“So Alice … did you hear?” said Elle with a grin.

“The sound of myself respect running away from me? Yah, sure did,” said Alice sarcastically as she moped in her plate.

“No,” said Willows as she drew inward toward her pal as if telling a secret. “I hear there’s going to be a lake party.”

A groan escaped the black haired Asian, stating, “No, no, no! Those are meant for Seniors! There’s beer there and-and … lots of guys. Lots of not-nice guys! Some of them aren’t even in High School anymore. My sister goes to those parties … and … and they aren’t meant for girls like you and me. W-we can’t go.”

Elle shook her head, grin still firmly planted on her lips, “Jeeze Alice, you make this sound like we are going to a cult gathering.”

“Might as well’s be.”

“But I don’t plan on staying long enough for the worshiping to start,” said Elle, ignoring the interruption. “Just long enough to get a kiss … from Chris Courbet.”

Alice dropped her fork to the light brown tray below, the green beans flying into the air momentarily. She shook her head in disbelief. It was as if her best friend had just said she going to perform and animal sacrifice on the table. T-this couldn’t be happening … and she wouldn’t let it. Elle was many things, but she was a slight coward when it came to crowds of people; traumatized from being left at the mall or something at the age of six. So Alice would simply refuse to go.

“Well, good luck with that impossible dream, because I’m not going.”

“What! Come on, Alice,” whined Ella like a child as she grabbed hold of the pretty Asian’s thin arm and pulled it back and forth in a begging manner. “Let’s go to that party. It’s not like it’s going to kill either of us! Please, I promise we won’t be long, and I also promise we can go to that stupid superhero movie you’ve been trying to con me into seeing. I won’t even complain throughout the whole movie that it’s some freak in red tights.”

Alice drew back as if slapped, “You just didn’t call Flash lame, did you?”

“I’ll say he’s the most awesome superhero ever if you go with me. I’ll even listen to you rant about how awesome or sucky the move was afterward. Come on girl, this is a onetime deal. You know I can’t stand DC comics … when Marvel has all the hot ones,” giggled the girl, her soft hair falling into her eyes for a moment.

Alice smiled softly. Yes, there was that dorky laugh. Maybe there was still a part of Elle in there and her best friend wasn’t completely gone to the succubus called boys. Maybe after this first kiss, things would return to a half normal pace. Smiling meekly, Alice agreed. Ugh, how she hated parties … no wait, the parties were fine. It was the people she hated, but she was Elle’s best friend. If she didn’t look out for that caramel haired idiot, who would?

~o~

Paw07: Hello dearies. You are probably all wondering what the title is about and why it doesn’t seem to fit the criteria of the section I have placed it under; it will, in due time. Also, note that this is not a full scale romance. Romance is the side dish to the main dish of Adventure. I am also a firm believer in RTF or Returning the Favor. Read my work and I shall read yours. Also, constructive criticism is always welcome.