Three Go In, Two Come Out, and a Squirrel Follows

Part 2

Zizzy wouldn’t even walk back to campus with Cam and Trakis, and Cam didn’t see her until lunch the next day. He sat beside her. "Come on, Ziz. You can’t still be mad."

"I’m not mad."

He smiled. "Hey, you’re talking to me!"

"And I’m not mad."

"So what’s the big idea ignoring me, huh?"

"I just needed to think, that’s all." Zizzy chewed her sandwich mediatively. "Cam," she said suddenly, "Would you consider yourself squirrelly?"

"Hell no." Cam flashed her his second-most charming grin, trying to look as human as possible.

"How about me? Am I squirrelly?"

"Would I kiss a squirrel?"

He leaned over, puckering his lips towards hers, but she pushed him away. "Quit acting like Trakis. I’m serious."

Cam tossed his brown-blond hair, which reached to his nose, and scrunched up his nose a little bit, like he had an itch. Zizzy had told him once, when drunk, that he was adorable when he did that. "What are you driving at, Ziz?"

"And Trakis isn’t squirrelly—"

Cam snorted. "Not much."

"One of us must be squirrelliest."

"Not necessarily. We’re not really very squirrelly people, Zizzy."

"It’s true, though," said Zizzy. "Even out of three very unsquirrelly people, one must be squirrelliest. That Dr. Trinald’s invention--"

"Oh, will you forget about that stupid science fair? It was a bad idea to go. I knew it."

"I think you’re the squirrelliest, Cam."

"What?!" Cam cried. His voice broke. Zizzy laughed.

"See? You’re squeaking like one."

"No fair."

"And the way you wrinkle your nose up like that—"

"I do that to be adorable," he murmured.

"Maybe you started it that way. But you have no control over it now, do you?"

"I do so!"

"Face it," Zizzy taunted, "It’s you."

Hurt, Cam picked up his lunch and went to go sit with Trakis and his current girlfriends. This was truly a sign of rift between Cam and Ziz. As friendly as you were with Trakis, it was always boring to sit with him when any girl except Zizzy was in a ten-mile radius. Zizzy considered this a win and, satisfied, finished her lunch. When the tone sounded signalling the end of the lunch period, and Zizzy found herself standing in front of Cam in line, she was all ready to make up and be friends again. But Cam leaned over and whispered in her ear, "I think it’s you who’s the squirrelly one."

Zizzy swallowed. "No way," she said.

"Yes, way. Did you ever wonder why Trakis never made a pass at you?"

"It’s because we grew up together--he respects me too much."

"Oh, pish posh. We grew up together, too, and I still hit on you."

"That’s why, then--he doesn’t want to spoil anything we might have. Common decency."

"Oh, you know Trakis hasn’t got any decency."

"It’s true," Trakis piped up from his place behind a hot girl behind Cam.

For the next three days, Cam and Zizzy refused to talk to each other. Everyone commented that they had never had one continuous fight that lasted this long. The two fought frequently and made up even more so. The festering wound in the relationship of Cam and Ziz caused quite a strain on Trakis, who was so preoccupied by the third day that he almost forgot to have sex a few times.

Each day was harder than the last. On the third night, Cam lay on his bed, hugging his pillow to keep the pain inside from swallowing him whole, and wondering if he should creep over to Zizzy’s room and try to make up. He was sure he couldn’t stand another day of pain. Just as he touched the doorknob, however, it twisted under his fingertips. He jumped out of the way just in time to avoid a door in the face, and there stood Zizzy. She smiled kind of crookedly, put her arms around him and kissed him long and hard.

"You’ve never kissed me," Cam breathed, "voluntarily."

"Shut up," said Zizzy, before she kissed him again.

They fell back onto the bed kissing. Cam moved his hands up and down over her back, over the back of her neck with one hand and her ass with the other. Zizzy pulled away from one last kiss and knelt with her knees on either side of Cam, unbuttoning his shirt and placing random kisses on his bare chest.

"It’s Trakis," she said, between kisses, "who is... the squirrelliest... isn’t it?"

"Oh, yes," said Cam, "definitely Trakis."

On to Part 3!

Back to Part 1!