He poured me some more wine with his left hand, still holding on to mine with his right one. I contemplated him. I so desired to be completely, madly in love with David. He was honest and sexy at the same time. I realized I had never even considered those two features could go together. I had always associated sexiness to danger. As I thought about it in a deeper way, I found out I had associated sexiness to thrills, and thrills to danger. I could see now that I had only gotten the first part right, and I held onto David's soft and manly hand more strongly.

"You go first." I said, and I encouraged him by lifting my eyebrows.

We freed our hands, and started munching on our food.

"Mmm... let's see... What's the craziest thing you've done since you started college?"

I couldn't help but laugh.

"Seriously, David? That's so typical!"

He shrugged, letting me know it was the first question that had popped into his mind.

"Okay, well, besides letting myself get trapped right in the middle of the war between mortality and infiniteness..."

I didn't know how to answer that predictable, yet difficult question. All the moments my mind flashed back to were things I had shared with Luke. They were impregnated in his scent. The first memory that crowned itself at the top of the craziness-list was the one of the London Eye. But I definitely couldn't share that with David. I would never share it with anyone. That was just Luke's and mine. Just as I ruled it out, our prohibited nights at the laboratory came through. I dismissed them too. David stared at me impatiently. I was taking too much time. I made another quick search. The sexy portrait episode at Brighton.

I gave up.

"Tic, tac..." David pressurized me.

"Oh, I know! I know."

I told him an averagely funny story of a Thursday that Alex and I had gone to a private Medicine party. I made it long, because I didn't want to play the version of truth or dare we had come up with anymore. I made it long, and I ended it by suggesting we should get to The Bridge so that we could tell more of those stories during the long years ahead of us.

I didn't even order dessert. I wanted to get out of the talking part of the night as soon as possible. I really needed to let go, and David's innate seriousness and the hatred he felt for Luke made that impossible.

He took my hand as we walked down George Street. His warmth relaxed me. We passed the Odeon Cinema, and he pointed at it. He stopped, let go of my hand, and turned to face me, leaving just inches between us. I felt the warmth that he had transmitted me with his hand run upwards and into my cheeks, like a rumbling tornado. He came even closer, and whispered into my ear:

"You didn't ask me back, but do you want to know what the craziest thing I've done since I started college is?"

"Tell me." I said, in a trembling, sensual voice.

It wasn't fair for him to stand so close to me. His tan skin was very kissable.

"I went to the cinema to watch The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. When I arrived, it turned out I hadn't brought my wallet with me. I considered going back to college to get it, but there was no way I would still make it to the film. So I just sneaked in. I still don't know how."

I laughed and separated from him, just to make sure I wouldn't kiss him without previously making a decision to do so rationally.

"And you call that youthful craziness? I call that breaking the law, Mister." I exclaimed, and I questioned him with my eyes, jokingly.

Flirtatiously.

"Oh, forgive me, lets-stand-up-against-everything-lets-do-it-our-way queen!"

He grabbed my hand again and we marched down the street. I looked at him. In the night light, his serious complexion looked secretive and mysterious. I searched his tan face for the mole on the right corner of his lips. I couldn't help but lust for it.

"What are you staring at?" he asked me, promptly.

I flushed. It felt like he was reading my mind.

"Nothing. I was just thinking that maybe our plan has worked." I didn't stop melting in his perfectly defined lips as I talked. "You look younger tonight."

"Well, wait until after the second gin-tonic – I'll look sixteen."

We arrived at The Bridge at eleven. Girls wore high heels and boys put their arms around their waists. I guessed that would never change, not in this new era, not in the ones that followed. Girls would always live in an endless battle to be the most desirable, and guys would compete to get the newest, shiniest trophy. I was wearing tight black jeans and a red blouse. I wondered if they would let me in. The other times I had been there, I had also stuck to the high-heel dress code.

Inside the club, bright lights filled the room and people danced to "Kids" by MGMT. I smiled when I thought it was a very appropriate song for our youthness-scavenging night. We made our way to the bar and David started to order a gin-tonic for each of us. Some girls wearing lip glosses that shined brighter than the disco lights gawked at him. I listened to their conversation. They had mistaken him for an Abercrombie model.

"Wait!" I said to David as he talked to the waitress, and I put my hand on top of his. "Let's do shots. We won't be able to dance with cocktails in our hands. Besides, it's more young-like."

"Yeah, it's a bomb that will make us drunk as hell in a minute. Still want it?"

"TGV." I whispered in his ear, and tried to put a serious, imperative face.

"Tequila, gin and vodka? Are you crazy?"

I giggled. I turned serious again when I thought Luke would have been the one to suggest the killing shots idea.

"And let's do some cocaine lines after, in the toilets." I said, and I laughed just after so that he wouldn't think I was serious.

David ordered the shots. My throat burned. My head span. His, on the other hand, seemed to have awakened into its sixteen-year-old self, as he had warned me. He talked louder, moved me around, and ordered another two shots. My throat and my esophagus burned. The shots were working along with the wine we had had for dinner.

"We'd better leave cocaine for the next time." I told him.

I got too close to him. I looked up at his lips. He took my hands and led me to the dance floor. Kesha's "Die Young" was on the speakers.

"How sarcastic!" I yelled at David.

Or so I thought. I wasn't really able to perceive the volume of my voice. I could tell the music was very loud, but I didn't hear it that way. I was wrapped up in my own bubble. Defense bubble, protective. It made it more difficult for my unprocessed intentions to become real. Sounds were distant, colours were brighter. I stepped onto a girl dancing behind me. I apologized.

David led me to the bar again and ordered yet another two shots. Maybe he had heard my thoughts when I had said to myself that Luke wouldn't have needed my encouragement to do what we were doing. He wouldn't need my encouragement to kiss me, either, I thought, and I tried to think it very loudly, so that David would listen to that as well. But I couldn't control the volume, so I was doomed.

With the third shot, even my intestine burned. I clung onto David.

"Have you heard my thoughts?" I whispered.

"What?" he asked, and he burst out laughing.

"Don't worry, you'll hear them. Come with me."

"Okay..." he said, and he followed me back to the dance floor.

Once we were there, I turned around and pressed my back to him. I presumed it would be more effective than thinking loudly, because none of us could hear each other over the thumping music. That movement of my butt so close to him would have been immediately efficient with Luke. I didn't want to think about him anymore. I shook my head, to get the bugging memories and fantasies and the picture of his full lips on my skin out of my masochist mind. I wished someone would take my amygdala and hippocampus out. Every feeling, every reminiscence – I wanted it all gone.

I kept moving, sensually. Despite my buzz, I was aware that anyone in the room would state I was totally into David. I looked up, and met his dreamy hazel eyes. No one would guess I was thinking of another man. I didn't want to. It felt like cheating. But crossing Luke off my imagination felt like cheating on myself.

David put his hands on my hips. It felt sizzling. The alcohol in my body and the heat he irradiated started off a short-circuit in my brain. He tilted his head down, towards me. At first, I thought he was going to kiss my neck. But he just smelled my messed-up blonde locks, leaving me hanging, leaving every pore in my skin aching for him.

He inhaled deeply, and moved his right hand up from my hip, across my belly, caressing me. He nonchalantly lifted my blouse up a bit, and his hot, bronze skin touched mine. He left that hand on my waist, caressing my belly, and he moved his left one to my hair. He took the locks on the right side and passed them to the left. He bared my neck. He breathed deeply and the air he expelled made my skin shiver.

I looked up at him again. He was the definition of beautiful. Classical. Outstanding. Breathtaking. I wanted to get lost in that beauty. Absorbed. He met my eyes. I batted my lashes. He leant in again, and, this time, he did kiss my neck. I sighed, and turned around. I got closer to him. He took my hands, and crossed the distance left between us. His mouth was so close to mine, that I couldn't tell whether I was hearing my breathing, or his. He put one arm around my waist. His upper lip was shaped like a heart. I run my fingers along his back.

He leant forward.

"I'm going to get some air."

Had the houses in front of the club always looked so much like mosaics?

What did you think of this chapter? Do you like Tess and David as a couple? Do you think that she'll be able to forget Luke? Let me know in the comments! I am entering the Wattys 2016, so, if you enjoyed it, please don't forget to vote :)

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