It was only one kiss. A brief one at that, and even in the frantic circumstances and amid all the chaos it was remarkable. A gesture of poise, of confidence. A tender touch that made Corinne draw a new breath and take courage. But it would save her, she knew.
It was chaotic and scary and dangerous and... It was a kiss that was the bridge to life.
Corinne's own lips had brushed the lips of a girl the twelve year-old barely knew. A girl not much older. It was a moment of isolation in a jumbled, chaotic world but it was enough to send a strange shock through the pre-teen. It was a shock that echoed in every fibre of Corinne's body, like a jolt of energy that was at once warm and soft and whole. Like liquid gold coursing through her being.
It was the reason Corinne was here. She knew in that second why she existed: it was to be in love with a girl she barely knew. A girl who would save her.
"I'll find you," said the girl who stood with Corinne on the edge of a crumbling world. "I promise I will find you. Now jump," said the girl who Corinne only knew was called Cuz.
Corinne gulped, and looked into the large, green eyes of this Cuz, and then she did as the girl wanted. She jumped into the foaming Mediterranean with hope in her heart.
---
Corinne Walters had seen the girl many times over the past week or so. She had seen this girl, heard her calling to her friend or family, watched her playing games on the deck of the cruise ship, seen her at the side of the swimming pool dangling her skinny, tanned legs into the sparkling water, laughing with her friend as they walked arms in arm, seen her across the huge dinner room with her family and sat alongside that friend who looked older and more assured than Corinne could ever be.
Two girls, being close amid all the clatter and laughter. A tall girl and this one called Cuz. At least, that was what Corinne had heard once at the pool side, when the taller, older girl had shouted "Cuz! Over here!" Yelled loudly through the tumult of noise and the girl with the big, green eyes sat at the poolside had turned her smiling face towards her friend.
In that moment Corinne had been sure. Not of the girl's name - Corinne had no idea what Cuz was short for - but of how she felt. It was a strange feeling to behold the face of a girl she didn't know, yet feel her own heart pump in her chest and her stomach gently knot and... Yes, that fuzzy feeling down there. Right down there where everyone said a good girl didn't play.
Corinne was sure how she felt. She was in love with this Cuz creature. Love, for heaven's sake! Corinne remonstrated with herself for having such feelings, and looked guiltily at her mother and father who had never noticed the blush in their daughter's cheeks, the way her eyes had widened and how she clutched herself as if it was the only thing to stop herself falling apart.
Clutching her hand over her chest she was sure was the only way to stop her beating heart exploding with desire.
But then Mr and Mrs Walters never noticed much about their daughter. They had brought her on this cruise when she would rather be anywhere else, but she came to keep the peace. Alone and lonely, she looked at the way everyone was so determined to have a good time on the ship they were brutish or careless or loud. She saw young people of her age running round the decks and the gangways and she felt nothing for them. Not jealousy or interest or even amusement. She felt nothing until she saw Cuz, and then Corinne had eyes for nothing else.
But with the other girl round Cuz all the time it was impossible to reach her, and anyway what would Corinne say? "Hi, you look good?" Or how about, "You don't know me but I think I love you." No, it was all unlikely. No matter how much Corinne lay awake working out ways to approach Cuz the door was closed and every minute took the cruise ship nearer to its final port. All it could be was a bedtime fantasy, imagining Cuz reaching out and touching her. Touching her face, stroking her emerging breasts. Touching her down there where it was hot and urgent.
Right down in the warm, wet place where Corinne touched herself as she thought of the girl she desired.
And Corinne thought about a kiss. Yes, there would be a kiss, a wonderfully hot kiss and Cuz would then know what Corinne knew; that they were destined to be together.
Then, unexpectedly, Corinne got the kiss she dreamed of, but not in the way she expected. All she had to do was jump. Alone, but knowing Cuz would find her.
---
The cruise ship was one of those disasters waiting to happen. It was close to land when here was an almighty grating and ripping sound and the ship juddered before it lurched sideways in the late afternoon with alarm bells ringing. With a groan befitting an ageing death, the great ship began to tilt. People ran, and they grabbed their personal things even though there was no room in the lifeboats for luggage or souvenirs. People abandoned their families in desperation as the ship leaned more and more towards the sea on one side. It was chaos and it was the end.
Mr and Mrs Walters put their life jackets on and told their daughter to do the same, and then they left her, telling the girl to meet them at the lifeboats.
Corinne never got that far. Her life jacket was damaged and wouldn't fasten. She took it with her but didn't know what to do. Elbowed and pushed aside by passengers and staff alike, unable to hear the announcements on the loudspeakers (language and clarity had been the first victim of the disaster) Corinne made her way to the edge of the liner and thought she would have to jump. Jump down into the sea clutching her damaged life-jacket and hope it would keep her afloat. But her courage failed her as she stood by the railings, feeling her heart sinking as the ship surely was. Corinne couldn't do this. Not on her own.
The girl called Cuz was standing by her side, in her own life-jacket as if was the one place she ought to be. A girl who looked at the hesitant and astonished girl and smiled with a reassurance that startled Corinne. She put her hand lightly on Corinne's arm and the girl thought she would melt at the touch. "It will be alright," Cuz said softly. "I promise."
"But I can't swim," said Corinne. She held her life jacket up, or what was left of it, and Cuz nodded. "Yes," she said. "You need mine." She swung her own off her lovely slim shoulders and pressed it to Corinne.
"I can't," Corinne objected.
"You can and must. I can swim. I will survive. Here, take this, put it on and jump."
Corinne gulped. "But... You don't know me," she said.
"I have seen you," smiled Cuz. "I have seen you looking at me." She paused for a second. "I know."
"Know what?" Corinne stared at this girl, took in her slender body, her small high breasts, her full, soft lips. The freckles across her cute nose. She was perfect, even in this moment of danger.
"I know, and it is all you need to know," was all Cuz would say. Then she helped Corinne into the bright orange life-jacket she had taken off, buckling it around her. Doing it with love.
"If I die I will never know," said Corinne as Cuz finished fastening the jacket.
"Then don't die."
"I will die never having kissed you," said Corinne, all her inhibitions and fears suddenly gone. On the edge of death she had found the courage to grasp her life.
"Oh that!" laughed Cuz, gently. "That's easy." She leaned forward and kissed Corinne briefly. An all too short, tantalising brush of their lips, and then Cuz told Corinne she would find her. She promised. Corinne wasn't alone any more and she wasn't scared and she jumped into the green and blue sea.
---
Corinne watched the ship lean more towards sinking as she paddled herself away from it. Someone had once said you had to stay clear of a sinking ship as the suction would drag you down, so she wanted to be clear. There were lifeboats around her and people in life-jackets and people blowing whistles and a flare went up from the doomed ship and overhead a helicopter was circling. But Corinne was looking at the sides of the liner, looking for the girl with green eyes without a life-jacket.
She was too far away to make out such detail and she felt a pang. Not that she feared death, but that she feared she had lost the love of her life. What if Cuz couldn't swim? What if she had sacrificed herself to save a girl she didn't know?
A girl she had kissed just once, on the brink of danger.
There were tears in Corinne's eyes and she wiped them away with the back of her salt-wet hand.
There was a splash next to her and a laugh and Corinne turned to stare at Cuz, treading water next to her. "I told you I would find you," the girl said, and swam closer and leaned in and kissed Corinne.
A longer, deeper kiss this time, salt wet, and one that sent a new fire raging in Corinne. A fire in the water, she later thought.
"You found me," said Corinne as the kiss finally broke.
"I said I would, and here I am. I never break my promise."
"But... But your family. Your... your friend." Corinne found it hard to say, but she did it anyway.
"My cousin and my folks are fine. They're safe. It's you I'm worried about," said Cuz.
"I won't be worried if you kiss me again," said Corinne, fresh tears in her eyes though this time ones of relief.
"Oh that's very easy," said Cuz and they kissed again and did so until a boat rescued them and the people who hauled the entwined girls out of the water stared at two young lovers and the way they wouldn't leave each other. Clinging to each other even on the deck of the lifeboat as if their life depended on it.
"We jumped," said Corinne to the staring people as she held her young lover Cuz tightly. "I jumped right in," she added with a laugh, as if that explained everything. Which in a way it did.
The End