This is the beginning of a story I am writing...please comment and let me know what you think!
Ch. 1
Cassi - then (age 18)
The beat was electric, pulsing through the ground like thunder before the storm. Cassi's boots squelched in the soft mud, her sundress soaked at the hem from hours of dancing under the gray, gathering clouds. Lights from the stage sliced through the dusk, strobing across a thousand bodies that moved as one, defying the weather, lost in the music.
Cassi laughed as her curls stuck to her cheeks, hands raised to the sky like she could pull the thunder down herself. She spun, bare arms glistening with rain, face lit with joy and rebellion. The air smelled of damp grass, sweat, and something sharp--ozone. Somewhere in the pit, someone launched a beach ball into the air, and a collective cheer roared up like a wave.
Then, the storm hit.
It wasn't a slow build. One second the wind was flirting with her hair, and the next it was screaming in her ears, slapping rain against her skin sideways. The speakers crackled. The lights flickered. Then--bang--a crash of thunder overhead, and the stage went dark.
Panic rippled through the crowd.
"Cassi!" a voice called, rough and close. She turned, blinking water from her lashes, and there was Chris.
She had met him earlier that day--half-lost near the food trucks, sipping cold brew like he was born cool. They'd laughed about the mud, shared a funnel cake, and danced together like they'd known each other longer than a few hours. His shirt was soaked now, dark with rain, his sandy hair plastered to his forehead.
"Chris?" she yelled back, but her voice was swallowed by the storm.
And then it happened.
A tent--a full, heavy-duty camping tent--caught the wind like a sail and came tearing through the festival grounds, spinning wildly. People screamed and ducked. Cassi froze.
She didn't see it until it was nearly on top of her.
Chris did.
He moved without thinking, slamming into her and knocking her to the mud just as the tent roared over their heads, its aluminum poles spearing the air like javelins. It crashed into the field behind them with a violent snap of canvas and metal.
For a moment, everything went silent--except for the pounding of her heart and the rain drumming on the earth.
"Are you okay?" Chris asked, crouched over her, one hand still shielding her head. His eyes searched hers, wide and wild.
"I--I think so," she breathed.
"Come on," he said, pulling her up by the hand. "My tent. This way."
They ran.
Lightning strobed the sky, turning the world into flashes of white and shadow. Mud clung to their shoes, splashed up their legs. The wind howled through the trees lining the field, tearing banners from their ropes, flipping lawn chairs, and snapping umbrellas like twigs.
They heard someone come on stage and announce that a tornado had touched down near by -- the crowd cheered in response. Les Claypool came on stage chanting 'Rain -- rain -- rain..' in time with his bass. The crowds roar rivalled the thunder.
By the time they reached his tent, they were soaked to the bone. Chris fumbled with the zipper, hands trembling, then ducked inside and held it open for her. She dove in after him, and he zipped it shut, sealing them off from the chaos outside.
The tent was a cheap two-person pop-up, sagging slightly under the weight of the rain. Inside, it was a mess, and things were already damp, but not yet drenched--sleeping bags, blankets, backpacks, a flashlight that cast a dull, flickering beam from the corner. Cassi collapsed onto the floor, catching her breath, water dripping from her clothes in steady streams. She sat up when Chris had finished rummaging around behind her and came back with a towel.
She was drying her hair and sitting across from him. She realized how ice blue his eyes were. When their eyes met, he held her gaze and something inside of her changed. Her heart leapt into her throat, her mouth was dry, her whole body flushed and her clit tingled. She normally would write such sudden feelings off to adrenaline, but the way he looked at her... it was like they had known each other forever. It was somehow just as comfortable as it was exciting.
He was certainly attractive. In a very classically midwestern way. He had ice blue eyes, sandy blonde hair that was a little long and shaggy, enough where he had to shake it out of his eyes when it wasn't wet. He was tall, he had strong hands with long fingers. She had a thing for nice hands. Looking at him you could tell he was gangly and awkward when he went through puberty. His chest was strong, the wet tee shirt clinging to it. His arms were, too.
She was just staring at him, not saying anything. For some reason it didn't feel weird, just looking at her looking at him. He noticed her nipples showed through her dress, small in comparison to her breast size. Her chest was rising and falling with her heavy breathing and it was all he could do not to look. The hem of her dress was bunched up high up on her thigh, exposing nearly all of one perfect leg, hinting at the wonders that lay just a couple inches further. He swallowed as hard as he could, finding his mouth to be dry. Her skin looked like tupelo honey, soft, tan and supple. He noticed all of this out of his peripheral because they hadn't lost eye contact. Neither of them had spoken for a full minute. He shifted his weight trying to keep an erection from being seen.
Then she laughed. A breathy, disbelieving sound.
"You just saved my life."
Chris shrugged, but his grin tugged at the corner of his mouth. "Had to do something heroic before the night was over."
Cassi shook her head, smiling despite the thunder shaking the ground around them. "You're insane."
"Yeah, well," he said, settling beside her with a shiver, "you're the one who was dancing in a lightning storm."
"Is it crazy that I want to go back? I really want to see Primus".
As if in response, lightning cracked right outside the tent followed by thunder immediately after that shook everything around them. Cassi shrieked and jumped into Chris' arms.
He laughed.
"You sure about that?"
She shook her head and snuggled into his lap, shivering. They sat there, holding each other in the dark, the storm crashing around them, breathing the same wet, electric air.
Neither one said it out loud, but they both felt it--there was electricity in the air that wasn't from the Lightning.
Cassi was shivering uncontrollably. It was the kind of cold that hits your bones and won't stop.
"I w-w-wish I could t-t-take a hot b-bath", she said through clattering teeth, trying to dry her hair again with the towel he had given her, "and put on fuzzy sock-k-s". She smiled and tried to hand the towel back to him, it must have been his only one. He shook his head and tossed it back on top of hers.
"Get in my sleeping bag", he unzipped it and started getting extra blankets on top. He was shivering pretty hard, too.
