by Destiny Webb
When we made our way out of the woods, a small fire was already started. Cara, Chad, Brian, and Alisha were already sitting and talking. As we put the pieces of wood into a pile, I gathered that they were talking about parties. Brian was talking about some party we had gone to a few months back as Lance and I took our seats on a log and Lance wrapped his arm around me. I shivered slightly, finally noticing that there was a chill to the air. Lance noticed as well. He slid his jacket off and held it out for me. I slid my arms through the sleeves gratefully, feeling the warmth.
As I listened to Brian, I realized that it was the same story I had told Lance the other night. I chuckled to myself silently. Lance looked down at me with a curious glance and I just shook my head and told him to listen.
“So then, we slip through the door as quietly as possible. Just when I think we’re in the clear, Sam slams the door, waking our parents up. Needless to say, we both were in huge trouble.”
“Oh, that is not how that happened! You slammed the door. You were drunk. Someone got a little too carried away with some shots. It was not my fault.” I interjected, appalled.
“It was too. You totally—”
“You know, you guys said that in almost the exact same dialogue. No joke. When you told me that story, Sam, I think you said like the exact same thing,” Lance said, astonished.
“Well, we are twins,” Brian and I said at the exact same time. We looked at each other and laughed, the rest of the group following suit.
“Really?” Lance asked. “You don’t say.”
Brian said something about being older than me and I was about to protest when I felt my phone vibrate.
Don’t look now, but guess who’s at the window?
I ignored Cara’s warning not to look and glanced sneakily towards the cabin. And who did I find standing at his window? Sean. He was looking down at us…no, at me…with a pained expression on his face. I locked eyes with him. Something felt different. I couldn’t be sure of what, but the atmosphere felt different. And in that moment, I wanted nothing more than to be upstairs with him. I felt that pang of guilt again and I tore away from his stare.
“And if Sam hadn’t slammed that door, we would have gotten off scott free and I would not have had to spend the next month and a half in my room.”
“Woah, woah, woah there, mister. This story needs to get set straight.”
Everyone was watching us as we bickered. Lance was rubbing my lower back lightly in a soothing kind of way, almost like he was trying to calm me out of doing something stupid. I looked up at him and smiled to let him know that I was okay. He smiled back, but there was distance in his eyes. Something was off.
“You’re not gonna beat the crap out of him again, are you Sam?” laughed Cara from the other log, practically sitting on Chad’s lap. Lance looked slightly alarmed as Cara said this. I sighed and looked forward.
“Beat the crap out of him? Her? She’s like a pixie. He’s like, what, twice her size?” Chad asked, disbelieving. I had to say, I was slightly offended; size was not everything.
“Oh, you’d be surprised,” piped up Alisha. Brian shot her a look and she blushed deeply. I liked Alisha a lot. Would I have picked her for my brother? Definitely not. Not that she was a bad person or not good enough for my brother. They made a great couple. She was just so quiet, and he was so…not. There was no better way to describe them rather than polar opposites.
“Anyway, I think that we need to call in some unbiased opinions here,” I interrupted.
“And who would that be? Everyone who was there was wasted.” Brian looked at me defiantly.
“Sarah.” I returned his look of defiance, knowing that I had the trump card, and he knew as soon as I said it that I was right. I smirked at him slightly as I proceeded to rub it in. “Remember, she was sick that night and didn’t want to go out.”
“Whatever. Where’s the stuff for the s’mores?”
“No, no, no. Why don’t we give her a little call?” I insisted.
***
“What was so important that I had to leave my night of relaxation?” Sarah complained as she walked out of the cabin towards us. Her hair was wet and she had a disgruntled expression on her face.
“Who was the one who slammed the door the night that we got caught sneaking in?” Brian and I asked almost in unison. Everyone chuckled lightly as Sarah’s face got even more annoyed.
“Seriously? This is what you called me out for? It’s almost as annoying as the night Brian slammed the door when you guys snuck in. Now, since I’m out here, I might as well get myself a s’more.” She walked over to the logs, sitting down on the fourth log next to Lance and me.
Brian made a face at me as I handed her the bag of supplies and roasted my marshmallow over the blazing fire. I stuck my tongue out at him while I let the marshmallow catch fire, then watched it burn briefly before blowing it out and sticking it on my graham cracker and chocolate.
“I still don’t get how you can eat them burnt,” Sarah said. “It’s like eating charcoal. Marshmallows should be fluffy and gooey.”
“That’s the point though…I like them crunchy.” I glanced up towards the window again out of the corner of my eye. To my disbelief, it was empty this time. I sighed in relief and took a bite out of my s’more. It melted in my mouth and I smiled to myself. I pulled a marshmallow out of the bag sitting between Sarah and me and threw it at Lance’s face.
He looked at me, slightly shocked, and I grinned up at him. He smiled back, leaning around me and grabbing a marshmallow, then sticking it on the rod. I watched him as he stuck it in the fire and let it burn.
“For the record, I like my marshmallows burnt too,” he nudged me playfully, and I nudged back. I took another bite of my s’more while Lance put his together. I looked back up at him and he glanced down at me, smiling slightly.
“You, uhh, have a bit of s’more on your lip.”
I went to go wipe it off with my finger, slightly embarrassed, when he stopped me.
“Here, let me get it for you.” He leaned down towards me, pushing his lips softly against mine. He slid his tongue across my bottom lip, getting the s’more off of it and sending shivers down my spine.
I kissed him back, knowing in the back of my mind that it might be wrong to lead him on like this, but he was so sweet, so…easy to be around. He was non-complicated. I threw caution to the wind and pushed the guilty thoughts out of my mind. What the heck? Why not? And despite knowing the answer, despite knowing that eventually I would hurt him, I put my hand on his cheek and leaned into him, sighing happily, kissing back.
“You’re all having a party out here and no one invited me? Where’s the fun in that?”
I jerked my head away from Lance to look at Sean, who stopped in his tracks when he saw us kissing, sitting so close, me in Lance’s jacket; horror and jealously filled his eyes.
“Well, at least he’s not drunk this time,” I heard Lance mutter darkly and sarcastically under his breath.
Chapter Sixteen
So, Lance had a point. At least he wasn’t drunk. I didn’t have to take care of him. But on the other hand, maybe it would have been better if he had been.
Things went from good to bad to downright awful. Once Sean came down, Lance got slightly possessive of me. I don’t know why that bothered me, but it did. He wrapped his arm around me, pulling me close to him, laying his hand on my waist. It felt like we had been dating for way longer than the actual two dates we’d had. He didn’t really have any reason to be possessive of me.
And poor Sean was acting so awkward, trying to fit in. He had never had to try to fit in for his entire, perfect life. He was always a part of the “in” crowd. Popular girlfriend, good looks, things had always looked up for him. So what was his deal tonight?
“Sam, pass me the marshmallows please,” he called from across the fire. I looked at him, then up at Lance, then back at him. Hesitation came over me and I didn’t really know what to do. Thank goodness Sarah picked
up on the hesitation and tossed the bag over towards Brian, who handed the bag to Sean.
“So, Sam.” I looked up toward Chad, who had to disentangle his face from Cara’s. He had a smirk on his face, rather cocky. In that second I decided I wasn’t his biggest fan. “What’s this about you beating Brian up? I’d love to hear it.” He was totally pompous. I didn’t know how Cara could stand to be around him. Maybe his kissing made up for it. I wasn’t kissing him though. Rather, I wanted to hit him. Instead, I chuckled to myself softly.
“Well—” I started.
“Ohmyghod. Hit whas thottally hilarious,” Sean interrupted, his mouth full of s’more. You could barely understand what he was saying. I looked at him with a tinge of pity.
“Okay. So we don’t have any more arguments for tonight, I am going to tell the story.” Sarah said, taking the attention away from Sean. “It was about a year ago. Sam was taking a self-defense class. She rather hated it…quit after a few weeks. Said it wasn’t much help to her. So, one night, we’re all hanging out at the house, and Sam’s kinda minding her own business, reading some book, and Brian’s being stupid and picking on her. She tells him ever so quietly, barely whispering—she didn’t even look up from her book—‘You better cut it out Brian, or else I’m going to hurt you. And you are going to cry.’ Oh, of course, he didn’t believe her and continued to be an annoying little shit. So, she gets up and walks out of the room. Not two seconds later, she’s back in the room and Brian is on the floor, crying like a baby. So, she sits on his back and flicks his ear and says ‘Did you learn your lesson?’ And he just nods and says, ‘You win Sam, you win! Uncle! Uncle!’ So, Sam gets up and goes back to her chair, picks up her book, and keeps on reading.”
Everyone was laughing except for Brian, who sat there looking like he’d explode from embarrassment. I was about to say something to console him when Sean addressed me.
“Too bad you couldn’t remember that the other night. Would have saved you a lot of trouble with Blake.”
I looked at him with the utmost shock. Did he really say what I thought he’d said? He looked at me, stunned at his own words. Lance could feel there was something being buried. He rubbed my back lightly as I stared at Sean in horror.
He knew what he said was awful, I could see it in his eyes. There was something more there too. Something was different. I could just tell. He looked at me differently. Maybe it was just because I was with another guy. I looked away from him, intending to ignore him the rest of the night, up to Lance, who looked worried. I smiled a smile of reassurance and jumped back into the conversation.
That stupid movie would come back to haunt me forever. Of course, I would be stuck in the middle of another endless conversation about the stupid Gravediggers movie. Everyone had seen it, so that obviously meant that they all had to talk about it. That damned movie would be the death of me.
Lance noticed me withdrawing from the conversation and tried to pull me into it.
“Did you see it?” he asked.
“Yeah,” I said tentatively. I really didn’t want to talk, or even think, about it.
“Who did you see it with?”
I froze and looked around the fire. Everyone was staring at me: Sarah and Brian with hidden horror, Cara with slight amusement—how she loved drama—Lance and Chad with polite curiosity, and then, there was Sean. I looked at Sean last, for in his eyes, I saw that he knew that the movie wasn’t just an encounter between friends, it was more romantic than that. In his eyes, there was hope. In his eyes, there was adoration for me…those wonderful, gorgeous eyes.
Damn those eyes.
“Uhh..,I saw it with Sean.” I sounded so unsure, but so confident at the same time. I looked away from Sean up to Lance.
“Oh,” was all he said.
“Did anyone see that one comedy where that girl and guy get into a taxi and it gets lost or something?” Sarah asked, pulling the conversation in a different direction.
“Oh, yeah. It was really funny. What’s it called?” Lance said.
“Lost In New York or something like that,” Brian said.
“Ohmigod! That movie was so stupid,” Cara jumped in, giving her much needed opinion, “How could someone drag a cab ride out for two hours?”
If Lance was upset, he sure didn’t show it. He sat there as pleasant as ever to everyone except Sean, who he was short with and ignored.
Sean got the message quickly enough and soon made his departure, quickly followed by Sarah, who didn’t want to be the odd man out. I looked after him for a short second, wanting to follow, wanting to find out what was going on, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t just leave Lance to follow Sean. So, instead, I stayed with the other couples.
I looked up at the cabin out of the corner of my eye in time to see the light of Sean’s room flicker on. I sighed sadly and turned back to the ongoing conversation. It had switched to some off-roading experiences and I had no idea what was going on. I just wanted to get out of there.
I yawned softly, pretending that I was getting tired and almost as if on cue….
“So, Samantha, I’m sorry to steal lover-boy away from you, but we do have a party to make an appearance at,” Chad addressed me.
“You’re more than welcome to come, though,” Lance eagerly added.
“You know,” I yawned again, falsely. “I would love to but I’m rather sleepy. I’m sorry.”
“Oh, it’s okay,” he said cheerfully. “There’ll be other parties.”
“Yeah, of course,” I smiled softly up at him. Everyone had gotten up and gathered their things together. It looked like Brian and Alisha were going to go out too. I stood up slowly, Lance following suit. He leaned down and kissed me softly on the lips.
“I had a really good time tonight Samantha,” he whispered softly, sweeping a stray hair out of my face. I felt a twinge of guilt, knowing I was cutting the night short to go find Sean. I pushed it out of my head quickly.
“I had a good time too, Lance. I’ll talk to you tomorrow?”
“Sure.” He smiled at me as I turned to walk up the walkway to the house. When I got to the door, I turned back to look at him. He was still watching me and I smiled at him one more time before going inside.
Quickly, I trotted up the stairs. Slowing down as I got into the hallway, I walked lightly through the hall, being careful of the random loose floorboards. Finally, I made my way to Sean’s room, put my hand on the door, and started opening it. When I heard voices coming from behind the door, I paused.
In that moment, I don’t know why, but, I froze. I stepped away from the door right onto one of the creaky floorboards. Silently cursing myself, I made my way into my room. Sarah was lying on her bed flipping through a magazine. She glanced up at me, then back at her magazine, turning the page.
I went to go find my book so I could read, opening the chest on my bedside table where I usually left it, but it wasn’t there. I closed the door and stood up straight, glancing around the room. Sarah cleared her throat slightly and I returned to my search.
“So, tonight was…interesting,” she commented nonchalantly, still looking at the magazine.
“Mhmm,” I murmured from under the bed. “Have you seen my book?”
“Last time I saw it, it was downstairs,” she said absentmindedly. “Anyway. What was that all about?”
I shrugged again, making my way back towards the door to go look for my book downstairs. “I don’t know.”
She said something as I shut the door behind me and walked down the hall. I was about two steps from Sean’s door when it opened quietly. He stepped out into the hall with a slightly surprised expression when he saw me.
“We need to quit meeting like this,” I joked lightly. He smirked softly before grabbing my hand and pulling me into the hall bathroom. “What are you doing?” I asked him in a hushed tone.
“We need to talk.” He flicked on the light in the bathroom and looked down at me. He burrowed his eyebrows together, a glimpse of anger in his eye
s. I looked down and realized I was still wearing Lance’s jacket.
“Uhh…I…it was cold. I forgot to give it back.”
He shook his head slightly as if he was trying to clear it. He brought his eyes back up to mine, staring deeply into them.
“I told her I needed space, Sam,” he said, ignoring the jacket.
I stared at him blankly, trying to comprehend.
“I told Tasha that we needed to take a break, Sammy. That we need to see other people.” He put his hands on my shoulders and slowed it down, like he was talking to a little kid, but not offensively.
I looked down, taking it all in. He did it? It didn’t seem real. It was just a break…but still…he did it. He started talking again as I soaked it all in.
“…and I just saw the two of you and something in me snapped. I didn’t want you to be with him. So, I called her and told her that I needed room. That I wanted to take a break.”
“That’s great Sean.” I pulled my eyes back up to his, looking at him. “But what does it mean for —”
He put his hands on my cheeks and kissed me hard, taking me completely by surprise. I gasped and put my hands on his face, mirroring his hands on mine. We moved up against the cabinetry heatedly.
Next thing I knew, I was sitting on the counter, my arms wrapped around his neck, fingers weaved into his hair, kissing him passionately. He slid one of his hands over my body, slowly making his way to my back, rubbing it lightly. His other hand winded into my hair, loosening the braid and letting it fall loose around my face. I sighed happily, relaxing against him. I felt him smile against my lips.
“That’s what that means for us,” he murmured against my lips.
When we heard a creak in the floorboards in the hall, we both froze, knowing that the light underneath the door was visible in the hallway. There was a soft knock on the door.
“Yeah?” I said quietly, putting my finger on Sean’s lips.
“Everything okay in there?” It was Charles. I relaxed just a little. He was probably just upset that someone was needlessly using the hallway bathroom.