We disappeared into the trees as darkness fell across the sky. I shone my flashlight ahead of me, panting as I zigzagged around tree roots and plants, my heart throbbing in my chest. Within seconds, I’d separated from the other girls, but Terrica had explained that this was an advantageous strategy. My job now was to find a stealthy place to hide.
I crouched behind a massive oak tree, my breath coming hard and fast. I clicked the flashlight off and waited, listening for the sound of approaching footfalls.
The boys’ deep voices boomed across the night: They were calling to each other as they spread out to find us. I crept around the trunk of the tree, peering through the darkness.
Two tall figures were crashing through the brush, the light from their flashlights jumping erratically. I drew back and crept around the other side of the trunk, waiting for them to pass. The moment they’d gone several yards beyond my tree, I dashed out and set off back across the woods, aiming to reach base, where I’d be safe.
A high-pitched yell rang out from the right side of the woods; it was one of the girls, being chased out of her hiding spot. I kept moving forward, the blood rushing through my body, my breath coming in gasps. I hadn’t played a game like this in years, but the thrill of it came right back to me, wild and dangerous and raw.
“Whoa!” someone gasped, emerging from the trees and nearly running into me.
It was Lydia. She grabbed my hand and pulled me off to the left, and I barely had time to register the electric buzz of her hand before I heard one of the boys shouting behind us.
We ran wildly, breathlessly, her messy ponytail whipping in front of me. It was a full minute before Lydia stopped, pulling me into a dense cluster of trees. She kept hold of my hand as we crouched behind a massive tree trunk and clicked off our flashlights.
Our panting gradually lessened. Crickets were trilling; a bullfrog croaked in the distance. My eyes adjusted to the pitch darkness, finding Lydia’s silhouette mere inches away.
“Sorry,” Lydia whispered, grinning apologetically down at our hands. “I grab hold of people when I’m nervous.” But she didn’t let go.
I swallowed. My heart thumped erratically, and not from Manhunt.
“It’s kinda scary out here,” Lydia went on. “But peaceful, in a way.”
“It makes me feel so awake,” I whispered.
She gripped my hand harder. Our eyes met in the darkness.
Crack!
My heart reared at the sound of a snapping twig: Someone was prowling our way. We took off running again, and there was a crash of footfalls as one of the boys chased after us.
“Give it up!” he shouted. It was Cliff, bounding through the woods behind us.
I caught a glimpse of glowing light and raced toward it, Lydia following in my wake. We crashed back across the open field, drawn by the fire, praying that base was only yards away.
“YES!” came Terrica’s voice from across the field. “Come on, y’all!”
We were halfway there when another figure emerged from the woods, cutting into our path: It was Samuel, tearing after us with all his might. There was no way we’d both outrun him.
“Keep going!” Lydia shouted behind me, and I pressed on, racing toward Terrica and Natalie. A second later, Lydia let out a war cry, her voice crazy and shrill in the nighttime air as she whipped around and staggered to a halt, her arms held out like a linebacker’s. Surprised, Samuel tried to skid to a stop, but his momentum was too forceful: He bowled right into her. They crashed to the dirt, yelling and sputtering, just as I reached the safety of base—and Terrica’s and Natalie’s outstretched hands.
“YES!” Terrica shouted, pulling me in for a hug. “The majority of us made it—WE WIN!”
I looked around and laughed. Leo was only a few yards away from us, hovering near the firepit. He totally could have chased me down if he’d wanted to, but he seemed more interested in the beers he was pulling from his backpack. The fire crackled and danced in front of him.
Ricky came hustling out of the trees, asking what had happened, as the girls and I jogged over to check on Lydia and Samuel. Cliff had pulled up behind them and was standing with his hands on his hips, shaking his head in defeat. Lydia and Samuel were sprawled on their backs on the ground, coughing and laughing.
“Goddamn, woman,” Samuel was whining, his voice strained. “What kinda motherfucking sacrifice—”
“You’re the one who rammed into me!” Lydia panted, her hands on her belly. “Fucking freight train—”
“Lyd, as admirable as it was to offer yourself up like that,” Natalie said, plopping down on the ground next to her, “I’m pretty sure you could’ve just kept running.”
“I know,” Lydia said, still panting, “but I thought some drama would be fun. Either way, we won, right?” She spun her head around until she found me. “And Codi got to be the victory runner.”
I laughed, dropping down next to her. “Yeah, I gotta say, it felt pretty heroic.”
The others joined us on the ground, all of us coming down off the high of the game. Terrica hovered over Samuel, who wouldn’t stop whining about his bleeding knee. Cliff wanted a play-by-play of the game, while Ricky kept lamenting that no one had caught Lydia and Samuel’s collision on camera.
“It sounds funnier than it was,” Natalie promised him, “but here, it basically looked like this.”
She pulled me to my feet and mimicked running into me, just as Samuel had done to Lydia, except she flapped her hands and kicked her feet up like a helpless baby bird. I pretended to topple over in slow motion, exaggerating Lydia’s yell. Ricky and the others roared with laughter.
“Offensive,” Lydia said as I collapsed next to her.
“It’s all good, bro,” I teased, wrapping my arm around her neck, but I could feel Natalie’s eyes on me again and hastily dropped my arm.
“This is all very sweet and precious,” came another voice, and we whipped around to see Leo hovering over the group, “but can we get to the drinking now?”
* * *
The fire smelled like only fire can; it crackled and snapped, entrancing all of us. We circled around it, lounging on old beach towels and quilts that Lydia and Natalie had packed, while Leo kept up a steady supply of booze. The beer was lukewarm and fizzy, but it settled comfortably in my stomach, a perfect complement to the flickering fire.
Leo produced his weed next, and the air was soon thick with the smell of campfire and marijuana. I watched as the pipe made its way around the group, with everyone taking a couple of hits. Natalie hadn’t smoked last time, when we’d been on the roof, but she did tonight; I wondered if Lydia and Ricky, who were sitting on the other side of me, would do the same. Then I realized it didn’t matter who did or did not smoke. It was my choice to decide whether I wanted to try it or not.
Natalie handed the pipe to me, and I stared at it for a long second, making up my mind.
“How do I do it?” I asked, daring to look up at everyone.
I knew them well enough by now to know they wouldn’t laugh, and I was right: Not a single person seemed fazed. Only Ricky gave me a relaxed half smirk.
Natalie showed me what to do, leaning into me and flicking the lighter to life. I inhaled as she told me and let the smoke fill my mouth, then breathed it out.
“You’ll get a sweet little buzz from this one,” Leo said, unusually kind. “Just start with that and see how it feels.”
I passed the pipe and lighter off to Lydia, my fingers brushing hers. She took a hit of her own and passed it on.
Our energy was loose and relaxed. There was nothing to do but watch the fire and listen to everyone’s voices swinging on the air. The night was warm, infinite, secret, and I had never felt so settled in myself. I lay back on my quilt, gazing up at the star-flecked sky, not bothering to worry that I’d just checked myself out of the group conversation. My phone dinged with texts from Maritza and JaKory, but I silenced it and tossed it to the side. I wasn’t in the mood to feel guilty toni
ght.
Lydia lay down next to me, sighing. I wanted to reach for her, but my limbs were too relaxed. It was enough just to know she was there.
“Stars,” Lydia said, giggling. “There are so many of them. Look at that constellation—look—it’s like a platypus.”
I giggled, too. The idea of millions of stars just hanging out up there was so silly, so absurd. The giggles pealed out of me like hiccups, goofy and unstoppable.
“I think Codi likes the weed,” Natalie said, laughing to my right.
“Two thumbs up,” I said, extending my arms for them to see, and then I laughed more at the sight of my thumbs.
Time passed in a hazy way; it could have been a few minutes or an hour, but I was comfortable just to lie there and be. I knew I was high, and the idea was funny and wondrous. I could only imagine what Maritza and JaKory would think.
Then Lydia was saying my name.
“Yeah?” I asked, leaning up on my elbows.
“We’re going to pee,” she said, ruffling my hair. Her warm fingers lingered a moment longer than necessary. “Do you wanna come?”
“Yes,” I said. I wanted to add more, something funny or silly, but the words were too relaxed to come out.
We stumbled off to the woods, Lydia, Natalie, Terrica, and me, giggling and falling all over each other. Lydia’s arm was somehow around me, and I tugged on her hand that lay draped on my shoulder. Her skin was soft and warm and electric.
“Marijuana,” I said, giggling without meaning to. “Mary Jane. What a proper name for a drug.”
“She’s a lady,” Natalie said.
“My middle name is Jane,” I announced, unsure of why I was sharing this information. “I hate it. My parents had one job and they fucked it up.”
We spread out beneath the trees, safe from the boys’ eyes. Natalie dropped her shorts and peed without fuss.
“Jane’s a lovely name,” she said thoughtfully, like she wasn’t pissing in front of us.
“Yeah, it’s a classic,” Lydia cut in. “And it’s got an amazing legacy. Jane Austen, Jane Goodall—”
“GI Jane,” Terrica chimed in, squatting a few feet from Natalie.
“Yeah, see?” Lydia said. Even in the darkness, I could feel her eyes on me. “It’s worthy of you.”
“Are y’all gonna pee, or what?” Natalie said.
Lydia took her place near where Natalie had just peed. She started to unzip her shorts, and I looked hastily away, my body heating up at the thought of her bare thighs, her bare everything. I stepped several feet to the side and did my business near a protruding tree root, trying to focus enough to get the job done.
“Are we good, ladies?” Terrica asked.
She crunched back toward the field, but Natalie called to stop her.
“Yeah?” Terrica said.
Natalie laughed. Her voice was mischievous in the dark.
“Let’s go skinny-dipping.”
* * *
We wrangled the boys into going with us. We doused the fire and left our quilts, empty beer cans, and backpacks in the field. Our party of eight crashed through the woods again, heading toward the river, everyone yelling at Natalie about what a dumbass idea this was, though our abuse was gleeful rather than mad. We were reckless and giddy. The moon was bright and the river had never seemed so enchanting.
We reached it within five minutes, and before any of us could do more than tug off our sneakers, Leo had stripped completely and gone tearing off into the water, hollering like a cowboy. All I could see was a flash of pale, naked skin.
Samuel and Cliff went racing after him, Samuel stripping off everything except his bandana. Terrica and Natalie watched them unabashedly, laughing as they started to tug off their own clothes. Ricky hesitated for only the briefest of seconds before he went tearing in after the guys, his back a wide swath of deep brown skin shining in the moonlight.
I was inebriated enough not to panic, and I knew it was dark enough that nobody would really be able to see me, but I couldn’t help my pounding heart as I began to pull off my clothes. I’d never been naked in front of any of my peers, at least not since I was little. Maritza had seen me in my bra and underwear, but that was it.
I hastened to pull off my shorts and T-shirt, then hesitated. “Are y’all taking off—everything?” I asked the girls.
“Already did!” Natalie yelled, tossing her clothes as she went running off to the water. Terrica followed close behind her, nothing more than a flash of dark, gleaming skin.
And Lydia—oh fuck, Lydia was taking off her bra.
I averted my eyes, then glanced back at her, then averted my eyes again. I couldn’t see anything more than a flash of skin, a swing of flesh, but it was enough to make my face sear and my lower belly throb.
“Come on!” she called to me, and beneath her laughter was something else: a high-pitched note of nervousness. I could feel her eyes on me as I fiddled with the clasp of my bra. I tried to say something, but a second later she was gone, rushing off to the water with everyone else.
I followed last, my bare feet slipping over pebbles and dirt, and in some distant, detached part of my brain, a wry voice said, You’re running after a hot, naked girl right now. I laughed aloud and crashed into the water, crouching low so no one would see my body.
The water was barely deep enough to sit in. It streamed past us, washing over stones, filling our ears with that eternal, moving rush.
“How much bacteria you think we’re sitting in?” Samuel asked.
“Just don’t drink it, dude,” Leo said.
The guys were trying not to look at the girls, and vice versa, and I caught Ricky’s eye, wondering if he saw the humor in it. He shook his head subtly and looked away, but I knew he was smirking.
We splashed and yelled and cheered for Leo as he pretended to synchronized swim. Natalie and Cliff ended up closely entwined, and soon enough Terrica and Samuel followed suit, and then it was just Ricky, Leo, Lydia, and me, carrying on the conversation and pretending the other four weren’t feeling each other up under the water.
“I feel like I’m in Europe,” Ricky muttered, shaking his head at the two couples.
“Or Deliverance, but, like, a porno version,” Leo said.
Lydia was sitting so close that I could see the water beads clinging to her bare shoulders. She had scooped her hair up into a messy topknot, but a few flyaways hung around her face, and I had that familiar urge to reach over and touch them. I couldn’t believe she was right there, completely naked. The top of her chest was just showing above the water, and every time I noticed, it was like a spring uncoiled in my stomach.
“I have an idea,” she said under her breath.
“Yeah?” the three of us asked.
On her orders, Ricky, Leo, and I followed her out of the water one at a time, covering ourselves from each other’s prying eyes. The other four were too wrapped up in each other to bother with us. It wasn’t until we were pulling on our sneakers that Samuel popped his head up and asked, “Hey—what are y’all doing?”
“Nothing,” Ricky said innocently.
Cliff looked up, too, his expression just as suspicious. There was a long, hanging second where all of us were frozen, staring each other down from the bank to the water. Then Lydia moved.
“Run!” she yelled, plucking up Natalie’s clothes.
Ricky, Leo, and I sprinted after her, each of us holding the bundles of Cliff’s, Samuel’s, and Terrica’s clothes. We roared with laughter as we heard them come stomping out of the water behind us, swearing and shouting death threats. We hustled all the way back to the open field before we dropped their clothes by the tree line and collapsed on the quilts by the firepit, heaving with laughter and exertion.
“Fuck,” Leo gasped, clutching his side. “They’re so fucked.”
“They’re so naked,” Lydia laughed.
Ricky sat upright and tended the fire until it sparked with life again. We moved to crouch in front of it, hoping the warmth would p
ull the wetness from our clothes. A few minutes later, the other four appeared at the tree line, still shouting swear words at us. Cliff and Samuel scampered out from the trees to gather up the piles of clothes.
“Lookin’ good, daddies!” Leo called, waggling his eyebrows.
They rejoined us by the fire, panting and calling us dirty names, but it was clear our little escapade had been the high point of the night. Lydia lay sprawled on her back, still laughing even as Natalie threatened to smother her, and I was awash in the pure energy of her, in her spirit and mischief and spark.
Later, after we’d drunk another round of beers, Natalie suggested we head back to Lydia’s house to crash. We loped out of the park and wound our way around a dimly lit road, the smell of river water heavy on our skin. Lydia ushered us in through the basement of her house, where we fell about on couches, sleeping bags, and blankets.
“I’ll get us some dry clothes,” Lydia said as Cliff started to snore.
“Do you want help?” I offered.
We tiptoed up through the dark, quiet house, not speaking until we reached her room. She switched on the bedside lamp and whispered to me where I stood by the door.
“Did you have fun tonight?”
“I had a blast,” I said, grinning.
She smiled back at me, tired but happy, as she rifled through her dresser drawers. “Good,” she said, tossing some T-shirts to the floor. “I know you said big groups of people aren’t your thing, so I figured a smaller hangout would be.”
I stared at her; it almost sounded like she was saying this small hangout was set up specifically for me, and I wondered if I’d heard correctly.
“I mean—” she said quickly. Even in the dim light, I could see her cheeks flushing pink. “I just thought, you know, a night out in the woods might be a nice change of pace.”
I had this feeling then. It was a feeling like this was real, like Lydia did in fact like me as much as I liked her, and yet there was no sense of haste or anticipation about it; instead I felt calm and content, like a fireball could have shot down through the roof and I wouldn’t have cared in the slightest.
Late to the Party Page 14