Straight Laced

by Jessica Gunhammer

  “Hey!” Nate yelled in my direction. “You going to come back inside, too? You probably shouldn’t be out here all by yourself—unless standing in the middle of nowhere in the dark is your thing? Then I’ll let you be.” I could see the slightest outline of a smile playing at the corner of his lips.

  “Yeah, it’s kinda what I do.” I started walking towards the barn. “I’m totally kidding, by the way,” I told him as I walked by.

  “What the hell is your problem, man?” I heard Travis ask from the corner of the barn where I last saw him and Tori.

  “My problem is you’re passed out on a hay bale with my sister!” Brent yelled.

  “Dude, it’s fine! Chill out!” Travis attempted to calm his friend down.

  “Don’t tell me to chill out!” Brent had his face about an inch from Travis’. This did not look like it was going to end well.

  “Brent, calm down. I’m tired.” Tori stood up and put her hand on her brother’s chest to try and get his attention. “I’m going back to the house and going to bed.” From the slur in her words I knew she was shitfaced. Not to mention the fact she passed out on a hay bale, that couldn’t be comfortable.

  “I’ll walk you.” Travis got up and grabbed Tori’s hand.

  “The hell you will.” Brent pushed him back down. Travis was pretty drunk too, so I probably could’ve knocked him over if I wanted to. But still, Brent was a big guy and if it came to blows, Brent would win, no doubt. “I’ll walk her. Come on, Tori! Let’s go!” Brent pushed between Nate and I and went out the barn door.

  I was a little relieved that all that drama had just went down. Maybe it would get Brent’s mind off of what had happened between us tonight. I didn’t want things to be awkward in the morning. I glanced around the room and noticed the only people left in the barn was Travis, two other guys passed out on the ground, and Nate and I.

  “I didn’t even realize everyone had left,” I said to Nate, trying to think of anything I could say just to talk to him.

  “Yeah. I walked them all out the back right after you and Brent went outside. I figured it’d be best to get them all out of here before he started to get too rowdy. He tends to get like that when he drinks.”

  “Good to know.” I walked over and grabbed Tori’s jacket she’d left behind. “Thank you by the way, for calling Brent back in here. He was making me a little uncomfortable.”

  “Oh, yeah. No problem. I wasn’t spying on you or anything—I just saw you guys and I could tell when you jumped off the fence that he started to get a little…well, you know.”

  “Yeah…well, I better get back inside.” I started my way out the barn door. Shit. I stopped in my tracks. What if I run into Brent on the way back to the house?

  “You all right?” Nate asked.

  “Uh, yeah.” I started walking in the direction of the house again.

  “He usually passes out once he gets inside.” I turned around and Nate was leaning up against the side of the barn with his arms crossed over his chest. I would love to have those arms wrapped around me right about now. “But I can walk you back if you want. Just give me a minute to get this place cleaned up. Lynn will be pissed if she sees this in the morning.” I nodded and he turned around and walked back inside the barn.

  I waited nervously outside and kept a lookout for Brent until Nate reappeared. He slid the barn door closed behind him.

  “All right, let’s go.” He walked past me and started down the gravel road.

  “What about those guys in there?” I pointed towards the barn.

  “They’ll sleep it off and be gone in the morning before Brent’s parents wake up.”

  “Oh.” We continued down the road in silence. I was okay with that, though. I didn’t want to say anything stupid, and even though that whole thing with Brent sobered me up pretty quickly, I still felt a little tipsy.

  When we got to the front door we quietly walked inside and tip-toed down the stairs to where Brent and Tori’s bedrooms were. When I got to the bottom of the stairs, I went straight for the bedroom. I stopped when I made it to the door and turned around. Nate was walking to the couch in the small living room.

  “Nate.” He stopped and turned around.

  “Thanks again. I really appreciate it.” I don’t think he realized how much I really did appreciate his help. I’d walk over and kiss him right now if I could, but that would mostly be for my own pleasure.

  “No problem.” He smiled at me and I almost walked over to him and jumped in his lap. Luckily I was able to restrain myself.

  “Good night.”

  “Good night, Summer.” Hearing him say my name made my stomach do back flips. Before I could do anything stupid, I bolted into Tori’s room and shut the door, making sure to lock it behind me. Not because I was worried about Brent coming in here, but because I was afraid of where I might end up if I didn’t.

  Chapter 4

  The next morning I woke up before Tori. Normally I’d go upstairs and grab myself some breakfast but I didn’t want to risk running into Brent or Nate on my way up. When I didn’t hear anyone outside the bedroom door, I sprinted across the hallway, opened the bathroom door, and shut it behind me. I closed my eyes and leaned my back against the door, relieved I didn’t have any awkward run-ins with anyone.

  The room felt warm and humid, as if someone had just gotten out of the shower, and the smell of men’s body wash still lingered in the air. Once I opened my eyes I found myself face to face with Nate. Not just Nate, but a half-naked Nate. He had a towel wrapped around his waist and a toothbrush hanging out of his mouth. I was horrified and embarrassed, to say the least, but also a little turned on.

  My mouth fell open as I watched a few drops of water slide down his chest and abs until they disappeared into his towel. I didn’t think this man could be any hotter, but I was wrong. His hair had the wet, messy thing going on, and I swear he looked like he stepped right out of a magazine.

  “Oh God!” I turned and opened the door. “I’m so sorry!” I caught one last glance of his abs before I ran for Tori’s room. I closed the bedroom door and leaned my forehead against it. Then I looked in the mirror to see how horrid I looked from the night before. Other than the smudged eyeliner, I didn’t look too bad. For once, I was thankful for my bad habit of sleeping with my makeup on.

  “I thought you were getting in the shower?” I jumped at the sound of Tori’s voice.

  “You scared me!”

  She started to laugh but stopped suddenly. “Eh. Don’t make me laugh! My head is killing me!” I walked over and sat on the bed next to her. “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing. Why?” I lied.

  “Don’t lie to me. I’m not stupid. Did my brother hit on you again?” She had an amused look on her face.

  “No. I mean, yeah, but that’s not why I’m—”

  “Why you’re what?”

  “I accidentally walked in on Nate when he was getting out of the shower.” Tori sat straight up.

  “When? Just now?” I nodded my head and watched a grin spread across her face. “No way! Did you see his—”

  “No!” I could feel my cheeks getting warm. “He had a towel on.”

  “That is hilarious!” Tori burst out laughing and fell back down on the bed.

  “Well, I’m glad one of us finds this amusing.” I brought my hands up to cover my face, hoping that it would somehow help get rid of the embarrassment I felt.

  “Why? Nate’s hot! I’m sure that view is something you won’t forget.”

  “That is very much correct.” Tori and I both burst in to laughter. “How have you not told me about him before?”

  “I don’t know. It’s not like we sit around talking about my brother’s friends.”

  “Well, for future reference, if a guy like that shows up on your doorstep or in your basement, be sure to let me know.”

  “Noted.” We both looked at the door as we heard a soft knock. “Come in!” Tori yelled.

  I was a little nervous
about who was on the other side. The door cracked open and Nate popped his head in. I hoped he wasn’t listening to us talking. My cheeks immediately felt hot and I looked around the room for anything I could find to help me avoid making eye contact. I settled for a magazine on the nightstand. I flipped to the middle and pretended to be reading it.

  “Your mom wanted me to let you know she made breakfast.”

  “All right. Thanks.” Nate closed the door and I tossed the magazine on the bed.

  “I can’t go up there.” I leaned back down on the bed. “I refuse to go upstairs until he leaves.”

  “What are you going to do? Hide from him forever? I’m sure it wasn’t that big of deal, he’s probably over it by now.”

  “I won’t have to hide from him forever because from now on we’re only staying at my house. Then I won’t have to worry about running into him again.”

  “Well, you’re going to have to wait until after the camping trip next weekend because he’s coming with us.”

  “Tori! You’ve got to be kidding me! I’m not going.”

  “I told you Brent and his friend were going to be there.”

  “That was before I walked in on his friend while he was half naked in the bathroom!”

  “You’re going!” She got out of bed and walked over to look at herself in the mirror hanging above her dresser. “Come on, let’s go eat. They’re probably gone by now, I think Brent said they were going riding today.”

  “Riding?”

  “Yeah, they ride motorcycles with some group or something.”

  “Oh.” Okay, seriously, now he rides motorcycles? How is one person allowed to be that hot and ride motorcycles? All that in one package should be illegal. Or they should at least come with some kind of warning label.

  Chapter 5

  I’d been avoiding going to Tori’s house all week. I had thought of about five hundred excuses I could use to try and get out of this whole camping with Nate thing. Well, I guess not just with Nate. Brent and I hadn’t seen each other since the barn party and I wasn’t sure what to expect when I saw him, either. I knew Tori wouldn’t believe any of my excuses and I’d end up going anyway, so I decided not to even bother trying to get out of it. But in all honesty, I wouldn’t mind seeing Nate again.

  We pulled up to the campsite just before sunset. Tori’s mom, Brent, and Nate were already there. Tori’s dad had to go out of town for the weekend, so he wasn’t going to be joining us. They must have gotten there not too long before us because they were still setting up the camper and unpacking everything.

  “Took you long enough!” Brent yelled to Tori.

  “It’s not my fault!” She pointed at me.

  Brent looked up just long enough to nod at me. “Hey, Summer.”

  “Hey.” I waved. He seemed a little hesitant. He must remember what went down last weekend, or Nate brought him up to speed on things.

  I watched as Nate came around the other side of the camper. He caught me staring once again and smiled.

  “Hi,” I managed to get out. At least I didn’t seem like a complete idiot this time.

  “Summer, you going to help me unpack this stuff or what?” I turned around and watched Tori attempting to pull a blue cooler out of the trunk of the car. I ran over to her and grabbed ahold of one of the handles. “Thanks.”

  It didn’t take long to get things unpacked, but by the time we were done, Tori and I were both starving. We sat in the folding chairs around the fire pit and made fun of Brent and Nate’s poor attempt at starting a fire. They took turns telling each other what to do, but even I, the girl who knew nothing about starting fires, knew they had no idea what they were talking about.

  “How about you dorks try using some fire starter?” Lynn handed Brent a white squeeze bottle with a red lid.

  “Mom, we almost had it.”

  “Well, almost having it isn’t going to cook us dinner.” She chuckled. Brent squeezed the bottle and liquid landed on the small flame they’d managed to get started using a small piece of cardboard. The flame shot into the air and I watched as it spread across the pieces of firewood. Lynn walked back into the camper and came back out with a tray of hot dogs. “It’s about time. Let’s cook these babies.” She passed out metal cooking sticks and we each grabbed a hot dog.

  Nate was sitting directly across from me. I watched the light from the fire dance across his face while he stared at the fire, mesmerized by the flame. Every once in a while Brent would say something to make him laugh, the sound of his laughter gave me goosebumps. I love the sound of laughter in general but there was something about his laugh that enthralled me.

  “I can’t wait to go out on the boat tomorrow.” Tori took a bite of her hot dog.

  “I know—me too. First boating day of the year, the water is going to be freezing, though. Mom, did you get a chance to go down and check it out?”

  “No, I haven’t. I should’ve probably done that when we got here but I was too busy showing you guys how to start a fire.” She looked over at Tori and I, smiled, and shook her head.

  “We were trying to do it the old fashioned way!” Brent joked.

  “Yeah, I’m sure.”

  “Nate and I can go check it out after we eat.”

  “All right, good. I’m exhausted, so I’m going to bed.” Lynn got up and walked into the camper. “Good night!” she yelled before closing the door behind her.

  “We wanna go.” I looked over at Tori and she smiled at me. I knew that smile anywhere. She had a plan and I had a feeling I wasn’t going to like it.

  ***

  “Guys! Wait for me!” Tori yelled from a few feet behind us.

  “Tori, hurry up! I told you not to bring that blanket.” Brent shined the flashlight back towards Tori and we watched her trying to make her way down the steep rocky hill. She didn’t just bring a blanket, she brought a damn comforter. Sometimes I wonder about this girl, but you gotta love her, she always made everything we did together that much more interesting.

  “But I’m cold,” she whined.

  “Then maybe you should’ve stayed by the fire.” Brent sounded irritated. I didn’t blame him, Tori hadn’t stopped whining since we left the campsite.

  “Shit! Summer, help me! I’m stuck!” I turned around and could only make out a bulky figure in the moonlight. I looked ahead and Brent and Nate were already at the dock, so I walked back up the hill to Tori.

  “What are you doing?” I couldn’t hold back the laughter any longer. She had somehow gotten herself tangled around a tree, hair and all.

  “I tripped.”

  “Seriously? This wasn’t part of your plan?”

  “Really? Does this look like it would be part of a good plan?” I had to laugh again. “Well, don’t just stand there… help me out!” I attempted to pull a piece of her hair off one of the tree branches. “Ouch!”

  “Shhhh. You’re like super stuck and I can’t see a thing. There’s no way I’ll get you out of here without a flashlight.”

  “Well, go get Brent then!”

  “Okay, okay.” I started walking back down the hill towards the docks.

  “Summer…” I turned around and looked at her. “You guys better not leave me here.” The seriousness of the look on her face made me realize she was actually scared.

  “Tori, if only Brent and Nate were with you, I’d be worried. But you seriously think I’d leave you there?” I laughed again as I continued down the hill to the boat docks. When I finally got on the dock, I realized I had no idea which one was their boat. I walked across the wooden boards until I saw the light from a flashlight. Then I heard that laugh again—yep, that had to be them.

  “Um, Brent…?” I waited until he turned around to look at me. I shielded my eyes from the beam of the flashlight. “Your sister is a little stuck.”

  “Stuck?”

  “Yeah, she’s like all tangled up in this tree. I tried to help her but I couldn’t see.”

  “Well, I guess she’ll have to wa
it until we head back up that way.”

  “Brent, you can’t just leave her there. At least give me the light and I’ll go help her if you’re not going to.” I knew he wasn’t going to send me out with their only flashlight.

  “Fine. Where’s she at?”

  “I’ll show you.”

  “No. You stay here. I don’t need to be trying to keep an eye on both of you.” He stepped out of the boat and held out his hand to help me in.

  “She’s just right up the hill.” I pointed in the direction we came from. “She has a loud mouth, I’m sure you’ll hear her when you get closer.”

  “I wouldn’t doubt it.”

  Now that I was on the boat, I realized it was a pontoon. I only recognized it because my grandparents used to have one when I was a kid and the set up of this one was almost identical. I could see Nate’s silhouette; he was kneeling on the couch at the back of the boat looking into the water. I slowly made my way over to the couch and kneeled down beside him.

  “It’s pretty nice out tonight, huh? You can see a lot of stars.” This was my attempt at making some sort of conversation.

  “Yeah…it is.” He looked up into the sky.

  “So how long have you known Brent?” I asked.

  “About five years.”

  “Oh, did you guys meet at school?”

  “Yeah, high school.”

  I looked out over the water. Then I heard this strange sound, it reminded me of nails on a chalkboard. It startled me and I fell in the opposite direction of where the sound was coming from. Nate’s laugh started up again and it was right behind me. It took me a minute to realize that I could feel the vibration of his laughter on my shoulder. I had fallen right into his chest.

  I looked up into his eyes and admired his features from the moonlight reflecting off the water. I slowly pulled myself away from him but I didn’t take my eyes off his face. As I pulled away, his body followed, so I stopped. I watched as his face inched closer and closer to mine. I could feel the warmth of his breath, I could smell his cologne, butterflies started to flutter in my stomach.