Straight Laced

by Jessica Gunhammer

  “I’ve officially decided my sister is adopted!” A bright light beamed into my eyes. I held my hand up to shield my eyes and turned back to look over the water. My weight shifted as Nate got up off the couch and walked towards the front of the boat. It took me a minute to get myself together. I wish I could’ve found out what was going to happen if Tori and Brent wouldn’t have shown up.

  “I am not!” Tori climbed into the boat and sat beside me.

  “Well, I don’t know how anyone who is related to me can be that uncoordinated.”

  “I’m not uncoordinated!”

  “Tori, you just got stuck in a tree. Trees don’t even move.”

  “That’s not fair. It was dark.” I’m sure if I could see him, Brent would be rolling his eyes.

  “Well, everything looks good. We better head back.” Brent jumped out of the boat and waited for us to follow.

  On our way back to the campsite, I was only thinking of one thing, how could I get Nate alone again? I had to know what would’ve happened if we weren’t interrupted. As silly as it may sound, I wanted him to kiss me, and now, I needed him to kiss me.

  Chapter 6

  I didn’t get much sleep last night because I was too busy thinking about the kiss Nate and I had come close to sharing. I ran through all the different scenarios of what might have happened if Brent and Tori hadn’t come back when they did. I had finally tired myself out to the point of falling asleep, but by that time I almost had myself convinced I had made it all up in my head…almost.

  We ate breakfast and made our way out to the boat. We were excited to get the day started and Brent and Nate were ready to do some cliff jumping. On the way out to the cliffs, Brent drove and Nate kept his distance from me. I hoped he wasn’t freaked out by what happened last night. I’d been trying to act as normal as possible, I thought I was doing a pretty good job.

  Tori and I laid on the front of the boat and soaked up some sun. Every once in a while we’d get a holler or someone would honk a horn and Tori would smile and wave. Brent wasn’t too happy about it, of course. I was pretty sure he was going to have a permanent wrinkle between his eyebrows.

  Once we reached the cliffs, the guys jumped off and swam to shore. Tori and I waited in the boat. The water was freezing and I didn’t want to have any part in that. I watched as some random guys threw beers off the cliffs into the water while other guys jumped in after them. There weren’t many girls jumping in. Most of them were tanning on top of the rocks. I watched as Nate stopped at a group of girls and talked with them. They all laughed and giggled at whatever he was talking about. I felt a small bit of jealousy creeping up. I wanted him to be telling me whatever he was telling those girls.

  “Still got your eye on Nate, huh?”

  “What?”

  “You heard me.”

  “No, I’m just watching. No one in particular.”

  “Yeah, I’m sure.” Tori rolled her eyes.

  “Is it that obvious? Do you think he knows?”

  “For me? Yes. For him? He’s a guy, he has no idea.” She grabbed her sunglasses out of her bag and slid them over her eyes. “Did you guys talk very much while Brent was helping me get untangled last night?”

  “No, not really.” I looked away from Tori but it didn’t do me much good, she knew I wasn’t telling her something.

  “What happened?”

  “Nothing,” I lied.

  “Yeah, right! Don’t lie to me! Spill it or I’ll ask him.” She smiled.

  “You wouldn’t dare.”

  “Watch me.” She stood up from her towel. I should’ve known better than to challenge her. “Na—”

  “Okay! Okay. Sit down.” She smiled as she returned to her spot next to me. Once again Tori got what she wanted. “Well, I think there may have been an almost kiss before you and Brent came back.”

  Tori squealed. “Are you serious?” I just nodded. “Aw. You have to tell me all about it!” I recalled the events of last night and she hung on my every word.

  “You guys would make a cute couple, you know.”

  “One thing at a time there, Tori. I doubt he’s looking for a relationship—doesn’t he have a girlfriend?”

  “Who? The girl from the barn?”

  “Yeah.”

  “There’s no way she could be his girlfriend. He could do way better than that thing. Gross. She’s probably just a fling. I can ask Brent, though, and see what I can find out.”

  “Just try not to be too obvious about this whole thing.”

  “Me? Obvious? Please.”

  When the boys were done cliff jumping they swam back to the boat and Brent started up the engine. I was lying on the back of the boat above the coach enjoying the summer sun. I was just starting to doze off when I felt someone near me. I opened my eyes and watched Nate lay down on the couch below me. Well, at least he wasn’t avoiding me. The warm sun comforted me and I was too exhausted from the night before to keep my eyes open any longer.

  I was probably only out fifteen minutes before I opened my eyes and saw we were almost to the dock. I went to sit up when I noticed my arm was hanging off the back of the couch and I felt someone else’s fingers entangled with mine. My heart skipped a beat—how did this happen? Nate and I were holding hands! Nate had a baseball cap covering his face, so my guess was he was knocked out, too. I wasn’t sure if I should move or just leave my hand in his.

  Nate began to move so I pretended I was also just waking up. He took his other hand and lifted the hat off of his face. I softly wiggled my fingers and looked down at my hand then back up at Nate.

  “You guys awake back there?” Brent yelled from the driver’s seat. I yanked my hand away just as he turned around. “I’m glad you all got your napping in while I’m up here slaving away.”

  “You’re driving a boat. It can’t be that hard.” Nate got up and gathered his t-shirt and sunglasses before going to sit next to Brent while he pulled the boat up to the dock. I walked between them and up to the front of the boat where Tori was laying.

  “Were you sleeping that whole time?” I whispered.

  “Yeah. Why?” Nate walked up from behind me and jumped off the boat onto the dock to tie it up. “I’ll tell you later,” I whispered.

  ***

  After dinner Tori and I grabbed our things along with a change of clothes and walked to the campground bathrooms to shower up. I was never a big fan of public restrooms. Especially ones at campgrounds. They were usually dirty and didn’t have any toilet paper. I finally convinced myself it was better to use this one than not shower at all, especially after being near that gross lake water all day.

  “Nate and I held hands,” I blurted before I even knew what I was doing.

  “What? When? How did I not see this?” I couldn’t tell if Tori was shocked or traumatized because she missed out on such a “big moment” for Nate and I.

  “When we were riding on the back of the boat.”

  “Did he grab your hand or did you grab his?” Here she goes with all the questions.

  I shrugged. “I actually don’t know.”

  “What do you mean you don’t know?” Tori stopped in the middle of the road. “You were there, weren’t you?”

  “Yeah, but I was sleeping. I fell asleep after he laid down on the couch in front of me, and when I woke up, we were holding hands. So I have no idea how it happened and it’s killing me! I’m thinking it had to be him because I wouldn’t have grabbed his hand in my sleep, right? I mean my arm could have fallen down and been near his hand, but we were full on holding hands, fingers entangled together and all.”

  “Yeah, that makes sense.” We walked the rest of the way up the hill to the bathrooms. “I asked Brent about his girlfriend situation.” I followed Tori as she walked back towards the showers.

  “And?” I couldn’t mask the anxiousness in my voice.

  “Apparently that girl that came to the party with him is his on-again off-again girlfriend.” My stomach dropped at the word girlfriend
. Well, that was disappointing. I had a little sense of hope that this might eventually become something. “They’ve been together for like four years or something. I guess she’s crazy, though, so he’s been trying to permanently break it off for the last week or so.”

  “Well, that sounds messy.” I sat down on a wooden bench while I waited for a shower to open up.

  “Yeah, but the weird thing is that you guys just met for the first time last weekend, right? Why all of a sudden does he want to finally cut this girl off for good? I think he might really be into you.” She joined me on the bench.

  “He hardly knows me, Tori.”

  “Yeah, well, guys tend to think with the wrong head. If you want him to get to know you, then make him get to know you. If not, then at least sleep with him. You know I would.”

  Chapter 7

  The next morning Tori and I started the fire and cooked up some breakfast. It took awhile to get used to, but the sausage and eggs didn’t turn out too bad. The only one that complained was Brent, of course. If he or his mom didn’t cook it, then it wasn’t done right. We spent the next couple hours sitting around the fire visiting with Tori’s mom while the guys went fishing.

  When it got warm enough we decided to drive down to the beach area. There were supposed to be a bunch of people that we went to school with spending the day down there and we thought it’d be fun to meet up with them for a few hours. Tori and I were packing up our beach bags and getting in the car when Brent and Nate returned.

  “Where are you girls heading?” Brent asked.

  “We’re going to the beach.”

  “We were just going to head that way. You guys wanna ride with us? Nate and I are going to take the bikes out.”

  Tori looked at me and shrugged. “Sure.”

  I grabbed my backpack off the front seat and walked around to the other side of the car where Tori was using the side mirror to apply her lip gloss. “Um…what are you doing?” I asked her.

  “Putting on lip gloss. What does it look like?”

  “Not that! Why are we going with them?”

  “I figured it’d be better. We’ll probably be drinking and now I won’t have to worry about leaving the car down there over night. Plus, have you ever ridden on a bike before? It’s fun!” The guys came back out of the camper and headed toward the bikes parked behind the car.

  Tori walked over to the blue bike, grabbed the helmet from the seat, and secured it on her head. I walked over to the black bike and did the same. I watched Brent walk over to the blue bike, jump on and start it up. Tori got on behind him and smiled at me. She would have me ride with Nate. Nate walked up behind me and sat on the bike.

  “Have you ever ridden on a bike before?”

  I shook my head. “No.”

  “All right, well, watch your legs. The metal can get hot and burn the shit outta you. It shouldn’t get too bad since the drive’s not too far from here.” He started up the bike. “Ready?” I nodded my head and flung my leg over the bike. I looked on each side of me for something to hold on to. There was nothing. “Hold on, okay?” I wrapped my arms around him and placed my hands on the gas pump in front of him.

  My heart was pounding rapidly. I wasn’t sure if it was because this was my first time on a bike or if it was because I had my arms wrapped around this sexy almost stranger. Everything about this situation felt dangerous and risky, and that was everything I liked about it.

  We drove through the campground and I was finally starting to loosen up a little bit. My hands still rested on the gas pump and my chest was about a quarter of an inch away from his back. Every time we went over a speed bump our bodies touched and my hands would slip a little further between his legs. It didn’t take long before I was wishing we were driving on a road full of speed bumps.

  Soon enough we were stopped at the stop sign that led to the main road. Brent stopped and then turned right and took off down the road. I watched Tori put her head down and cling to him. Nate scooted up to the stop sign and looked to the left for cars.

  “You’re going to want to hold on.” I moved my hands up to his stomach and wrapped them around him as tight as I could without suffocating him. Nate made the turn and we were off. I closed my eyes. I wanted to open them to see how fast we were actually going, but I was still freaking out a little. As scared as I was, I felt like I didn’t have anything to worry about, like I knew that Nate wouldn’t put me in a dangerous situation. I felt like he had some kind of need to protect me, ever since that night at Tori’s. It was weird, though; that was the first night we’d ever met. Why me?

  I finally decided to open my eyes and take in the scenery around me. I’m glad I did, it actually felt…peaceful. There was no place I’d rather be right now. The hills really are a gorgeous place. The green pine trees whizzed by us, and between them I noticed the small figures of boats in the lake behind them. I realized that I had been smiling this whole time. Tori was right. This is fun.

  A few minutes later I could see the beach in the distance. I was a little bummed that our ride was about to end. We slowed and turned into the parking lot. I saw the group of people from school sitting on the tailgates of their trucks drinking and talking. Brent parked next to one of the trucks and Tori got off the bike. Nate pulled up next to him and shut the bike off. Looked like this was going to conclude our ride. I put one foot on the ground and flung my other leg over the bike as I unbuckled my helmet and pulled it off.

  “Thanks for the ride.” I handed the helmet to him and he climbed off.

  “No problem.” He smiled at me and I felt my heart flutter and my cheeks begin to burn. “What did you think?” he asked.

  “It was fun.” I couldn’t just come out and tell him, ‘oh you know, it was one of the top ten best things I’ve ever done in my life.’ I’d sound like a psycho.

  “It was fun? That’s it?” He patted the top of his gas tank, where my hands had been. “This bike is one of the best bikes you can get, you know. And ‘it was fun’ is all I get?” he joked.

  “I told you that bike wouldn’t impress the chicks!” Brent chimed in. Tori and I both started laughing.

  “All right, fine! It was amazing! Does that make you feel any better?” I tried to sound sarcastic, even though it was the truth.

  “Yes! That’s what I wanted to hear!” He smiled at me again and suddenly I had the urge to walk up and pull him into a kiss. I was about ten seconds away from doing so when Tori broke my train of thought.

  “You guys think you can pick us up later and take us back to the campsite?”

  “We know some guys down there,” Brent pointed to the end of the parking lot. “We’ll probably hang out here for a bit. I’ll let you know if we leave.”

  “All right, sounds good.” Nate and I exchanged one last smile before Tori and I walked over to join our friends.

  ***

  We settled in on our towels on the beach. I pulled off my cover up and laid back down on my towel.

  “So, that was fun, right? Not to mention you got to wrap your arms around Nate. How was it? Could you feel those rock hard abs through his shirt?”

  “Yes, it was fun. And I didn’t go feeling around his abs, I was a little busy freaking out.”

  “About the ride or about being that close to him? And both being awake this time.” She joked.

  “Shut up!” I laughed and took a sip of my drink. I could feel the alcohol starting to kick in and I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. I didn’t want to do anything stupid to Nate or with Nate. But they didn’t call it ‘liquid courage’ for the hell of it. I looked up and noticed him and Brent were now sitting on the tailgate of a truck next to the beach. Nate was staring right at me, he didn’t even look away when I noticed, he just smiled. That smile is seriously going to get the best of me.

  Tori and I got in the water and decided to play chicken. We both climbed on the shoulders of some of the guys we were hanging out with. I pushed her off and she pushed me off and we were
both laughing so hard my stomach was aching. I walked back up to my towel and grabbed another drink out of the cooler. I glanced over and noticed Nate was still watching me. This time, he didn’t smile, he just looked away.

  The girls we were with kept asking me about Nate and telling Tori how hot her brother was. They weren’t girls we knew very well, we just knew of them since we all went to the same school. It didn’t take long before two of the girls had enough drinks in them to go up and talk to the guys for themselves.

  I watched them. The girls talked to them, giggled, and rubbed the guys’ arms. Brent, of course, was eating it up. So was Nate. He laughed and smiled and poked at the girls’ sides to make them scream and giggle some more. I tried to ignore it and keep engaged in the conversations I was surrounded by, but let’s face it, I was doing a horrible job.

  It didn’t take but five minutes before I watched Nate, Brent, and the girls walk over to the bikes. Nate handed the helmet—yes, the helmet I had just been wearing—to one of the girls. He got on the bike and started it up. I watched the girl climb on the back of the bike and wrap her hands tightly around him. I was fuming. I didn’t take my eyes off them until they pulled out of the parking lot and disappeared into the distance.

  Chapter 8

  There were a million emotions running through me. I was sad, angry, betrayed and most of all, hurt. I couldn’t believe he would just take another girl on his bike like that. I mean I’m sure there were plenty of girls on his bike before me and it’s probably stupid of me to think there wouldn’t be any after me, but really? Right in front of my face!

  I grabbed my towel and started stuffing it back in my bag. I was probably making a bit of a scene but I didn’t care at the moment. I just wanted to leave. I looked back and saw Tori in the water, still flirting with one of the guys we were playing chicken with. I couldn’t leave, she was having fun and I didn’t want to be a downer. I’ve never liked downers. I sat down on the cooler and sipped on my drink. Ryan, the other guy we were playing chicken with, got out of the water and walked towards me.