Scouts Honor

Chapter 2

Dedicated to prettyposey96 for making the awesome cover at the side. :)

Also want to thank @short_stuff01 for the new cover. She did a really great job!

I didn't realize that I was still staring until Bolton said, "Do I have something on my face?"

I shook my head, finally coming out of my daze. "No, why would you think that?"

"Well, I figured there had to be some reason for you to stare at me like that."

I knew there was a reason , too. I just didn't even want to think of what it was. Instead of telling him that, I said, "I wasn't staring. I was just trying to figure out whether I knew you or not."

My lie was pretty obvious, but he went along with it anyway. "Seriously? How could you not remember your boyfriend's best friend? I didn't change that much over the summer."

It was true. He still had the same deep blue eyes and sandy blond hair. He was noticeably tanner, with more muscle than before, but he was still the same boy he was three months ago. I just couldn't help but feel like something was different about him. I couldn't place what it was, but I knew it was there.

"Of course. How could I forget a face like that?" He smiled, until I shuddered and said, "It still gives me nightmares."

"Haha, very funny." He looked beside me and said, "Where's Jesse?" I couldn't believe it took him that long to notice that we were alone.

"The end of summer bash was tonight." I didn't have to explain anything after that. Bolton had been to enough parties with us to realize what always happened.

"Who was she this time?" I figured if anyone knew about what happened when Jesse went home with the cheerleaders, it would be Bolton. I never asked him about it, though. And if he knew something, he just wasn't telling me.

"Shelly. I saw them flirting with each other." I looked down at the table. "I didn't even realize he was drunk until I mentioned it."

"Let me guess, he yelled at you for not trusting him?" 

"Yeah, he did. I don't know why he got so mad. I have a right to be jealous if my boyfriend is hitting on another girl."

"You've never said anything to him about it before." Bolton muttered to himself. I don't think he meant for me to hear it, but I did.

"What do you mean? He's never hit on another girl before." I looked up from the table so I could study his reaction. He looked surprised.

I thought he would admit some big secret, but instead, he said, "I just meant that he always talks to cheerleaders at parties. I've never heard you say something to him about it. Why don't you just tell him how you feel about it?"

"And have him yell at me again? No thanks." I looked down again and saw Bolton's hand resting on the table. I was dying for him to reach across the table. I wanted him to hold my hand and tell me everything would be okay. That's crazy, I thought to myself, he's not your boyfriend, Jesse is. You should want comfort from Jesse, not Bolton.

"Hey, come on. Don't be upset about this. Tomorrow, everything between you and Jesse will be the same. It'll be like tonight never happened." I didn't respond. I was lost in my thoughts. Thoughts of Bolton. This is crazy, I reminded myself. You're just upset about Jesse. There is no way that you have any feelings whatsoever for Bolton, other than friendship.

I almost had myself convinced. Almost. Then, Bolton's hand moved. I saw it coming toward me, but I did nothing to stop him. I didn't want to stop him. Bolton placed his hand under my chin and tilted my head up. When I looked into his eyes, it felt like all of my problems just melted away. Right now, Jesse was with Shelly, and I was with Bolton. Even though I knew it was wrong, nothing had ever felt more right to me.

It took me a few second to realize that Bolton was looking at me the same way I must've been looking at him. That put a smile on my face. "You're so beautiful when you smile."

His words brought me back to the present. I jerked away from him like his touch burned. He seemed to just realize what he'd said. His cheeks were pink and his eyes were wide. "I have a boyfriend." We were looking anywhere but into each other's eyes. What is wrong with me?

"I know. I'm sorry, I don't know what's wrong with me. I must be tired from my flight back." I finally looked at him again. I'd totally forgotten about his trip.

"That's right. You went with the boy scouts to New Mexico, right?" I vaguely remember Bolton mentioning it on the last day of school.

"Yeah, we camped and hiked in the mountains all summer. It was really fun," Bolton said. Boy scouts was one thing he was really passionate about. You never saw that spark in his eyes when he talked about anything else, not even his girlfriends.

"Did you meet any girls on your trip?" I asked. I made it sound like I was teasing him, but I really wanted to know. 

"Nah, I spent my whole summer with boys. No girl there would've interested me anyway," he said with a small smile. He looked kind of sad. I was dying to know what he meant, but I didn't want to pry. Instead, I went back to teasing.

"So, does that mean you found a boyfriend?" He looked at me like I'd lost my mind. "What, you said no girl would've interested you. That must mean you found a man."

He realized that I was teasing him, so he started playing along. "Oh yeah, his name is Ken and we're madly in love," he shrieked in a girly voice. People in the restaurant turned to stare at us. That's when he leaned in closer and whispered, "I think he might be the one. We're, like, soulmates or something."

We both laughed loudly, earning us more dirty looks. We didn't care. He kept telling me camp stories, and I told him about my trip to the beach. We talked about everything, and nothing at all.

Everything felt normal between us again. But, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't shake the feeling that I'd had earlier tonight. A part of me didn't want to forget how Bolton made me feel. His words kept haunting me, over and over. Tomorrow, everything between you and Jesse will be the same. Would it be the same? I found that really hard to believe. Tonight, everything changed. Or had it?

It'll be like tonight never happened.