Living Your Lie (boyxboy)

Chapter 10

"Just back off," Dante said. His voice was stern and he was glaring at Drea something fierce. "We got this."

"I just wanted to see if he needed help, God!" Drea complained.

"We are fine. Go help Dahlia and Daisy with your own tent."

The girl snorted and glanced at me. I offered an awkward little smile and she looked back at her older brother. "Didn't look like you guys were fine."

Dante dropped the tent. I sighed and did the same, watching as the whole thing crumpled back into a deflated pile of poles and fabric. The blonde boy stepped towards his sister, threateningly. Used to fighting with him, Drea held her ground, crossing her arms defiantly.

"How many times do I have to tell you to quit hitting on him?" Dante snarled. "He's not interested, so drop it."

"Well I think it's his say, not yours!"

Dante glanced at me, Drea's eyes following suit. Startled, I jumped and smiled awkwardly once more. I chuckled nervously, but didn't say anything. Somehow, they both took something from my noncommittal answer, and went back to staring angrily at each other.

"See," Dante said. "He doesn't like you, so go away now."

Even though it was true, I still found Dante's words to be a bit harsh, but Drea simply made a weird noise that girls always do when they don't get their way before punching Dante in the chest and then stomping away. The older boy just grumbled after her, watching her leave.

"Well that escalated quickly," I said, trying to lighten the mood.

It must have worked, because Dante looked at me and rolled his eyes. He chuckled after a moment, rubbing the spot on his chest where he'd been hit, and went back to his side of the tent. As we set back to work--me with a newfound motivation for putting this thing together--he said, "She drives me insane."

"You don't say."

"Well I tell her over and over again that you're too old for her and that you like people your own age. She just won't listen to me."

Dante got a corner tied to the pick in the ground and came over to help me. When he was close enough, I winked and whispered, "You get so much hotter when you're possessive."

There was a brief glint in his eye, but then it was gone and he glared benignly at me. "Dude, save that stuff for later. You know, when we have our privacy?"

I laughed and stepped out of the way so Dante could tie off the fabric strands. We worked for the next several minutes to get the rest of the tent put together.

It was a decent sized tent, definitely big enough for two six-foot lacrosse players and then some. It had two sections to it which I guess were bedrooms or something, so when we got our air mattress blown up and threw some pillows and a blanket onto it, we just used the other to put our other things in.

"Boys!" Dante's mother yelled across the campsite. We were standing in our zipped-up tent, admiring our handiwork. "Clock's running out, let's go!"

I turned to Dante and raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"Oh, we've gotta tour this old Spanish mansion thing that's been here for ages," Dante offered. He didn't sound very enthusiastic. "It's kinda cool, but I've seen it a bunch of times."

"Then why are we doing it again?"

Dante shook his head. "You've never been here so my parents deemed it a necessary attraction. We're doing the underground tour, too, so it'll be alright."

"Boys!"

I chuckled and headed towards the door. Dante caught my arm before I could unzip it and pulled me close for a firm kiss. I smiled when he backed off.

"Okay, now we can go."

******

The tours were actually pretty interesting to me, but Dante and his sisters seemed bored. I didn't blame them, though, since they'd apparently been there a handful of times in their lives. His parents were a different story.

They were the cool kind of parents where they were fun, but they tried so hard that they were sort of embarrassing. I didn't mind, though. I thought they were goofy and quirky, so I liked them a lot. They were way better than my mom and dad.

It was about six when we got back to our camping area. Dante's parents started to get the grill going so they could work on tonight's dinner. I was glad, because I was starving. We hadn't eaten since we had stopped at diner in a small town an hour away.

While we waited for the food to cook, Dante and I ran to his car to retrieve our lacrosse stuff and we started making passes back and forth to kill the time. Dante's sisters were all sitting on the dirt ground, watching us. Dahlia was playing music from her iPod and the three of them started doing cartwheels and flips after a while.

When dinner was ready, Dante and I dropped our lacrosse sticks immediately and raced the girls to the picnic table. We had hamburgers, hotdogs, and two different kinds of cold pasta that Dante's mom had made in advance and stuck in one of the coolers. Everything was delicious, and I was pretty sure Dante and I ate most of the food.

After we finished eating, Dante nudged me in the ribs. "Come on, let's go."

I wrinkled my brow. "Where?"

Dante pushed me towards our tent when I stood up. I walked and he quickly passed me, opening it up and stepping through. I followed and he zipped it back up behind us so bugs wouldn't get in.

"Get your hiking stuff on."

I laughed. "Dude, we're going hiking right now?"

Dante nodded, getting his stuff together. "Yeah, it's a short one. We've still got over an hour before sunset so hurry up and get your boots on!"

I just shook my head out of amusement because of his enthusiasm. He was so adorable when he got excited about stuff. I sat down and switched my footwear. Dante tapped his fingers on his knees impatiently as I laced my boots up.

I smirked up at him when I was done. "What is your deal?"

Dante grabbed my hand and pulled me to my feet. "Finally, let's go. I just wanna go hiking." He gave me a look. "Alone."

I nodded in understanding and followed the blonde out of the tent. Dante and I walked towards the cooler and snagged a couple of water bottles.

I was confused when Dante stopped at his car.

"Where do you think you guys are going?" Dante's mom called after us.

"We're just going on a quick hike. We'll be back soon!" Dante said. To me, he said, "Get in, we have to drive to the trailhead."

Mrs. Williams sighed but nodded her head. "Alright, but be safe!"

"Don't worry, I've got my flashlight if we're out past sunset," he called before shutting his door. I did the same and put my seatbelt on.

I snorted and said, "Your mom is too funny."

"Why?"

"Because, if she knew that we were always safe, she wouldn't have to warn us," I teased.

"Oh, fuck off," Dante said, rolling his eyes. He was smiling so I knew he wasn't actually mad at me. He drove us across the main highway and started down the road towards the parking lot for the trail. "She didn't mean it like that anyway. She has no idea about us."

"Well, good," I commented. "Let's keep it that way."

After another minute or so, Dante parked his car and we both got out. It was the beginning of golden hour and I had to squint my eyes to look over at Dante.

"This trail is actually four miles if we went all the way down and--"

I blanched and grabbed his arm. "Dude! Are you crazy? The next three days are going to be full of long hikes."

Dante laughed and, after looking around to make sure no one was around, he grabbed my hand in his. "Calm down, you big baby." I stared down at our interlocked hands and tried not to smile at the gesture. "If you'd have let me finish talking, I would have told you that we're only going to go about a half mile in."

I sighed and looked back up at him. "Alright, fine. Let's do it."