cabin // an ajr short story

two

"Did I tell you or did I tell you," I laughed as I looked over my glasses to Ryan. He kneeled down on the ground and stuffed towels into the cracks of the bedroom door to muffle the sounds.
    "You told me," Ryan grunted, forcing the fabric under the door. I let out a laugh and continued to read my book. Ryan clapped his hands together and let out a sigh as he walked back to the bed and climbed under the blankets. "You know, we could make a little noise ourselves."
    I looked up towards the door from my book, feeling his smirk from my side. I looked over and he had a puppy dog look on his face.
   "Ryan Metzger," I said flopping the book onto my chest and giving him a little laugh. "At least buy me dinner first."
   "Haha, very funny," Ryan said, hoisting himself upright on the bed. Ryan's hands pressed down on either side of me as he towered over, looking down at me.
    "I've gotta keep my energy up," I laughed, poking his nose. "Weren't you the one that suggested you, me, the lake, a few beers, and no clothes?"
"Well, I didn't say the last thing but that sounds dandy," Ryan smiled. He leaned down in a push up like style and planted a kiss on my lips.
Ryan laid down beside me and flipped off his lamp, me leaving mine on.
I could feel Ryan's eyes glued onto me as I continued to read the book in my hands. I tried to ignore him, but he was burning holes in the side of my head
"What babe?" I said chuckling, flopping the book back down on my chest and looked down at him. Ryan had a small smile on his face and puppy dog eyes to the nines.
"Oh nothing," he said smiling even bigger. "I just love to watch you do stuff. You're just too cute."
I blushed and reached for my bookmark, placing it in the center fold of the spine. I closed the book and examined the cover.
"You know what's funny?" I asked him as I smirked, not taking my eyes off of the book.
"Hmm?" He said, propping up onto his elbow. He squinted slightly because of his glasses being on his bedside table.
"I think I brought this exact same book last time we came here," I said, flipping the book over in my hand to look at the back.
"What, Misery?" Ryan asked, taking the book from me. He thumbed through the pages quickly. "Cam, you had your nose in a different book each week, how can you remember that?"
"I didn't until just now," I said, my tone changing.
I took the book back from him and set it on my bedside table. Ryan questioned me but I turned to him and smiled.
      "You know what? No more book," I said, adjusting myself so I was laying down. "This weekend is about us. Four days of just us."
      "...And Jack and Aubrey and Ada-" Ryan said laughing as he rolled his eyes.
      "Hey now," I said shushing him. "You invited them out here. They all need a break too. Especially after the album."
      "I know," he said, playing with the ends of my hair in between his fingertips. "But we will be sneaking off eventually, right?"
       "One hundred percent," I said laughing looking up at him. "I'm still looking forward to the lake tomorrow an-"
       A loud crashing noise came from downstairs, making both Ryan and I jump. Ryan reached for his glasses and jumped out of bed, grabbing a bat that was in the corner of the room.
      "Stay here," He said to me and he walked towards the door.
      "Fuck that," I said and threw the blanket off of me.
      I cowered behind Ryan as we entered the upstairs hallway. Aubrey and Jack opened their door as Emily and Adam did.
      "The hell was that?" Adam said, shielding Emily with his body.
      "Whatever it was, Ryan's got us covered with the bat," Jack laughed, pointing at his older brother. Aubrey slapped Jack across the chest and he winced and laughed.
       Ryan started down the creaking steps as the rest of us followed behind. The downstairs was completely pitch black, our eyes making shadows of stuff that wasn't there.
       Ryan quickly flipped on the switch to the kitchen area and held the bat up to get ready of anything.
      "The fuck is that?" Adam asked, pointing down at the other end of the kitchen.
      "Is that a crow?" I asked and we all walked towards it.
       I was right. There was a black crow laying dead on the kitchen floor. The window above the sink was broken.
      "Hey, go back to your cabin!" Ryan yelled out the broken window as teenage laughter was off in the distance. "Damn kids."
      "Why would they throw a bird?" Aubrey asked, looking down at the thing. "And why would they kill it?"
      "Probably just to scare us," Emily said crossing her arms. "Just some teenage prank."
     "Alright everyone, back to bed," Ryan said, ushering people up the stairs.
      Everyone laughed and walked up the stairs, sharing all goodnights before entering the rooms. Ryan and I stayed out into the hallway.
     "You know what?" I said to him, wrapping my arms around his waist. "How about we go to the lake now? Those kids are back on their property by now and the four of them are in their rooms."
      "I'll grab the beer," Ryan said smiling.
       "I'll grab the towels," I laughed and Ryan sprinted down the steps. He looked back up when he made it to the bottom.
       "If you're serious about this Spencer, you better hurry up," Ryan laughed. I shushed him and went into our room and grabbed the two beach towels.
**
     "You're right," I said, resting my head on Ryan's shoulder. "This was a good idea."
      "Pft," He said, sipping his beer. "I'm always right, you should know that."
      "I know," I said smiling, looking up at him. "You were right about coming out here and-"
      "And I was right about that one time you-"
       "Okay, don't get ahead of yourself, Metzger." I laughed, sipping my bottle. "I'm just so glad we are here again. And not at murderous times."
        "Don't worry," He said, placing his arm around me. "Nothing will get to you without going through me first."
         "My hero," I laughed and leaned up to kiss him. He tasted of the beer, but sweeter. He made me smile.
        "How about a late night swim?" He asked, setting his drink down and standing up. He pulled his shirt off and started running towards the water.
        "Not even gonna wait for me?" I yelled to him as he entered the water.
       "Don't be slow next time," he laughed and plunged under the water. I bit my lip and rolled my eyes as I started towards the water, throwing my clothes off as I did.
       I plunged myself under the cold water to get used to it faster. When I came to surface, Ryan wasn't around me.
       "Ryan?" I asked, wiping the water from my eyes.
       Just then, hands grabbed at my waist and tugged me back a little bit. I let out a scared gasp and turned around to see Ryan having the biggest grin on his face. The water made his hair stick to his forehead and water droplets puddles his glasses.
       "You should have seen your face-" Ryan said as he laughed. "God dammit that was funny."
       "Was not, you ass," I laughed, splashing water towards him. He did the same back to me and we continued until we were in an all out water war, of course him winning.
      I wrapped my arms around him as we laughed, signaling my truce in the war.
      "You're too much, Metzger," I said smiling, looking up at his little grin he had....

        "Dude she doesn't have a shirt on," One of the teenagers said as they hid behind nearby trees. "Or a bra."
         "This was totally worth not having internet for a week," The other said, holding out his fist for his friend to bump back. The two boys snickered as they continued to watch the two swim in the lake in the distance, sharing the binoculars.
         "Don't you guys think this is a little weird?" One of the kids said as he shoved his hands in his pockets. "Like the whole bird thing and the spying."
        "Brandon, what else are we supposed to do for a week? Stick our thumbs up our asses?"
       "I don't know, but whatever you had in mind, I'm not okay with. I'm going back to camp."
      "Don't get lost, asswipe," one of the kids said and made the other snicker again. Brandon sighed and walked back to camp, leaving his friends.
      The two boys shared the binoculars again, paying their full attention to the couple in the lake.
       As time went on, the boys heard footsteps behind them, but they payed no mind to them. As they got closer and closer, they started to get aggravated.
       "Brandon came back for a peep, huh?" One said and turned around to see his friend. All he saw was the chest of a tall man.
        The teenager reached for her friend to turn around with him and the two boys locked eyes with a masked man.
      "Yo dude," the second teenager said, not following along with his friend's terror. "We were just leaving, we didn't want to cause any disruption."
       The one friend wasn't in the same terror as the other because he didn't see the long knife that the man was holding in his hand.
      "Eric, look-" The scared teenager started to say to his friend, but before he could get it out, that long knife was shoved into his throat.
      "Holy shit!" Eric yelled. He stood in shock as the masked man pulled the knife back out of his friend's throat, scarlet liquid pouring out of the entry point.
      Eric tried to make a run for it, but before he could get far, the man's hand grabbed for the back of his camp shirt, pulling him back to his dying friend.
     "I'm sorry please dont hurt me. Please don't-" but before Eric could finish, the man grabbed his head and slammed it against the tree they were near, shutting him up.
     The man looked down at the boys then back up to the lake, where the couple were exiting near the beach...

     "Did you hear that?" I asked and I dried my face off with my towel. I immediately wrapped the towel around my exposed body.
      "Just a squirrel or something," Ryan laughed, pulling me closer to him. "Cmon, lets go upstairs."
       I continued to look into the woods, my mind creating shadows and shapes. I ignored Ryan as I did.
       "Cam?" Ryan said, snapping me out of it. "You good?"
       "Yeah," I said letting out a pity laugh. "Yeah I'm fine."
      "Okay," he smiled and grabbed my hand in his and we walked back to the cabin. I looked towards a cluster of trees again, my heart stopping as I saw an outline of a man.
It's just your head, I told myself.