just pretend

.19

"I swear if any of you jump on me I will strangle you in your sleep," Leo says.

"When the hell did you get here?" Aleks asks.

"Idiot, we've been here this whole time."

I can see light in the trees, far distance and eventually I can see Mia. She's walking holding a lantern bright enough to blind someone.

"Y'all are loud as hell," she says.

I look around the semi lit pond to where Liv and Leo are.

Aleks jumps in and then Mia does.

We swim for a bit before going back to dry off. Mia starts a fire and we all sit around wrapped in towels, shivering. I sit real close to Leo because we're both frozen.

I temporarily go to the tent to put on a hoodie and notice my phone going off. When I turn it on there's 8 missed calls from my mom from the past three hours, 6 from dad and 7 from Keanu.

Jesus Christ, people.

Keanu: are u with Leo?
Keanu: I stg if ur hanging around his sketch friends
Keanu: wtf answer
Sent an hour ago.

Andrew: Jesus Christ Keanu I'm fine u don't need to parent me

Before she can text back I shut off my phone and toss it onto the sleeping bag before joining the others.

"No you idiot," Mia laughs as she watches Liv fail to roast a marshmallow.

I watch it catch fire and her shocked facial expression.

"You're supposed to hold it near the embers at the bottom," Leo says to her as he shows his perfectly golden marshmallow. Of course he's good at this too.

I sit down across from Leo, and Mia hands me a marshmallow and stick.

All of us roasting marshmallows together just reminds me of the cottage. I want to go back so bad.

We chat for a bit about summer and the upcoming school year. It's really only a few weeks away.

I think three? Oh fuck I don't want to go back.

Leo also attends a whole other school which effing sucks.

I yawn which triggers a chain of everyone else yawning.

"I'm going to bed now," Leo says dropping his stick to the ground and standing.

"Same." I stand.

"Okay then we might as well also," Mia says as she grabs the bucket she filled at the pond earlier and pours it over the fire. Immediately the area goes dark so she turns on a lantern.

"Night guys," Mia says as Leo and I walk to the tent and the others walk in the trailer.

"It's going to be fucking freezing," Leo says. I can hear Mia shut the trailer door, she struggles a bit because the door is crooked and well on it's way to just falling off.

"That's why we have— never mind we have sleeping bags and that's it."

"I hate sleeping bags I'm just going to unzip it and use it as a blanket."

"Yeah I might do that as well."

We both sit in the tent and I zip up the entrance.

For a while we just lay on the hard ground  and every now and then one of us will shift from laying on a stone.

I hate camping.

"I'm fucking frozen and I can't sleep."

"Same," I huff out.

It's dark as hell but Mia left a dim light on so if anyone woke up to pee or something it's not pitch black. When Leo turns to face me I can barely make out his facial features.

My eyes adjust more and I'm just staring at his brown eyes.

For the moment we stay staring it's like an idea crosses both of our minds and we're thinking the same thing.

"So you just gonna stare or...?" He says in a whisper.

"Asshole," I mutter and I can see him smile. His curly hair fallen over his face.

And because I can't help it and I'm past caring at this point, I make a stupid decision.

I lean forward and connect my lips to his.

Now he makes an even stupider decision, and leans in as well. Stupid because I'm his sisters boyfriend and he's my girlfriends brother.

It's no peck on the lips either. His hand finds its way to my jaw and my hand is quickly in his hair. For fucking ever now I have just wanted to play with his hair.

His tongue in my mouth and vice versa.

He's moved closer and fills the gap between us.

He pulls his head away. "Can we sleep like this? I'm fucking cold."

I laugh. Of course that's the first thing he says.

"Yeah."

"Oka—"

He shuts up when he hears the trailer door open. He shrugs it off and just rests his head down, face against my chest.

I can't hear what I know to be Aleks walking around probably to go pee. He walks far enough away that I can't hear him but when he's back he mutters, "bright ass light." And shuts off the lantern making everything pitch black.

Leo's breathing is different and I can tell he's sleeping, all ready, just in my arms. Sheesh, he must've been real tired.

I lay in the pitch black for a bit processing what the fuck just happened. I'm wide awake at this point, I don't understand how he could fall asleep so easily.

The same person who wanted to murder me at the beginning of the summer.

I laugh at the thought.

I play with his hair and listen to his breathing till I fall asleep.

—
I just wrote chapter 26 and want to upload it so much because I love it but there's six chapters in between that I still need to publish lol.

also i don't condone cheating at all!! at the time i wrote all my stories i followed the same trope and had never been in a relationship. since then i've had a long term relationship and in no way excuse or condone cheating