Summer of '07

Hook Up

Chapter 11

June 2007

~TRAVIS~

"Hey, let's play Truth or Dare!" a girl named Casey cried out as the six of us sat around the camp fire. The group of six consisted of me, Elijah, Heather and some of her friends including Casey, another girl named Deanne, and a guy named Alexander.

"Fuck truth or dare, literally everyone plays that game!" Alexander exclaimed.

"You got a better idea?" Casey said, to which Alexander had no reply. "Alright so, I'll go first!" she said with so much enthusiasm it was hard to believe that she wasn't drunk.

So the game went on for a couple of rounds and eventually people started to leave one by one. First it was Alexander, who was never really fond of truth or dare to begin with, then it was Deanne who was beginning to fall asleep during the game, until we finally were left with just Casey and Heather. From what I recall, the game pretty much came to an end when we reached Heather's turn for the sixth time. Throughout the entire game, Heather had chosen dare over truth, but during the sixth round, she finally decided to go with truth and that for sure caused a shit-ton of drama in the moments that followed.

"Have you ever had a one-night stand with someone?" Casey asked her. At the time, I would have assumed the answer would have been no, given the fact that we were all only 17 that summer, but with Heather I probably wouldn't have found it too hard to believe her if she had said yes.

Heather's face instantly turned red and she took a sudden glance at Elijah, who in turn made eye contact with her rather suspiciously. "No," she said falsely with a shaky voice. Yeah, I knew for sure that she was lying, but what I didn't pick up straight away was that it had something to do with Elijah.

"Yeah, you and I both know that ain't true," Casey said as she rose her eyebrow at Elijah.

"Shhh!" Heather shushed violently as she made a slight nod to me with widened eyes.

It was then that I realized what they were implying. And for a second, I thought it was a joke... I mean, I didn't think...

I turned my head to Elijah who was already looking over at me. "Wait, are they serious?"

"Yeah... I never wanted you to find out about it... it happened a while back, like the second half of sophomore year." Damn, they were some sexually active 16-year-olds. I guess most people are though at that age.

"You never wanted me to find out? Why would I have cared?" I said defensively as my face began to blush.

"I don't know... cuz you used to be into her... and I—"

"Fucked the girl that I used to have a crush on?! Yeah, some best friend, you are," I said with a pulsing rage. At the time, I didn't understand why I was so angry at him. I mean, yeah he stole the girl that I used to be into, but looking back on it now I realize there was a lot more to it than just that.

"It was a one time thing, man. It's not like we dated or anything," Elijah said with regret ingrained in his eyes. Gee, I wonder what was making him feel so regretful.

"That's supposed to make me feel better?"

No one said anything.

I looked over to Heather. "So you did like him more than me?" Damn, I was so petty back then!

She didn't reply, instead looking at me with sorrow, as if she actually cared about hurting my feelings. Fake bitch. If she actually cared then she wouldn't have had sex with my best friend, especially considering the fact that she told us she wasn't interested in either one of us anymore. And yet there she is, fucking him whilst completely ignoring me throughout all of high school.

"Fuck you guys!" I said as I aggressively got up from my seat and stormed off into the woods. I was so fucking pissed that my bitch-ass "best friend" had sex with the girl that I used to crush on, knowing full well how much I liked her. I mean, who the fuck does that?! Fucking asshole. I was so angry at the moment that I had no idea where I was even going and to be honest I didn't even care. I was just going wherever my anger took me and if that got me fucking lost in the middle of the woods, then so be it.

Funny thing is though, I didn't really understand the base of my anger and why it was eating me up the way that it did. I mean, I know that I was angry at Elijah for being a total douchebag and sleeping with the girl that I liked long before he even came into the picture, but at the same time, I knew that I had moved on from her long ago so the anger that I was feeling at that moment was nothing more than petty, if I'm being completely honest with myself. Perhaps it was my jealously over the fact that Elijah ultimately ended up getting the girl that I wanted from the very beginning or maybe it was just the fact that he had kept it a secret from me for all these years. It's not like his sex life was ever any of my business but for some reason, it felt kind of strange that he felt the need to keep it a secret from me. We were each other's best friends. I understand that everyone needs space and just because you're best friends doesn't mean you tell each other everything, but this just felt different. It felt more like he knew it would bother me and did it anyways and so that's why he kept it a secret for so long. Which makes him a pretty shitty best friend, if you ask me.

About a few minutes after I stormed off into the woods, I eventually found myself near the edge of the lake in a secluded little area under a bunch of trees. I took a seat on the ground in front of the shoreline to let myself cool off. I thought to myself for a minute, but those thoughts were quickly shattered when Elijah and Heather ultimately found me.

"Look, dude, I'm sorry for betraying you like that. Best friends don't do that to each other and I should've known better. I'm sorry. But it was a long time ago and—"

"'Best friends'... I remember there was a time when you hated my guts..." I brought up randomly, as if questioning the authenticity of our so-called friendship.

"I never hated you... I was just... a cocky bastard. But that was a long time ago... ya know, a lot's happened since then. We've gotten pretty close over these past couple of years and well, you've become one of my closest friends ever and I'd hate to lose you, man." Yeah, right.

"I'm sorry too... for what I did to you guys three summers ago. It was wrong of me to play with you guys' emotions like that. Believe me, the last thing I want to do is start another rivalry between you guys," Heather said, and for some reason I had an even harder time accepting her apology than Elijah's, simply because she didn't seem like a trustworthy person. "How about we just start fresh?"

"It's a little late for that," I said as I glared at her. "But... apology accepted... from both of you. I'm done with all this petty drama."

"Yay!" she said as she leaped from the ground to hug me. "Now that that's settled... let's go for a swim!" Um... okay?

Before I even had the chance to react, she began undressing down to her underwear as she made for the shoreline, splashing into the water as she grinned at us from afar. I exchanged a look with Elijah and then proceeded to follow her into the glistening lake. She may have not been the most trustworthy friend I've ever had, but she was alright. She was certainly wild and a bit weird, but alright. Little did I know at the time how close we'd end up getting to her over the course of the summer.