A/N: I'm quite happy with how this chapter turned out, so hope you guys enjoy it too! Will be editing it at some point so it might be a little rough at the moment.
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Colby's POV
"You got everything, guys?" Sam asked me as I put my last rucksack into the trunk of my car. He and Kat had insisted on seeing Y/N and I off for our camping trip this morning, which was sweet but I also believed they had an ulterior motive behind it. I guessed that they were just ecstatic and intrigued by the prospect of me getting a girlfriend.
"Yeah, I think so. We've just got to stop somewhere to get some food." I told him as I shut the lid to the trunk.
"When will you be back again?" Sam then questioned.
"Tuesday." I replied.
"Alright, have fun kids." He instructed lightly.
"But not too much!" Kat cut with a laugh, and I chose to ignore the high-browed look she gave Y/N who was standing by the passenger side door.
"Thanks dad, and we won't mom!" I retorted, rolling my eyes.
"See ya later bro." Sam reached out a hand which I grasped and he brought me into a bro hug. I returned the hug by clapping him on the back gently.
"See you." I responded quietly into his ear. Pulling away, I patted Sam on the shoulder before turning to Y/N.
"You ready?" I directed the question towards her as I moved to get into the driver's seat.
"Yeah, let's go! Bye guys!" She exclaimed energetically, giving Sam and Kat a small wave.
"Bye!" The couple replied in unison.
Climbing into the car, I grabbed my phone from my pocket. I unlocked it and opened my internet browser before holding it out to Y/N. "Here, do you want to see where we're going?"
"Oh, yeah!" She answered excitedly, taking the phone from me carefully. We gave Sam and Kat one last wave as I drove passed them out of the parking garage.
"They have a lake? That's cool! We'll have to go kayaking." Y/N stated as I pulled out onto the street.
"For sure!" I agreed. "I just hope it's not like Camp Crystal Lake!" I joked, looking across to see Y/N's reaction.
She frowned, and looked up at me from my phone. "Where?" She asked in confusion.
"You know... From Friday the 13th." I clarified, laughing when her mouth dropped open a little.
"Why would you say that?!" She almost shrieked, voice wavering.
A distant memory then came to mind, one that I hadn't thought of in almost ten years.
"Hey, remember when my brother snuck us in to see the remake when we were like... What 13?"
"Oh my god... I remember having to sleep in my little sister's room for days because I had fucking nightmares!" She cringed.
"Same... My mom went ape at Gage when he told her why I was crying when we got home..." I visibly recoiled as I recalled my mom yelling at my brother while my 13 year old self sat shivering and basically traumatised on the sofa in our living room. My mom was one of the softest person I knew, and it took her a lot to anger her so that afternoon was definitely a memorable one.
"Those were good times though..." Y/N smiled.
"Yeah they were." I nodded my head with a grin.
And they were, because those were the days when we saw each other almost every day and spent our entire weekends together. My parents always used to let her stay over on Fridays and Saturdays, so there were often times that we'd spend 48 hours straight together. However, the movie incident was also one of the last times that she and I had hung out before she suddenly stopped speaking to me. Although I now know that her parents had told her that we couldn't be friends anymore, I had thought for a long time that she probably felt that I had abandoned her for Sam.
Admittedly it hurt a lot when she had just started blanking me in the school hallways during the last couple of weeks before we finished middle school, but I had decided to let it lie at the time because I believed that I had somehow hurt her worse for her to ignore me like that. It brought up conflicting emotions because had we spent the summer together like we had planned, I wouldn't have spent the whole time with Sam and we probably wouldn't have grown as close as we were now. That summer signified the birth of Sam and I's plans for the future, so while losing my closest friend sucked I couldn't help but feel like it only set me up for the amazing life that I had now.
"Are you and Sam still friends with those boys you used to hang around with in Kansas?" The question brought me out of my thoughts.
"You mean Nate and Alex?" I received a nod, and continued. "Yeah, we're still pretty close. We don't really have time to speak to them as much as we probably should, but we see them at least once a year on a boys' trip."
"That's nice!" She beamed sincerely.
"What about you? Tell me about your friends."
"Well I only really have my best friend, Sarah. She's the only one that suck around when..." She paused and glanced away out of the window, her cheeks tinging red in embarrassment.
I guessed she was thinking about the stuff she had gone through with her ex. This hadn't been the first time that she had mentioned it since coming to L.A., but she had always stopped herself from talking about it too much. I just wished that she could feel safe enough around me to open about it, and it made me miss the closeness that we had when we were younger as there were never many secrets that we kept from each other back then.
"She sounds like a good friend." I mused, feeling glad that she at least had one person that had stuck with her.
"She is. She's chaotic, and loud, and says what she thinks... But yeah, I wouldn't trade her for the world." She said with a soft giggle.
"All you need sometimes is a best friend that will have your back no matter what." I stated with a fond smile of my own as I thought of Sam.
"Very true." Y/N agreed.
"And hey... Now you have me and all my friends!" I told her confidently. Gazing across, I saw her turn back towards me and noticed that her eyes looked a little more watery than usual.
"Thanks Colbs." She whispered from across the car. She let out a small sniff that she tried to cover up with a cough, before she opened her mouth again. "Uhhh... Where should we stop to get food?" I let her change the subject, as I would never force her to talk about something if she wasn't ready.
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One hour and a half later and I was pulling into the car park of a store. I had spotted a sign for the store a couple of minutes down the road, and decided that it would best to stop here as they sold camping gear. Putting my car into park, I peered over at Y/N and guessed that she was coming to the end of her phone call with her mom. She had called her to let her know that she might not be able to call for a couple of days as we might not have signal at the campsite.
"Well have fun but be safe, sweetie!" Y/N's mom ordered down the speaker of her phone.
"I will mom!" Y/N promised down the phone.
"Okay, bye honey! Bye Colby!"
"Bye Mrs Y/L/N." I called out as I unbuckled my seatbelt and grabbed my phone from the storage compartment in the middle of my car.
"Bye momma! I'll call you when we get back to L.A. in a few days!" Y/N told her mom before hanging up. She tucked her phone back into her back and then seemed to realise that we had stopped.
"We stopping here?" She asked.
"Yeah, it looks like a good place because they sell camping stuff here." I replied.
"Okay, cool."
Exiting the car, we made our way into the wooden building in front of us. The store looked bigger on the inside than it did from the outside, and it appeared that it mostly sold clothes and tents.
"Hello!" Glancing to my right, I found that the voice belonged to a small, elderly lady sitting behind the counter by the door.
"Hey, do you sell food that we can take camping with us?" I questioned, and she nodded whilst lifting a hand and pointing towards the back of the shop.
"Of course! There is freezers on the back wall!" She informed us. I thanked her before heading towards where she was pointing to, and I could feel Y/N trailing a couple of steps behind me.
Weaving my way through the clothing racks, I stopped when I heard her voice and felt a hand tapping my arm.
"Colby, look!" Spinning around, I was met with the sight of Y/N holding up a khaki fishing and a pair of matching shorts.
"I've found an outfit for you, boy scout." She teased, her face growing into a playful grin.
"Aw, sweet!" I cheered sarcastically.
"You should try it on!" There was no way she didn't know what she was doing when she peeked up at me with wide, amused yet pleading puppy eyes. I've always been a sucker for bright, beautiful eyes, so I caved almost immediately.
However another idea came to mind. "Only if I have a girl scout with me." I grabbed the same outfit and offered it out to her. If I was going to make myself look silly, then she was coming down with me.
"Fine." I knew she would call my bluff, but that didn't stop her from rolling her eyes at me as she took the clothes from me. I always admired her fierceness as a kid, but now I just found it plain hot.
Using the small changing cubicles in the corner to change into the camping attire, I stripped off my hoodie and skinny jeans but left my t-shirt on before putting on the vest and shorts.
We instantly started laughing when we caught sight of each other when we stepped out of the cubicles.
"Do we look hot or what?" She asked boastfully, motioning between us, but I could tell that she was only kidding.
"What." I retorted jokingly.
"Hey, speak for yourself!" She bantered back, before pointing at my t-shirt. "I don't think the bloody Mickey Mouse shirt quite fits the aesthetic."
"No?" I asked lightly, and she hummed in denial while shaking her head adamantly with her lips still upturned. She then walked over to look at herself in the mirror and I went to stand behind her.
"I don't know... I think we suit it!" She giggled.
"Let's get a picture of us to send the guys!" I commented, pulling out my phone.
"Sure!" She said, before her eyes brightened as she seemed to notice something in the corner of her eye. "Wait! Here!" She went over and reached for a stack of beige hats on top of one of the clothing racks.
"Got to complete the look!" She concluded, passing me one of them.
"Perfect!" I chuckled, taking the hat and placing it on my head. Y/N did the same as she same back over to stand a little in front of me. Giving her a moment to fix her hair under the hat before asking if she was ready for me to take the photo.
"Yeah." She replied.
A mischievous grin grew on my face as I went to take the photo, deciding it was an opportune moment to mess with her a little.
"Smile!" I ordered, before reaching up behind her and pushing her hat down over her face while taking the photo at the same time.
"Hey!" She shrieked, batting off my hand that was still on her head.
Letting go, I let her place the hat back properly.
"Why did you do that?!" She screamed, looking annoyed but I could tell she wasn't really.
"I was just getting the perfect picture!" I defended, showing her the photo of her scrambled against my hand.
She gasped with a scowl. "Ass..." She growled, slapping my arm.
"Ow! Hey, no need for the violence!" I whined playfully. She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, pretending to be mad.
"Come on." Extending my arm out, I pulled her back carefully back in front of me. She was smiling again by the time she was situated, and I wrapped an arm around her neck in an embrace before resting my head on top of hers. She brought her hands up to grasp my arm tenderly.
"Alright, say cheese! For real this time!" I felt her body move against mine as she sniggered. Pulling away from each other a few seconds later when the photo was taken, I turned my phone around to show her.
"I like that one." She rasped, looking shy and insecure but happy at the same time.
"Me too." I responded lowly. Looking down briefly at the screen, I concluded that only Sam was getting sent the photo as it looked a little too intimate. I didn't want the whole friend group assuming anything about us before we got the chance to figure it out for ourselves.
Checking the time, I saw that it was already way into the afternoon. Sighing inwardly, I realised that we had to hurry up otherwise we'll have wasted the entire day on travelling.
"We should get going otherwise we'll never get make it to the campsite, we still have another couple hours of driving to do." I stated to Y/N as I brushed passed her to head back to the changing cubicle.
Changing quickly, we returned the clothes to the racks before going over to the freezers to grab some food. We decided on a few packets of burgers, sausages and hot dogs in the end, and also picked up some cereal, water, and energy bars on the way to the till. I stopped as we went passed a few shelves with alcohol on. Y/N only shrugged and said it was up to me when I asked her what drinks she wanted, so I hefted two packs of White Claws and beer off of the shelves; there was a lot there I figured it was a good idea to have extra just in case Y/n decided that she wanted some during the trip.
We made quick work of paying and loading up the car, and we were then off again. However, we were another 5 miles down the road before I noticed that we had forgot to get some things at the store.
"Ah shit!" I cursed.
"What?" Y/N questioned.
"We forgot snacks." I explained with a groan.
"Oh no! How could we forget!" Y/N exclaimed over-dramatically which I found funny. In that moment she was letting the goofy side of her personality shine through. It was a part of her that I cherished when we were younger as she often used it to cheer me up on bad days. "Should we go back?" She asked.
"Nah, I need to stop for gas soon so we'll get some then." I replied, waving it off.
We drove for another 40 minutes before we came across a gas station.
"Do you want me to run in to get the snacks while you sort the gas?" Y/N queried as I parked up next to a pump.
"Yeah, thank you." I nodded.
"Do you want anything in particular?" I reeled off a few snack requests before hopping out of the car.
Inserting my card into the machine at the pump, I glanced over to watch Y/N moving around the store as I filled up my car before returning to the driver's seat when I was done.
I was surprised and shocked when Y/N returned 5 minutes later with four plastic bags full of stuff.
"Did you buy the whole shop or something?" I questioned incredulously as she opened the door to the back seat to place the bags there.
"Shhh Colbs." She scoffed. Reaching behind me, I inched a hand forward to open one of the bags a little to sneak a peek when my hand was pushed away. "Ah ah! No!" She admonished before she shutting the door and climbing back into the car beside me.
"What the hell did you buy?" I tried again as she buckled in her seatbelt.
"Just snacks and stuff! But you can't see! I have a surprise in there!" I shook my head in amusement at her behaviour, letting her keep her "surprise" a secret for now.
"Next stop. Camp Crystal Lake!" I cheered, cackling when her head whipped up to glare at me.
"STOP!" She yelled, before her expression quickly changing to a humoured one as well.
A grin remained plastered to my face as I focused on the road... If the rest of the trip is anything like the drive so far, then it will be filled with laughter, fun and jokes. I couldn't feel anymore grateful to Sam for suggesting the trip because it's definitely something I needed as I felt more content and happy than I had done in a while.
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Let me know what you thought of the chapter! :)