Chapter 29
I was sitting by the fire, looking at my girlfriend in amusement while she waited in line with her paper plate to get her fourth hot dog.
She was looking at the food like she hadn't eaten all day.
Maybe I really should take the food away from her. It would definitely be a good punishment.
"In a scenario where there's nothing to eat, I am convinced that your girlfriend would turn to cannibalism quickly," Trevor said, taking a bite from his hamburger.
I looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "Are you in a group chat with my best friend and her brother?"
"Are you implying right now that I'm not your best friend?" Trevor asked, gasping like he was offended.
I rolled my eyes at him, not even dignifying that with an answer.
Lexi came back with two hot dogs and one hamburger.
I assumed that I was giving her a specific look, because she felt the need to say, "I'm still going through my growth spur," as if that explained it.
"I think you've hit your final height a couple years ago," I teased her.
"Hey, I could still grow an inch or two," Lexi whined.
"Is what Trevor says to all the girls he sleeps with," Connor said in passing on his way to his seat.
"Connor, I will set fire to your tent during the night while you sleep and enjoy it," the twin threatened.
We all ate more and joked around more, and then Lexi got the marshmallows and cookies and chocolate chips out and started to make s'mores for everyone, as usual.
"Lexi's coooookiiiiiies," Trevor sang, before taking a bite from his, while all the guys waited in line to be served.
I let out a pained noise. "Okay! I've had it with y'all! It's called s'mores! Lexi did not invent these. They already exist and they're called s'mores."
"Yeah we know," Trevor replied his mouth full.
"What? There's a name for them?" Lexi asked, gapping.
I ignored my girlfriend. There were no surprises here that she would not know. "What do you mean, you know?" I asked Trevor, and the guys all nodding along.
"I mean, of course we know. But it makes Lexi happy. Also, we're not about to correct her. She's making them for us. She can call them however she wants," Jimmy pointed out.
"See, this is why it took so long for you two to start dating. You clearly don't understand her," Cameron added.
"Guys! What the fuck? There's a name for my cookies?" Lexi asked loudly again.
"Yeah, they're s'mores," I repeated, looking at my clueless girlfriend.
"I've never heard that," Lexi replied, eyes narrowed.
I could shake her. "How can you not know? How?"
Lexi shrugged, pouting. "I don't know."
"And you picked him? Unbelievable. Don't give him any Lex, because he just ruined something good. He does not deserve any cookies now," Trevor said.
I threw my arms in the air. "Keep your sugar, I don't care."
"Yeah, you bet I'm going to keep all my sugar," Lexi shot back automatically making all the guys say, "Oooooooooh."
As always after that there was more teasing and insulting.
After the sun had set, and we were all done eating, some guys suggested we play hide and seek like the very mature people we were.
"And the loser gets thrown in the Creek," Dwayne said.
"Losers you mean?" Alex corrected.
Dwayned shrugged. "Sure."
"I will literally sacrifice my firstborn to not have to go back in the Creek," I informed them.
Lexi slapped my arm. She was wearing my hoodie. I only had one left now. "Hey, you're not sacrificing any firstborn of ours."
"Oh, so you have been fucking," Trevor said with a creepy grin.
"Shuuuuut up, Trevor," Lexi and I said in unison.
He just laughed as an answer.
"Guys, let's not throw anyone in the Creek again. Alright? We don't actually want anyone to die of hypothermia?" Mark said, as always, the voice of reason.
I scoffed. "Oh, but when I'm the one being thrown in the freezing water, it's fine?"
"Stop complaining Blake," Lexi said, slapping my arm again.
I crossed my arms over my chest. "I hate all of you."
We played hide and seek. The twins got reaaaally into it, even going as far as taking their shoes off so they would make less sound.
It was a miracle they did not stab themselves in the feet with branches.
When we were exhausted, cold and done playing around we all gathered around the campfire, taking the marshmallows out again.
"Why doesn't anybody in our little group play the guitar? Wouldn't it be nice to sing songs around the campfire," Peter suddenly said.
"When Vanessa is not here, literally no one here is qualified to sing," Daphnee pointed out.
"For my own mental health, I beg all of you to never start singing songs around the fire. There are very little things that I hate as much as that," Lexi said.
"You don't like when Vanessa sings songs?" Catherine inquired.
Lexi shook her head right away. "No, no, she's fine. She doesn't break into song randomly. I hate people who do that, thinking their lives are a musical. Like, goofing around singing is fine, that's okay, that's funny. But serious singing? I can't. It makes me so uncomfortable. I don't know where to look or what to do."
"Is this the only reason why you're dating Blake? Because he can't carry a tune?" Cameron said with a smirk.
"I'll have you know I am a great singer," I replied.
That got a lot of laughs.
We chatted more, adding more wood to the fire, telling scary or stupid stories.
One by one, people headed in the tents to go to sleep.
Lexi and I weren't budging though. Lexi was too busy stuffing her face in roasted marshmallows. And I wasn't stopping her.
Why was I putting off sharing a small tent with my girlfriend? Because I remembered what we had done earlier, and... well, yeah...I was using a lot of self control.
But eventually, almost everyone had gone to sleep, and we were both still exhausted, so we got up.
"So, be honest? Am I going to wake up in the middle of the Creek on a floating mattress in the morning as payback?" Lexi asked as we walked to my tent hand in hand.
I let out a loud breath, staring at the starry night sky. "That feels like too much work honestly."
Lexi did not believe me. "How scared should I be?"
I looked back at her, grinning. "Not scared at all. You're my girlfriend and I love you. Also, I'm clearly the bigger person here, so I won't get back at you."
Lexi looked at me with narrowed eyes. "I'm not sure if I should believe you, or if this is just a tactic to catch me by surprise even more."
"I can't believe you don't trust your extraordinary boyfriend," I gasped, pressing a hand to my chest.
"It's either something horrific awaits me, or you haven't figured out what you want to do yet."
I just grinned at her, not giving her an answer.
It was sweeter that way. Let her worry for no reason.
We were at my tent by then, so I unzipped it open and we both got in, settling in our sleeping bags.
I was acutely aware that my girlfriend was right beside me, but that I also should not ravage her in a tent when all our friends were sleeping around and could probably hear us very well.
For protection I made it a point to zip up Lexi all the way in her sleeping bag. I wasn't going to repeat my last mistake of just settling beside under the same sleeping bag.
"We should probably both take our clothes off, you know," Lexi whispered, after a few minutes of silence.
It was actually pretty cold. But these were good sleeping bags.
I rolled my eyes in the dark. "I do not know actually."
"We need to do this to get warmer. It's really a question of survival Blake, you must see it that way," she pleaded her case, wiggling closer to me.
I put a finger to her forehead and pushed her away slightly. "Noooooope."
She stuck her tongue out at me. "Party pooper."
I grinned. "Thank you."
"At least I hope you won't trap me in my sleeping bag for the rest of the trip. You're telling the truth when you say I shouldn't be worried?"
"I'm telling the truth, yes."
I was suddenly thinking about honesty now, and the last time we were here when I had slept in a tent with Lexi too.
"Unrelated to revenge though, I should probably be honest with you again," I admitted, turning on my side to look at her.
Lexi did the same thing, her hands tucked under he cheek.
"What? Anything else you're still hiding? How is that even possible?" my girlfriend whined.
"Not hiding, more like... not telling."
She rolled her eyes, unimpressed with me. "Suuuure, yes, that's a huge difference. Well come on, spill the beans."
"You know, the last time we came to the Creek? Alex never came to sleep in your tent. I actually did."
She blinked slowly and it took her like a second too long to process this. "What?"
And then I started to ramble. "Clark was in my tent and I had nowhere to sleep, and Alex was just sitting outside texting to... well Travis I assume now that I know. So, he was not going to sleep in the tent and you'd been freezing before and I was going to sleep in a car, and Alex said if I promised not to do anything, I could take his place."
I was preparing myself for a certain degree of outrage, and definitely manhandling. Instead, Lexi's eyes kind of just lit up. "See, that totally make sense because I smelled you. I total smelled you."
I let out a loud snort. "Yeah, that's not a weird thing to say at all."
"No, I mean, I remembered smelling something nice that should not have been there."
I chuckled again. "Yeah, that was me."
"Did I grope you in your sleep?"
"No, but you did cuddle and almost gave me a heart attack."
"I am like a moth to light when I'm cold and someone is warm beside me," Lexi admitted. Case in point, we had a out one feet of distance between us when we had first settled in.
Now, Lexi was basically pressed against me.
"Yeah, I think the many nights we've spent together so far have taught me that you're a cuddler."
"Any complaints?"
"None at all. More cuddles," I replied automatically, tucking her head under my chin.
I wasn't going to win this fight.
I unzipped both our sleeping bags, making Lexi almost squeal with joy and wrapped my arms around her, holding her close to me, her arms doing the same thing.
I closed my eyes, and fell asleep with a smile.
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Happy Monday my little Pumpkins!
I hope you had a nice week, and that you're all doing great and that you had fun reading this chapter.
Blake finally told Lexi about the tent. I know a lot of people were waiting for that one. I'm trying to get over all the missing stuff. There's a therapy session in a couple of chapters I think you also were looking forward to, though it IS a little triggering. I think I'll have to put a disclaimer on it. 0_0
I had a week off from work, and I did some writing, though definitely not as much as I wanted. I mostly just rested and let myself be completely useless. I hadn't done that in a while. Like, take days off and just do nothing. Usually when I take vacations I have about ten thousand plans. So it was really nice. I played the Sims. I watched dramas. I made a bunch of random food I wanted to eat for a while. And I slept. And slept. And slept. It was pretty nice.
But yeah. Back to work on Tuesday. Boooooo.
Anyway! I'm gonna get some more writing done now. I hope you all have a super nice week! Love you guys! :D See you all next week! <3