XVIII.
AMANDA HELD ONTO MY HAND for dear life when we walked down the trail towards the lake, the bitter cold nipping at any exposed skin no matter how good you wrap yourself up. I had no idea why we thought it would be a good idea to watch the sunrise across the lake, dawn already beginning to breach the edge of the water. Her feet slipped in the snow numerous times as she clung to my arm until we were a good few feet away from the water, the quiet chirps from the birds echoed behind us, the sound of the icy lake cracking as the water beneath shifted, the sound reverberated into the quiet morning.
I stood behind her and wrapped my arms around her waist, my lips kissing the crook of her neck when I rested my chin on her shoulder, my glasses starting to fog up from breathing into her scarf to keep my nose warm. it only took a few minutes when I frustratedly removed my glasses, rather having a warm nose than a clear vision.
Amanda let out a long tired yawn when I felt her lean back against me, her body flush against me when her head rested on mine. I pressed my lips to the top of her head, promising we will go back into the warm cabin and cuddle on the couch.
It took almost four minutes for the sun to completely rise, the colours not disappointing when the reflections scattered across the frozen lake as I watched her take pictures. Going back to the cabin was a race, feeling like a competitive battle to who can jump into the warmth the quickest, Amanda being a cheat when she swept my foot from under me when I fell to the ground into the powdered snow, her laughter ringing through the air as I tried to grab her ankle and failing.
"Oh, you're too slow." She exclaimed laughing harder.
The longer I stayed lay in the snow, the longer I thought of revenge for later, not uttering a word to her. With a groan, I got up from the ground and brushed the snow off my clothes as I walked to the cabin, the door left open a crack.
Before any words left my mouth and my feet stepped through the doors thresh hold, I felt a pair of warm soft lips pressed against, her hands helping me shrug off my wet jacket, trying not to break the kiss when I let it fall on the floor. My hand grabbed onto her hips when they made their way down the back of her thighs as I picked her up, her legs wrapped around my waist when I walked and sat her on the dining table. I ran my hands up her thighs, gripping them hard when I pulled her into me, my fingers undoing the button on her jeans, her hand going between my legs when a soft moan came from my mouth. I felt her shake her head when I grabbed onto her jeans to pull them down, feeling her lips on my neck when she whispered a tut and said no, I pulled away for a quick second when she looked at me taking the brief pause to undo my belt and jeans swiftly.
The breath getting caught in my throat when her hand went into my jeans, feeling her fingers gently massage over my underwear until I was wet enough for her to slide her fingers in, another low moan escaping my lips when I rested my forehead against hers, my hands grabbing onto the edge of the table. As soon as her lips touched mine, the cabin door opened when someone came on through like a bull.
"Honey, I'm home," Ryan called, frustration running through my body when Amanda took her hand out, her face giving me a look that reflected exactly what I was feeling.
"And here I was hoping we'd be eating at the table," she deadpanned, slapping her palm against my chest when I turned around to look at him, Leah trudging her way on through the door an apologetic look on her face.
With an exhale I quickly buckled up my belt before turning around to go help Leah bring some bags into the cabin, while Ryan just stood in the middle of the lounge area talking to himself, trying to drown his voice out. When he mentioned coming up I thought he was joking, not taking him seriously else I would have told him not to bother or at least give me a chance to warn Amanda.
Ever since we went to the party in the woods, Amanda and Ryan don't seem to get along, or I should say Amanda was very stand-off-ish with him. If he tried to make small talk with her she would be blunt as anything and not leave any room to follow a conversation on from. She made it known loud and clear that she didn't want anything to do with him. Whether he took to the hint or not was on him, at least Leah was likeable and not straight up annoying.
I've started to notice that even Leah is beginning to get fed up with him, always apologising for his behaviour, she has already clocked onto the dislike that Amanda has for him, having her question me briefly only for me to tell her to hear it from Amanda.
''I tried telling him no," Leah whispered when we got to the car, only making it halfway up the hill before he bailed and left it there. Not sure if leaving them two together alone was a wise idea, I knew Amanda could handle herself that's what I was worried about, she wouldn't stop to think twice.
"It's fine, it's Ryan, he does whatever the fuck he wants." My voice sounded exasperated, having enough of this week already.
I just wanted alone time, away from the town, away from people who know me. Just DeCeno and I up here alone, the two of us keeping cosy and forgetting about what's happened, even though every time I catch my face in a reflection it still throws me off. I noticed that Leah hasn't looked directly at me yet.
"Well I made sure to bring these," she reached into the car to turn around hand me a few bottles, "we're going to need it." She sighed, her eyes looking over my face as she took it all in, even though it was dark out with the only light source coming from the interior lights in the car.
"It's dark, it doesn't look this bad in better lighting." Trying to console her when she nodded her head once and grabbed the rest of the bags, kicking his car door shut when she almost slipped and a small scream came from her mouth.
I couldn't stop the small laugh as I walked away back up the hill, wanting to get out of the cold, feeling like I'm competing in the survival of the fittest this past week. When I finally broke the thresh hold I had the two of them staring at me like I had interrupted something, either way, Amanda had that look like she was ready to snap, making me wonder what he could have done or said in under ten minutes to get her angry.
I told Leah to explain our traditional drinking game whenever we came to the cabin while I took Ryan outside closing the door-to behind us so they wouldn't overhear us talking but I need to set grounds for Ryan. He is not ruining the only escape I have before reality kicks in and haunts me.
"Is everything okay?" he asked looking worried.
With a big sigh, I leaned against the wall and spat it out, getting it over and done with. I mentioned what happened at the party in the woods and what he did to Amanda, telling him that he can't go around acting like everyone wants to go down on him because he has a pretty smile. He rolled his eyes a few times like I was a parent scolding him when that wasn't what I was trying to do. I just wanted him to be respectful for one night and not get carried away.
I turned around to look through the window when I heard muffled laughter to see them both laughing harder the more they spoke, a smile on Amanda face that I hadn't seen in a while, a smile of genuine joy when she looked at Leah.
"Your mother went ape shit by the way," Ryan's voice tore me away to look at him as he took out a cigarette and lit it.
"What did she have to say?" already having a strong feeling as to what it probably was.
"Consistently rang my mobile and the house phone, demanding where you are and where the car is gone. I mean if you're not around it's obvious you've got the car. Has she rang you at all?" my head shaking from side to side. "If she rings while I'm here, you are speaking to her so she will stop harassing me." Giving me the look he usually gave when he wasn't happy with me.
With nothing left to say to him, I patted his back and walked back into the cabin while he stayed out there smoking, the sound of Leah and Amanda erupting into laughter again as they fell against each other on the couch. A smile pulled up on my lips to see her happy, slightly wanting to know what the joke was about. I left them to keep talking while I grabbed some drinking glasses from the cupboard for the game.
When they stopped talking Leah helped me set up for the game, telling DeCeno the rules as we started to move the furniture around with Leah jumping and hopping the distances to make sure they weren't impossible to make.
As we started laying out the drinks Ryan came on in and nodded his head in approval but arranged a few chairs and rugs, making the distance between the floor jumps wider as I laid out a towel on the floor in front of the coffee table to catch any drink that will be spilt during the starter drink. Leah was still running over the rules to Amanda who started to look like she had no clue as she watched her set up four cans of beer on the table for the starting positions.
When everything was finally set up and DeCeno got the gist of the game, reassuring her she'll be fine, we took our starting positions in front of the coffee table which the four of us stood on to make sure it was solid enough to take the weight.
"Ladies, resume your position with the can of beer in your hand, you will pierce your hole and wait for the breakdown to drop in the song then you shotgun that drink," Leah called out, the music loud enough so we can still hear each other.
We passed the knife down the line to puncture our holes, praying that for once I won't finish the shotgun last, not looking forward to chasing it down with a shot of tequila. I looked down the line to see that everyone's index fingers were placed on the tab. I felt my stomach start to churn in anticipation, the only person I'm going to compete with is DeCeno. To be honest, the game was pointless and only needed one person to vomit for it to end. You can have the pride of not being the person to puke, while the sick one has to endure the backhanded embarrassment.
When the part in the music hit, the sound of cans cracking open filled the room, my mouth went straight to the hole as I chugged it down as quickly as possible, allowing the beer to run down my throat but felt like I was wearing more of it than I was drinking it.
Amanda was the first to finish with both Leah and me at the same time, the three of us jumping onto the coffee table to get into our positions just as Ryan finally finished his drink, Leah calling out for him to take that shot by the side of him and get onto the coffee table. He threw the shot back and scrunched up his nose while his body shivered from the taste before he joined us.
And so it began, the first question being thrown out, only jumping if we had an answer, if you didn't by the timer stopped you drink two shots if you get it wrong then just the one. If two people jumped onto the same piece of furniture then they have to shotgun, whoever falls off something that isn't onto one of the rugs faces a forfeit of answering any question and nothing is off-limits. This time Leah was the slow one, having to throw back whatever drinks were near her, none of us getting the question wrong.
The game was running smoothly until both Ryan and I ended up on the same table, his foot kicking something over and breaking it when he almost fell off the end table, my hand grabbing him by his belt so he wouldn't fall.
"New rule, you break anything you have to take a triple shot and get a slap in the face.," I called out my hand slapping Ryan on the cheek when looked at me, the only drink we could reach is a bottle of whisky. He shrugged and took a long drink of the whisky for his punishment before shotgunning a beer with me straight after.
The game lasted over an hour before Leah had to leave to go to the bathroom, now having to deal with being the lightweight out of the group, if I was being honest though if it wasn't going to be her vomiting I was following close behind if I had one more drink, my stomach was churning and not in a good way. I mumbled some incoherent words as I opened the front door to lay in the snow, my body feeling like it was burning up and needed cooling down.
I swear I could hear Amanda's voice slurring my name when I fell face-first into the snow, the icy relief feeling good against my overheating skin, rolling over onto my back to make sure I was freezing myself evenly. I closed my eyes for a second or two when I felt someone grab my arm to sit me up, opening my eyes to see it was Amanda.
"God, you're really pretty," my eyes focused on her face when she rolled her eyes and got me to stand up.
"And we are also drunk," she pointed out as we walked back into the cabin, Ryan already passed out on the floor with his head on a cushion.
When I finally awoke from my coma I felt someone stir in my arms, then feeling someone cuddled into my back from behind. I opened my eyes to see Amanda asleep in my arms while I tried to figure out why I was sandwiched in between two bodies. I rolled over a little to see who was spooning me from behind to see that it was Leah when I settled back down and chuckled that I was the filling when I felt a pair of lips kiss under my chin when Amanda let out a feeble good morning.
"Morning," I murmured when I gave her a small kiss on the lips, Leah's arms tightening around me as I let out a small chuckle.
I felt a dull throb in the temples of my head when I moved and rolled over onto my back to quickly kiss Leah on the forehead before I sat up, the heel of my palms rubbing my eyes when my fingertips ended up massaging my head to rid the pain of the hangover. Telling myself the same old lie of not drinking alcohol ever again.
As the morning crawled on, I had already cleaned the cabin by the time Amanda was finished in the shower, looking more alive than the other two who were sat on the sofa nursing their coffees, getting no sympathy from me since they thought the game would be a great idea.
I felt Amanda's hand touch my lower back when she walked behind me, giving me a kiss on the cheek, my head turning to kiss her back not noticing that she walked away with my coffee in her hand, a smirk on her lips when she blew me a kiss.