The next morning we all got up early and headed to the bathrooms to get ready for the day ahead. Fortunately, the campground we were at had showers in the bathrooms because after last night with Dante, we both desperately needed to wash up.
Once everybody was all dressed and back at our site we gathered at the table to start breakfast. Dante's mom and the older two of his three sisters cooked while his dad and Daisy went over the trail maps. Dante and I worked on getting our lunches and hiking backpacks together.
After we ate and got everything cleaned up, we set off in the Suburban towards the same trail as the one Dante and I had checked out the night before as one big group. We took our time on the hike, making plenty of stops for selfies and Instagrams for the girls, and so we reached the end of the trail around noon, where we stopped to have lunch and rest before turning back.
A lot of the time, Dante's parents were at the front of our little pack, leading the way while the rest of us followed along. I mostly tried to stick with Dante, but frustratingly enough, that did nothing to deter Drea from randomly falling back into step with me all afternoon.
Before this trip, I had never really minded her incessant flirting, but apparently the longer I was around her at one time, the more relentless she became.
I summed it up to her wanting the status that came with dating me and not actually liking me for me. Because, let's be serious, she hardly knew a thing about me. If she did, she'd know that I liked dick and was way more into her brother than I could ever be into her.
Today, though, she was clearly on a mission to get me to notice her because she just wouldn't back off. It was beginning to get so annoying that I almost wanted to scream at her, but all I did was plaster on my default polite smile and awkwardly brush her off.
Then the first time Drea trailed her hand along my arm I thought Dante was going to slap her, but all he did was glare at her. Obviously, she pointedly ignored it and kept chattering on about things I didn't have a care in the world about.
Later in the afternoon, though, when we were finishing up the last of the trail we were on, she upped the ante. Our group of seven had ended up dispersing in two so that Dante's parents and youngest sisters were a good twenty feet ahead of Dante, Drea, and I.
And since the blonde, sixteen year old couldn't take a hint for the life of her, she sneakily slipped her hand into mine. When I had first felt her soft palm and delicate fingers touching mine, my eyes had gone wide and I immediately glanced at Dante but since he was a couple steps ahead of us he hadn't noticed.
Then I looked down at Drea and all she did was glance up at me with a sickly sweet smile. She batted her big blue eyes at me and her whole innocent act was almost believable, but I pursed my lips and clenched my jaw.
I shook my head sternly at her and tried to pull my hand away from hers. I hadn't thought that it would be all that difficult since I was a pretty strong guy and she was just a tiny little thing, but boy was I wrong. Drea practically had my hand in a death grip.
While I was struggling with her to get my hand back, Dante turned around to ask me something. I don't know what he said because he cut himself off the second he saw Drea's hand in mine. He stopped walking immediately and I did the same, effectively pulling the younger girl to halt as well.
Dante's eyes scrutinized our hands while mine went wide, trying to plead with him to understand that this wasn't my doing. With one last forceful tug, I finally got my hand out of his sister's, but she instantly protested, a severe pout taking over her mouth. Dante turned his glare away from me and onto his little sister and I swore for a second he was going to throw her off a cliff, he looked that upset.
"What the fuck do you think you're doing?" Dante snapped, walking towards the blonde girl.
I quickly stepped up and put a hand on his chest. "Dante, chill. Please."
"Seriously, why do you have to throw a fit about everything?" Drea asked, rolling her eyes. "If Harley and I wanna date, it's none of your business."
Dante growled, actually growled, and took a step forward, but I held him back while Drea started to move away a little. "You two are never going to be a thing," he hissed. "So fucking stop already!"
Drea pouted again. "Your opinion doesn't matter."
I bit my lip and Dante looked at me with furrowed brows. "What?" I asked.
"Quit encouraging her," Dante said quietly.
My eyes widened once again. "Dude, I didn't do anything. She grabbed my hand."
"Yeah, and you never tell her no. You smile and laugh awkwardly but you never flat out tell her that you don't want to date her."
"I'm standing right here, you know?" Drea snarked.
I rolled my eyes and turned away from Dante so I could look at his younger sister. It was amazing that she could listen to our conversation and still have no idea what the real implications behind her brother's anger was. For all she knew, her brother was just either being overprotective or he was worried about having his sister steal his friends from him.
I looked up the trail to see that the rest of Dante's family was still going, completely oblivious to our little tiff. When I looked back at Drea, she was watching me with hopeful eyes. I swallowed awkwardly and stared right back at her. I felt nervous for no reason other than the fact that confrontation with girls always made me uncomfortable.
"Look, Drea," I said lightly, trying my hardest not to sound as stupid as I felt. "You're really awesome and all, but it's just not gonna happen. You're kinda cute, I guess, but you're, uhm, too young?" I glanced back at Dante to see him giving me a look that said I definitely was being an idiot. I blushed and turned back to the girl. "Sorry, but you're not my type. We cool?"
Drea's jaw dropped and I could tell she was severely offended. "You're an ass, Harley Sinclair," she quipped. She glared her blue eyes at me and tossed her blonde hair over her shoulder. "Besides, we all know I'm hot, and too good for you. We're so over."
With that, Drea spun on her heels and promptly stalked away from us. I stared after her in shock, blinking in confusion because I had no clue what had just happened.
"I think...your sister and I just broke up," I said in awe.
A second later I was punched harshly on the arm. "You're an idiot," Dante muttered.
I grabbed my arm and rubbed at the sore spot. "Ouch!" I snapped. "Why'd you hit me?"
"Because you don't know anything about girls. That's not how you break up with one. You never call a girl awesome or ask if you guys are 'cool'."
"Well excuse fuckin' me," I grumbled. "It's not like I've ever even broken up with a girl before. I don't know how it's done!"
Dante only rolled his eyes and gestured to where his sister was now almost out of sight. "Clearly not like that," he said. He started to walk away from me and muttered, "Come on before you get lost out here."
"Screw you," I muttered under my breath.
Hearing my words despite how quiet they were, he turned around sharply and I accidentally smacked right into his chest. "I heard that."
I rubbed my nose and stepped back. I frowned at him and said, "So? You're being mean, Dante. You get so pissed at me like it's my fault she tries to get all up on me when it's not. I just took care of that for you so it doesn't happen anymore and now you're flipping out on me. What the hell is wrong with you?"
Dante narrowed his blue eyes and took a step closer to me. I regarded him warily but ultimately let him grab my wrist. His eyes softened a little and he quietly said, "You're right."
"I'm what?" I asked in disbelief. Dante never admitted to being wrong that easily.
"I said you're right," he huffed. "Thanks for finally getting her off your back...but now she's gonna be a bitch towards me indefinitely. And that is your fault."
With that, he dropped my arm and turned back around. I stared after him in shock for a moment, but then screwed my face up in anger, wanting nothing more than to just punch him in his stupidly gorgeous face. I almost screamed after him that he was being a massive douche about everything, but I stopped myself and just continued to stand there, fuming.
"Seriously, just come on, Harley," I heard him say from about ten feet away. "My mom's gonna freak if we don't catch up."
Refusing to give him the satisfaction of an answer, I simply hitched my bag up over my shoulders to rebalance the weight of it and stomped after him. It didn't take long to catch up to him and when I did, I roughly knocked into his shoulder as I stalked past.
I heard him muttering a few curse words; I tuned him out and kept following the trail back to the campsite.
The rest of the evening was a little strained; I was still pissed at Dante for being an asshole, and he was giving me the cold shoulder because I apparently put Drea in a mood he didn't like. The funny thing about it was that by the time we got back to our tents and started getting ready for dinner, Drea wasn't even upset with me anymore.
I could tell she was obviously a little miffed by the fact that her various efforts of flirting in order to get me to ask her out never worked, but other than that she was smiling and friendly again towards me. I was pleased to note that she had completely stopped trying to pull anything with me. The only problem with this was that now that she had quit, I wished she hadn't because I was so mad at Dante for how he acted that it would have been nice to throw something in his face.
I guess it worked out alright because throughout the rest of the evening, Drea wouldn't even give Dante the time of day. I couldn't help but laugh at his annoyance, and even went as far as to play catch with the sixteen year old using my and Dante's lacrosse sticks.
After dinner, Dante went for a run without even bothering to ask if I wanted to go. I mean, I would have turned him down if he had asked, but it only irritated me further because he hadn't even spoken to me when he got up from the table and took off. I did my best not to let it bother me for long, though, because while his parents went for a sunset hike I hung out with the girls and tried to teach them the fundamentals of lacrosse.
With the exception of Daisy, the girls sucked at the sport, but it didn't really matter because it made it more interesting; there were a ton of laughs and screams involved in the process, but overall it had been a lot of fun.
I was already laying down in our tent, ready for bed by the time Dante finally showed up. I glanced at him when he first walked in to see that his face was covered in sweat. I looked away before we could make eye contact and heard him zip the tent closed again.
I rolled over when he started to strip his sweaty clothes off and just listened to the sounds of nature surrounding us. I couldn't hear anything coming from his parents' tent and the sounds of loud, girlish giggling had finally died down a little over a half hour before Dante had arrived. It was dark outside now, and my best guess was that the two of us were now the only ones left awake.
When the air mattress dipped, I turned away from Dante completely and closed my eyes. I felt a hand on my shoulder and I jerked it away from him. I heard him sigh and I said, "Don't touch me."
"Harley..." he whispered.
"If you're gonna act like a dick then don't even bother continuing that sentence," I snapped, glancing over my shoulder at him.
To my surprise he had a look of guilt on his sweaty face. I hardened my eyes and fixed him with a glare. Just as I went to turn around again, he pulled me hard enough that I was flat on my back in the middle of the mattress. I went to say something but he climbed over me and pinned me to the bed with his entire body.
"Shh," he said with gentle eyes. "Babe, listen. I'm sorry about earlier. I didn't mean to be such an ass, but watching Drea with you gets my blood boiling--and not in the good way. You know I can act like an idiot when I get jealous."
I scoffed and looked away from him. At least he was telling the truth. "Duh."
"I'm sorry," he repeated. The way he said it, with complete sincerity in his voice, I had to look back up at his face. "Do you forgive me?"
I quirked my lips from side to side for a few moments, eyes raking his face. Eventually, I said, "Sure."
Then Dante's lips were on mine. I kissed him back immediately, secretly relieved that we were back to normal. Making out was something we were good at; fighting wasn't something I enjoyed.
We kissed for a little while until Dante tugged my shirt off. Then we started to let our hands roam. I managed to roll him over and I straddled his waist as we continued to kiss, my hands memorizing the planes of his abs.
After a few more minutes of kissing I pulled back, gasping, and whispered, "Where'd you put the condoms and lube?"
Dante leaned up and kissed me again while I sat on his lap, but he didn't answer me. I turned my head to give him better access to my neck, shivering as his lips met my skin. "Seriously. Where are they?"
He sucked on my neck for a moment before backing off so he could look at my face. "Babe, can we just go to sleep tonight?"
I sank back to sit on my heels. My eyes widened as I stared at him. "You're joking, right?"
Dante shook his head and said, "No, I'm just really tired tonight. It was a long day, you know?"
My jaw dropped slightly when I realized he was serious. "You said I could fuck you, though," I hissed quietly.
He yawned--which I'm not entirely sure was real--and groggily said, "Yeah, I know, but I'm exhausted, and we've got an early start tomorrow."
"You don't think we had an early start this morning?" I demanded. Before he could answer, I said, "Because we did. And I still let you fuck me."
I slid off of his lap, almost unable to believe that he was acting like this. The reason I was so mad all of a sudden wasn't the idea that he didn't want to have sex, because if he really didn't I would never force him into something. No, I was upset because I knew for a fact that he was lying, just to get out of his promise. And I was surprised to find that it actually hurt that he'd think he could lie to me and not have me notice or care.
"How about next time?" he offered, giving me a hesitant smile.
I rolled my eyes. "We go home tomorrow night. When do you expect this next time to be?"
Dante shrugged. "Whenever you want, I guess. Next weekend or something. I promise."
I couldn't help but scoff at his words. "If there's one thing I've learned from you, it's that your promises mean nothing. So just save your breath."
When he tried to reach for me, I pushed him away so that I could settle back into my side of the bed. I pulled the blanket up to my chin but I noticed Dante hadn't moved yet; he was just sitting there, probably staring down at me.
"Dude, come on--" he started to say, voice full of sympathy.
"Don't fucking talk to me."
"Har--"
"I said don't!" I almost yelled, and I realized that I was a lot more upset than I had originally thought I was. "Just stop talking to me because I don't wanna hear it right now. And don't you dare touch me or I'll beat the shit out of you."
It was a lie, obviously. I knew it and Dante knew it just as well; I would never try to hurt him on purpose. Either way, it got the point across that I was definitely not happy with him and it was enough to make him shut his mouth and lay down so we could both drift off to sleep.