After breakfast, we all head to the office to get the stubing's wristbands and wait for the bus to take us to the Sugar River. Meggie barely acknowledges me when she shows up holding hands with Mike and enters the bus. What the heck do I see it? Am I delusional or what?
"Unbelievable," Scarlet sighs as we are in the line to get wristbands, "Doesn't she realize this guy is using her?"
Next, I see Aaron carries the cooler with Dan into the bus, the boy with spike hair who drinks vodka straight from the bottle. I grab another cup of coffee. "Don't drink this shit," Scarlet warns. "We'll be hours in the river. Where are you going to poop?"
"Does coffee make you poop?"
"You didn't know that?"
I change my mind about coffee, and as I'm about to enter the bus, I feel a pair of hands on my shoulder. I turn around to see Denver behind me.
"Denver?"
"Who else that could be?" he asks me.
He is wearing a pair of swimming shorts that suit well with him.
"I'm happy to see you here," he says, his eyes boring into mine.
"Let's go," Scarlet says, "Otherwise, we'll lose the bus."
Denver and I follow Scarlet. She heads to the back. Meggie is sitting in the middle row of the bus with Mike, her head resting over his shoulder. Her eyes are closed, and I know she is pretending, so she doesn't have to talk to me or explain anything. Mike pats her head as his eyes give me an intense glare as if he is trying to prove me something.
Scarlet sits with Danika as Aaron sits behind the Russian girl. Everyone stares at me when they see me walking with Denver. I sit opposite side of Danika and Scarlet, without noticing Suzan is there. Before Denver sits, she stands on her feet to hug him. Her body is slim, and she takes advantage of that to throw herself on him even more.
***
Despite the sun out in the sky, Aaron keeps reminding everyone about the big storm coming. Suzan keeps talking to Denver as I look outside the window.
"Let me check your Grupo camera, Dan," her hands are already in his camera. I hear them talking as I look at my phone, a message from Maroney wishing me to have fun at the river. Maroney.
"Are you going to tell me what happened between you and Meggie?" Denver turns his eyes at me after he is done with Suzan. His voice is low, but yet I don't want to talk about this now.
I wonder whether Meggie told people about my conversation with her. What I told about Mike did to me.
"Look, I don't know any of the details about it. We can talk about this another time." I am glad Denver has some common sense.
***
People tight the tubes together with strings. The beer coolers are in the water floating as everyone gets their drinks right away. Amaya and Luna arrive just in time as they didn't go camping. They drove to a small town named Paoli, where the tubing is supposed to begin.
I'm not surprised when Denver places his tube next to mine. Meggie sits on the other side with Mike, still refusing to look in my direction.
It is eleven in the morning, and the sun is out in the sky with full force. There are tons of groups of people tubing in the river, doing the same activity. Most of them are loud, drunk, and carry a stereo that blaring techno songs. Our tubing slowly starts flowing down the river as someone throws a beer can look at Denver, which he grabs and opens it. He offers me, but I shake my head.
"There are other drinks, too," he reminds me. He places his hands in the cooler and gives me a bottle, "Try this one."
"What is this?"
"Pretty much ice, coconut, and condensed milk with vodka."
"Okay," I smile at him and sip from the plastic bottle, "delicious."
" Long Island is on the way soon," I hear Susan. "We wait until the next stop."
"Do we have stops?" I ask him.
"Yes, like three or four." My body relaxes over the tubing until Dan splashes me some water with his water gun. Everyone laughs.
Dan is drinking vodka from a plastic bottle since they cannot bring glass bottles to the river.
"He is not drunk yet," Denver states. "He can be an asshole."
"I don't want to see it."
"This one is strawberry, condensed milk crushed ice," Aaron passes the shots around, and every one tastes. Denver also seems to have a sweet tooth, just like me. He doesn't refuse anything.
Meggie shares a cigarette with Mike as he inhales with her, placing his hands over her thighs. Then he gets his pot, inhales, and coughs. He shares with Dan and a few other guys. They all cough, and in less than a minute, their eyes are completely bloodshot. They finally handle it to Denver, who repeats the same process.
"Want some?" He offers, and I shake my head.
"I hate that smell."
"Then, in this case, I won't do again. You are more important than pot."
A large group passes us on the river, their waterproof stereo blasting a Metallica song. As we look at them, the drunk girls lift their shirts, exposing their breasts as they try to stand over their tubes, but then fall into the river.
The guys appear to have a blast, and even Denver can't take his eyes off the girls as they show their boobs. Aaron changes the song in his waterproof stereo by selecting a playlist on YouTube.
Scarlet doesn't seem affected by any of it and even takes a hint of the pot Dan offers her. I don't know too much about Scarlet despite the bitter supervisor and neighbor I come across a couple of times a week, but now it is like seeing a different person.
From what Sylvia told me, Scarlet grew up in a big household with many young siblings. Some of them were handled by the system, spending months with foster parents. Scarlet usually took the responsibility out of her alcoholic mother's shoulder, and this part of her life wasn't easy for her. The siblings are older now, and a few went to college. But Scarlet didn't. Instead, she applied to work at Sophie and waited to be promoted to supervisor. She opted not to go to college. But she always complained that she wanted to go.
Today, her personality is very flirty, especially with Dan sitting next to her. As she approaches him, Dan immediately moves away from her, not meeting her eyes.
His spike hair is wet as she leans over him, placing her hands over his hair and his shoulders to apply him some massage. Aaron gets water on her with his water gun, and she recoils from Dan, who thanks him in silence. Next, I hear the sound of thunder and the grey clouds growing bigger in the sky.
"It is not going to rain," Denver says.
"And if it does? How do we get out of here?"
"The question is. What do I get if it rains?"
"What do you mean?"
"If it doesn't rain, I promise to leave you alone, but if it does, you have to kiss me."
"I'll win our bet," I say, hoping we don't pass under the dark clouds. I see a few guys jumping from the rock as the splash of water hits me from a distance.
"It's going to rain," he looks at the sky.
"Keep dreaming," I tell him as the raindrops meet the river. I have lost my bet with Denver.
A lighting touches the water from a distance, but we are all stuck. The rain is heavy, and so it is the alcohol in everyone's head.
"Fuck," says Dan. "I need more vodka."
"Here," tells Scarlet, giving him another bottle.
Denver holds my hands, and I let him. I don't push him away this time.
"Injection's shots."
"What the heck are those?"
"Those are the Long Island injection shots. You haven't tried those. Place the injection inside your mouth and shoot the Jell-O.
Suzan removes the injections from a plastic zipper bag inside the cooler filled with ice. "Do you want one?" she offers me.
"Yes," she affirms. I struggle to reach out to them with the amount of water dropping from the sky. In the midst of wet grass, rain, and river, I get four shots and place one by one in my mouth—Strawberry, lemon, orange, and grape. The water is still pouring over us, and so it is the alcohol in our delicate mouths.
"I don't want to sound stupid, but what's inside this drink?"
"Humm," he thinks for a while, I think it is vodka, tequila, rum, gin, triple sec, and a splash of Coke if not more," he admits. "You can ask Aaron. He is the bartender, not me," he says with a smirk.
It doesn't take too long to feel it inside my head. I look at Denver and his beautiful dark eyes that always stare at me. His thick lips sound as tasteful as the fruity Long Island shots. I know I want to swallow them in my mouth, and I don't know whether I can't wait to do it later.
***
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