The Story of Us (8 page)

“Princess, watching you sleep in my
bed was the best part of my night.”

This would be incredibly sweet if he
didn’t have that half-grin on his face that tells me that he meant
it in a smutty way.

I inwardly scream at how frustrating
he can be, but I don’t let him see how he gets to me. “I should be
going,” I simply say. “Thanks again.”

“Wait. Let me get dressed and I’ll
walk you.”

“No, that’s alright. I can
manage.”

Chapter 6

The weeks pass miserably. Ever since
that night, Tyler avoids me. And Tiffany, who happens to work at
the Grind where I go daily, shoots me death looks every time I see
her. She has a friend on the cheering squad, so I get some backlash
there too. I don’t understand. Nothing happened between me and
Craig. I don’t know why she hates me. A few months ago, I thought
seeing Craig working at the Grind everyday was going to be
frustrating. Now, I sigh in relief when it’s him taking my order
instead of Tiffany.

Today, I get a double-whammy.
Tiffany’s working and Tyler’s sitting at a table with an iced
coffee in hand. Tiffany will never like me, that I can be sure of.
So I walk over to Tyler, thinking maybe I can figure out why he’s
been avoiding me and try to fix it so we can be friends
again.

When he looks up and notices me
walking towards him, he doesn’t smile like he would have before the
Hansore House party. I wonder if I said anything to him while I was
drunk. I almost want to come right out and ask him, but I refrain.
Instead, I act like everything’s fine between us.

“Hey.” I give him a bright, cheery
smile.

He doesn’t smile in return, but he
still replies politely. “Hey.”

“I haven’t seen you around in a while.
How’s football going?”

“You were at our last game.” He
shrugs. “It wasn’t great.”

“We didn’t win, but you guys were
still pretty good,” I reassure him.

He just shrugs again.

“Are you mad at me?” I finally
ask.

“Why would I be mad at
you?”

“I don’t know. Did I do something the
night of that party? I had too much to drink and I can’t remember
most of the night. But I swear you’ve been avoiding me and it’s
kind of breaking my heart. I miss talking to you.”

I can see his tense posture loosen up.
“I’m not mad at you, Val. I just thought maybe we were starting
something here. I mean, I know we haven’t even gone on a date or
anything, so I guess maybe it’s ridiculous to be upset about you
and Craig -”

I interrupt him before he can finish.
“Craig and I are not together.” I can tell Tiffany is listening so
I continue loud enough for her to hear too. “I don’t know why
everyone thinks that we are, but we aren’t. Craig and I will never
be together. We have mutual friends. That’s it.” Even as I say it,
I know it’s not true. As much as I want it to be true, it’s not.
I’m sure of the fact that we’ll never be together. But there’s also
more to us than just mutual friends. I can’t deny that I care about
him, despite how mad he makes me. But I know that I’d never allow
myself to be with him because I know he’d never take any
relationship seriously. So I repeat it for both of them to hear, “I
am not, nor will I ever be, with Craig Morgan.”

“Okay,” Tyler responds, nodding. “If
you’re sure that you and Craig aren’t…”

“We’re not.”

“Okay.”

“Will you just ask me out already?” I
try not to smile, but I can’t hide it.

He laughs in return. “Will you go out
with me, Val? Saturday night?”

“I would love to.”

I’m not sure why I did it. Maybe
because I don’t want to lose Tyler. Maybe because I need to prove
that I’m not interested in Craig. Maybe neither. Maybe
both.

Saturday night goes like any other
typical date night would. Tyler picks me up at my dorm at
seven-thirty on the dot. He brings flowers and tells me I look
beautiful. He’s a sweetheart and a gentleman all night. He holds
the doors open for me, pulls my chair out at the restaurant, let’s
me pick the movie we see. He really is a catch and I’m lucky that
he’s interested in me out of all the girls that I’ve seen openly
flirt with him in school. Unlike Craig, he’s utterly oblivious as
to how hot he is and ignores the flirtatious girls in a way that’s
both polite and yet non-participative. When he walks me to my dorm,
he says goodnight and then briefly brushes his lips over mine. Not
rushing, not pressing. Chaste and gentle. When I get inside, Hailey
asks me a million questions about the night and we stay up late
discussing every little detail. Everything was perfect. So why do I
not feel as giddy and excited as I should? I push the thought out
of my mind as I finally drift off to sleep.

Chapter 7

As chance would have it, my favorite
holiday falls on a Saturday this year. Despite being the biggest
baby in the world, I’ve always loved Halloween. So, when Hailey
decided to put together a camping trip, I couldn’t refuse. I’m not
thrilled about Craig going, especially since he’s bringing Tiffany.
But I’m determined to have a good time. Things are going really
well with Tyler and I’m excited about getting away from school and
cheerleading practices, even just for one night. Cheerleading has
been especially demanding lately, leaving little time for anything
else other than homework and term papers. I make time for Tyler
here and there but I’m glad he’s on the football team and
completely understands a busy schedule. Hailey and I’s dorm-mates
Ashley and Julie, or the twins as I still jokingly call them, are
coming too. Julie is bringing her boyfriend and Ashley is bringing
a girlfriend of hers. When we get there, I notice that Tiffany has
also brought a girlfriend of hers too. That makes eleven of us in
four tents. The twins are sharing a two-bedroom tent though. It’s
practically state-of-the-art, since Julie’s boyfriend used to be a
boy scout. It makes the rest of our smaller tents pale in
comparison. Tyler and Drew start setting up the tents right away,
as the rest of us unpack the coolers and bags. Before anyone’s
settled in, Craig takes out cups and alcohol.

“What’s the rush?” I ask, “We have all
night.”

“What’s camping without alcohol?” he
counters, as if it’s an obvious match.

Despite the fact that I’m clearly here
with Tyler, I get a death glare from Tiffany for daring to talk to
Craig, so I make a mental note to avoid both of them for the rest
of the night. I don’t need the drama.

As it gets darker, the guys start a
campfire and we all gather around it. I snuggle up to Tyler and he
wraps a blanket around us both. I glance over at Craig to find him
full on making out with Tiffany. I don’t know why my stomach drops.
I’m with Tyler and it feels good to have his arms wrapped around
me. So why do I feel what I can only define as jealousy towards the
scene to my right? It’s absurd. I need a distraction.

“Let’s tell ghost stories,” I
suggest.

This gets everyone’s
attention.

“Ooh, I’ll go first!” It’s Tiffany’s
girlfriend who speaks up. I figure she probably needs a distraction
too. Watching her best friend make out with a guy right beside her
all night is probably not her idea of fun. She tells a story about
her friend’s house being haunted. Lights would turn on randomly,
things would move. She swears someone took the blanket off of her
in the middle of the night one time when she slept over. Stuff like
that. Everyone listens intently, but I can tell no one’s buying
into it.

“Val, come to the bathroom with me?”
Hailey holds out her hand for me to grab.

“I’ll go,” Ashley offers.

“I’ll still go too.” I grab Hailey’s
hand and let her pull me up off of Tyler’s lap. I figure I might as
well walk with them now rather than by myself later. The bathroom
is about a five minute walk from our campsite up to the main
building. Ashley’s friend and Julie trail along behind us
too.

When we return to the campsite, about
twenty minutes later, no one’s there. All of our cups are thrown on
the ground, food left out, and blankets tossed about. None of us
look surprised, only annoyed. It figures they’d do something like
this to try to scare us. So instead of looking for them, we figure
we’ll let them sweat it out. We make new drinks and the four of us
sit around together drinking and talking. About an hour goes by
before we do actually start to get worried.

“You know what gets me?” I ask the
girls. “I’d expect this from Craig, but not Drew and
Tyler.”

“I was thinking that too,” Hailey
admits. “I don’t think Drew would be gone for this long. I mean if
he were trying to scare me, I think he would have just jumped out
and said ‘boo’ by now. What are they doing in the woods for a whole
hour? I’m starting to get nervous.”

Julie, on the other hand, replies,
“Nope. This is Dave all the way. He’d wait it out until we went to
search for them. I know my boyfriend. He doesn’t
surrender.”

“Let’s just go check,” Ashley suggest,
wringing her hands together. I can tell she’s getting nervous
too.

“Yeah, let’s go find them, let them
scare us and have it be done and over with already.” I roll my
eyes, annoyed by the fact that they’re ruining the camping trip by
being gone for so long.

I grab my flashlight that I had in
Tyler and I’s tent and then the five of us stick together as we
walk through the woods, calling out to them.

“C’mon David! Just get it over with so
we can go back to drinking! This is stupid!” Julie calls
out.

“Drew! This isn’t funny! I’m really
getting worried!” Hailey yells.

Ashley and I remain quiet, as we
search the woods. I hear a twig snap further behind me, so I swing
around quickly, flashing the light in search of someone.

No one.

“Where’s Ashley?” Julie asks with wide
eyes.

I move my flashlight all around, but
she’s no longer with us.

“Seriously guys! Ashley
was scared! You guys are jerks!”
Julie
fumes, clearly pissed.

We all look around but don’t see or
hear anything other than the cool October wind blowing through the
trees and fallen leaves. I wrap my sweater tighter around me and
start walking again. Julie, Hailey, and Ashley’s friend follow
behind. Julie doesn’t stop yelling out to the rest of our crew, who
are obviously messing with us.

I notice I’ve gotten too
far ahead, so I stop to let them catch up. Suddenly, I feel a hand
over my mouth as I’m lifted into the air and carried away. Although
it surprises me, I’m not that scared because I know it’s one of the
guys. I still kick my legs relentlessly because I’m pissed. I only
stop when I feel my feet hit the ground. Although I’m now standing,
I’m still being kept in place. Whoever’s behind me is holding me so
tight, I can barely breathe. And I still have someone’s hand over
my mouth. If I didn’t know it was one of the guys, I’d bite down on
it. But I figure that would be too harsh since I know it’s just a
prank, so I refrain. I wait it out, letting whoever it is call the
shots. But when I’m pushed down to my knees, I start to get
furious.
That hurt
. I try to turn around, but as I turn my head, someone grabs
a hold of my hair and uses it to firmly turn my head back facing
forward.
That hurt too
.

“Okay, I’m seriously getting pissed,”
I bark to whoever’s behind me.

No answer.

I try to lift myself up when I feel a
foot on my back, pushing me down into the leaves and keeping me
there.

“This is ridiculous! You made your
point! Now stop being an asshole!” My heart pounds in my chest and
I’m not even sure if it’s from the anger or if I’m actually
starting to get scared.

Silence.

“Dude, what the hell?” I recognize
Craig’s voice coming towards us from farther away. He doesn’t sound
happy at all.

“Dude, what the hell to you! Now she
knows it’s us,” I recognize Julie’s boyfriend, Dave, mumble in
irritation.

“Get your foot off her, man.
Seriously, what the hell do you think you’re doing?” Craig scolds
him while reaching down to help me up.

I’m finally able to turn
around. I look at both of them with absolute fury.
“Have you two lost your minds?”

Dave responds first,
“Relax
princess
,
it’s just a joke.”

Before I can respond, I see Craig’s
fist fly into Dave’s face. I gasp in surprise. Dave hesitates for a
moment, looking at the blood on his hand falling from his nose. His
face goes from shock to rage in an instant and then he lunges at
Craig. Before I can do anything to stop it, not that I could do
much anyway, they end up in a full-blown fist fight. I wasn’t that
scared before, but now I’m petrified.

I call out to the
others,
“Drew! Tyler! Get your asses over
here! Hurry!”

They must be able to tell
by my voice that I’m serious, because they both come running. Drew
reaches us first and immediately pulls Craig off of Dave. Tyler
shows up right behind Drew and holds Dave back. It takes a few
minutes, but they finally calm down and stop trying to get out of
Drew and Tyler’s arms. Dave spits blood out of his mouth as Julie
runs over. She looks at us accusingly.
“What the hell happened?”