Standing In Shadows - 7. Chapter 7

SIS 7

When we stopped at a convenience store, I was going to follow Greg, but he put his hand on mine stopping me from unbuckling my seat belt. The touch of his hand sliding over mine sent a jolt through my arm. It surprised me but he didn’t remove his hand, and I had to fight back the urge to move mine.

“I’ll only be a minute, you should call your mom and tell her you’ll be out all night,” Greg winked then slid out of his blue jeep. When he disappeared into the store, a bell jingled when he stepped through the front glass door. I remembered my soggy cell phone and sighed, not having a cell phone sucked – even if the side of town I lived in barely received a signal. Then I noticed Greg’s phone on the dash and frowned taking it and flipping the top up. The phone came to life, with a screen saver, a simple mountain. I was expecting to see a picture of a girl – topless or some other state of undress like the typical college man would probably have.

I was instantly curious when I saw he had an unread text message, I even had my thumb on the button that would open it. I didn’t have time to debate on being nosey though, I heard the bell ding and looked up to see Greg walking out holding three plastic bags. He was being helped by the store clerk, following behind him with a bag of ice and a case of beer. I rolled my eyes then started dialing the number to the store not wanting to explain to dad where I’d be tonight.

“Hello, you’ve reached Wells’ Convenience store and garage,” mom greeted in her casual, but angelic voice.

“Hi mom,” I greeted, “I was just calling to tell you I’ll not be home tonight.”

“Oh?” mom responded, “and just where will you be?”

“Camping or something,” I answered after shooting a look towards Greg, who looked amused after I answered her.

“That sounds nice, be safe dear,” mom replied, “do give a good try at not returning wet this time though.”

“I hope not, but I did go to the pool first,” I said, “so no promises.” I could hear her laugh, but she had the phone to her chest addressing someone in the store. When she told them where the bread could be found I heard her move the phone back to her ear.

“Oh, give it an honest try for your mother,” mom retorted lightly. “I’ll see you tomorrow morning then, have fun.”

“OK mom, love you,” I said and flipped the phone closed after she told me that she loved me as well.

“Ready?” Greg asked as I handed him his phone. I could feel the heat rushing to my cheeks after I told mom that I loved her. Greg seemed to be amused by me as well, but I wasn’t completely certain it was for the same reason.

“Yeah,” I answered smirking, I knew I didn’t have much of a choice; he was my driver and had already started backing out of the parking lot.

“So you guessed right,” Greg offered turning down a dirt road. I knew the place, it was beside the lake, but it was designated as a campground. The road was circling around hills, and it was much quicker – a short cut. I knew he had once lived here, even though I didn’t exactly know who he was. He knew where everything seemed to be in this part of town.

“I was just giving her an answer to settle her nerves,” I shrugged. “Camping is a good idea though, I’ve not been camping since middle school.”

“Football is going to be your excuse for a lot of things isn’t it?” Greg asked, his amusement seemingly draining from him as he stopped smiling and took on a less readable expression.

“It’s possible,” I answered rolling my eyes. “It does take a lot of time.”

“Not even college kids have it as rough as you,” Greg stated. “Coaches sons have it hard.”

“Damn right they do,” I agreed and he laughed shaking his head.

“You only have one season left, right?” He asked and I only smiled and nodded, then we reached the bottom of the hill. It opened to a paved parking lot, it wasn’t free to camp most of the year, but we lucked on to the rare week they were having a free week. They were making their money with some fishing competition on the lake, so the casual camping grounds were unusually empty – most people were staying close to the lake.

Greg parked in the second row, there were only two other tents erected and after he grabbed an arm load of bags he started walking to the area farthest from the other sites. I grabbed some bags and followed him to the site he selected, it didn’t have as much shade as the rest of them and I wondered why he wanted to put so much space between us and other people. I thought the beer had something to do with it and fought back the urge to think of Greg getting drunk. Only using me as his designated driver when he had a hangover in the morning. After we had everything packed on the site, without much help, he got the tent put together. I was completely lost so I gave up after I put the plastic stick I had in the wrong hole for the third time.

“Sorry,” I said when he wiped the sweat from his forehead. He smiled and grabbed a black bag. When he unzipped it, he grabbed an air mattress and I helped him unfold it and place it into the tent. Once inside I realized it was just a two person tent, the small green air mattress covered the entire floor. My heart skipped knowing I would be sleeping closer to Greg than I imagined after knowing we were going camping.

“Ready to eat?” Greg asked, his eyes trailing over me and I wondered if I gave away my mental concerns in my expression.

“I’m always ready for that,” I answered patting my stomach.

“Oh, then we may run out of food,” he snickered and crawled out of the tent.

We gathered sticks for the fire pit separately. I labored through the woods looking for dried tree branches that had fallen, scared of stepping on a snake. It was almost a phobia for me and I knew the lake and the forests around it were well inhabited by them. It was the reason I didn’t camp when the rare chance popped up, it was the one thing I didn’t regret not doing when football came first. I didn’t want to let on that it was a bad idea though, Greg seemed thrilled about doing this and it had me wondering just how much he liked being out in elements like these. After a small load I returned to see that Greg had a small fire built and when I dropped the load he started placing some of my sticks in.

“What’s on the menu?” I asked looking at the cooler.

Steaks of course,” Greg answered smiling. “I stole them from the wedding people, I hope they didn’t under order.”

“Thief,” I joked when he opened the cooler and presented the two large steaks. He also brought out some sauces and salts to cook them with. My stomach reacted to the sight.

“I know, but I just couldn’t help myself,” Greg said not feeling a bit sorry if they came up short. “Could you wrap the corn and baked potatoes while I get these on?”

“Sure,” I said as he handed me a small sack of corn and two baked potatoes. I wrapped them individually in aluminum foil so that they would become tender as they cooked over the fire. I watched Greg as he started seasoning; it all seemed measured like he was following some recipe. It took awhile for the steaks to cook over the open flame and I had to return to the forest to find more firewood since he was tending the food. The intense heat had made me sweaty, but the sun would be starting to set in a few hours. The summers were humid here, both day and night. It made it suffocating at times to be outside and this was definitely one of those summer days.

“Damn its hot,” Greg complained stepping away from the fire after flipping the steaks.

“Yeah,” I offered returning with another pile of sticks. He started placing them under the cooking grill and the fire started popping back to life. “That’s summer here for ya.”

“Well its not going to make a pussy out of me,” Greg said then he pulled his shirt off over his head. He had been sweating as well, probably more than me being close to the fire.

“Right,” I joked picking up a pebble and throwing it at him. It smacked him on the chest with a small thud. He picked it up and shot it at me, but I caught it in my hand. He rolled his eyes and tried to block my second shot.

“Stupid jock,” he quipped when I blocked his second attempt. “I’ll get you back, my way, I wouldn’t sleep tonight if I were you.”

“Really?” I asked trying to seem concerned, but I couldn’t fight back the smile. Greg returned the smile, but his eyes told me that I may really need to make sure I fell asleep after he did. I didn’t know him well enough, but he looked like the type to make good on his threats.

“Could you get us a beer?” Greg asked and I looked and saw that I was sitting down next to the cooler. I grimaced when I opened it and saw there was only beer sitting on ice in there. I grabbed him one and tossed it to him then closed the lid.

“I’m not thirsty,” I shrugged when he hesitated in opening his can.

“You don’t like beer do you?” Greg asked still holding his beer unopened. “I should’ve gotten you something, sorry.”

“Nah, it's alright,” I offered faking a smile. “Dad’s been pushing me to drink the stuff anyway it will be good practice.”

“Shit,” he huffed, “I’ll be right back, watch the steak.”

“Where are you going?” I asked but accepted the fork he handed me. I scooted closer to the fire so that I could flip them again, they smelled delicious and it intensified my hunger.

“I’m going to go find you some water or something,” Greg answered, “I’m just used to hanging out with the beer guzzlers, I call friends.”

“You don’t have to, I can go,” I said, but he ignored me and jogged towards the jeep. I watched him pull out of the parking lot and head towards the lake. I knew they had concession stands. The gesture made me smile, but I still hated that he did it. It made me seem like I was the only guy in the state that didn’t like drinking beer, that I was some sort of nerd. I even felt the embarrassment rush to my cheeks wondering what he must think. The high school kid comments came back to me. I let out a sigh and flipped the steaks again then checked on the corn and baked potatoes. They seemed done so I moved them off to the corner where the heat wasn’t as intense so they would stay hot and keep cooking a little, just in case.

When he returned he was carrying a sack with bottled water. He placed them in the cooler and I gave him back the fork. He was smiling and opened his beer taking a few drinks. The thought of him getting drunk still worried me, but I wasn’t going to tell him about it. I had already made him treat me like a special case, I wasn’t going to become a problem, even if I ended up hating camping.

“I think they’re done,” Greg said grabbing a plate and sliding the two large steaks onto it. He then rolled the potatoes and corn onto the plate as well. I grabbed a second plate and fork and got my food when he offered me the full plate. I carefully unwrapped the potato and corn. When he was done with the salt and butter, he handed them to me and then we both ate in silence. It had been a long agonizing wait for the food to finish, so it didn’t take long for either of us to clean our plates.

“Damn that was good,” I commented patting my sweat slick stomach. I dramatically pushed it out, arching my back and taking in a deep breath. Greg laughed, and then let out a long burp, which made me release the air in my lungs.

“Do you want to try some fishing?” Greg asked, “I saw people fishing on the bank.”

“Nah,” I replied, he looked relieved by my response.

“Well what would you like to do then?” He asked grabbing his shirt and using it to wipe off some of his sweat.

“Camping?” I asked and he shot me an amused smirk. “I don’t really know, the last time I went camping was in middle school and all we did was look at stolen playboy magazines and laughed.”

I wanted to take back what I just said as soon as he started laughing. His face reddened with the lack of oxygen and he even laid on his back, his eyes closed, still laughing loud enough for it to echo across the camp grounds. I fought back the urge to laugh with him, I liked his laugh, but not when it was at my expense for the most part. He didn’t apologize when he recovered, sitting up again to look at me.

“I don’t have any dirty mags,” he snickered, reaching over and pushing me on the chest. I almost fell backwards, but placed my hand behind me to stop myself. I frowned and pushed him back. He shot me a look then without warning he was on top of me. I couldn’t hold up his weight so I was on my back, the dry grass itching against my skin. Being physically stronger though, I rolled him off me then rose to my feet. I backed a safe distance away from the campfire, which was slowly dying with the lack of fresh pieces of wood. I motioned for him to try again with my hands and then got in a lower stance waiting for him. He got to his feet and we started circling, I waited for him to try and tackle me, but he didn’t. Impatient and getting paranoid about what he was thinking I tried, but he side stepped me and tripped me with his foot. I hit the ground on my stomach and he was on top of me, using his fingers to tickle my sides. I bit my lower lip to keep from screaming out and all I could do to fight him was try and grab his hands, but the sweat made it difficult for me to hold on to them.

“Uncle, uncle!” I groaned when I couldn’t breathe any longer. He slid off my back so I took that chance and pushed him to the ground straddling his waist tickling him, but he wasn’t ticklish anywhere I tried. He pushed me off him then I blocked him with my knees when he tried to get on top of me. He tried to push them out of the way, but couldn’t. We were both laughing and dripping with sweat.

“Cheater,” he hissed finally giving up. I didn’t try another attempt at wrestling him, so the game ended.

“No one said uncle ended it,” I countered proud of myself for fending him off.

“I had you beat, all that matters jock boy,” he quipped elbowing me.

“And who tripped who?” I asked raising an eyebrow. He shrugged innocently and I laughed rolling my eyes. I stood and helped him to his feet, we were both covered in grass and dirt. The lake was off limits to swimmers, with all the boats and waves from the fishing tournament. There was a water hose though, for people to get water when they needed it. It wasn’t clean enough to drink, coming directly from the lake, but Greg turned the pump on and then hosed himself off. I watched as the water ran gently down his tanned stomach. He had a light dusting of black hair on his chest and stomach. His legs were hairier than mine as well. He had his eyes closed, letting the cool water relax him. When the water ran out he handed me the hose and I turned the pump again and took my turn. Like him, I closed my eyes and rubbed with my free hand over my body washing away the dirt, grass, and sweat. I opened my eyes when the water ran out and saw that he was watching me.

“Done,” I said, “that felt really good.”

“Yeah,” he offered as we walked back to our tent. He grabbed us both a pair of dry shorts and he hid behind the tent and changed first, then I took my turn. We had both worn our swimming trunks until then, and they had become uncomfortable so I welcomed the softer fabric of his soccer shorts.

“The sun will be gone soon,” I said noticing the orange sky and the darkness of the woods. “Do you think we’ll need a fire?”

“No,” he answered, “and I wouldn’t go into them woods now anyway.”

“Snakes?” I asked and he nodded his head. We both fell silent, watching the sunset and the lightning bugs flashing in the tree line. It was peaceful, even though the air was still muggy. We were both still sweating, though not as intensely as before and the tent was now shaded with the sun hidden behind the thick forest.

“Ready to get the tent ready?” Greg asked and I nodded my head. He grabbed a bag and retrieved a neatly folded sheet. We fumbled with it, trying to spread it over the air mattress and when that was done he left and returned with four pillows, two for each of us. He only threw them into the tent and I placed them at one end of the mattress. It was still flat, but he grabbed the battery operated pump and put it in the hole, turning it on. It was loud, but the mattress was aired up a few minutes later.

When he crawled in and laid down, I got nervous and hesitated at the entrance. He looked at me, but I stalled grabbing a bottle of water and drinking it until I felt comfortable enough to join him. The fire had died completely now, the embers were barely glowing red in the dark. I could hear crickets and frogs in the tree line and the faint sound of people talking out by the lake where the fishing tournament was winding down with the weigh in for the day’s catch. I looked up and noticed clouds starting to cover the stars, it was going to be a new moon tonight, but the clouds would have covered the moon if it had risen. After the bottle was empty I crawled in to my side of the air mattress. It only left a few inches of distance between us, both lying on our sides facing one another.

“It’s still hot out,” I said, rubbing a hand down my chest feeling the thin covering of sweat. The tent was a few degrees warmer than the outside air, but we left the door open to cool it down before going to sleep.

“Having second thoughts about going camping?” Greg asked catching me completely off guard.

“No, I’m glad I came,” I stammered quickly. I saw him smile and look down at the space between us. His finger was rubbing the sheet in a circular motion; I watch it until he stopped. When I met his eyes he was looking at me, still smiling, but it didn’t seem as easy. Like there was something hidden behind it that he was fighting with. Or I could’ve just been paranoid, a new feeling for me to have really and I hated what that meant. It meant that I cared for Greg and wanted him to feel the same about me. I knew what that meant and it was something I never really accepted – it was easier when no one around school or in the small town really held my attention. Having girlfriends made it easier, at least they filled the days with conversations; I was unable to really look around.

“Good,” he replied still meeting my eyes.

“I would’ve thought I’d be the last person you’d take camping though,” I commented. I wanted to ask him why he brought me and not his friends he came here with. “I mean, you have your friends.”

“Oh, well, the groom is the only one I really consider a close friend,” Greg explained leaning closer to me. “And well, he has a future wife to attend to, really.”

“Are you sorry you came, I mean this town isn’t the most exciting place,” I asked and he shook his head.

“I had my doubts, you know I once lived here, but I like seeing old familiar places,” Greg answered, “and, well, you do need saving before you turn into your dad.”

“No I don’t,” I countered turning to lie on my back. It was a fear that I had, ending up like him. That something would happen, that I wouldn’t be able to leave my hometown like he couldn’t. Go to the closest college that I could drive to and from, and want to re-live the glory days. That was him, but definitely not me. I didn’t even like beer.

“You’re making progress,” Greg snickered reaching over and attempting to tickle me. I swatted his hand away and looked at him.

“Too damn hot for me to kick your ass,” I countered sticking out my tongue. He laughed and turned to lie on his back as well. We were both looking up at the ceiling of the small tent. It was the loud crack of thunder invading the air that knocked us back to reality. The explosive sound that jarred the ground scared me and I sat up looking at Greg who was still lying on his back, but he looked concerned as well.

“Well that was something I didn’t plan for,” Greg whispered moving into a sitting position. We didn’t have anything on the camp site to worry about so we didn’t scramble to get anything out of the oncoming rain. The wind had picked up and it made the tent rattle and shake.

“Did you put on the rain blocker?” I asked as I leaned forward and zipped the front door closed.

“Yeah, thought it’d keep us cooler,” he answered calmly. I wasn’t looking forward to being caught out in the storm, especially a bad one.

“I hate storms,” I whispered sliding back away from the door of the tent. The window was open, and with the sound of water hitting the top of the tent I zipped it up as well. It was still hot, but it didn’t feel suffocating like I thought it would with all the doors and windows sealed.

“Its summer, it will pass quick,” Greg soothed; he patted me on the shoulder. I looked at him forcing a smile. I didn’t want to seem like a coward, but the second rumble of thunder seemed closer to me and the rain and wind had started to become more violent. It was the lightening that had started flashing, sending brief illuminations through the tent that worried me the most. It did let us look at one another though and with every violent flash I knew that Greg was looking at me. His face unreadable, but his hand was still on my shoulder, resting there.

The sound of hail bouncing off the cooler and the tent sent me over the edge though and I gave up my bravery, sliding closer to Greg in the tent. He seemed to me pulling me even closer and in the dark, his lips surprised me, landing on my neck. It caused me to jump, just like the thunder, but it also instantly sent a chill through me that caused me to shudder.

“Greg,” I whispered but he pushed me on my back, kissing my neck again. I didn’t fight him, deep in my own thoughts I had wanted this to happen and it was starting to make me wonder what he was thinking, when it came to me.

“Shh,” he breathed, the air hit my collarbone and sent another shudder through me. It caused him to laugh and I felt his hard cock grind against my inner thigh just below my own. He waited for a flash of lightning to find my face, I worked up my own bravery again and placed my hands on his back, holding him closer to me. When his lips landed on mine, with an uncommon force I fumbled at first to keep up with him. I felt him smile and I was worried that I wasn’t doing this right, but he kissed me again, and this time our lips intertwined better.

“Was this just some ploy to get in my pants?” I asked lightly when he broke the kiss. He chuckled and slid off me, back to his side.

“No one is getting in your pants tonight,” he answered leaning forward to kiss me on the cheek again. “I just wanted to be able to kiss you, it's something I’ve wanted to do for a while now.”

“Oh,” I said, blushing intensely, thankful that it was dark. He held me, my head resting on his chest. I could hear his heart beating and that soothed me. The storm was completely forgotten then, but it was weakening anyway. I fought the urge to sleep, but when I felt Greg’s breathing become even, and light snore escape his throat, I gave up, and allowed myself to sleep.