First Night

As planned, I met up with Sara at my brother's house where we hung out for a while, discussing what we would do at the lake - my idea of swimming naked under the stars was shot down just like it was when I mentioned it to her the first time.

"Tanner we aren't swimming naked in the lake!" When I told her that I just might, she told me to do whatever I wanted but her clothes were staying on. "Maybe we should go to the store and grab some food for this weekend," she said in an attempt to change the subject.

"We don't need too," I told her. "It's already been taken care of." It was true, that's where Shelly was at that moment; I ran into her just as she was leaving to head downtown. I told Sara this and she seemed a little relieved.

"Good," she said as she gave me a strange look, when I asked about it she admitted that she had never been camping before. "I've been out at the lake for parties but I've never actually been included in any real camping trips before; Ken always had camping was for losers."

I opened my mouth with the intent of saying exactly how much of a loser I thought the bastard was but instead I laughed. "Well of course it is! I'm the biggest loser you'll ever meet," I jumped up and grabbed her hand, pulling her off the front step. "We should get started on our trip to loser land but first we need to make a stop at the liquor store; Travis told me to bring beer or he wouldn't let me hang out with him."

We had just pulled into the parking lot of the liquor store when Billy called me, I told him to meet us, gave him the directions and then hung up. "Who was that?" Sara asked cautiously. I told her it was Billy. "Oh!" She looked surprised and maybe a little confused. "I thought you and Billy didn't get along?"

"We didn't but that changed since you have been off from work," I glanced at her. "It seems that worrying about you gave us something in common."

"Sorry about that," she mumbled. "Oh! There he is," she yanked on the door handle and jumped out of my car as Billy pulled in beside us. I watched with this sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach as she went to Billy and gave him a hug. The blood pounded in my ears, I couldn't believe I actually forgot about this part; I didn't want to share her with any guy yet I invited two of the guys who I knew were interested in her.

Was I fucking stupid or what? I was so sure that the weekend would blow now just because I was a moron. There was no way to call Luke and tell him not to come, I had already told him where we were going and mentioned that Sara was going to be there; he would show up even if I called and told him not too.

Sara and Billy started to walk towards the store, her arm was linked through his and I just wanted to knock the crap out of him. I hurried to catch up with them but I could've sat in the car for all they noticed. They were talking about people I didn't know, people I didn't give a rat's ass about; I was being ignored and I hated that.

While they stood in front of one of the coolers discussing whether or not they would pick up some Mike's Hard or Smirnoff Ice, I grabbed a cart and wheeled it over to the beer coolers and proceeded to fill it with flats of Canadian and Budweiser. I was done so I joined them, they were still talking about what to get. "Are you two ladies done yet?"

Both Sara and Billy turned around at stare at me; Sara looked visually upset and Billy looked really uncomfortable. "Tanner that wasn't very funny!" She snapped at me before turning her attention back to Billy. "I think we should get the Smirnoff," she told him. "I threw up once with the Mark's Hard and I can't even stomach the thought of drinking it anymore."

"Well that decides it," Billy yanked the cooler door opened. "How many did you want?" There was something strange going on between the two of them but I didn't say anything, Sara was already giving me dirty looks for some reason.

Before we left the store, I grabbed five bags of ice - four of them I proceeded to dump into the coolers that were in the trunk of my car, the last bag, I didn't open but still but it in the one cooler in case someone needed ice later. While I shoved as much beer as I could into the coolers, Sara and Billy stood over by his car, whispering to each other. I never felt so out of place in my life, I didn't like it at all.

"Fine, I'll ask him." I heard Sara say before she made her way over to me. "Hey Tanner?"

"Yeah?" I didn't look up from what I was doing.

"I was wondering," she placed her hand on my forearm and I glanced at her. "Could Billy ride up to the lake with us? There really isn't any point in taking two cars, is there?"

I wanted to saw that there was a reason but since Travis had a truck, all the stuff I had in my car was going in the bed of his truck. "Sure he can," Sara smiled at me. "We just have to head back to Trav's before we go," I turned to Billy. "You can leave your car at my brother's."

An hour later - after packing everything from my car, Billy's and Sara's camping stuff and the coolers of food Shelly picked up, into the truck - we were finally on the road to the lake. The trip itself would only take a half hour but it felt like forever when Sara claimed control over my stereo and the pop music flooded my car.

The first night at the lake went by really fast. It seemed that all we did was set up the tents that Sara, Billy and I would be sleeping in - my brother had a camper that stayed at the lake all summer long. We swam for a while, ate supper, sat around and bullshitted for most of the night before slowly but surely everyone started to drift off to their sleeping area.

Luke didn't show up Friday night, he told me that he wouldn't be there because he had some hot date that he wasn't about to cancel for anything; in other words, he was getting laid. Lucky bastard.