Sunday's Bright Spot

Last Sunday. Damn! I can't believe it's been a week already! Where the hell does the time go?

It was pretty warm out when I went to bed around 2 am on Saturday so like the night before, I stripped down to my boxers before I crawled under my sleeping bag. I woke up around 6 Sunday morning, just shivering, some time in the three hours that I had been asleep, it had gotten cold. Without opening my eyes, I reached behind me and grabbed hold of my sleeping bag to pull over me but it wouldn't move, so I tugged again but still it didn't move but some thing did. I guess I should say some one, Sara.

I stared at her for a while as I tried to figure out what she was doing in my tent and why on earth she was wrapped up so tight in my sleeping bag as if she were a caterpillar. It took a moment before the fog in my head cleared enough to remember that when I went to my tent the night before, Sara was off in one corner with Billy, they were laughing hysterically about something so I didn't even bother to go over and tell them I was going to sleep. It wasn't even ten minutes later, she came ripping into my tent, totally pissed off.

"Why didn't you say good night?" She stared at me like I just told her I killed her puppy. "Are you mad at me? Did I do something wrong? Was it because I was rude to Luke?" She grabbed my hand. "You have to know I was only rude to him because he was being a prick to Billy! He's always a prick to Billy! I don't like it when some one picks on my friends and I..." I held up my hand to her and she stopped.

"I'm not mad at you," I told her. "You seemed like you were having fun so I just slipped in here."

"Oh," she looked a little embarrassed now. "I guess I should let you sleep," she turned to go and since my hand was still in hers, I gripped her hand and she stopped, giving me a questioning look.

"I would like it if you stayed," I told her. She started to protest, saying that I was tired and she should let me sleep. "No, I just needed to lie down. Please stay."

We were both pretty tired, we didn't talk that much. I was drifting off so we decided to get go to sleep. The last thing I remember is watching her slip out of her shorts and remove her bra without removing her shirt.

That's how she came to be in my tent, wrapped up in my sleeping bag while I froze my balls off!

"Sara?" I moved up behind her, I figured that I could work some of the sleeping bag free if I just got her to move a little. "Sara?" I whispered again. "Could you just roll over onto your other side for a moment?"

Her response was a grunt as she held on tighter to the sleeping bag.

"Sara please? I'm freezing here."

She groaned and moved away from me. Not what I wanted.

"Sara -"

"I'm sleeping," she mumbled softly.

I couldn't help but laugh. "I know, I just want some of the sleeping bag to cover up in, I'm freezing."

"No," she sighed.

"No?" I chuckled. "You don't believe I'm freezing?"

"Go away, sleeping," she mumbled as she tugged at the sleeping bag around her. "Not cold."

Fuck Sara is funny when she's half asleep.

"No," I laughed. "I'm cold! Me! Tanner! I'm cold!"

"Tanner?" She mumbled something else along with my name but I couldn't make it out.

"Yes, Tanner is cold." I have no idea why I referred to myself in the third person but I did. Maybe it was the beer talking, I was feeling hungover. But it didn't matter, Sara didn't budge. "Sara?" I reached out and touched her shoulder and she responded with a soft snore. "Fuck!" I was shivering now, I guess I could've put on clothes but I wasn't thinking straight that morning, I wanted under the sleeping bag but since I couldn't do that, I slipped my arm around my little sleeping bag thief and pulled her back against me. That move helped me a little in warming the front of my body but I was still shivering.

"Sara?" I tried again. This time she tore out of my arms and ripped at the sleeping bag until she had an opening then she threw her arm awkwardly over me. But I still wasn't covered up. "Sara as much as I like this..."

"You are cold," she whined and started to retreat back into her cocoon. I don't know how I managed to do it but within five minutes I was wrapped up under my sleeping bag with a sleeping Sara in my arms; it didn't take any time to warm up, in fact I was burning hot for her in no time at all.

I fell asleep some how.

When I woke up, I was alone in my tent, it was still pretty dark out and I thought I dreamt the whole thing.

Sunday was a pretty crappy day for camping, it didn't rain but it was cold and gloomy so we ended up spending most of the day in Travis' camper playing cards and bullshitting.

After supper that night, we were playing the millionth game of crib when Sara, who was watching the four of us because she didn't really know how to play, moved from the table to the back where she sat on the bench seat and stared out the window. She was very quiet all day but whenever I asked her what was wrong, she just told me that she was cold and the weather was bringing her down; I managed to fix one of her problems, I had a sweatshirt in my tent for the cooler days.

When she went to the back, we had just finished a game so I told them I was going to take a break and although they all gave me looks, no one questioned it at all. I got up from the table and went to the stove where I put the kettle on to boil some water to make hot chocolate that I knew Shelly liked to have on hand 'just in case'. As the water boiled, I searched the cupboards for mugs, the packages of hot chocolate mix and tiny marshmallows.

"That's a good idea," Shelly said when she saw what I was doing. "Make me one too?" I ended up making five mugs of hot chocolate.

Taking tow of the mugs and the bag of marshmallows, I headed back to where Sara was sitting. "Hey," I sat down on the bench seat and held out the steaming mug to her. "Hot chocolate?" She smiled as she took the mug from me. "Marshmallows?" I offered her the bag, she laughed as she slipped her hand into the bag, taking a couple out.

"Thank you."

I asked her if there was something wrong and she told me no, she was just thinking. "What are you thinking about?"

"I'm thinking about everything," she told me. "I always think about everything when it's gloomy like this."

"That can't be much fun."

"No," she glanced at me. "Most times it's not; this time it's worst though."

"Why's that?"

"So much has happened," she told me. "Not much of it is good." She sighed, "I'm sorry, I don't mean to be a downer today, we were having a good time."

I glanced over to the table where my brother just shouted out his displeasure at the hand he was dealt. "Don't be sorry," I told her.

She was quiet for a while, she was back to staring out the window. "Want to go for a walk?" She asked suddenly. I told her I would like that and we made our way out of the camper and into the night. "I think it's going to rain," she told me. "I hope it's going to rain, I love it when it rains."

We walked down to the beach, we stood there for a moment before she asked if I would sit with her. I told her I would. "Why do you love the rain?" I asked her once she was seated next to me on the sand.

"It sounds silly," she told me. "But I feel like anything is possible when it rains, like all the bad stuff that happened washes away and I get a new beginning to start from."

"That doesn't sound silly," I told her. "Many people think that about the rain."

"Do you?" She turned to gaze up at me. "Do you believe that great things cam happen after it rains?"

"Well," I smiled. "It rained like hell the day I moved back here and for the most part, the move has been great for me."

"Yeah? You like living with your parents?" She lowered her head and stared at her hands. "Your parents seem really nice, your mom was so nice to me."

"My parents are good people, they care about everyone who is important to them and their family."

Sara's head snapped up, "I'm important?" Just as the last word pf that question left her mouth, her hand jumped to my mouth, covering it. "Don't answer that Tanner, I shouldn't have asked; it's not right."

I didn't answer her question, I just removed her hand from my mouth and lowered it to my lap, where I entwined my fingers with hers. And she smiled! Really smiled!

The first drops of rain soon came spoiling the mood. "Come on," she jumped up, tugging on my hand as she did. "Let's go to your tent."

She didn't have to say it twice, I was up and running with her to my tent. Once inside we removed most of our clothing until we were wearing the same stuff as we were the night before.

In the darkness of the tent, under the sound of the falling rain, Sara held herself up on her elbow beside me. "Tanner?" She pressed against my side, her hand on my chest. "I've wanted to do something since the first night I met you."

"What did you want to do?" I asked her but I already had an idea.

She didn't reply. She didn't move.

"Sara? Is every-"

Her hand trailed slowly, nervously up over my chest, brushing against my neck before coming to rest gently against my cheek. She shifted against me, moving up and then pressing against me as she lowered her head. Sara kissed me softly, her lips moving slowly against mine. I tried hard not to take control, to let her kiss me at her own pace but fuck it was difficult! I wanted to roll her onto her back and kiss her like I've been dreaming about for a while.

I groaned my frustration when she pulled away long before I had enough.

"I'm sorry," she gasped. "I shouldn't have done that." She tried to move away from me but I held her tight. "Tanner please? I'm sorry."

"I'm not," I told her as I moved in to kiss her. "In fact, you can kiss me anytime you wish, I don't mind at all."

Sara spent the night with me again Sunday. Even though we didn't venture pass Sara's shy kisses, it was probably one of the best nights I've had in a long, long time.