Wow! That was a really confusing night. I'm surprised I fell asleep. It wasn't for long, though.
I, usually being the late riser, woke up around 5:30. Not being able to fall back asleep, I put on a pair of sweat pants and a jacket, silently climbed out the front hatch onto the bow of the boat, and laid down. The sun was just beginning to rise over the horizon. All of my problems seemed to hide for the moment. I didn't forget about them, I just didn't care. Then the same jerk as yesterday decided to open his big mouth. He belched.
"Hey baby!" the man slurred. I sat up and turned around so I could see him. He was standing lopsided on the dock, with beer can in hand. "Like your jammies," he said, wavering a little. He had to grab onto the dock box so he didn't collapse.<>P>
I was about to say something to make him leave, but I didn't have the chance
"Lay off, man. She's mine," Brian said, coming down the dock. The man shrugged drunkenly and walked off in the other direction towards his boat, mumbling something.
Brian walked onto the finger pier and paused. He looked at me. I nodded slightly and he got on the boat. He made his way up the side and onto the bow, then sat next to me.
"Hi," he said softly, looking at me with his sapphire-blue eyes. I looked down at the fiberglass.
"Hey," I whispered, not trusting myself to say anymore. After a moment, I turned my head to look at him. He saw the tears glistening in my eyes and immediately wrapped his arms around me and pulled me close. Kissing my forehead, he rocked me gently.
"Shh," he said soothingly as I started to cry softly. "Everything's gonna be okay. Don't worry, it'll all work out all right."
"How do you know?" I said between sniffs.
He gently put his fingers under my chin and raised it until my eyes met his. "I'll make sure of it," he said. I smiled, despite my doubts, and laid my head on his chest.
"How'd you know I was up?" I asked.
"I didn't know," he said, truthfully. "I guess I just took a walk and hoped you would be."
We stayed out there for about an hour. Then I took him down through the hatch. He sat on my bed while I went to see if anyone else was up. Nope, they were all sleeping. One of them was snoring, but I couldn't tell which one.
I climbed up onto the bed, where Brian was already laying down, practically asleep, and laid down next to him, my head on his chest. He put his arm around my shoulder and we both fell asleep.
Around eight o'clock, my door opened and Rachel peeked in. Seeing Brian in the boat (nonetheless my room) must have startled her because she woke both of us up by letting out a little shriek. I think he woke up first because when I looked up at him, he was smiling down at me. I got up and opened the door. Rachel was sitting on the floor with a shocked look on her face. She knew nothing had happened, but she was still surprised to see him here because of everything that had happened last night. I walked out of the room, followed by Brian. Joanne woke up and turned around to face us. Not really caring, she gave us a sleepy "huh?" and got up to head for the bathroom. Jamie and Maribeth came out of their rooms and stopped for a second. Then they waved it off, said hi, and went back in to get changed.
I helped Rachel off the floor and told her to go get dressed. I turned to Brian, gave him a kiss on the cheek, and asked him to wait outside for a few minutes while we all got dressed. He went out the door and I went back in my room.
As soon as I was dressed in my black hipster-shorts and royal-blue spaghetti-strapped tank-top, I brushed my teeth and hair and walked out of my room, only to find four very eager women staring at me.
"What?" I asked.
"You know what," Joanne said, crossing her arms over her black t-shirt.
"What is Brian doing here?" Rachel asked.
"I couldn't sleep this morning, so I went up on top of the boat. He came by and we started talking. We made up and then we came down here because it was cold out. We fell asleep and Rachel's little shriek woke us up," I explained.
"Oh, okay," Jamie said, walking outside. "I'm ready when you guys are," she called.
"We're coming, we're coming," Maribeth said, groggily. She and Rachel walked outside, followed far behind by me and Joanne.
"So, nothing happened?" Joanne asked, stopping me as I was half-way up the steps, raising an eyebrow at me.
"Nothing happened," I answered, stepping outside. "I'm soo sorry to disappoint you."
"Wimp," she said. "You're pathetic."
"Thanks!" I said happily. I really don't care what she thinks when it comes to things like this. I know what she wanted me to do (it's kind of obvious, don't you think?), but I didn't want to do it, so who cares? Not me, anyway.
As Joanne and I came out of the boat, Jamie, Rachel, Maribeth, and Brian were in the middle of a conversation. They all seemed pretty serious. Without being noticed, Joanne and I sat on the seat next to the captains chair and turned around to listen.
"So, what are we going to do about this?" Maribeth asked.
"I don't know," said Brian, "but whatever we do, it had better put a stop to all of this. I hated not being able to talk to you guys and Alex last night."
"We hated not being able to talk to you either," Rachel said. "Alex was in tears and Maribeth and I were pretty close behind her."
Brian's face softened. "She was? Oh man, I wish someone had come and told me. I would've been there for her."
"That's okay, she had Justin to comfort her," Jamie said. "Though I was with you guys, I know he was the one she talked to. They're best friends." (I wish she could keep her mouth shut for once)
"She had Justin Timberlake comfort her?" Brian asked, his voice rising. I knew he wasn't happy with the thought, but there's nothing he could have done about it. His hands started clenching into fists, so I decided to intervene.
"He's an easy person to talk to, that's all," I said. I went over to Brian, and put my arms around his neck from behind. "Don't worry. Nothing has ever happened between me and Justin."
Brian sighed. "I know, but I don't like the fact of someone else holding you."
I smiled softly at him and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
"Awwww," came voices from the dock. I looked up to see Justin, Chris, and JC sitting on my dock box.
"Ha, ha," I said sarcastically. I looked at Brian expectantly. I didn't know what I was expecting, I guess I just wanted to see his reaction. He looked at me, then Rachel, then Jamie, then Joanne, then Maribeth. He got up, got off the boat, and went up to the three of them. He turned to Chris.
"Look, man," he said confidently, " I'm sorry about yesterday. I jumped to conclusions. It's just the whole thing with JIVE that's getting my head all mixed up."
That's okay," Chris said, accepting his apology. "I understand. No big deal."
"No hard feelings?" Brian asked.
"Na," Chris said. "That wouldn't be fair to the ladies." He looked at me, Rachel, and Maribeth and winked.
"Of course there are hard feelings!" Justin exclaimed. He looked sternly at Brian for a minute before cracking up and falling down.
Brian eyed Justin like he was a lunatic while Maribeth, Rachel, Chris, and I looked at JC, our arms crossed over our chests. "JC?" We all said.
"Sorry!" He said, holding up his hands in defense. "I'll never do it again, I promise." We all cracked up.
"Well," Chris said, "we'd better get going. We have to be up there at nine and it's a quarter of now."
"You have to be up where at nine?" Brian asked.
"We have to help set up for the yacht club picnic," I explained. "You can help if you want."
"Sure," he said. "Lead the way."
The girls and I got off the boat and started up the dock. I grabbed Brian's hand as I went by. Maribeth grabbed Justin's, Rachel grabbed JC's, and Joanne grabbed Chris's (Just for the fun of it). Jamie just walked right on by without caring.
All of us talked the whole way up. It was fun. JC, Chris, and Brian talked while Justin joined the girls. Brian and I had one or two little side conversations on the way, but everyone got along.
When we got up to the picnic area, Bob Sparr (the commodore) was already up there taking stuff out of boxes.
"Fine with me. I'm Bob," Bob said. "Here, make yourself useful." He threw a few table covers at Brian, who caught them. While Bob told Brian what to do, the rest of us went to our jobs. Justin and I set up the games (the volleyball net and the tennis net's had to be set up. There's always a lot of competition between "C" dock and "G" dock, which is exactly what was going to take place on the courts), Rachel, JC, and Maribeth started the grill, and Chris, Jamie, and Joanne went to get some stuff from Bob's car. After they got back, the helped me and Justin with the nets. Joey and Lance came up around 9:15 and started helping Brian with the tables. Everything was being put together nicely and everyone was getting along. Then disaster struck.
Kevin, AJ, Howie, and Nick were walking off the dock and decided (by some ill fate) to walk up the hill. They were all talking until Kevin noticed us and stopped dead in his tracks. AJ ran into him and the other two just stopped and stared. I didn't see what was going on until Rachel ran up to get me. Kevin, AJ, Nick, and Howie were standing on the hill glaring at JC, Joey, and Lance. Brian was standing stock still next to the picnic tables, not knowing what to do. I walked out of the gate surrounding the tennis courts with Chris and Justin by my side. Rachel and Maribeth were behind us. I was determined to put an end to this.
"What are you doing here?" Kevin asked.
"We're helping set up for an event," Joey said calmly. He turned his head slightly in my direction, looking at me. I gave him a nod to show I appreciated the fact that he didn't blow his top at Kevin's attitude.
"I wasn't talking to you," Kevin said. "Brian, what are you doing here?" Before Brian had the chance to even think of a logical answer, I spoke up.
"He's helping us set up," I said, not able to keep the edge out of my voice. "Is there something wrong with that?"
"Yeah, he's supposed to be with us, not them," Nick said, pointed accusingly at the members of N'Sync.
"There's nothing wrong with them," Brian spoke up. I turned around in surprise. He gave me a wink and came up next to me. Chris made a space for him. Brian continued. "They happen to be kinda cool. We just didn't give them a chance before."
Howie and AJ looked stricken. They also looked thoughtful. Two down, two to go, I thought.
"Kinda cool?" Justin whispered in my ear. I just elbowed him lightly in the stomach, trying to hide my smile.
Nick and Kevin were completely unfazed. "What has gotten into you, man?" Kevin asked. "I think you're letting Alex get to you."
"You're right," Brian said. "Alex is getting to me, but that's not necessarily a bad thing." Brian turned and smiled at me. "She introduced me to these people and I happen to like them. If you guys don't, that's your choice." (Kodak Moment!)
"Whatever," Nick said. "Come on, guys. Let's go." Nick and Kevin started down the hill. Howie and AJ started up the hill. Kevin and Nick paused and turned around in surprise.
"I think we'll stay with them if that's all right," AJ said. He and Howie looked at us questioningly.
"That's definitely cool with us as long as you guys don't mind being put to work," Justin said, extending his hand, implicating a truce. "Besides, we need all the 'C' dockers we can get to beat these ladies in volleyball."
"Well, at least he's being honest about it," I whispered to Maribeth. "He knows they can't beat us on their own."
"You'll never beat us," Jamie said. "No matter who you've had in the past, we've still beaten you.
"We'll see about that," Chris said, "but for now, we have to finish setting up."
"What can we do?" Howie asked.
"Here," Brian said, "you can help me."
"So we're all cool now?" I asked everyone before they got "entranced" in they're jobs. Justin still stood there with his hand extended. They all looked at one another.
"Yeah," they all said. Nick and Kevin watched us for a second before turning and heading down the hill in disgust. I stared after them for a moment, then shook my head, smacked Justin on the back of his because he was still standing there waiting for someone to shake his hand, and got back to the stupid tennis net that refused to go up!