“Okay, guys, what do we want for lunch?” Shannon asked in her usual cheerfulness as she peeked into the refrigerator.
“Grilled cheese?” Erin suggested.
“Nah,” Justin sighed. “I’m not really in the mood for that.”
“How bout French toast?” Lance said, an easy smile crossing his face at the thought of his favorite food.
“That’s breakfast food,” Julie mumbled from the chair in the corner of the living room as she filed her claws, I mean, nails. She saw me staring at her. “What? I got a bunch of crap in them at the beach.”
“We’ll have that tomorrow morning, Lance.” I had just gotten inside from mowing the lawn and was covered in buckets of sweat. The last thing I wanted to do was get in an argument with anybody at the moment.
I walked over to the fridge where Shannon was still standing to get a glass of lemonade. “Excuse me.”
“No problem,” she smiled happily. “Erin and I got a lot of lunch meat and stuff for PB&J at the store, so how’s sandwiches? That‘s nice and simple”
“Good,” Justin got up and pushed me out of the way to get to the food, almost causing me to drop the pitcher I was holding.
“Did Em go with you guys?” I asked.
“No,” Erin said slowly. “We thought she went on a walk with you.”
“No, I was by myself,” I said as a panicked state began to set over me. “Does anyone know where she is?”
“No.”
“Um, okay. I’m gonna go look for her.”
“She’s a big girl, JC,” Julie said. “I’m sure she can find her way back.” She had a point there. Emily probably knew the woods like the back of her hand, but she was by herself. Something could have happened. Maybe she had fallen and hurt herself, or…
“I’ll be back,” I called over my shoulder as I rushed out the door. Maybe she went to the club or the dock. Where should I start looking?
As I turned onto the road I heard my name being called. “Hey, Josh!” said a high pitched male voice. It was so familiar. I turned around to see three figures walking my way. It was Chris Kirkpatrick, Joey Fatone, and Emily. Chris had finally cut off his dreadlocks that he had sported for the past few summers. Joey had grown a bit of facial hair making him look older than 19. Worst of all he had his arm draped over Emily’s shoulder. It made me sick to my stomach.
“Em! I was just about to come look for you!” I said, running up to them.
“Hey, JC. It’s nice to see you too. Yeah, I’m fine. You? That’s good to hear. Yeah, my summer’s been fine so far thanks,” Chris said, carrying on a conversation with himself.
“Sorry, guys. She just had me worried. Where were you?”
“After you pissed me off this morning, and I left, I ran into them.” She reached up slowly and picked something off my face. “Grass,” she said, throwing it to the ground. Joey had taken his arm from around her, and I said a silent prayer of thanks. I had spent far too many summers listening to what he did to and thought of girls to watch him put the moves on Emily.
“I’m sorry bout this morning,” I apologized. “Justin woke me up by jumping on my bed, and I wasn’t sleeping well to begin with, and the day just started off on the wrong foot. I shouldn’t have asked you to move.”
“As long as you’ve realized that, I forgive you.”
“Thanks.” I turned to look at the other guys then back at the house. “You guys wanna come up and eat some lunch?” I offered.
“Sure,” they said.
“You know, JC,” Em started as we began to walk back, “you really shouldn’t let Julie boss you around like that.”
“I don’t,” I stated.
“Wait,” Joey said. “Who’s Julie?”
“My girlfriend,” I sighed, opening the front door. My very irritating, high maintenance girlfriend.
“Girlfriend? Very nice,” he smiled, sliding his arm around Emily’s waist and winked at me as they walked by.
“Look whose back,” I heard Julie say sarcastically from inside. “And she brought friends!”
I was tempted to turn the other way and run to avoid the confusion that was mounting inside me, but I was afraid it would be no use.
There aren’t too many things on the earth that really bugged me. It was a fairly short list: my brother and sister messing with my stuff, not knowing what was going on, and strangely enough poodles. I rarely added anything to the list, but I was recently forced to add two more. One, seeing my best friend flirt nonstop with a guy that defined dirty. Emily was a great girl. She was smart, funny, an awesome musician; I could go on forever. She deserved to be with someone who wasn’t the town flirt and didn’t go out with three girls at once. That was last summer. Sure he had matured a little in the looks department, and he no longer bore a striking resemblance to David Shimmer, but I watched him play the same games with her that he did with every girl he came in contact with. She may have come here with me every trip, but there were times when Emily went to the grocery store with my mom or went off by herself. She hadn’t seen all there was to be seen. I wished I could pull her aside and tell her what I was thinking, but I had a bigger problem on my mind, one that concerned a certain Chihuahua with manicured nails. That was addition number two, my girlfriend. She was just really beginning to get on my nerves. Being isolated with people really brings out their true personalities.
I convinced myself that there had to be reasons why she was being more irritating than usual. Maybe she was out of her element and her normal environment. She was by nature a city girl. She was also stuck with five of my friends, people who all thought of her as a princess. Throw Emily into the mix, the only person she is remotely jealous of, and boom, the cause.
On Sunday night we had decided to have a bomb fire. Unfortunately, the stockpile of wood we had made in the beginning of summer was now looking fairly pathetic. So while the girls were inside fixing stuff to roast both hot dogs and marshmallows, us five strong strapping young lads were sent out into the woods hoping to find a nice small dead tree to chop up.
“Hey, JC,” Joey said, carefully stepping over a root growing out of the ground.
“Yeah?”
“Why didn’t you warn us that she looked like that?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Emily, man. Wow, a year can sure do a lot to a girl.”
“Excuse me?” I asked in shock. “A year can do a lot? She hasn’t changed that much.”
“Are you blind?”
“Blind? No. Maybe you need to get your eyes checked.”
“You don’t think she’s pretty?”
“Sure, she’s pretty, but…”
“You know, JC,” Justin interrupted, “she did get her hair cut, and she did get rid of her glasses.”
“There was nothing wrong with those glasses. They looked fine on her.”
“They look better off,” Joey called from a few feet away. “And she does have a nice as…”
“Have some respect, Joey,” I said, walking away from the group as Joey continued talking about how nice Emily’s ‘assets’ were. I wasn’t disagreeing that Emily was pretty. She was definitely a beautiful girl. The only thing was I didn’t need to hear about how nice of a butt she had. There is a way of saying a girl is beautiful without mentioning her, uh, womanly figure. You could, for example, mention her eyes and how they sparkle in this way or how when she really smiles she gets this almost dimple…
“You okay, man?” Lance asked, coming over to where I was picking up wood.
“Why do you ask?”
“Well, it just looked like you were getting pretty irritated with Joey talking about Em like that.”
“I’m irritated with Joey thinking about Em like that.”
“Yeah, when you’re in love with a girl you probably don’t wanna have to hear another guy…”
“What’d you say?” I asked, letting Lance’s word sink in. “In love? I don’t think so, man. I love her like a friend, yes, in love, no,” I laughed.
“Of course. You’ve known her forever. There’s no reason not to love her.”
“Just like I love you and Justin as friends.”
“Right,” he said, making it seem like he had known exactly what he had said before.
“What ya guys talking about?” Justin asked, making his way over to us.
“JC is just explaining to me the difference between ‘love’ and ‘in love.’”
“Okay… why?”
“Cause he said I was in love with Emily when I really just love her, a friendly thing.”
“Right,” Justin said, a sly smile crossing his face. “We know what ya mean.”
“Huh?”
“Nothing.”
“Don’t worry, C, we know. Example,” Justin began, “I love my car, but I’m in love with Erin.”
“JC, you didn’t need to explain it to me either. I kinda already know the difference. What I said before was, uh, just a slip of the tongue.”
“Okay, guys,” Chris said, joining our group. “We found our tree, small, dead, dry, perfect. Ready to head back?”
“Yeah.”
The fire was blazing pretty high by the time Julie finally came out of the cabin. She said she had to put more layers on so that the mosquitoes couldn’t possibly reach her skin. The problem she faced in doing so was that tight little shirts and sweaters didn’t layer very well.
When she came out wearing my huge fleece sweatshirt, I couldn’t help but smile at her. The thing was a blanket on her. She looked almost vulnerable as she walked over to the campfire. She looked so unsure of herself, almost scared. It reminded me of when we had first met. Back in February, one night when I was driving home from Emily’s house, I came across a small broken down car and a very scared girl. She was terrified that her daddy was going to kill her because it was his car, and it wouldn’t start. A month later, we were dating. Seeing her like that again made me happy that the only seat left was the one next to me.
“Hey,” I smiled as she sat down.
“Hi, Jace. It’s a little big on me.”
“It looks good.” I saw a little smile appear on her face as I said this.
“Really?”
“Yeah, I definitely think it will do the job of keeping those skeaters away.”
“I hope so,” she smiled, laying her head on my shoulder as I slipped my arm around her waist. Things seemed normal at the moment, no thoughts of annoying traits or being ‘in love’ with anyone played on my mind, no sarcastic comments about things, just normal.
“So, Justin, Lance, do you sing like JC and Emily?” Chris asked.
“I don’t sing, Chris,” Emily said from her spot next to Joey.
“Yeah, you do, Em,” Lance said.
“So do you.”
“I didn’t say I didn’t.”
“We both do,” Justin answered simply.
“Thank you. That’s cool. JC always has musician friends.”
“They’re the best people to be around,” I smiled.
“So, Julie, what do you do then?”
“She shops,” Emily said sarcastically.
“Very funny, Em,” Julie scowled. “Um, I don’t sing or play anything.”
“And you’re JC’s girlfriend?”
“Yeah, I am,” she said, taking my hand.
“Well, um, she dances,” I said.
“Ballet.”
“That’s cool. Can you stand on your toes and stuff?”
“Yeah, I can.”
“Hey, JC,” Emily interrupted. “You brought your guitar, right?”
“Of course I did.”
“Sweetie,” Julie whispered in my ear, “will you hand me a marshmallow?”
“Here.” I handed her the bag. “Think we should play something?” I asked Emily.
“Of course.”
“Jay, how bout that song you’ve been working on?” I suggested, meaning the one he was in the process of writing for Erin. He was planning on surprising her with it on their two year anniversary.
“No,” he said, his cheeks becoming red. “I don’t really think it’s ready.”
“Such the perfectionist,” Erin laughed as she squeezed his hand.
“Look who’s talking.”
“Okay, okay,” Lance interrupted. “Why don’t we just make one up. They always come out interesting when we do that.”
“Remember when Shannon tried to do that one song. What was is about?”
“A pig named Swig,” she answered sheepishly.
“That’s right,” Justin laughed.
“Hey! Don’t make fun of me. It’s not my fault I wasn’t blessed with the gift of rhyme.”
“Okay,” Lance said, directing us. “Jay, you rhyme. No offense, hun.”
“None taken.”
“JC and Em will keep the beat, and we’ll all laugh hysterically at you.” Emily handed me my guitar and slipped the strap of Justin’s around her neck
“Ready?” she asked.
“Absolutely.”
After a few hours of songs that ranged from the topic of Froot loops, the ride up here, and a brief visit from Shannon’s pig things began to die down. Our fire was almost out and the marshmallows had all disappeared.
“We’re going to head in,” Lance said as he and Shannon stood up, holding hands. “I think we’ve had enough entertainment for one night.” I took a good look at one of the “very cute” couples. The two of them looked incredibly happy together, and by just watching them you were able to see how much they truly cared for each other. It made me wonder what it was like.
I looked over to sneak a peak at my girlfriend and was surprised to see that the seat next to me was empty. “Where’d Julie go?” I asked, suddenly confused.
“Uh, Josh, she went inside almost 45 minutes ago,” Emily said with a slight smile on her face.
“Forty-five minutes ago?”
“You didn’t notice?” Chris asked.
“No.”
“Oh my gosh,” Erin mumbled. “She only stood up, kissed you on the cheek, and said she was getting tired.”
“I think she wanted you to follow her,” Joey said, winking at me.
“No, it’s not like that.”
“Maybe she wants it to be.”
“Joey,” Emily interrupted, “JC wouldn’t do something like that, right?”
“Right,” I said, suddenly uncomfortable by the topic. “She wouldn’t either.” I stood up and put my guitar safely in its case. “I think it’s time to call it a night.”
“Oh, don’t get all bent out of shape cause the Princess left,” Emily said.
“I’m not.”
“Josh!” she called as I walked into the cabin. I couldn’t believe that I didn’t notice Julie leaving the fire. It was probably something she was going to be mad about in the morning, but she knew that when I was singing or playing my head was there.
I set the case down on the floor with a thump and slowly made my into my dark room. When I got inside, I pealed off the layers I had put on earlier down to a T-shirt and boxers. It was when I was about to climb into bed when I noticed that it wasn’t empty. Julie was curled up to one side, sleeping peacefully. I leaned over and kissed her lightly on the cheek. “Sorry, Julz. I’ll see you in the morning.” Without waking her up, I took my pillow of the bed and tiptoed out of the room and down the hall. “Emily?” I asked, peaking my head into the room. “Yeah?” “Can I come in?” “Of course, Josh. I don’t see why not.” “Just making sure it was safe,” I smiled as I walked into the dim room. Only the small light in the corner was on. “What’s up?” she asked, putting down her book that she was about to read. “Do you mind if I sleep in here? Julie fell asleep in my bed, and it wouldn’t be right for me to climb in with her.” “JC, we usually share a room.” “I know, but…” “Something will be normal for a change,” she sighed. “Okay,” I smiled at her from Julie’s bed. “Night.” “What? You’re going to bed already? I’m shocked.” “It’s been a really long day,” I mumbled, recalling scenes from the woods. “Can I ask you a question, Em?” “Shoot.” She propped herself up on one arm and looked over at me. “Have you, uh, ever been in love with someone?” She looked at me with a pained expression across her face for a moment before turning her gaze to the ceiling. “I don’t know,” she said in a far off voice. “I’ve never really thought about it.” “You’re a girl. Aren’t you supposed to think about things like that?” “Girls are also supposed to play with Barbies, but I played with your GI Joe’s.” “Oh… okay.” “Why do you ask, anyways?” she said curiously. “It’s just been on my mind today.” “Man, JC, you get stranger as the days go by.” “Thanks a lot,” I laughed. “No problem. Just try to go to sleep okay?” “I hope I can.” A few hours later, after listening to the soft breathing coming from across the room, I did.