Painful Lullaby

I shrieked, diving out of the way just in time to avoid Abbie's grasp. Zoe was struggling her way to Veronica, gasping as she took each step which made us laugh. I heard Bryce yell, so I looked over. Kori had dived off the ladder onto his back. Abbie was fighting her way over to me again, but stopped short.

"Screw it! This water makes revenge impossible!" Abbie exclaimed, splashing us all with water. Kori fell off Bryce's back and into the water with a splash and Zoe relaxed. I sighed, I was safe now.

"WHIRLPOOL!" Veronica yelled randomly. I locked hands with Jag as we started swimming in circles. We got a pretty powerful whirlpool going, better than anything that Veronica and I had gotten by ourselves.

"Oh my God, try to swim against it!" Zoe yelled, attempting to swim against the current. We all turned and tried, but got swept up instead.

__________

"I'm bored," Kori whined, "let's do something else!"

"We could go for a walk," Veronica suggested, followed by 'oohs' and 'cools'.

"I need to dry my hair and redo it first," Zoe said. I nodded in agreement, and so did everyone else. It was kind of cool to have guys that did their hair and makeup with you, it's definitely not something that I was used to. We all climbed out of the pool. I was surprised that nobody fought this time, but swimming was pretty tiring, and the way they were thrashing around like idiots probably made them more tired than I was.

The hot June air now felt cold. Jag wrapped his arms around me but it didn't help much because he was just as cold as me. The short walk to the camper had us all shivering. The guys still looked hot wearing our shorts. I know I shouldn't be saying that about anyone but Jag, but three other guys in short shorts is something that cannot be ignored. Besides, they were hot in a best friend kind of way. You know, the way you tell your best friend that they're hot but it's not cheating on anyone? Besides, I have Jag and that's more than I could ever ask for.

We all climbed onto the camper and turned on some music. Veronica pulled some towels out of one of the cupboards and handed one to each of us. Zoe, Donny, Adam, and Abbie were already in the bathroom, so we figured we'd start dancing while we waited for them. Bryce started head banging to Writing on the Walls by Underoath while we stood back and laughed at him. Jag started dancing with me, it was a lot more fun than dancing with Veronica, let me tell you that. I'm not saying it's not fun...it's just scary. I pulled a muscle in my neck once while we were dancing. It's something I'd rather not relive, thank you very much.

"Give me that!" Abbie yelled from the bathroom.

"I'm not done straightening my hair!" Zoe yelled back. I heard Abbie growl and then a shriek.

"Ow! That's fucking HOT!" Abbie yelled, then started laughing.

"It's a damn hair straightener, it's gonna be hot!" Zoe yelled, trying to be serious, but broke out laughing in the middle of the sentence. We could hear them both laughing from the bathroom, but I'm pretty sure you could hear them laughing inside the house, too. Zoe, especially, has a loud laugh. Plus she's almost always laughing. We always said you'd know where Zoe was just by hearing her laugh.

I hugged Jag and he hugged back. I was so happy that I was with him again. All I could hope was that he didn't do anything like that again, and that I didn't try to kill myself, either. Jag tipped my chin so that I could look at him and kissed me. It took me by surprise, but I kissed him back. He licked my bottom lip and I parted my mouth.

"Oh, Jesus," Donny said, apparently coming out of the bathroom, "keep it PG!"

Jag smirked into our kiss, but continued to kiss me. I felt someone come and pull us apart.

"Go get ready. Honestly." Zoe shook her head and ushered us into the bathroom. Apparently Kori, Bryce, and Veronica were getting ready outside of the bathroom because nobody came in after Zoe shut the door. We hurriedly straightened our hair and put on our eyeliner.

I peeked out to see that Veronica, Kori, and Bryce were still getting ready and the rest of them were dancing. I turned around and kissed Jag. He pressed me against the wall and kissed my neck. I held back a moan, gasping instead. Jag pressed his lips to mine again, rougher this time. His breathing was heavy as his tongue entered my mouth.

"Come on, let's get changed!" Kori said, banging on the door. We pulled away quickly and straightened out our hair before leaving the bathroom. Zoe smirked at me. We pretty much shared a mind, so we knew a lot of what the other knew. She probably knew what happened right now in there, but she didn't say anything. I headed into the master bedroom where my clothes were so that I could change into them. All the girls came in, too, and we shut the door.

"Are you gonna do it?" Zoe whispered in my ear as we changed. I just shrugged. Honestly, I didn't know if we were. I didn't even know if I wanted to. I thought I did, but...

I pulled my skinny jeans up and buttoned them. Would I like it if Jag was unbuttoning them...?

"Ready or not, here we come!" Kori yelled, shoving the doors open. The guys were already finished and sitting at the table. We stared at them in disbelief, they were so quick at changing, it was unbelievable. But I guess girls were notorious for taking forever. Veronica shut off the stereo and ran out of the camper, all of us following. She first ran inside to get her cell phone and yell to her mom where were would be and that she had her cell phone. Then, we were off on the walk of a lifetime. I guess.

Jag wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me closer to him, smiling down at me. I stuck my hand in his back pocket, smiling at him. I heard a gagging noise from behind us, so I used my free hand to flip them off.

We walked down the middle of the road, not many people drove down here, so we didn't have to worry about getting hit by one of those dickface drivers who didn't like kids. We walked past the house that had been abandoned but there was always something there to freak us out. Today it was the fact that there were trash cans and old furniture sitting out awaiting the garbage pickup. The walk wasn't quiet in the least, somebody was screaming or talking.

"Holy shit! We've been walking for an hour!" Veronica announced, looking at the clock on her phone. I guess the fact that the sun was setting could have clued us in, but it didn't. My feet were sore, as were my legs and arms.

"Dude, let's sit down before we walk back. I'm tired!" Adam announced, plunking down in the middle of the road, pulling Zoe down next to him. Zoe blushed and giggled, but I could see a connection there. We all sat down in a circle, relaxing and watching the clouds pass overhead. We were sitting in front of a farm house and a barn (you can tell we lived in a small town).

"How's it lookin' out there?" A voice echoed from an intercom within the barn. We all looked at each other, then got up and ran for it. I was holding Jag's hand. It was such a rush, but we ended up running farther away from Veronica's house. We stopped by a ditch, sitting against the railing and catching our breath.

"Hey, it's Ryan from Panic at the Disco. Your phone is ringing right now and that gives you a few options. You can either pick it up, hit silence, or let me keep on talking and annoy all the people around you. Now, you don't have to pick it up, but it's better if you do."

We all burst out laughing at Veronica's Ryan Ross ringtone as she pulled it out of her pocket and yanked it open.

"Hi, mom...we're heading back right now. You don't need to send dad to get us. Bye," she hung up the phone, and we burst out laughing again. I remember finding that ring tone one day in Computer class at school. It was cool that she got it for her phone. We started to walk back to Veronica's house, running occasionally.

About halfway to her house, it was completely dark. It was hard to see, but we kind of managed. Suddenly, there was a rustling in the bushes. We looked at each other, then took off running toward the camper as fast as we could.

I was the first in the camper, wrenching the door open and running in. Everyone followed me, Zoe was the last one. She yanked the door shut and threw herself down on the couch, trying to catch her breath.