Love and Conspiracy

*One Month Later*

“Are we leaving, or what?!” Tre yelled as we all waited for Billie to come out of his room.

“Hey, don’t get mad at me! You’re the one who told me to bring the stuff along!” Billie defended himself with a chuckle. He was definitely doing a lot better ever since his little dispute with Izz.

We all piled into Chris’ van and headed towards ‘the camp’. It was a place they went to every now and then to party and camp out for the night. It didn’t sound like anything too extravagant in my opinion, but they were all pretty pumped for it.

When we finally reached the open field, the sun was slowly disappearing over the horizon. Chris and Mike got the wood out to start the fire, while Billie got the beer. Jess, Tre, and I all sat in the pre-arranged seats—which were blocks of wood—around the fire pit that were there from times before. Within minutes, we had a blazing fire in front of us.

“Alright, break out the goods, my man,” Tre said to Billie. He pulled out a Ziploc bag filled of weed and rolling papers, handing it to Tre to do all the work. Tre quickly had two joints rolled in less than a minute and started to hand them around the circle. Once he passed one to me, I carefully put it up to my lips and inhaled its delicious smoke, handing it along to Mike. We all remained relatively quiet as we stared longingly into the burning fire in front of us.

I slowly lifted my eyes to look above the crackling flames to see Billie sweetly smiling at me. My mouth grew into a smile before I started to giggle, causing him to start laughing as well. Before we knew it, we were both laughing hysterically, eventually making everyone else in the circle laugh, too. We were all out of breath by the time our laughs subsided.

“I know what we can do!” Tre said excitedly before squinting his eyes evilly, “Truth. Or Dare.” Even though it was a childish game, we didn’t seem to care at that moment. “Lucy, you first! What’s it gonna be?”

“Uh, truth!” I answered, wanting to keep it simple at first. He paused to think about his question.

“If you had to kiss someone sitting in this circle right now, who would it be?” he asked before quickly adding, “Besides Mike!”

“Damn…” I said, immediately looking up at Billie. His eyes glistened in the fire light as they all eagerly waited for my answer. Without breaking eye contact from him, my lips slowly crept into smirk before answering, “Jess.”

“Aw, come on! You were supposed to say me!” Tre quickly argued. After he processed my answer for a moment, he realized what I had said. “No way!” he added quietly in disbelief.

“Okay, back at ya, Tre. Truth or Dare?” I asked.

“I ain’t no pussy! Dare me, baby!” he said.

“Run around this circle three times… naked!” I said, without any hesitation. He proudly stood up as we all choked back laughs.

“I’d do that any day!” he answered. His clothes were off in a matter of seconds and he was running around us. I covered my eyes as I burst out laughing. Once he finished, he put his pants back on and sat down.

“Alright, alright. Jess, truth or dare?” Tre asked.

“Dare, all the way!” she yelled. Tre smirked once again.

“I dare you and Lucy to make out for ten seconds!” he said before nodding his head in approval. My jaw dropped.

“Oh, just do it Luce!” Jess said before leaning over Tre to grab my face. Her lips forcefully pressed against mine as we began to make out. The rest of the guys began to howl and whistle in between their laughs. Once we separated, Tre looked awe-struck since he got a first row seat to the event.

“I know what I’m thinking about tonight,” he said to himself before wiggling his eyebrows. I lightly hit him on the arm.

“I’m sure that’s what we’re all gonna be thinking about,” Chris said, causing them to laugh.

“Chris! Shut up!” Jess argued before laughing herself.

~~~

The night continued on with more ridiculous dares and hilarious laughs until it eventually got old and the fire pit silenced. By then, we had all slowly come down from our high and moved onto drinking.

“Wanna go lay down for a while?” Mike asked me. I nodded my head as we both got up.

“I wonder what you two are gonna go do,” Tre said.

“Shut up, Tre,” Mike said, simply laughing as he took my hand. Once we were a good thirty yards away from them, he plopped down on the ground, pulling me down next to him. The stars sparkled in the sky.

“This reminds me of when we first met,” I said.

“I know. Can you believe that it was only a month ago? It seems like you’ve been here for years,” Mike agreed while continuing to look up at the sky. We were silent for the next few minutes before he continued, “That was the first time we kissed, too.” I started to giggle.

“Oh god, that was so embarrassing.”

“How?” he questioned.

“I don’t know. Because I just sort of… did it, without any warning or anything,” I said with a shrug. He put a hand on my cheek, tilting my head so I was looking at him.

“That took courage; courage that I couldn’t scrounge up to do myself. Not to mention, it was sexy as hell, too,” he said; a smile on his face. I smiled back and kissed him. He paused before saying, “Wait a minute, does this mean I have Jess germs now?” I giggled.

“Not for long,” I said quietly, placing my lips on his again. We laid there making out for at least ten minutes before we were abruptly interrupted.

“Hey lovebirds, we’re joining you so you gotta hold back on the sucking face for a while,” Jess teased as her and Chris lay down next to us.

“Some night, eh?” Chris said out loud to all of us.

“It’s why we always look forward to these nights,” Mike laughed.

~~~

We were all surprisingly quiet, staring up into the stars for a good part of the night. At least an hour had passed by the time Mike sat up.

“I’m falling asleep out here; I’m gonna go to bed,” he looked over at me. “You wanna come with me or stay out here a little longer?”

“I think I’ll stay here for a little bit,” I answered.

“Alright babe, I’ll see you back at the van then,” he said quietly, leaning down to give me a goodnight kiss. Once he walked away, I looked next to me to see a sleeping Jess. Chris yawned.

“I should probably get her to bed, too. Will you be okay out here by yourself?” he asked as he sat up. I nodded.

“Yeah I’ll be fine. I’m a big girl,” I joked, causing him to chuckle.

“Night, Luce,” he said, carrying Jess towards the camp.

“Night!” I called out. I took a deep breath, enjoying the cool air and the glittering stars all around.

~~~

After dozing off several times, I was startled by a voice above me.

“Mind if I join you?”

“Uh, no go ahead,” I said in a confused tone. When the figure lay down next to me, I realized that it was Billie.

“Sorry if I woke you,” he said apologetically.

“No, it’s okay. I shouldn’t be sleeping out here anyways,” I said, rubbing my eyes.

“I don’t blame you. I love coming out here. It’s so peaceful, like a small little getaway from the real world,” he said more to himself then me. We were quiet for a moment.

“What time is it anyways?” I asked.

“Last time I checked, it was about three in the morning I think,” he said.

“Shit, why are you up this late?” I asked him. He shrugged.

“Mike told Tre to come check on you after a bit, but I decided to come myself since I figured he’d get a little pervy on you after earlier,” he said with a chuckle.

“Aw, how sweet of you,” I said in a mockingly nice tone, “How do I know that you won’t get pervy though?” I joked, causing him to look over at me.

“Do I look like Tre to you?” he asked. I looked back at him.

“Well, you guys sort of have similar facial structures…” I started off.

“No need to be a smartass,” he said, laughing. We both looked back up at the sky in silence. After a few minutes, I began to hum quietly to myself.

“Is that your favorite song, or something? You’re always singing it,” he asked.

“What, Landslide?” I questioned. “Yeah, sort of. It was more of my mom’s favorite song, though,” I added, the smile dropping from my face.

“Is it not anymore?” he asked.

“I’m not really for sure,” I barely whispered to myself, holding back the tears forming in my eyes. We didn’t say another word to each other for quite some time, until Billie starting softly singing.

“I took my love and I took it down. I climbed a mountain and I turned around,” he stopped abruptly, filling the air with silence again. After a few moments, he started to belt out more of the words, “And I saw my reflection in the snow covered hills, ‘til the landslide brought me down.” I smiled weakly and sang the next verse.

“Oh, mirror in the sky, what is love? Can the child within my heart rise above? Can I sail through the changing ocean tides? Can I handle the seasons of my life?” I felt Billie look over at me. At once, we began to sing loudly in unison.

“Well, I’ve been afraid of changing ‘cause I’ve built my life around you. But time makes you bolder, children get older. I’m getting older, too.” At this point, I couldn’t help but let the tears roll down my cheeks as we soaked up the silence again.

“You wanna talk about it?” he barely mumbled. I quickly wiped my face clear of tears.

“Talk about what?” I asked, trying to play dumb.

“Whatever is making you upset.”

“Oh, it’s nothing,” I said, attempting a laugh.

“You wouldn’t be crying if it was nothing,” he said in an honest tone, “You can talk to me, Lucy.” I took a deep breath, feeling the tears well up again.

“Well, it’s just difficult for me to talk about,” I said as he remained listening. “My mom… she…” before I could finish the sentence, I just burst out crying. He looked over at me.

“It’s okay, Luce. Take all the time that you need,” he said, looking over at me, “I’m not going anywhere.” I nodded my head, preparing myself to just say it.

“My mom… she passed away last year. That song… she used to sing it to me all the time, even up until the last couple of minutes,” I finally managed to spit out before letting the sobs take over my body. He sat up and scooted closer to me.

“Come here,” he said. Once I sat up with him, he pulled me into a hug, letting me cry into his shoulder.

“I haven’t been able to fully accept it yet,” I confessed even more, “Talking about it with people usually doesn’t help either.” He waited a couple minutes before saying something.

“Luce, you may not believe it, but I know exactly how you’re feeling,” he paused, “My dad passed away when I was ten.”

“Really?” I squeaked.

“Yeah, it fucking sucks. You continue to doubt that it really happened until you realize that they’re never coming back, no matter how much you want them to. I think that’s when I felt the most alone,” he spoke quietly. He continued as he rubbed my back, “You don’t have to go through it by yourself though, Luce. You have Mike, Jess, and all the rest of us for you to talk to.”

“No! You can’t tell Mike that I told you this,” I spoke frantically, pulling away from him. He gave me a confused look as I glanced down at the ground, “He can’t find out that I lied to him again.”

“Well, that’s something pretty big to keep from him,” he said calmly. I pitifully looked up at him.

“Please,” I begged in barely a whisper. His eyes softened as he took a deep breath.

“It’s our secret,” he said with a smile. I hugged him again before wiping the tears away from my face once more. “Did you want to go back to the van?” I shook my head.

“I’m gonna stay out here for a bit until I compose myself a little more,” I said with a small laugh.

“I’ll stick around then,” he said, smiling at me again.