Mission Accomplished

One minute I was at home listening to the interview on some late night show while I was walking around the lower level of my house looking for things to straighten up and the next I was being picked up by my friend Bam and being carried to his car. He threw me in the backseat next to my best friend Brandon DiCamillo who looked rather uneasy, annoyed, and slightly nervous and then Bam slammed the door shut, jumped into the driver’s seat, and slammed on the gas.

“What the hell are you doing?!” I yelled. I was confused and angry from the sudden abduction, and I hated when people sped as he was surely doing.

My reply from Bam was simply just some maniacal laughter so I turned to Brandon. “I have no idea.” He answered honestly.

Bam had something up his sleeve. Big time. And whatever it was it had to be something huge, I mean, he wouldn’t even tell one of his best friends! I hated his surprises. They were always over the top, and ended up with someone getting in trouble. This wasn’t going to end well.

We drove down the parkway for some time. I really wasn’t paying close attention because I was trying to figure out what it was that Bam was planning. No matter how hard I thought, I just couldn’t figure it out! My thinking ceased however when the car that was going 50+ MPH suddenly made a sharp turn off the parkway and onto a dirt road that lead into the woods that surrounded the parkway.

Now I was scared. I hated the dark. I hated the woods. Now I was in the woods in the dark. The only things visible were the trees as they passed in front of the high beams. I was expecting something – anything to jump out of the shadows and in front of the car. A deer, a person, and hell I expected to see a dead body lying in the road!

I grabbed hold of Brandon’s wrist and closed my eyes as my other hand groped for the lock on the door and I held it in the lock position just in case. Brandon pulled his arm up and pulled his hand out of my grasp. Then he put his arm around my shoulder and pulled me closer to him. He took his other hand and held mine. I squeezed his hand and he rubbed my shoulder. He knew of my fear of the dark, the woods, and he even knew about all my other fears. Knowing a person for more than five years will cause you to have quite some knowledge about the person.

Bam was able to tell that Brandon pulled me closer and he grinned. Neither Brandon nor I were able to notice what with my eyes being closed and his trying to focus on me in the dark. Bam knew what he was doing. He knew how to use fear to his advantage. He knew how to use fear to either bring people together, or tear them apart. Most of the time he did it to tear people apart and see them argue after all, seeing people arguing amused him. However, this time, he was using it to bring people together.

Several long minutes passed before Bam suddenly came to a stop. I opened my eyes and saw the woods opened up. The car was stopped in a clearing trees and random plant life behind it, which is where we came from, and in front of it was just flattened dirt. It was a cliff with a river laying hundreds of feet below it. The trees formed a semi-circle around us. The trees met the cliffs edge except for where, somehow, the clearing was. Now the clearing wasn’t very big. It had to be only 200 feet in radius. Luckily the moon was full and over the river so the light lit up the clearing. You could see everything perfectly.

Bam got out of the car, opened my door and told me to get out.

“No! Are you insane! It’s the middle of the night and I’m in the fucking woods!” I protested.
“No. You’re in the car. I want you out of the car and into the clearing. Not the woods. Come on. Get out.” Bam said.

Bam pulled my arm and I fell out of the car. He pulled me up and shut the door before I could scramble back inside. He continued holding on to my arm so I wouldn’t run away, but I wasn’t going to try. I knew that now that I was out of the car, there was no getting back inside. Bam had won and he was going to do whatever he was planning to do.

“Come on Dico!” Bam said loudly. I wished he’d keep his voice down as to not attract any unwanted guests like murderers, rapists, or rabid animals looking for dinner.

Brandon knew he couldn’t win and wanted to avoid being physically pulled out of the car so he opened the door and got out himself. Bam let me go when Brandon was next to me. Bam told us to follow him. Brandon looked at me and I looked at him. Neither of us knew what was going on, and neither of us was particularly happy about it either. We looked forward and started walking to catch up with Bam.

When we caught up with him however, he stopped. “Look!” he said and pointed in front of him.
“What are we looking for?” I asked. “A dead body? A grave? Yours perhaps because I swear I am going to kill you.”
“No. Just look!” He said.

I sighed and looked in the direction he had pointed again. Brandon took a step or two in front of me to try to see if getting closer would help him see anything. While the two of us were being gullible fools Bam backed up and then ran towards the car. He jumped in, and we didn’t notice until we heard the door shut. We turned around and tried to run back towards the car. Bam managed to turn the car around and get back into the woods. Brandon chased the car but lost it when the headlights went out of view.

He kicked the dirt and I walked up to him. I put my hand on his shoulder and he wheeled around and launched into a full force rant.

“I fuckin’ knew he would do something like this! That fucking prick! I knew it! Now I’m stuck in the middle of the goddamn woods in the middle of the fucking night! This is fucking wonderful. I knew I’d fucking regret him finding out! Fuck!” He yelled.

I had sat down during his rant and listened. I hated when people yelled, it made me nervous. But I didn’t get that feeling around Brandon. It was odd. Brandon sighed, caught his breath and then sat down next to me.

“I’m sorry for yelling. I know you don’t like it. It’s just I can’t fucking believe this.” He said as he took a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket and lit himself a cigarette.
“It’s okay. I’m alright. And I understand. I could seriously throw his ass off the fucking edge over there.” I said.

Brandon took a drag from his cigarette and made sure to blow the smoke sideways so I wouldn’t end up breathing it in.

“Man, my house isn’t even locked! How long am I going to have to sit here? And for what for? And where the hell is here anyway?” I asked.
“I have no fuckin’ clue.” Brandon said taking another drag from his cigarette. “But I have better things to do.”
“Like play video games?” I asked.
“Yeah. Art and I haven’t played against each other in a while. I was supposed to call him tonight and tell him to get his ass online. Of course I never got the fucking chance thanks to Bam.” He said.

The conversation stopped for a moment while he looked around. I took the break in the conversation to think about how even though I don’t play video games I’d rather be at Bran’s house getting my ass kicked in some video game I’d never played before in my life. Then I thought about his rant. He seemed to have been blaming himself for this mess we were currently in. Something he told Bam stated all this. I figured now was the time to ask.

“Hey Bran. What is it that you shouldn’t have let Bam find out?” I asked.
“Nothing.” He said defensively.

This bothered me. He never kept things from me. He was always quick to admit he was wrong or that he made a mistake, but for some reason he wouldn’t say what he did that caused this.

“Are you okay?” I asked.
“I’m stuck in the goddamn woods! I’m afraid to move and I’m tired and pissed.” He stated. “What do you think?”
“No, I don’t mean about this. Trust me I’m pissed to. And I know you are, but what I mean is, is something else bothering you? You’ve been acting weird ever since I got in the car, and in your rant you seemed to have been blaming all this on yourself. And now you won’t tell me, which I find real weird because we’ve known each other for years and you’ve always told me what’s bothering you.” I explained my question.

He took another drag from his cigarette and sighed on the exhale. He looked away from me and leaned back on his hands so he was looking up. He seemed to be contemplating something. I didn’t know what, but I just wished he’d tell me.

Suddenly he sat up and turned towards me. “Look.” He started. “I like you. I like you very, very much. I haven’t had the balls to tell you or to ask you to go out sometime though. I accidentally let it slip to Bam this morning. Apparently he knew already, or so he told me. And I knew that was the end of this secret. This is entirely all my fault because this has something to do with whatever plan he has in his head to get me to tell you. And by the looks of it, it worked.”

I smiled and had the moon not cast down a blue-ish glow he’d have been able to see my face turn red.

“You shouldn’t be afraid.” I continued smiling. “Who knows, I mean, if you asked, I may have said yes.”
A smile grew on his face now as well. “So you mean, you will go out with me sometime?”
“Hell yeah. Do you know how long I wanted to ask you the same damn question?” I said.
“How long?” He asked.
“Too long.” I stated.

He smiled and gently pulled me closer to him for a kiss. It was the single most enjoyable moment in my life, and I had temporarily forgotten our current location. The kiss was broken, and the knowledge of the location was forced back however when we heard a noise that sounded like something big breaking branches.

I clung to Brandon and he held me close to him. Though we were equally scared he played it cool and wanted to protect me from whatever it was that could have been making the noise.

The source of the noise reviled itself a split second later. Bam and Frantz began walking out of the woods from two different directions. Both had cameras, but they were hanging by a strap from their wrists and they were clapping.

“Beautiful.” Frantz said. “Simply beautiful.”
“Took you long enough.” Bam laughed.
“You are both total dicks!” Brandon yelled as he stood up and then helped me up off the ground. “Bam, I am so pissed at you! And how the hell did Frantz get here?!”
“Bam you’re lucky I don’t throw your ass off this fucking cliff!” I yelled as I walked towards him.
“Woah, you both need to calm down. I just helped you out.” Bam said.
“And I had nothing to do with planning this.” Frantz said though he didn’t need to. We weren’t pissed at him. He wasn’t the one who dragged us out here.
“Whatever.” I said. “Just take me home.”
“I agree with her. Just get me the fuck out of here.” Brandon seconded.
“Alright, alright. My mission is accomplished anyway.” Bam said.