It Makes Me Feel Alive

[Harley]

I totally thought that Jersey was going to kill Brandon. I was holding onto her arm to try and calm her down. Susan is obviously not very smart because you never ever put Jersey and Brandon in a car together when they're pissed. Chase looked back at me from the front seat. He rolled his eyes back in his head as Susan ranted on. And on. And on. I tried to hide my laughter. He smiled at me. I smiled back.

"You're at camp to camp!" Susan's voice rose. I snickered.

"Yeah, and we were at the club to avoid you." I said. Shoot! Bad, Harley. Bad!

"And we almost succeeded," Jersey added.

"GIRLS! Kitchen duty! For the next week!" Susan shrieked. Jersey and I groaned in unison. I heard Chase laughing from his seat.

"This is very serious, young man." Chase shot to the other side of his seat, putting as much distance as he could between them.

"Of course it is, sir..ma'am..Mr. ma'am..."

Jersey laughed and I did too. Brandon even cracked a smile. Chase kept his face serious because he knew not to provoke wild animals. Anymore than they have already been provoked.

****
"Ew, this is sick."

"Cruel and unusual punishment." I agreed. Jersey looked disgusted as she scrubbed a pot.
She turned and looked at me, "What happened with you and Tyler? You looked pissed at him yesterday."

"I was pissed at him yesterday. And today. And will be tomorrow."

"Why?"

"He's a pig."

"Ohh," Jersey nodded her head, "Gotcha."

"Yeah."

Susan came into the tent and dropped another load of pans into the water. It sloshed up over the sides and hit Jersey and me. We were completely soaked. No inch of us spared. Not even that stupid little crook of your knee that nothing EVER gets into. Yeah, that was wet.

"Hey," Tyler said as I stood outside towelling my soaking wet hair.

"Fuck off," I muttered, standing straight.

"Look, Harley-"

"Don't want to hear it."

"But-" I made a noise to cover up the rest of his sentence, put my hand up, and walked away.

****
The most evil thing on Earth.

Partner Walk.

The mere thought made me cringe. You get tied to someone by the ankle and get left out in the woods. Try finding your way back. Fuuuun. And guess what? Susan drew random groups. So, karma is a total bitch because I ended up with Tyler. Great. I saw Chase give me a look. He was with Jersey. Lucky bastard. As soon as we got dropped off, Chase switched with Brandon so that he was with Blake. And Jersey was with Brandon. Oh god. Well that's two people dead. Too bad no one would switch with me. Sorry Tyler, no wait, I'm not sorry.

"So," He said.

"Shut up."

"But-"

"Look I really don't want to talk to you right now. Or ever. Yeah, never sounds good. Okay?" I snapped. Tyler's eyes flickered with hurt but I didn't feel bad for him. I sat down on the ground.

"What are you doing?" He asked as he sat too, 'cause he didn't have a choice.

"I'm not working with you," I stated. I would just wait until the leaders came back and got us. But I was not doing anything that resembled co-operation with Tyler. We sat in silence. I crossed my arms and pursed my lips. Tyler played with a piece of grass.

"So you know now, huh?" He asked suddenly.

"What?"

"About Chase being my brother and shit," Tyler muttered.

"Uh, no. All I know is that he was your brother," I told him, "Want to keep explaining it?" The sharp edge in my voice made him continue.

"Chase is my adoptive brother. Blake is my real brother. That's pretty much it."

"Hmm," I still didn't look at him.

Another silence.

"Harley I'm really sorry."

"So? That doesn't change anything. It still makes you an ass."

"Look it was out of line and if I could take it back I would. But I can't."

"Why would you think I was that easy?" I asked, hurt filling my voice.

He didn't answer. Instead, he placed a hand on the side of my face. I stiffened. His brown eyes filling with warmth as he leaned closer to me. I didn't lean closer, but I didn't lean away either. I waited for his next action. He tipped his head a little to one side. I didn't know why I wasn't doing anything to stop him. I was mad at him. When his lips finally touched mine, it wasn't what I expected. It was soft and sweet, nearly no pressure on my mouth. He pulled away gently and looked into my eyes. I just sat there for a minute.

"What was that?" I asked. Tyler looked startled, "Um..."

"That's not how you do it." He looked amused, "Really."

"Yes." I nodded. I put a hand on his face and pulled him over to me. I tilted my head and he moved his the other way. I pressed our lips together and tangled my fingers in his hair. His hands traced up my back and one stayed at the back of my neck. Slowly, I pulled away.

"That's how you kiss."

[Jersey]

I sat on the bench outside the dining tent and tried to untie the rope that bound me to Brandon.

"Here," He said softly, taking out his knife and slicing easily through the material. I didn't say anything. The entire walk had consisted of fighting about whether or not it was okay to dance with someone else. He is SO single minded. I mean, it was just dancing.

"Shit," I heard Brandon curse under his breath. I looked up. The girl was older than me by a few years atleast. Her hair was obviously dyed, due to the unnatural red that it was, and she had really awful roots. She slid her arms around Brandon's neck and rose on the tips of her toes to kiss him quickly.

"Hi, I'm Kendra. Brandon's girlfriend," Her voice was fake sweet.

"Jersey." I said tersely. She barely nodded before glancing up at him, "Want to show me around? I'm only here for a couple hours." Brandon looked at me guiltily before turning to
Kendra, "Okay."

I went to find Harley in our supersized tent.

"Honda? I need to do something fun with lots of boys and booze."

****

"Wow," Harley breathed, surveying the beach. I nodded in awe. It was covered with people, kegs, and towels.

"So, what do you think ladies?" Chase came up beside Harley.

"Perfect," I told him, pulling my tank top over my head, revealing my pink and brown argyle bikini top. I quickly shed my shorts and went towards the water. I was angry at Brandon, angry at myself, and a few vodka coolers later I was wrapped around some guy, making out in the water. I didn't know his name, but I'm sure he told me it. It was like Johnny or...Phil. I don't know. It was something. Eventually we migrated to his towel.

He kept muttering, "Let's get out of here." But I shook my head. I wasn't sure if I wanted to hurt Brandon that much. I was just fine kissing. Johnny/Phil's hands were crawling over me when he suddenly jerked back.

"Dude get off her," Brandon hissed at Johnny/Phil.

"She wants it, man. Go away."

"She's fucking drunk. What do you expect?" Brandon grabbed my arm and pulled me up. I glared at him. Come on, I wasn't THAT drunk.

"I need to get my clothes," I told him sharply.

"Good idea," He snapped back.

I stomped over to where Harley and Chase were sitting on a couple towels, drinking beers.

"Hey, where are you going?" Harley asked as I slid on my shorts, picking my shirt up and slinging it over my shoulder.

"Apparently, I'm leaving," I told her angrily.

"Apparently?" Harley questioned. I jerked my thumb towards Brandon.

"Aw, Jersey, what did you do?"

"Why is it always me? Maybe I didn't do anything!" Harley raised her eyebrows.

"Okay! I did something," I rolled my eyes and followed after Brandon.

"What is your problem?" I yelled as soon as the doors of the car were shut.

"Maybe the fact that you were about to have sex with a random guy on a beach," Brandon looked at me.

"I was fine, I had it under control," I defended myself. I had been FINE.

"So, what? Do you like use camp as an excuse to slut around or something?" He hissed, turning his eyes back to the road. I glared.

"That's not what you called it when it was you."

Brandon didn't say anything. Instead he pulled into a grocery store parking lot and stopped the car. It was closed, because it was well after ten o'clock.

"That's because I thought it was ONLY me," He said finally. I wanted to scream at him.

"Okay, I get it. You're aloud to have a girlfriend and expect me to just be there whenever you want me to be, and I'm supposed to be all lily white and pure." Brandon snorted in disdain.

"Hardly."

That's when I slapped him. Hard. He looked stunned and his cheek turned a reddish colour. He turned away and leaned back in his seat.

"Oh, Is Brandon gonna pout now?" I smirked. His usually calm blue eyes were angry. He faced me, "You'd know all about that wouldn't you? 'Cause that's how you get a different guy every time, and I have to come save your ass."

"I didn't need your help."

"Like hell you didn't. I know you Jersey. A couple drinks and you'll do anything."

"And just what did I do for you?" I glared, trying to blink back tears. I wasn't aloud to cry in front of him. Not now.

"I didn't think you'd remember," Brandon smirked, "That much alcohol could knock out a cow."

"I don't drink that much," I said defensively.

"Bullshit. I do believe the first time we had sex you were intoxicated."

"ME? I was intoxicated. You could barely freaking remember where you were!"

"That didn't stop you, though."

I reached out and pulled the leaver on his seat. It flew backwards, crashing into the back seat. Brandon yelped as he fell. Quickly, he sat back up.

"What the hell? Are you that drunk again?"

"I'm not drunk!"

"How many beers do you count as drunk? Five, ten, until you can screw random people and not have a conscience about it?"

I lost it. I scrambled over the thing in between the seats so that I was facing him...in his lap. I wanted to strangle him, but I'd rather not get picked up by the cops. So I settled for hitting him instead.

"I hate you! I hate you!" I shrieked, my fists pounding into him. Although probably not very hard. Somehow, through my punches, my hands slipped under his shirt. Brandon's lips found mine as his fingers slid down my stomach to the button of my jean shorts. Again.

****
I rolled over in my sleeping bag and looked at the door of the tent. Beside it were my clothes from last night. My memory wasn't all a drunken haze and I remembered everything from Kendra to when we finally got back to the campground. And it sucked. Well, mostly sucked. The fighting sucked.
But, on the other hand...

I sat up.

"Oh, god." I said and Harley groaned and rolled over.

"I AM a slut."

"Yeah, I know. Now go back to bed," Harley said from under her pillow.