Show Them What it Means To Be Alive

it's just a matter of time until we're all found out

When Kara left, everything about Melanie’s being in camp became so much more clear. She realized that even though this wasn’t a dream, it could hardly be said that they were in real life. She would soon be leaving, followed by Alex, Jack, Zack, Rian, and all of their memories.

And although Melanie hated to be the dramatic one, she couldn’t exactly say she hated the way Alex took the littlest cues she gave off, and with them tried his best to distract the younger girl for the remainder of their days..

One of those “few days”, she found herself being woken up in a very familiar way – two molten chocolate brown eyes wordlessly ‘hush’ing her as she was lightly shaken awake, the only light in the room through the shapes the crescent moon shone through the window onto the wall.

“Oooh, I’m so scared. Not this again,” Melanie teased while rubbing her eyes

With a sigh, Alex shushed the girl besides him. This time, with his lips. MeI, in turn, grabbed the boy by his soft brown hair, pulling him town on top of her, sandwiching herself between Alex and the mattress.

Melanie spread her legs the slightest bit as she wrapped her legs around the back of her boyfriend’s knees and thighs, crashing his hips down onto hers. Alex let his head fall into the crook of her tanned neck as he let out a moan.

“shh..,” The girl beneath whispered in a mocking tone

“—and don’t we have somewhere to be?” Melanie asked, interrupting the kiss they had since resumed.

“Do we have to?” Alex whined, like a frustrated little kid who didn’t want to step away from his video games.

Mel laughed. This kid was impossible

“Well if you stay here, I might be tempted to—well,” She dragged out, whispering into his ear, “let’s just say the other girls in here wouldn’t sleep too well tonight…”

“Well, fuck them.” Alex groaned

“You see,” Melanie teased, kissing his neck, “I would, but I’m all yours now.”

“That’s it,” The boy on top exhaled a tiny laugh, “Get up”
Alex stood up, keeping Melanie’s legs wrapped around him as they he stumbled out of the cabin.

*

“Where are we gonna go?” Melanie inquired as soon as she realized they were headed towards the parking lot, part out of curiosity and part flaunting how she now knew her way around camp.

No response.

“And if you say ‘well see…’” She threatened a moment later, laying her chin on his shoulder.

“HERE!” Alex shouted innocently as he put Melanie down, leading her to conclude he was simply too oblivious to hear her question (not exactly a hard conclusion to reach).

The brunette hobbled around, making various noises of pain as the gravel parking lot poked at her bare feet. With a final squeak, she fell to the ground, the back of her head resting against a shoe. Melanie looked up at the boy staring down at her, clearly amused.

“Oh hey Rian,” She greeted in a feigned nonchalant voice, as if she wasn’t lying on her back in her pajamas in the middle of a parking lot.

“Hey,” He returned, “I’d help you up but you seem more peaceful here than you did… three seconds ago.”

Making a noise of agreement, Melanie instead moved so she was sitting down with her legs crossed beneath her.

“SO!” She cut the silence, letting her palms fall to her thighs, “Are we gonna go?”

From being around the boys, Melanie’s learned that questions were rarely answered. And when they were, there was no point in arguing. So she kept them simple.

“Si!” Jack squeaked, “Just need my keys…” he mumbled to himself

“We’re not letting Jack drive, right?” The freckled girl looked up at the other three with pleading eyes

“Nah,” Zack consoled her, “We just use his car,”

“Fuck! Fuckity Fuck Fuck!” Mel looked up at the spectacle occurring.
“Keeeeeeeeys,” Jack pleaded, frantically shoving his hands in every pocket he could find in his pants, including inside of his pants, “Where did you goooo?”

The girl on the ground ignored the empathy she felt for him and her still lost cell phone, and instead opted to join the rest of the group in laughter.

“I’ll help!” Alex laughed, grabbing Jack’s pants by the belt loops and pulling them down to his ankles.

Jack screamed.
Melanie choked.

Those left standing leaned against the car for support as they further laughed at Jack, who --moments later-- gave up and joined his friends.

They all stopped laughing as the faint glow of headlights rolled into a distance.
“Fuck,” Melanie heard someone say as they all joined her to sit down besides the door of the small car.

“Wait, why are you guys scared? We’ve done this before…”

“1AM. Tuesday night. They don’t call it ‘sneaking out’ for nothing,” Alex returned

“…oh,” She squeaked out.

“I think we’re best off running for the woods,” Zack decided

“Yeah coming from the one who can actually run without tripping over his legs,” Alex retorted

Rian, clearly taking Zack’s side, counted with his fingers:

“One…” He swung his legs around to underneath him
“Two…” They all slowly stood up, Melanie cringing and mentally kicking herself for not wearing shoes.
“Three!” A blur of four boys ran off, leaving the only girl to hobble along

“Guys…” She whined, stomping her feet until she realized it only made it hurt worse

“Get on my back,” Jack stopped

“Then come here so I can”

“Hell naw, gurl. I aint gettin’ caught.”

Sucking a breath in, Melanie sprinted in long leaps until she found herself latched around the skeleton that is Jack Barakat. With an ‘uff’, caught her small frame and pushed her up high enough to get a grip as he continued running towards the tree line.