Show Them What it Means To Be Alive

Let it go, I'll let you go.

Turning around, Melanie started running after the boys. Although she wasn’t quite sure where she was heading, she knew it was better than standing around at night in the middle of nowhere

Let’s just say, Melanie and the dark weren’t the best of friends.

Luckily, they weren’t too far up the paved path. And like before, Alex was dragging behind, playing with his hair. With a smirk, she stood on her tippy toes and whispered into the boy’s ear.

“Psst. Alex!”

With that, the most hilarious and shrill yelp Melanie had ever heard escaped Alex’s lips. He spun around, with an expression like he saw a ghost. Once he realized who it really was, his raspy breathing began to even out.

“I don’t like you.” He pouted. And from what the dim lights on the surrounding cabins allowed Melanie to see, he was even blushing a little.

“Awe, I’m sorry.” She told him, although not too sincere.

“It’s okay. I only had a heart attack.” Alex chuckled, “Why aren’t you sleeeeeping?”

“Well. I tried to get in but the door wouldn’t open and I think it’s locked and it’s dark out and I don’t like the dark and I just wanna sleep and I don’t know what to dooooo.” Melanie’s explanation turned more into a slurry whine as the sentence went on.

“I see.” Alex laughed, “Well, Kara and Rian are probably both in Rian’s bunk, so I can probably share with Jack and you can sleep in my bed tonight. Is that alright?”

“Thank you so much. But I don’t wanna too needy…”

“Believe me, it’s fine. Jack will be begging to cuddle with this” Alex motioned to his non-existent body with a smirk on his face. Melanie laughed as she shoved him off of the path.

“I bet he will.”

The two took their time going back to his cabin. It was on the other side of the lake from Melanie’s so they had to walk across a wooden bridge. It was on the end of a set of five, but separated from the rest by a few trees – which were surprisingly uncommon in the majority of the campground.

“We’re heeere” Alex eerily sang as they reached the front door. They pushed it open to see Jack, wearing a bit too little clothes, animatedly telling Zack a story about something Melanie didn’t quite pick up on. But she could swear he said something about his mom.

“Hey Mel!” Zack greeted, clearly eager to get out of his one-sided conversation with Jack, “Why are you here?”

“My door was locked. I figured this was a bit better than sleeping in the lake,” She joked.

“You know it!” Jack yelled. With his level of energy, nobody would assume it was now well past midnight. Zack and him made their way into the other room, turning the light on and lazily pulling the door closed behind them.

“Fantastic.” Alex sarcastically mumbled, looking from the beds, then back at Melanie

“What’s wrong?"

“Well for whatever reason Kara and Rian fell asleep in different beds. And waking either of them is like waking the dead; only a bit harder. So what I said before isn’t gonna work.”

“Oh,” Was all the brunette could say

“Don’t worry. We’ll make sure you still have a place to sleep. We just need to figure this out. I’m just gonna go get changed first,” Alex mumbled while fixing his hair, walking into what Melanie assumed was the bathroom. Since one of the bunk beds was occupied with Rian and Kara, She sat down on the bottom bunk of the empty bunk bed to wait for Alex to come out.

When he returned, Melanie had to fight not to keep her jaw from dropping. She had to say something; she was staring too much and didn’t want Alex to think she was a creep. Or, at least that big of one.

“You know, ‘changing’ doesn’t mean just taking your clothes off,” She laughed, tearing her gaze back to his face. Sure enough, Alex was only wearing a pair of grey boxer-briefs. No shirt. And although he was skinny, he definitely had some abs showing through.Oh, and can’t forget about those hip bones.

“Shut up,” Alex cracked a smile. “You know you want it.”
“You caught me.” She laughed.

“I’m gonna go talk to Zack and Jack. You should get changed.”

“I don’t have anything to wear. I think I’ll just wear this.” She mumbled, looking down at her clothes.

“Nope,” Alex told the younger girl, more of a command than a question. “Here, you can borrow some of mine”

Before she had time to protest, a white v-neck and a pair of plaid boxers were thrown at her head.

“I don’t trust these,” She mumbled, holding up Alex’s boxers.

“Hah, what don’t you trust about them?” Alex inquired

“I don’t trust there’s not a disease on them.”

“I never said there wasn’t…” Alex laughed.

Melanie made an ‘eek’ noise and threw them back at his head -- so fast you’d think it was a reflex.
“Kidding, kidding.” Alex chuckled, tossing them back to her. Giving up, she walked to the bathroom with Alex’s clothes in hand.

“Hey,” Melanie pointlessly greeted Alex again once she returned from changing.

“Hey. So if it’s okay with you, Jack and Zack are gonna share a bed, and you and I will. I mean, there’s not really another option,” Alex stumbled on his words a bit, his eyes drifting over the under-clothed body standing in front of him.
“That’s fine,” She assured him with a smile. His eyes darted right back up to her face at the sound of her voice.

The other two were already in the lower bunk, so Melanie followed Alex, climbing the ladder to the top. Alex just turned the lights off when she thought of something.

“Hey Alex?”

“Yeah?”

“Can we switch? I’m afraid I’m gonna roll over and fall off…”

“M’kay”

She didn’t even bother standing up, because she knew she would fall. So she had no choice but to throw her leg over her hip, essentially straddling him, to roll over him.

As Melanie was shifting her weight onto her other leg, her elbow slipped, causing her weight to collapse on top of the boy underneath her. She could feel his hot breath on her lips, as well as the blush creeping up her face.
Quickly pulling her leg over, Mel tried her best to settle in the small space she had.

“’night Melanie.”

“Goodnight Alexander.”

The steady pace of Melanie and Alex’s breaths calmed her thoughts as she felt her body settle deeper and deeper into the plush mattress. With each heartbeat, her eyelids got heavier.

“Jack! Get your hand the fuck away from ass!” A voice pierced the silence. Zack’s, Melanie assumed.

“Be quiet. You like it.” Jack.

“Shutthefuckuppp” Alex groaned, rolling over to face Melanie.

She smiled softly to herself as her breathing hit a set pace, eyelids sealing shut.