Of Moons, Birds, and Monsters

Since I didn’t get the okay to go until this morning, I didn’t have anything packed besides the clothes Izzy bought at the mall. Luke and Izzy patiently waited in the car while I changed and stuffed an extra set of clothes into my bag.

Izzy convinced Jack to get a cabin for the night. I was supposed to bunk with her, but I wasn’t too excited about that. She might talk me into full out streaking. Even though sleeping in a heated cabin sounded better than sleeping outside, the company could definitely be better.

I left a note for Dawn and taped it to the fridge before I joined Luke and Izzy in the car. As I pulled out of the parking lot, Mrs. Moreno called trying to cancel the trip.

“Mom, it’s not going to snow,” Luke scoffed into his cell phone.

“Its mid-October, Luke,” Mrs. Moreno huffed through the loud speaker. “I just watched the news. It’s supposed to get in the high 20s to mid 30s and I don‘t want my house filled with a bunch of teenagers sick with pneumonia.”

“If it’s that cold, then we’ll stay in the cabins. Izzy already made Jack rent one for the night anyway,” Luke bitterly countered.

“Why are Izzy and Jack renting a cabin?” Mrs. Moreno asked sharply.

“They’re not!” Luke shouted in frustration. “Izzy and Riley are sleeping there.”

“Why?” she questioned.

“I don’t know!” Luke snorted. “Izzy hates nature and Riley is doesn’t want to be alone with us in a tent.”

“You only brought one tent?!” Mrs. Moreno gasped.

“Oh my God,” Luke sighed, slapping his hand on his forehead. “NO! I’m just saying the girls would rather sleep in a cabin than in the woods surrounded by dudes!”

Mrs. Moreno let out a deep sigh causing a bunch of static noise through the speaker. Luke angrily shook his head and Izzy started to silently mock Mrs. Moreno from the back seat.

“What if it does snow? How’re you all going to afford a cabin room for everybody?” Mrs. Moreno said calmly.

“Kevin and Scotty are coming. “I’m sure they’ll pay for a few rooms,” Luke shrugged.

“No. You are not making Kevin and Scotty pay for rooms,” she said sternly. “There’s going to be more than seven people there.”

“Not everyone is going to have their own room. Izzy and Riley have a room Jack is paying for. Then Me, Kevin, and Jack will share a room, and Scotty, Mason, and Danny will share another,” Luke explained.

I pulled into the Ben & Jerry’s where we all agreed to meet up and parked by Kevin’s Escalade. He waved through the window with a wide smile, and I returned the friendly gesture. Mason sat in the passenger's seat and started to smush his face against the glass window.

“You know, I don’t see why you’re having such a problem with this. You let Jack go to Scotty’s camping trip out here, and that was last December!” Luke snapped.

“Fine!” Mrs. Moreno shouted. “But if any of you get sick, you’re not staying home from school and I am not taking care of you. And I swear if you get the nurse to make me pick you up, I will make you go to work with your father!”

“Awesome,” Luke nodded. He hung up the phone and stuffed into his pocket. “Good to go.”

"No offense, Luke, but your mom can be a complete dumbass sometimes,” Izzy said matter-of-factly from the back seat. “First she gets all mad that we’re not sleeping in the same area, but then she gets pissed we’re putting more than one person in a room.

“I know,” Luke agreed. “I doubt it’s going to snow. It’s just going to get cold, and I’m pretty sure Kevin brought every single damn blanket in his house with him.”

“Why do you say that?” I asked with a small chuckle.

“He says he’s allergic to cold weather,” Izzy answered, rolling her eyes. “He’s always got on like, four long sleeve shirts and three blankets in his car.”

I laughed and unbuckled my seatbelt to sit in a more comfortable position. I caught a glimpse of Kevin rolling down the window, using hand signals telling me to do the same.

“Don’t get comfortable, Riley, we’re leaving right now,” he said, nodding towards the highway.

“But aren’t we waiting for Danny?” Luke shouted through my open window.

“No. Jack picked him up when you guys went to Riley’s house. We were all waiting on you,” Kevin answered with a smile.

“Scotty isn’t coming?” Luke asked, with a raised eyebrow.

“Oh, no. He’s here,” Kevin said unpleasantly. “He’s in the backseat nosily clogging this girl’s throat with his tongue. I tried blocking it out, but I left my CDs at home and there are no stations out here.”

"I think it's kind of hot," Mason shrugged.

“Want to borrow a CD?” I asked. “I got loads of them.”

“Uh,” Kevin began. He looked over his shoulder into the back seat and quickly turned back around. “Yeah. Anything loud with a lot of drums or something.”

Luke pulled out the booklet of CDs and pulled out the very first disc he opened to.

“Here, have some Sevendust,” he said, leaning over to toss the CD into Kevin’s car.

A new strong scent crossed my nose while Luke leaned over me, giving Kevin crap for not directly catching the flying CD. Instead of smelling like stale tobacco and pancakes, he smelled like he just got attacked by a Macy’s fragrance clerk.

“Are you wearing cologne?” I asked with a growing smile.

Luke leaned back a little to line his face up with mine. “Yeah,” he answered with a hint of confusion in his voice.

“It smells good,” I said quiet enough for only him to hear me.

“Thank you,” he replied just as quietly, letting the corner of his mouth turn into a smile.

He leaned in and gave me a soft kiss on the lips. I could hear Izzy in the back trying to suppress a giggle, which made me want to giggle, too.

“Oh, God,” Kevin impatiently sighed. “If I knew this was couples retreat, I would have brought me a girl, too.”

Luke playfully bit my bottom lip as he pulled away, causing me to blush when Mason stared with raised eyebrows.

“Are ya done?” Mason asked, clearly not amused.

“For now,” Luke shrugged with a teasing grin.

Kevin shook his and rolled up his window before pulling out of the parking lot. I followed him with Jack close behind me. We were supposed to be driving to Lake Thunderbird. I had never been, so I had no idea what to expect besides woods and a lake. Izzy insisted it was no better than a bayou, but Luke said it was actually a pretty decent spot. Either way, I wasn’t exactly planning on swimming. Lake water didn’t sound that appealing to me.

By the time we got there, Mason and Danny were already begging for lunch. Kevin brought a cooler full of hot dogs and drinks and lit up the grill while the rest of the boys set up their tents. Jack forced Izzy to set up the lawn chairs and picnic table since she refused to help with anything else. Since me and the girl Scotty brought didn’t have anything to do, I hosed myself down with sunscreen and tried to stay out of the way.

“Damn, Riley. Why such small shorts?” Izzy asked loudly as she pretended to clean the wooden picnic table. “Trying to show some skin?”

“Uh, yours are shorter than mine,” I pointed out. I knew what she was trying to do, and I wasn’t going to let her make it too obvious to everybody else.

Izzy winked and sent a devilish smile my way. “I think they look good. I mean, you’re about as white as a tissue, but you look cute.”

I raised my eyebrows at her analogy and glanced over at the girl Scotty brought along. She was completely oblivious as to what was going on. She kept her eyes on Scotty who was shirtless and stomping the stakes into the ground.

“Uh, do you want some sunscreen?” I asked awkwardly, holding out the bottle.

“Maybe later,” she mumbled, keeping her eyes locked on Scotty. “I want Scott to put it on for me.”

Slightly disturbed, I put the small bottle back in my bag and watched the boys struggle to put their tents together. They all took off their shirts and had their boxers showing above their sagging pants. It was quite sad to watch, actually. Mason tried to get the metal tubes to link together while Scotty still had trouble stomping the stakes in. Luke and Jack had their tent up and sleeping bags laid out inside. They both sat inside yelling and giving Mason and Scotty a hard time. Apparently Scotty constantly bragged about his outdoorsman skills prior to the trip.

"Hey, Luke," Izzy called. "Think you can come here for a second?"

I instantly turned around and gave her a suspicious look. Naturally, she pretended not to see me and gave Luke a giant smile as he approached.

"What's up?" he asked, standing by her at the table.

"Hey, Kevin, you said you had all the gifts in the back, right?" she asked, glancing at Kevin's bare back.

"We're doing that already?" Danny asked, leaning against the smoking grill. "I thought was after we ate?"

"Yeah, what are you in a rush for?" Jack asked, slowly raising his eyebrow at Izzy.

"Nothing, I just want him to see what I got him," she shrugged. Again, she sent me another wink before quickly busing herself with placing paper plates on the table.

"Oh," Luke said carelessly. "Well, I think I'm gonna go jump in the lake. Anyone want to go?"

I shook my head and slouched back into the lawn chair. Izzy already splashed me with the freezing water when we arrived. There was no way I was going to jump into it.

"Fuck this damn tent!" Mason exclaimed, throwing the metal rods onto the ground. "Kevin, you're setting this son of a bitch up. I'm going for a swim."

"Same here," Scotty growled. "Angela, you coming?"

The brunette next to me eagerly pulled off her top and followed the three boys towards the murky body of water.

Izzy sat in the chair next to me and frowned. "You really need to step up the sexy."

I rolled my eyes and looked towards the water. "We just got here. I'm not gonna be all 'Look at me! Look at me!' Just let me do it my way."

Izzy scoffed and shook her head. "Riley, you're taking this far too slow. You've got one more shot to slip in something hot or I'm going to interfere."

'What do you mean one more chance?" I scolded, sitting up straight. "Like I said, we just got here!"

"Uh, I've tried to help you like three times now!" she barked. "Just do something. You're boring me to death over here. I want to see some magic happen!"

I let out an irritated sigh and shook my head. "When he gets back, I'll do something, okay?"

"No, that’s not okay!" she exclaimed, throwing her hands into the air. "Go into that lake and hang all over him like a god damn chimp!"

"Jesus Christ, WILL YOU GIVE ME A SECOND TO THINK?" I shouted.

Kevin and Danny both turned around to look at me and Izzy. She ordered them to turn around and continue with what they were doing.

"Look, Riley," she whispered. "Do what you want, alright? Just do something before I tell him what you're wearing underneath all of that and what he should expect."

"You wouldn't," I said darkly, biting the inside of my cheek.

"Oh, I would," she snapped. "I just want things to start moving. If that means that I have to spoil some fun, then so be it."

"Tell me again what mine and Luke's relationship has to do with you?" I muttered angrily. "Why do you want this so bad when it doesn't involve you?"

"The two of you have just been bullshitting this whole time!" she exclaimed. "This whole 'new love' shit is getting old. Yeah, we know, you like each other. Make it serious now! Add some action! Make your relationship worth listening to, because honestly, I'm about two seconds away from death by boredom."

I continued to bite the inside of my cheek and angrily tap my foot. "I'm sorry that it's boring you, but I don't see the problem in taking it slow."

"He hasn't even confirmed you as his girlfriend, Riley," she pressed. "That is too slow! All I'm saying is turn on the sexy so you can speed things up a bit."

I leaned my head back against the chair and closed my eyes. She had a point. Even after our talk last night, there wasn't any sort of mention if we were still just friends or a couple, or anything relatively special.

"When he comes back," I sighed.

"That's my girl," Izzy squealed, excitedly shaking my elbow.