Of Moons, Birds, and Monsters

Danny entertained us with a horrific tall tale while Kevin and Luke fixed the mess Scotty and Mason made of their tent. I never paid Danny much attention based on the fact that he grossed me out, but under the dirt and bad odor, he was actually really funny.

Mason kept himself busy by throwing bits and pieces of left over hotdog buns at Scotty and Agela. Jack joined in and eventually the two seperated their faces long enough for Scotty to throw a few rocks back.

As the sun began to sink, the temperature seemed to follow. The boys put on their shirts back on their now slightly darker bodies, and Izzy hoarded one of the seven blankets Kevin brought.

"Truth be told," Mason began with a sigh. "I thought this was going to be a bit more exciting."

Silently agreeing with Mason, I sat down on top of Luke's lap and let him wrap his arms around my waist and use my shoulder as a chin rest. I thought I was going to be hiding my face behind my hands this whole time while the boys destroyed the trees and tried to set each other fire. Hell, I at least thought someone would find it fit to not wear clothes. Not that I wasn't enjoying the peace, I just thought it would be very scarce this weekend.

"What're you talking about, man?" Danny questioned as he stacked wood and twigs into the small burn pile. "We've got food, some chicks, all our friends here, I'm gettin' a fire started. Just chillax, man. We're having a great time hanging out."

Mason leaned his lawn chair on its two back legs. "Yeah, some chicks alright," he snorted. "They're all taken and only one of them is a slut."

"Fuck you!" Angela spat. She tossed a rock at Mason and nudged Scotty in the ribs for not standing up for her.

"Who said he was talking about you?" Scotty questioned playfully.

"He better be talking about her," Izzy said darkly, giving Mason a hateful glare.

"I was," Mason nodded. 

"C'mon, Mase," Scotty pleaded. 

"What? I'm just saying..."

"D'you want a beer, Mason?" Kevin interrupted. He opened the back of his Escalade and pulled out a case of Corona.

"Why do you always buy me Corona?" Mason chuckled, gladly taking the case of neon yellow beer.

"I dunno. Because you're Mexican and it's the only Mexican beer up here," Kevin teased. He sat back down in the lawn chair next to Danny.

"Squid and Jack are Italians," Mason pointed out, popping open his beer. "Where's the wine?"

"How'd you know we're Italians?" Luke asked.

"Moreno? Are you fucking kidding me?" Mason said flatly.

"Actually it's Marrone," Jack said proudly. "Great grandpa didn't know English when he sailed over. Moreno was as close as he could  get in English spelling."

Mason raised his eyebrows and tilted his head back to take another swig. "It's sad that this is all we have to talk about," he sighed.

Danny struck up a fire and shifted his hat lower onto his head. "Who wants to go skinny dipping?"

"Chyeah, right," Kevin snorted, poking the fire with a small twig. "That water has ice chips in it by now."

"I know cold water might shame you, Kev, but the rest of us men can swim in ice and still have some dignity to sling around," Scotty said smugly. 

Kevin threw the flaming twig at Scotty, barely singeing Scotty's shirt.

"Virgin ears, guys, virgin ears," Mason laughed, nodding towards me and Luke.

Luke shot Mason daggers out of his eyes while I tried to ignore the comment.

"AW, that's so cute!" Angela cooed.

Mason, Danny, and Scotty all started snickering to themselves, causing my fuse to shorten.

"You're 17 now, man," Kevin said calmly. "Its gotta happen soon."

"Shut up, Kevin," Jack snapped. "He doesn't gotta do shit except stay male and die."

"Aren't you supposed to be pressuring him, too?" Danny asked. "You're his older brother."

"I just don't want to be an uncle," Jack answered. "There's no doubt in my mind that he's dumb enough to get somebody knocked up first try."

I could feel Luke hold his breathe and face redden. I knew he was about to open his mouth, so I quietly told him to shut it for the time being.

"Squid, get your shit out of the back," Scotty said between laughs. "I got you something that might help you out."

"I got it, I got it," Kevin said quickly, jumping out of his seat.

"What're you so jumpy for?" Mason asked Kevin as he strolled to his Escalade.

"I just have stuff in here that you guys don't need to see," Kevin answered shortly. He rummaged through the back and started mumbling to himself.

I tried to stand up so Luke could have more room, but he tightened his grip and pulled me back down.

"What's up?" he whispered.

"Nothing, I was just gonna get up so had had room," I answered quietly.

"You're fine," he smiled. "I doubt there's anything bigger than a box of pop-tarts in there."

I smiled back and felt my ears burn red when he kissed my cheek.

Kevin put item after item next to Luke's feet. Some boxes were wrapped, some were in Wal-mart bags, and a few weren't hidden by pesky paper at all.

Luke grabbed the smallest uncovered box and opened it. "Cologne from Jack. Thanks, man."

"You better be careful with that, too," Jack said sternly. "40 bucks for that two ounce bottle."

Luke nodded and set it back down by his feet. The Wal-Mart bag had Kevin's gift of Step Brothers on DVD. Mason insisted that his gift was late because his buddy hadn't gotten anything new in a while, which lead me to believe it was something illegal. Izzy gave Luke a small amount of cash and Danny tried to pass off his open bag of marshmallows as a present instead of admitting he forgot and didn't get anything.

Scotty's present was in a brown paper bag. He smiled widely at Luke as he peeked into the bag and quickly shut it.

"Really, Scotty?" Luke growled, pulling a small purple Trojan box out of the bag. 

"I said it'd help you out," Scotty grinned.

"Yeah," Mason agreed. "It goes perfectly with what Rizzle got you."

At this, my stomach dropped to my toes. I glanced over at Izzy who kept her gaze on the moon and her lips clamped under her teeth.

"What?" I asked in shock.

Mason flashed a knowing smile and took another gulp of beer.

Luke raised his eyebrows at Mason and moved his confused eyes from him to me.

I shrugged and shook my head. My stomach still did not return to its original position and my nerves sent electric shocks of fear and anxiety throughout my body.

Luke put the condoms back in the bag and dropped them to the ground. "Well, uh, thanks, guys," he said slowly, eyeballing his friends.

In effort to steer away from the awkward moment, Danny started to sing a Spanish folk song and Kevin passed around beers to everybody. Figuring it would help me relax, I drank two and kept quiet. I did feel a little more calm but I couldn't wait to get away from the crowd and into a comfortable bed. 

When Angela and Scotty started eating each other's face again, the conversation started to die down along with the fire.

"I think we should have waited another day to do this," Kevin yawned. "It's barely ten and I'm already half asleep."

"Yeah, so I could've had some more energy to fuck shit up," Mason nodded in agreement.

Danny shook his head and stretched his arms out. "I still don't know what you're talking about. I had an awesome time just relaxing."

"Yeah, I guess it was alright," Mason grumbled. "But, still. Some more girls should have tagged along."

While the guys continued to talk, Luke quietly asked me what else I had gotten him for his birthday. He obviously didn't ask silently enough, since Izzy sent a quick grin in my direction.

"I left it in my bag in the cabin," I answered. 

Earlier in the day, Izzy and I went to check into the room and leave our stuff up there. Izzy shot more ideas at me on the way there and back. As usual, I ignored most of them.

I stood up from Luke's lap and met Jack's questioning gaze. Luke seemed to have caught it as well.

"We're going up to the cabin to get something," Luke explained.

"Well you might as well take the rest of your crap with you." Jack pointed to the small pile of Luke's new items. "I'm not picking it up."

Luke stuffed everything into the Wal-Mart bag and we started up the hill side by side. My stomach once again grew tight.