Sparked Up

Today was another day meant for just her and her family, but since her friends came all the way out here she decided that a picnic at the park would be a good idea. She called up who mother who offered to make some dishes so she wouldn’t be in the kitchen all day. While everyone slept she starting making all the food; when she finished she went upstairs to take a shower before waking up the guys. Keenan said that he was going to go pick up Annie so he would see them at the park.

As the boys took their showers Gio called Alex and told him to meet them at 1. When the boys finished they packed up all the food in the basket and headed off to the park. Her family and neighbors were there too. She quirked an eyebrow at her brother to explain why they were there and he mouthed that he would tell her later.

“Hey mom, dad, Mr. and Mrs. Wright, Caleb. I didn’t know you guys were coming but it’s so nice to have you here,” Gio said approaching the group. They all said their hellos as she set down the basket on the picnic table. “This is Marshall and Joey, why don’t you guys get to know each other while I talk to Sam.” She said already pushing them towards the table and pulling Sam away. They shot her a nervous look but she told them that it would be fine and walked away with Sam.

“What is he doing here?” Gio asked. Caleb was the guy that she went on a couple of dates with a while back. The only reason she even went out with him was because their parents pressured them into it; to be honest she thought he was way too cocky for his own good. “What if he asks me out again; I can barely stand him. I can’t just turn him down in front of our parents.”

“Don’t worry I’m sure Alex will have a plan, he just pulled into the parking lot,” Sam said pointing over to them.
“Go save Marshall and Joey while I form a plan with Alex,” Gio said pushing Sam in the opposite direction while she ran over to the group. “Alex! Megan! I need your help!” Gio exclaimed jumping around like a 5 year old.

“Calm down so you can tell us honey,” Megan said.

“You guys remember Caleb?” she asked. They nodded with disgust. “Well he’s here with his family; and I don’t know what to do if he asks me out again in front of my parents. I can’t say ‘No I don’t want to go out with you ‘cause you’re a cocky son of a bitch’ well maybe not son of a bitch because his mother is actually pretty nice but you get what I mean,” she said in one breath. By then Keenan, Annie, Singer and Johnson were out of the car already.

“Why don’t you just say that you’re already dating someone?” Keenan suggested.

“Really? Then I’m going to have to explain why I didn’t tell them I was dating somebody. I also have to explain why I went on that date with Caleb 2 weeks ago if I was dating someone. Then they would want to meet the person that I was dating so that wouldn’t work.” Gio said obviously frustrated. “Screw all of this, I’m just going to say that I’m not looking for a relationship. I’m only 20, I have work and friends to keep me busy. Yeah that’s what I’ll do, Thanks for the advice everyone.” She said skipping back to her parents.

“Is she always this bipolar?” Johnson asked clearly amused.

“Not always. She always felt the need to please her parents even though they’re already proud of her. Let’s go, I want to see the outcome of this talk. Someone just keep me away from Caleb or else I might just punch that arrogant jerk,” Alex said putting his arm around Megan’s waist and walking over. The other guys laughed it off thinking he was just exaggerating and followed him.

When they arrived at the picnic table you could feel the tension. The parents and Caleb were on the left side of the table and the rest of them were on the right. Caleb would occasionally try to talk to Gio but she would give curt answers and return to her conversation with the guys. When the guys finally got to the rest of them they were introduced to the adults and Gio’s parents gave Megan and Alex hugs. There wasn’t enough people to sit on the table but luckily Gio brought a huge blanket for all of them to sit down on; excluding Caleb. They were all having a good time until Caleb walked up to Gio and asked her to speak alone.

“Whatever you have to say to her you can say in front of all of us,” Alex said being protective of his best friend and keeping promise to Kyle. Caleb shot a glare at Alex; he knew that Alex disliked him by the comments he made to him. It’s like Alex didn’t even care if Caleb knew; he made his hatred towards him pretty obvious. Caleb looked to Gio silently asking her again but she backed up Alex.

“Fine. I was wondering if you’d like to go back out again sometime. The dates we went on were fun but you never called back once you went to visit your friends,” Caleb said.

“Oh, sorry I must’ve forgot,” Gio said politely; but everyone knew the truth and Alex had to try really hard to stifle a laugh. “I don’t think we should go out again; I’m still pretty young and I’m not looking for a relationship.”

“I guess I understand; we’re on different pages. Plus there’s the age difference, you are 5 years younger than me. I can go tell my parents now; they’ve been bugging me to ask you out again, bye.” He said about to walk back to the table but not before glaring at Alex when he left out a laugh.

“That was definitely interesting, but I’m full now so what do we do?” Johnson asked. Gio looked to her brother begging him for his approval. He shook his head hesitantly and Gio huffed but understood. The silent exchange between the siblings was a mystery to everyone but Megan and Alex. “What the hell was that?” Because the two were still in their stare-down Megan explained.

“Gio is asking permission to take you guys to this place and Sam is saying No because he thinks that it’s too soon. I mean when I first became friends with Sam then Gio it took 2 years before they took me to this place.”

“It’s really great; they’ve only taken 3 people there ever. Kyle, myself and Megan. We’ve been friends for years but they were still hesitant to break us into their world.” Alex said.

“Wait, so she trusts us enough to want to bring us?” Marshall said feeling very happy.

“Yeah it’s weird because Sam was the one that had to beg her to let us come. The fact that she’s begging Sam right now is epic; you guys must mean a lot to her,” Alex finished. Sam let out a huge sigh notifying the group that he had given in.

“You guys can come but that means we can’t introduce anymore people to it for another 10 years.” Sam said. Gio laughed happily and gave him a big hug. They packed up all of their stuff and headed over to the spot. Annie and Keenan didn’t come because they felt like they didn’t know Gio and Sam enough to intrude on their special outing. They said goodbye to their parents and they were just as surprised as Sam when they heard that Gio wanted to take the four boys to ‘their spot.’

27 minutes and they had arrived at their destination. They were at the lake but if you think it’s just a lake then you’re wrong. It was actually the opposite end of the lake where no one was allowed to go to but them. Their dad actually knew the person that was in charge of this area where is was more woodsy and allowed them to hang out over here just as long as they didn’t leave a mess. The guy, Don became very close to them and eventually started calling him Uncle Don. The first time they hung out in this area was when Sam was 14 and Gio was 12. Don came up with the idea that they would build a tree house and they did just that. It wasn’t a boring 4 walled tree house but there was so much detailing; it held up to at least 10 people and took them about 6 months to finish. It was a lot of work but worth every minute. When it was finished they had a sleepover with Kyle, and Alex while all of their parents camped out a distance away from them.

What also made this place special was the lighthouse. The area where they had the tree house was near the water and dock which held the abandoned lighthouse. When they were younger Don didn’t let them go into the lighthouse because he thought they were too immature; but after getting to know them he let them go in there. At the time Sam was 16 and Gio was 14. The first night that they spent in there all of their families came with them; that’s the first time that they actually met Megan. You see Megan was Don’s daughter.

Since they’ve grown up and Sam enlisted in the Marines they’ve stopped coming to their spot. The only time they ever came was when Sam came home; it was an unspoken rule that they could come unless all the members were there. After Kyle passed away they didn’t go for a whole year but Sam convinced them that Kyle still would’ve wanted them to go and make more memories there without him.

They walked around for a little bit just reveling in the nature before Gio and Sam showed them where the tree house was. They all sat against the walls facing each other. Megan, Alex and Joey sat on the couch on one side. Marshall, Gio and Singer sat against the opposite wall facing them and Johnson sat on a chair between the two groups. The group held conversation easily with them talking about the upcoming Warped Tour. When they finished talking about that, Sam started telling them how it was like in the Marines but Gio got up and started looking at the photos posted up on the wall.

They always took a Polaroid every time that they came here. Her eyes stopped on the last one where it Kyle, Alex, Megan, Sam and herself. Joey took this opportunity while everyone was distracted to go up to Gio. He could see the sad far-away look in her eyes as she continued staring at the photo. “You okay?” Joey asked admiring the picture. In the picture Alex and Megan had their arms wrapped around each other just like Kyle and Gio and Sam was in between the two couples with his arms wrapping around all of them. Gio finally felt like it was time that she talked to someone about Kyle, someone that wasn’t biased. She gave him a smile and took his hand into hers and laced them together.

“Hey Sam I need to talk to Joey alone. We’ll be in the lighthouse; I’m not sure how long we’ll be so I’ll call you when I’m done and then we can give them a tour of it, okay?” she said to her brother. He nodded already knowing what their talk was going to be about. Everyone else was at a loss especially Joey. Their hands were still intertwined as they walked up the steps of the lighthouse. When they finally got to the lantern room, she led him over to the couch and sat down with him.

“So what did you want to talk about?” Joey asked.

“I think it’s time for you to know about Kyle,” Gio said.

“Oh…”