These Are the Best Days of Our Lives

My eyes fluttered open to find myself on the floor with Frank’s arms wrapped around me and the other guys asleep near us.
I snuggled further into Frank’s bare chest and sighed contently.

“Beth?” I froze, I hadn’t realised Frank was already awake.

“Mmm?” I mumbled nervously but stayed snuggled into him.

“Will you go out with me?” I was surprised to say the least and I relaxed a bit more.

“Yes.” I answered and felt him kiss my head lightly and then pull me closer to his body.
After a while, the door opened and Scouse walked in.

“You know you’re meant to sleep in the beds.” He commented as the guys slowly started to wake up as well.

“Anyway… get up and get dressed and meet everyone in the usual spot to go to breakfast.” He muttered and walked out of our room.
I swear he has a grudge against us or something.

“I’ll get changed in the bathroom to make it less awkward.” I said with a smile.

“Well it would be less awkward.” Mikey said with a laugh.
I smiled and nodded before grabbing some clothes and underwear from my case and going into the bathroom.
Before I closed the door though, Frank grabbed my arm.

“You know, I think I should get dressed in there too, to make it less awkward of course.” He spoke with a sly smile.

“I don’t think so.” I laughed and pecked him on the lips before shutting the bathroom door on him.

-

Our two schools had been split into three groups of twenty so the group I was in was standing on the bank of a lake.

“Everyone get into groups of no more than ten and no less than four!” Scouse yelled at us all.
Once we were done, this random woman started showing us how to knot rope so me being myself, completely zoned out.
However I came back to reality when she clapped her hands together.
“Now I hope you remember those as your challenge is to build a raft using only rope and plastic barrels. Once they are finished, you’re going to test them on the river. You have 10 minutes, starting from now.” The other three groups rushed off to their barrels and ropes, whilst Gerard, Frank, Mikey, Bob, Ray and I just looked at each other.

“I take it none of you where listening either?” Ray asked us all.
We all shook our heads and laughed slightly.

“Ah, never mind, we’ll do it our own way.” Frank laughed and we all nodded in agreement.
Ten minutes later we had badly roped together six plastic barrels and were laughing hysterically.

“Right everyone, your times up! Now, get yours rafts into the water, and we’ll find out whose raft is the best.” The woman yelled out.
I let the guys carry it over to the water.

“Do you think it’ll hold?” I whispered to Bob as all four rafts made it into the water.

“Probably not.” He laughed.

“Everyone get on your rafts.” The woman shouted; I really needed to learn her name.
The guys and I sat down on one of the barrels each, with Gerard and Bob on the front two, Frank and I on the middle two and Ray and Mikey on the back two.

“Each group has to get their rafts to the other end of the lake and back. The winners are the ones that’s raft does not fall apart… remember it is not a race.” The woman yelled and Ray and Mikey pushed ours away from the bank.
It was going well until we got into the centre of the lake.

“Um, guys.” I said laughing as I tried to hold the rope together on my right.
They all turned to look at me when Bob’s barrel was the first to come off causing him to fall into the water and get soaked.
Next Gerard’s came off and he fell into the water with a splash.
Then the realisation hit me as I looked down into the deep murky water.
Everything around me seemed to move extremely slowly and soon I was alone with silence surrounding me whilst I looked down into the dark water.

“Frank?” I asked shakily as everything came back to normal speed painfully fast.

“Yeah?” He answered but then his attention set on Gerard who was laughing hysterically whilst his life jacket swallowed him.
My breathing became unsteady and the shaking increased.

“Beth? Are you alright?” Mikey asked from behind me.
I turned to look at him with fear and his face immediately dropped.

“Frank!” He yelled and whacked him over the head, which tactfully got his attention.

“Hey, what was that for?” He whined and rubbed his head but then noticed me.

“Beth? What’s wrong?” He asked worriedly and took a hold of my hand.

“The water, it’s too deep.” I stuttered out and shook profusely.

“Well our rafts falling apart, I’ll help you.” He said kindly but I shook my head madly as tears came to my eyes.

“No. I can’t.” I stuttered out.

“Beth, come on you're wearing a life jacket. You’ll have to come in the water to get back to the bank anyway.” He said softly and I could see the rope coming looser.
I started to panic more and my breathing became worse by the second.
Danny must have seen what was happening as soon enough, he was bobbing up and down in the deep water in front of me.

“Come on Beth, breath deeply.” He said to me.

“Right, you can either get on mine or one of the guys backs and we’ll carry you back to the bank okay? You’ll be safe, we promise we won’t let go of you.”

-

I was sat on the bank, whilst everyone else headed back to their rooms to get showers and stuff.
Danny was talking to the instructor nearby with Frank beside him.

“So what happened?” The women asked and glanced over at me.

“She just got scared, she nearly drowned on a boat trip with her uncle when she was five so she’s developed a phobia of deep water.” Danny explained.
I watched as Frank walked away from us all without saying anything.

-

I stepped into my room to find Frank and Ray sat on Ray’s bed talking.
They both looked up as I walked in except Frank quickly directed his eyes down to his hands.

“I’m going in the shower.” I said with a weak smile.

“Can it wait? Frank needs to talk to you.” Ray asked me.
I shrugged and nodded so he got up and left us in peace.

“So what is it?” I asked and sat down where Ray had been sat.

“Beth, I don’t think we should go out.” He said quickly.
I stared at him in disbelief.

“What? Why?”

“We’ve known each other for not even a week and I know nothing about you. You’d be better off with that Danny guy, he knows everything about you whilst I know nothing.”

“He’s my best friend. He’s bound to know everything!”

“I just don’t feel comfortable with it.”

“Right, so you think you can ask me out in the morning and then break up with me like twelve hours later!” I yelled at him and stood up.

“Beth, don’t.” He said looking down at his hands.

“Well you know what Frank, fuck you! I don’t need you and your crap! I was crazy to think I even loved you!” I yelled at him and saw him wince at my last few words.
I grabbed my towel and slammed the bathroom door behind me.
I sat on the shower floor and leant against the wall with the water from the showerhead, trickling down and onto my body whilst tears ran from my hazel eyes.
I knew I shouldn’t have let myself fall so deep in such a small amount of time but I’m a teenager, that’s what I do and now I had to go home tomorrow.
So for now, I decided to sit on the shower floor and wallowed in self-pity.

-

Two hours later, I stepped out of the bathroom in my pyjamas and all the guys looked at me from their bunks, except for Frank.

“Do you mind if I sleep in the bunk above yours Ray?” I asked quietly.
He nodded so I grabbed my sleeping bag and shoved it up there.
I knew I still had a tear stained face because of the looks I was getting.
Everyone was silent in the room and soon enough Scouse came in and turned the lights off.
Everyone ended up falling straight to sleep due to the tension in the room but I couldn’t; normally I would have been drained of all of my energy after crying so much, but it just felt like a huge weight was off of my shoulders.
I sighed after realising I wasn’t going to fall asleep any time soon and I silently jumped down from my bed and went over to my suitcase.
I grabbed my camera and climbed back up and into my bunk.
Switching it onto to night vision, I then turned it on and turned the camera around to look at me.

“Well, today has been eventful to say the least.” I whispered to the camera.

“Frank asked me out this morning, then we went onto the lake and did raft building and I freaked out on the water. Frank dumped me and then I cried for two hours in the bathroom and now everyone is asleep, I’m in the bunk above Ray’s and I’m feeling strangely better. We’re leaving tomorrow, it’ll probably be the last time I’ll ever see the guys again but I can’t wait to see you and the rest of the guys when I get back. I could have missed so much whilst here, even if I was only away for a week. You could’ve turned gay and fucked Sisky for all I know! Which to be honest I really wouldn’t mind as you know how I feel out stupid ‘Izzy darling’.” I said and rolled my eyes in a joking way.
He knew I didn’t like his girlfriend and he accepted that but he wasn’t going to leave her just because of me.
I shut the camera off and placed it into my suitcase before jumping back into my bed and finally falling into an uneasy sleep.