Hear You Me

Delilah stared at the open backpack in front of her and triple checked to make sure she had everything. The bag was overflowing with matches, snacks, blankets, and water but Delilah knew there was no way she could depend on the boys to remember any of these things.

The doorbell rang and Delilah quickly zipped up the bag before answering it.

“Hey, ready to go?” Joel asked once Delilah opened the door.

“Ready as I’ll ever be,” Delilah said as she saw the rest of the boys from This Century sitting in the van waiting on her. She picked up the backpack and held it out to Joel. “Will you carry this for me, please?”

“Sure,” Joel said before looking her up and down. “Wait a minute. Isn’t that my sweater?”

Delilah looked down and shrugged. “Yeah. You left it here when we had a movie night a couple weeks ago and I really like it so I decided to wear it.”

“But it’s my favorite sweater.”

“Finders keepers.”

By this time the pair was at the van so Delilah just smirked at Joel before climbing in the middle row of the van where Ryan and Alex were already sitting. Joel just rolled his eyes before tossing the backpack at Ryan.

“Holy shit, Lila. What do you have in here?” Ryan asked as he caught the bag.

“Snacks, water, matches and blankets. We’ll need these things for camping but I figured you guys wouldn’t think about them.”

“Are you calling us incompetent?” Alex asked.

“Basically.” Delilah laughed.

“She’s right though,” Sean cut in. “We didn’t bring any of those things and I bet The Maine guys didn’t either.”

“We were only responsible for the tents so that was the only thing I was worried about,” Joel argued.

“Well that’s good you have some place to sleep but how were you going to stay warm?” Delilah countered.

“Good point. This is why we keep you around.” Joel said.

“He’s right,” Ryan agreed. “If you were useless we would have gotten rid of you a long time ago.”

“I thought we were friends because you guys liked me, not because I did things for you,” Delilah said.

“Nope,” all four boys said as they laughed.

“I hate you all,” Delilah grumbled.

The rest of the car ride was spent laughing and joking before they finally pulled up to the campsite in the middle of the desert where they would be spending the night.

“Lila! I’m so glad you’re finally here! There are just way too many boys here without another girl around,” Jenna said as she ran up to Delilah.

“I know what you mean,” Delilah laughed. “I was suffocating on testosterone on the car ride over.”

“Me too. I like your sweater by the way.”

“Thanks,” Delilah smiled.

“It’s mine!” Joel called out.

“Well it looks better on her than on you,” Jenna yelled back. “It probably looks better off her than it does off you too.”

“Are you turning lesbian over there, Jen?” Kennedy asked.

“Thinking about it. Delilah wouldn’t make me go on a camping trip like John,” Jenna shrugged as Delilah laughed.

“I think you can handle one night of camping, Jenna. Anyway, I thought you liked hiking and stuff,” John rolled his eyes.

“I like hiking because you only do it for a couple hours and then you go back to civilization. With camping you stay all night in the desert. Do you know what comes out at night in the desert, John? Snakes. Snakes come out at night. I hate snakes.”

“I agree with Jenna. At the first sign of a snake I’m hopping in one of the vans and driving away,” Delilah said.

“I’ll protect you from snakes, Lila,” Joel said as he sat down on one of the chairs the guys from The Maine had brought in their van.

“What?!” John asked as he saw Jenna glaring it him.

“This is where you’re supposed to chime in and say you’ll protect me also,” Jenna said.

“I think I’ll just let the snakes slither up and attack you,” John said as he made a snake motion with his hand and began to attack Jenna. As soon as she began screaming John laughed and pulled her into a hug as he apologized and promised to protect her.

Everyone began pulling the rest of the chairs and the tents from the vans so they could set up their campsite. Garrett and Pat made a fire pit but didn’t light the fire since it was still warm out and they didn’t need it yet. After setting up the campsite everyone went on a hike on the mountains close to where they had set everything up. They roasted hot dogs and s’mores for dinner. Everyone eventually went to their respective tents after a late night a talking around the fire and drinking. Jenna and Delilah, being the only two girls, had their own tent. Jenna fell asleep almost immediately but Delilah tossed and turned. She saw that the fire was still burning and figured someone else must still be up so she deiced to go out and join them.

As Delilah made her way back towards the fire she noticed that it was Joel who was still up and sitting by the fire.

“Hey. Couldn’t sleep?” Delilah asked as she sat down next to Joel.

“No, I couldn’t,” Joel said.

“Me either,” Delilah said as she involuntatrily shivered. As soon as the sun set the desert became chilly and even though Delilah had brought warmer clothes she was still cold.

“Come here,” Joel said as he motioned for Delilah to sit on his lap. She did as she was told and Joel wrapped the blanket that he was using around the both of them. Delilah leaned into him and felt protected thanks to his arms wrapped around her.

“So how’s everything in Delilah’s world? I feel like we haven’t talked in a while,” Joel said after a few moments of silence.

“Joel, we hang out all the time meaning we talk all the time,” Delilah chuckled.

“Yeah, but I feel like we’ve been talking about what’s going on with This Century and not about what’s going on with you,” Joel clarified.

Delilah just shrugged. “It’s fine. I enjoy hearing about what’s going on with TC.”

“And you also hate talking about yourself,” Joel smirked as Delilah stuck her tongue out at him. “Speaking of TC though…a couple of our songs have a piano part on them and I was wondering if you’d want to play the piano for the recording of the CD?”

“Thanks but I don’t think so.”

“Why?” Joel asked. Delilah knew he wasn’t mad, he was just looking for a reason as to why she didn’t want to do the one thing she used to love.

“I just…I don’t really like playing the piano any more. I can’t explain why though. Every time I play now I just can’t put any emotion into it. It just feels…empty.”

“But you’re playing for church.”

“Dad asked me and I felt like I couldn’t say no. I kind of felt like it would be saying no to God which is another thing…I’ve been so mad a God lately and I hate myself for it. I mean I’m the daughter of a pastor. I’m supposed to be sure in my faith but there are some moments when I just get angry that he took Holland away from us,” Delilah sniffed.

Joel pulled her in closer and stayed quiet for a few moments as she wiped away her tears. “Lila, that’s perfectly fine. No one expects you to be perfect just because of your dad. I’ve questioned my faith lately too if that makes you feel any better. I’ve realized though that during times like these faith is all we have.”

Joel felt Delilah nod against his chest and wrap her arms tighter around him, which he knew meant she was grateful for his words and reassurance.

“So how’s school, future doctor?” Joel teased as he changed the subject. He loved calling Delilah Dr. Reed since she was going to be one once she achieved her dream of becoming a family therapist.

“It’s fine. I think I’ve realized something though…you know how they say those who can’t teach? Well I think the same goes for therapist and psychiatrists. Those who can’t become therapists.”

“Why’s that?”

“I want to help families and couples with their relationships. I can’t even have a decent relationship of my own. I feel like everyone has found someone they could spend the rest of their life with and I’ve never even been in love.”

“Just because someone’s been in love doesn’t mean they’ve found the person they want to spend forever with. I loved Holland but I honestly don’t think we would have ended up getting married.”

“Why?” Delilah questioned. “I mean I know you guys had broken up and everything but you never really said why.”

“I guess we just grew apart as we grew up,” Joel shrugged. “We wanted different things. We were good together when we were in high school but afterwards we realized that we weren’t meant to be.”

“It’s just so weird to think about,” Delilah mused. “I always told people that you and Holland had the perfect relationship and I wanted one just like yours.”

Joel sighed. “Yeah, other people have talked about how ‘perfect’ we were but they only saw one side of us. Honestly, I want a relationship like John and Jenna’s. They seem like they shouldn’t go together and they’re so dysfunctional yet somehow they’re perfect. They’re always laughing and even though their fights get kind of intense with them yelling at each other they don’t happen very often or last very long.”

“I remember when they had a huge fight and hadn’t talked to each other in a couple of days and Jenna showed up at one of their shows and told John that she was still furious with him but she missed him so she was going to forget about the fight.”

“See that’s what I’m talking about. Towards the end when Holland and I would fight we could go a week or more without talking to each other and not think a thing of it. I’ll always love Holland but I just wasn’t in love with her anymore. Speaking of relationships with the Vanderson’s…what’s up with you and Hunter?”

“What do you mean?” Delilah asked.

“You guys have been hanging out a lot lately.”

“I think we’re just kind of supporting each other.”

“Ok, good. I was worried that you’d date him and forget about me. You’re my girl,” Joel said.

“I promise I’ll never forget about you…even if I do somehow get a relationship,” Delilah joked. “Do you promise to never forget about me?”

“Promise,” Joel said.

The pair continued talking but eventually Delilah’s words became mumbled and her eyes began to droop. Joel chuckled to himself as he realized that she had fallen asleep against him. She looked so peaceful and content that he didn’t want to wake her so instead of taking her back to her tent he wrapped his arms around her tighter and soon fell asleep too.