Chapters On A Page

Whatever reluctance I was feeling running throughout two out of three of my friends, it didn't reach Alex. I was thankful for this because he didn't need to feel like he wasn't wanted here by people that had met him on only a few occasions. Murph put on a friendly front that I could see through only because I remembered our fight from Friday vividly. But he was friendly enough, and the boys shared one of those one-armed hugs with a pat to each other's back like all men weirdly find appropriate. Nic waved to him and gave her usual cheery greeting from where she sat against a tree by the stream as he walked passed. He continued on up the ladder after saying hello and joined Gwen and I, smiling at her in response to her friendly wave. Her greeting was the only one that I found genuine, and that was probably because she didn't care about what the other two were thinking.

I turned so I was sideways on the top of the wall and scooted to put my back against one of the four beams supporting the roof. Alex hopped up onto the wall adjoined to the one Gwen and I shared, and I offered him a piece of the strawberry breakfast pastry I was enjoying again. "Sorry about them," I apologized quietly when he accepted it. I looked out at Murph -who had one of the fishing rods and was wrapping bait onto a hook- and Nic -who had taken my original idea of reading by the water. I willed them both to be a little nicer. Rationality told me that maybe I shouldn't have brought them up to Alex, that maybe he hadn't noticed a slight coldness toward him and I should have just kept my mouth shut.

But he shrugged, taking a small bite out of the piece of Pop-Tart in his hand. "Not everyone likes me. It's something I've gotten used to," he shrugged, and I knew it really didn't matter to him. "Maybe they'll warm up to me when the others get here," he wondered idly, and I hoped that he was right.

"They think you're going to corrupt Val," Gwen chimed in, kicking her feet against the outside of the wall we occupied. "As if she wasn't already," she scoffed, throwing me a wicked smirk that told me she was only messing around.

Alex apparently didn't see or get this though. "Oooh, do tell," he urged Gwen. He leaned forward, placing his elbows firmly on his knees and propped his chin in both his palms. His curled fingers framed his cheeks, lifted from the close-lipped grin on his face. He was way too eager to hear something shocking about me.

Gwen and I both giggled, turning away from him so he knew we weren't laughing directly at him. "I was just kidding," she assured him. "Val's not squeaky clean, but she's pretty close to it," she continued, making the pout that had taken over his lips even more artificially dismayed.

"I don't think you could make me sound any more boring, Gwendolyn," I shot at her, shaking her lightly. "But she's right," I confirmed, turning to Alex. "I am not corrupt. So no juicy stories, sorry," I apologized with a sarcastic shrug and my lips pressed together but still upturned at the corners.

He didn't seem too upset over this news, even if he faked it. He simply sat up again and leaned his shoulder against the same beam I rested against. The three of us were quiet for a while then, mostly soaking in the sounds of nature that we didn't normally get to hear. They mixed in with the faint sounds of Nic turning pages in her book and gasping at intense parts and Murph loudly swearing every few minutes when his line didn't budge. Gwen was facing the two of our friends but was clearly watching a bird couple hopping around on the branch of a tree only a few feet away. My gaze alternated between nearly everything the moment had to offer, and I could tell Alex was doing the same, taking in the spectacle that this place was. It was just as peaceful here as it was any other time, the latest addition to the group not altering anything like I was sure Murph and Nic were worried about.

"Hey, do me a favor?" I asked Alex, craning my neck to look at him behind me again. His attention caught, he raised an eyebrow at me in expectance of what I wanted from him. "Can you get me my book bag?" I asked, a sweet smile on my face to make him believe I wasn't simply lazy as I pointed to my bag on the other side of the floor. It apparently worked, because he slid off the wall without complaint and shuffled over to where it lay. Once he had it in his hand, he walked it back over to me. "Thank you," I sang as he handed it over.

I set it between my legs, unzipping the largest section and pulling it apart to look inside. I moved a couple things around, pressing my book and jacket up against the back to get to the bottom. I extracted a rolled up tank top then, and set it in my lap to unroll it carefully. Inside was the camera Murph had been playing with right before our petty fight. Now that I had it, I dropped the shirt back into my bag and slipped the bag back onto the floor. The camera in both my hands, I turned the dial on the back to on and pointed the lens at Gwen. Since she was still preoccupied with the birds, I was even able to properly focus before I pressed the shutter button.

"Aw, Val, what're you doing?!" she cried, dragging it out in annoyance. It was pretty much always like this when I started taking random pictures.

Instantly, I lifted both my head and camera so that they were pointed at the birds she had been so taken with and refocused. "Nothing," I claimed in a second, but ruined it by letting a laugh burst passed my lips. I only laughed more when I heard her muttering obscenities as she spun around and got down. I don't think she thought her plan through too much, because she rounded the fort and made her way toward the creek where I could get better shots of her. As I turned my body so I was sitting as she had been, I didn't notice that her seat had already been filled again.

I was adjusting the shutter speed when Alex spoke, making me jump. "Photography, huh?" he said like it was the most interesting thing he had witnessed all week. When I looked over at him, sitting the opposite way from how I now was, he was smiling but staring straight ahead of him.

"Yeah," I replied slowly, not bothering to hide the confusion I felt at his simple statement. I set my camera back in my lap, making sure I had a secure grip on it so I was confident it wouldn't fall. "Zack and I kind of got into it together about a year ago," I explained shortly. "I spent a good chunk of my paychecks on cameras and film for a while there. It's just something different every time. I like capturing images with those differences." I shifted some on the wall, sitting further up on it.

"Is that what you plan to do then?" he asked, looking at me again. It was something else that I wondered why he was curious enough to ask. Was it just to make conversation or did he really want to know?

I tried to stop questioning it; I had been asking myself too many questions today. "No," I answered like it was a crazy assumption, shaking my head while I let out a small laugh. "Truth be told, I'm a pretentious prick that likes to carry a camera or two around at all times. I don't think I'll ever make anything of it, because I'm only mediocre at best. My true talents lie in baking, as I've mentioned," I reminded him, thinking back to how I'd had to humiliate myself in front of a room full of new classmates.

He shrugged and turned back to look toward his car. "Well, you never know. Thought I'd ask," he claimed. He then slid over to the beam opposite the one I had rested against earlier.

While his attention was on something else, watching the leaves fluttering in the breeze or just focusing on something that wasn't me, I turned my camera on him. I got a quick, and hopefully decent, picture out of it before I noticed another car coming down the lane. It wasn't a car I recognized, but I instantly knew who the person in the passenger seat was as they got closer. I maneuvered my body so that I was turned around and then hoped down from my perch, already excited. "Zack's here!" I announced, seeing everyone turn their heads in the direction of the approaching car. I bent to pick up my still open backpack and slung it over my shoulder as I headed to the ladder.

I was on the ground at the same time the car stopped and everyone got out. Zack ran right to me, but before he enveloped me in a hug, I saw that Rian had been the driver and Jack was in the backseat. "Val!" my cousin exclaimed as if we hadn't seen each other in a year. He wrapped his arms tight around me and swung me from side-to-side a moment even though my feet were still on the ground. "Ugh! You're wet!" he yelled in disgust, letting me go just as quickly as he had grabbed me.

"Thanks for making me feel like I have the Plague," I said sarcastically, nodding sharply a couple times. "I went swimming for a bit earlier. I was just gonna go change," I informed him, gesturing toward the woods across the stream. Jokingly, he shoved me in that direction and demanded I do exactly that. Laughing, I just as jokingly flipped him off as I walked away. "Gwen!" I called as I headed toward the creek. When I reached the edge of it, I saw that she was waiting for me further down the line, opposite from the direction of the swimming hole. I followed the length of the bank to her, tucking my camera back into my bag to let her know I wouldn't sneak anymore pictures of her. "Come with me to change," I insisted with a smile. I hooked my arm into hers, so she didn't really have a choice.

We continued walking, arm-in-arm, but were soon stopped by someone calling after us. "Goddamn it, I'm coming. Just hold on," Nic yelled, acting as if we had been begging her to come along with us. I had a feeling this was a show for the boys who had now taken over the area fifty feet from where Gwen and I stood waiting for her. She caught up to us in only a second, clutching her book to her chest. "I can't believe you were just going to leave me there with all of them!" she hissed, faking angry and making sure none of them would actually hear her.

"I didn't think you would even notice we were gone. You seemed so caught up in the book I lent you two months ago," I teased, beginning to lead the two of them further down the stream once more.

"This?" she questioned, holding the book out enough for her to look at and sounding slightly baffled. "I've been pretending for the most part! I've been waiting for you to walk away for something so I could talk to you," she admitted, and stuffed the book into the open part of my backpack while I paused.

I repressed a sigh, looking to the water instead of at her. "At least wait until we get across. Then we can discuss whatever's not supposed to meet anyone else's ears," I proposed, not really wanting to talk while I was still standing in the same clothes I had swam in. She nodded and I turned back to the water, dropping Gwen's arm from my own so she could go first.

As far as any of us could tell, the brook didn't thin out until it ran into the swimming hole and then continued out on the other side. In the direction the three of us had headed, it stayed a consistent width that prevented anyone from simply jumping over it. But we had taken more walks around this place than any of us could count and had found that it was much more shallow in some places than in others. Where we now stood, several flats stones poked out of the inch or so of water and ran the entire way across. As far as we knew, this was the only sure way to get to the other side of the woods without getting wet for miles either way.

Gwen stepped onto the first and as soon as she hopped to the second, I followed behind her. Nic was quick to do the same, making all of us look like we were playing a game of hopscotch. Once on the other side, completely dry except where our shoes may have skimmed the water's surface, we headed into the trees that were much thicker than where we had come from. If it weren't for the sun shining so brightly to break through the high branches, I was convinced the woods probably would have looked like they did in the middle of the night. The three of us were quiet for a while, the only sounds coming from us scuffling along or cackling when we tripped over things in plain view.

I had almost forgotten that Nic had had something to say when she cleared her throat. "So, Alex, huh?" she inquired right on the end of the small noise she made. We were all stopped now, guessing that we had traveled far enough in that no one could see us, so she leaned up against a tree to wait for me to change.

"What about him?" I countered, stepping behind a tree a few feet away from her and Gwen. I was still close enough that we could converse without yelling but we couldn't see each other. I dropped my bag to the ground littered with pine needles and leaves and then pulled my shirt up over my head.

"You're here with him…?" Nic trailed off, turning it into a question.

Not sure how to answer something that should only have been a statement, I stooped down to take the tank top my camera had been rolled in out of my backpack again. "Um, yes?" I finally responded, slipping the new shirt on in place of the one that had gotten soaked through. "We kind of ran into each other on my way here. Since Zack was supposed to call him and ask him to come anyway, we figured it wouldn't be a big deal if he just joined me," I summarized as I unbuttoned my shorts so I could peel them off. "Is it a big deal?" I questioned, pausing in my mission to change and leaning around the tree trunk to glance at her.

She shrugged and I went back to what I had been doing. "Letting him drive you home from school while it's raining is one thing. But you were here alone with him for an hour and a half, and you went swimming? You guys just seem really friendly, is all," she stated like it made everything else she had said not sound as accusing as it really had been.

"Because we're friends?" I said back, purposely making it a question this time to see if she would challenge it. When she didn't, I dug out the jeans I had brought along for the same reason I'd brought a jacket. "Do you really think that there's something going on between us?" I wondered, kicking off my shoes before making the exchange. "He has a girlfriend. And even if he didn't, I have no interest in being his new one. The attitude you had about this the other night is what you should keep, because swimming with Alex Gaskarth isn't anything but swimming," I affirmed, buttoning the jeans I had stepped into while I was talking. Honestly, I was getting stick of people thinking that everything may possibly have a double meaning. Quickly, I shoved my wet clothes into another compartment of my book bag and zipped everything up.

"Sometimes, I just wonder," she claimed when I came out from behind the tree, hoisting my bag back up onto my shoulder. "You haven't gone out with anyone since Andrew. That was so long ago that I'm finding it hard to interpret you spending time with someone new," she admitted, her eyebrows pulling together to let me know she was frustrated. It sounded a lot like the excuse Murph had given me the other day and I wondered if they hadn't been talking about this over the weekend.

I shrugged this thought off. "How about this: Since we are best friends -family, really- I will tell you when I like someone again. Like I did with Andrew and every boy before him. He and I dated for a year, so I'm not even confident that anyone's going to be able to break through after him anyway," I confessed even though they knew this. I was fine at making friends, but I hardly trusted anyone enough to be more than that. It didn't bother me as much as my friends seemed to think, despite how often they put it out of their minds. Before either her or Gwen could get too sappy about it, I slapped a smile on my face and headed back toward the water. "Come on. Lilah's supposed to be coming. I don't want her to have to deal with all the boys with just Katie," I told them, looking back to make sure they were following.

"I'm sorry," Nic said as she caught up. Gwen was already a step behind me. I gave the former a look that asked what she was apologizing for. "For thinking what I thought. I thought you were doing something and leaving us out of the loop. It made me forget that you're not just going to let someone in that closely, that quickly. You just sounded like you were having fun when I called. I just thought-"

"That because I was having fun with a boy that wasn't Murph or Zack that maybe he was working his way in?" I interrupted, taking a stab at what she was going to say. She nodded shamefully, causing me to laugh. I stuck my hand out so she would take it and was pleased when she did with a new smile on her lips. "Like I said, I'd tell you. I have nothing to hide and certainly not anything with him," I assured her.

"Just for the record," Gwen piped up, speaking for the first time, "I knew there was nothing going on with you and him all along." We had made it to the water and she stopped right at the bank, a sweet smile on her face to appear superior. Nic stuck her tongue out at her, to which I sarcastically mumbled something about them being children before I jumped to the first rock.

We were all giggles again as we headed back to the other side, making jokes as we resumed the walk to the treehouse. Instead of following the current back, we headed through the trees and brush to come out on the lane and headed down it to meet back up with the boys. We were as loud as we wanted to be as we talked and laughed some more, not having topics we feared the others would hear. Somehow though, we heard the sounds of bike tires on the dirt approaching us when we were almost to the fort. Knowing who it had to be since I had never witnessed another soul here, I turned around.

"Baby sister!" I yelled, throwing my hands up in greeting as I walked backwards. Both Gwen and Nic screamed greetings toward her and Katie, continuing on facing forward after doing so.

The two younger girls made it to us before my sister responded. "Kaylee's the baby," she pointed out a little dryly, apparently only wanting this fact known. "But hi," she grinned at me. She kept a slow constant speed, coasting along next to me as I walked.

"Glad to see you could make it," I said, genuinely happy that I was getting to spend the day with so many friends and people I cared about. I bid a quick and friendly hello to Katie before we made it back in sight of the boys and she was left to be pulled into introductions. Zack was standing with Rian, and I automatically made my way over to the two of them. While the girls and I had been gone, the boys had pulled a plastic folding table from the car and there was an abundance of food setting out on it. "Why exactly is the largest selection of food I'm sure I've ever seen here just lying in front of us, waiting to feed me?" I questioned, leaning on Zack's shoulder. "Hi, Rian," I added, grinning at him.

He chuckled, shaking his head. "It was my mom's doing, and idea, really. I told her where I was headed, and she insisted on making us a ton of food. That's why we were so late. Sorry about that, by the way," he expressed.

"Oh, no. No need to apologize," I reassured him, grabbing a rice crispy treat from a styrofoam plate. I just hoped she hadn't spent too much time on what she had had him bring. "Tell your mom I love her though," I told him around the bite I had taken. He nodded with another chortle. Alex joined us then, standing on the other side of the table and taking a handful of chips from a bag. At the same time, Lilah came up to say hi to our cousin. I broke from them to find Nic again, having seen the blush suddenly coloring my sister's cheeks when Zack reintroduced her to Alex. My best friend was seated on one of the higher rungs of the ladder, one of her legs straight and her foot on the bottom rung to keep her up. I sidled up next to her, resting my elbow on the rung by her own while I stood next to her. "I'm obviously not the Rutherford sister you need to worry about over having a crush on Gaskarth," I enlightened her with a small nudge. When she looked up at me with a confused expression, I nodded toward Lilah attempting to hide behind her hair. She shook her head and tsked but almost instantly broke out of her disappointment when she burst out laughing and wrapped me in a hug.