Forbidden

"Are you sure you can't go at all?" Mom asked me as she was handing me a bowl of Asian soup noodles, with me sitting in my tent and seeing her kneel outside of the tent zipper.

I grabbed the bowl from her, nodding, "Well. I can't really walk without stumbling or losing my balance, so I think the answer in the question."

She frowned at me, as I took the first bite of noodles with chopsticks.

Mom looked around a little and smiled. She poked half of her upper body into the tent, whispering very softly, "I'll send Nathan to come back to watch you."

Narrowing my eyes, I replied in a whisper, "Why do you have to whisper that?"

"It's your stepfather." She replied.

"What about Michael?"

"He's being very difficult and I have no idea why. I'm suggesting your stepbrother to keep you company because it definitley goes to show that he took care of you very well last night but Michael is not letting him stay with you. I don't know what's up his butt. He's obsessed with Nate getting his pictures."

I shrugged, a little annoyed that Mom was calling Nate by the name of stepbrother. I answered, "Well... The kid really loves photography."

"That's way besides the point," She replied. "Anyways, I'll make an excuse for your stepbrother to come back to take care of you somehow."

"Mom," I cut her off. "Could you please stop calling Nathan, my stepbrother? He has a name... It's Nate or Nathan. The word stepbrother is starting to make me cringe."

I took another bite of my noodles, while I looked at and saw her giving me a puzzled look. I completely just realized what I said and I began giggling, while all the noodles were in my mouth. Giggling, I replied, "I meant to say, annoyed. I mean, if you're gonna call him my stepbrother for the next five years or so..."

She rolled her eyes, then began standing up. Wiping the dirt off her knees, I leaped my head over, waving, "I'll see you later."

"Take care of yourself," She demanded. "Your tent windows are open for a reason. So you can take of my tent too. But I already locked it. But still, if you see someone trying to rip it open, then attack like you normally do."

I smiled, thinking about what Nate said. How he was surprised that I could attack more than I already did.

Such a meanie.

When I looked out the tent window, I saw Nate standing next to Mom's tent, with his camera in his hands.

I coughed to get his attention and when he looked over, I grinned at him, starting, "Do you want your backpack?"

I remembered that he left his backpack in the same tent as mine, before we went out to go canoeing and hiking yesterday.

We just got back this morning, and Mom, Michael and Nate were starting new again.

Man, they were energetic.

He shook his head and grinned at me, "I'm sure you take care of things well."

I raised my left eyebrow at him, with a questioning look. He hung the camera strap around his neck and gave me a wave. I saw Mom going up to him, and he just nodded his head.

"See you later, Janie!" Mom exclaimed.

"Okey dokey!"

With that, the three of them went off, and I fell back down on the pillow of my sleeping bag, groaning.

I have to be in this tent, for who knows how many hours?

This camping trip was worst than I expected.





So, Nate's phone fell off the waterfall and it is probably his fault that he made the both of us jump out of the water, to have it fall out of his pockets.

But I can't help feeling bad, so I'm looking for a phone to get him to pay back for all the kindness that he's been giving me. It's seriously the best that I can do.

Oh! How did I forget the date?

It is...



Sixteenth of July, Two Thousand Eleven on a Saturday

So anyways, back to the point of Nate's phone. He suddenly decided that he wanted to jump off the boat, because he stated that if we stayed in the boat then we would immediately fall off the waterfall. So I have no idea how jumping off into the very hard, and fast moving water currents are going to help, but I guess he knew what he was doing.

Oh, I almost died falling off the waterfall. Thank god I play volleyball, because if it wasn't for all that hard training during practice, I would've have been able to hold on.

Then again, I can't thank only God. I have to thank Nate as well for not letting go of me.



I stopped to think for a second to the moment that Nate was holding onto me when I was at the edge of the waterfall.

The feeling of his hands touching mine was something different, and I had no idea what it was.

Or maybe it was because I had never been in this type of situation before. Like a near death experience and he was there to help me through everything.

I sighed to myself, remembering I was recording myself so I snapped back to reality.



Oh, sorry.

Where was I?

Oh, right... Nate.

My stepbrother

So, umm.

Nate... helped me... not die. If anyone wants a straight answer.

Then we were stuck in the woods for the entire night. To make it worse, it started raining. So Nate and I slept under the tree, in the rain.

Then in the morning, when I had to go pee... A bear was picking up scraps in the middle of the woods so I guess that goes to point out the next story of what happened. I tripped, and my ankle started bleeding again. As if my ankle didn't hurt enough, I couldn't walk anymore.

So Nate gave me a piggy back ride back to the campsite.

Now I'm here. In this tent for two. Alone. In the middle of the afternoon. So this video may be longer than it normally should be.



Before I could say anything else, my phone began vibrating and Jackson's picture blinked onto the phone screen.

I puckered my lips together, slowly raising my finger to press the decline button.

When I did, it took me straight back to the camera pointing at my face and I smiled.



I guess the point of this video was to say that Nate is a good person.

A really good person.



I turned off the recording, and collapsed back on my pillow before I embarrassed myself on camera even more.

Was it wrong for me to say that I wanna get to know this kid a lot more than what I already know.

I wanna know why he's quiet.

I wanna know why he's depressed.

I wanna know the relationship he has with Michael.

I wanna know just everything there is to know.

I also wanted to know when the hell did I ever decline Jackson's call?



When I heard a ruffling sound outside of the tent, I slowly opened my eyes, turning my body around to look out the tent window.

I saw Mom, Nate and Michael just coming back, so I quickly sat up to get a clear view of them.

I realized that the sky was already dark, so I turned to look at the time seeing it was already eight at night.

When did I even doze off?

Wiping my face to wake up a little, I shook my head around and then got out of the tent to go say hello to them.

"Hellooooooooo," I said, expanding my greeting a little.

Mom's face brightened up after seeing me and then coming up to me.

"Oh God, Janie. It was absolutely beautiful. I wish you were there to see it."

I smiled, glancing at Nate, who was looking at Mom, grinning. I sighed, running a hand in my hair, "Well... There's always a next time."

"You would actually come if there was a next time?" Michael asked.

I shrugged, grinning, "Hey... Sleeping in a tent all day is not the worse thing ever."

Mom and Michael laughed a bit, while Nate played around with his camera. I saw him holding something in a plastic bag in his other hand, so I asked, "Did you get good pictures?"

He looked up at me and raised his eyebrows quickly, "I'll compare it to yours when they're developed."

I let out a laugh, while crossing my arms at the same time. Michael shot Nate a glance, so Nate stopped smiling.

What was up with these two?

Just then, some called out, "Samantha!"

Mom looked around and after a few seconds, a short Asian woman was running up to us, waving frantically.

Mom began waving and walking up to her, as they reached each other, "Sandy... How are you?"

I wanted to guess this was one of Mom's customers, because we were always bumping into them everywhere we go.

"Are you on a vacation?" She asked, in a very Asian accent.

"Umm yes," Mom replied. "With my husband and my children..."

She turned around to look at us and we all waved at her.

Then Mom grabbed Michael by his sleeve and pulled him towards her, "Meet my husband, Michael Johnson. He's going to be the new head in the department of management and accounting. We're together on this."

The Asian woman clapped her hands and giggled, "How sweet of both of you."

Still standing with my arms crossed, I stepped back a little, going closer to Nate.

Just in case he wanted to say something.

"So seriously," I began. "How was the view? Your pictures come out good?"

He scratched his cheek a little, smiling widely, "Seriously? You'll see them when they're developed."

"When will that be?"

"You'll see." He repeated.

I pouted my mouth at him and released my arms by the side.

He nudged his head towards the tent, sighing, "Bet you had a good time talking with your boyfriend all day long."

I turned my head in a half circle to look back at the tent, and then looked back at Nate, narrowing my eyes. "Heh?"

He grinned again, and shook his head, indicating that he was not going to say anything further.

Pouting my mouth again, I brought my arms up to cross over each other again, not knowing what to say anymore. He covered his mouth with his fist a bit, to let out a cough and brought the plastic bag he was holding up.

He reached into the plastic bag, taking out a black box and handing it to me. I gave him a puzzled look and he grabbed my wrist, forcing the box into left hand.

I grasped it lightly, still confused and he nudged his head up, "I figured you might be hungry since there's nothing to eat around here and you've been in a tent for over five hours..."

He drifted off a little, letting go of the box. I looked inside the box to see one side with rice and one side something that looked like general tsao's chicken, which got me wicked excited.

As I looked at him, he continued, "Let's just say I pay attention to details..."

He quickly walked away from me with a smile, going towards the building that had a bathroom in it, and left me standing there in awe again.

I glanced at Mom, who was finally finishing up her conversation with her Asian customer and they went separate ways. I saw Michael starting to walk somewhere, heading in the same direction where Nate went.

I went up to Mom, groaning and she began, "What do you have there?"

I raised the food box up and shrugged, "Hopefully general chicken. Nate bought it for me so I guess..."

"Ohhhhh," Mom sang, sounding like she just figured something out. "That's where he disappeared to. We saw a small Chinese food stand selling asian noodle soup and stuff, and he disappeared for a while and came back with this."

"Did he buy anything else? Something for himself?"

"He bought something, but it was only a bag of chips which he ate the entire time going to the historical site. He's been carrying the food box with him all day. Now I know it was for you."

I let out a laugh, admiring him even more.

"Wait," Mom continued. "How does he even know you like Chinese food? Did you tell him?"

Mom's question lingered into my brain a bit, making me think back to the first day that I ever met him.

The second sentence that he ever said to me.

I like Chinese food too.

And just now, before he left, he said, Let's just say I pay attention to details...

I chuckled again, answering, "That is one question that does not have an answer in it."

She looked at me oddly, crossing her arms.

I tried not to smile so widely, so I only grinned trying to control my emotions.

Continuing, I said happily, "All I know is that the kid gets better by the day."



We joined in on a small bonfire that they had nearby the campsites, aside the lake.

It started at around 12 am and it was currently 1 in the morning, which was making me very sleepy. Although it was summer, being in the middle of the woods in the very early morning can be a little chilly.

I was sitting there in my pajamas, hugging Jackson's sweatshirt around my entire body.

I actually decided to answer his phone call after declining the first one in the afternoon and got to talk to him. It made me realize that I actually did miss him and hopefully will see him soon.

Looking around the group of people that we were currently spending our time with, I glanced around to see where Nate was. He disappeared almost an hour ago and his "be right back" wasn't really an honest statement.

"Looking for Nate?" Mom asked.

I grinned, nodding my head to agree with her question and she nudged her head backwards. Sighing, she continued, "My daughter must've been a lonely child without telling me."

I slightly hit her arms, looking backwards to where she nudged her head. Mom stated, "When I took a bathroom break, I saw him sitting alone by the lake playing his guitar. I don't think he's coming back to join us."

I pouted my mouth, standing up, wiping the dirt off my dark gray pajama sweatpants. I pulled the sweatshirt over my shoulders to wear

I looked at Michael, who was at a far distance from us, because he was creating another campfire with another family whose tent was right by us.

I waved to Mom, telling her that I would see her later, and started walking to where she said Nate would be.

I loved how she was trying to get the two of us to bond with each other.

After walking for a good five minutes, I finally saw him sitting right on a space of dirt, right at the edge of the water. I stood there for about a minute, trying to hear what he was playing on his guitar.

He went back and forth from playing a song, then just playing around with the chords.

I finally began walking towards him, starting, "You made the effort to bring your guitar with you?"

I saw him jump a little, turning his head to me and smiled, "Hey."

Scratching my head awkwardly, I walked up to the dirt he was sitting on, and sat right next to him. Our shoulders brushed against each other very lightly, so he shifted to his left just a bit. Sitting cross legged, I continued, "What kind of songs do you play?"

Moving his hand along all the strings of the guitar, making a soft stringing sound, he sighed, "I usually just do cover songs. I don't really know how to create music."

"I would've thought you were good at expressing your thoughts through music," I answered. "You seem to be artistic."

"I only express myself through my pictures."

"And will I ever see those pictures?"

"If you have the answer."

I shot a look at him, narrowing my eyes, "If I have the answer?"

The... Answer?

What does that mean?

He nodded, "But as for music... There is no answer. I just play whatever I hear on the radio. Get the guitar lyrics on the internet and just play them."

I always wanted Jackson to play the guitar so he could play songs for me, but he never ended up learning or even going near a guitar.

I hummed a bit before speaking, while Nate only looked at me.

"Ummmmmm," I hummed, looking around the water. "So... If I liked a song, you could play it?"

He didn't answer right away, but he only narrowed his eyes with a questioning look. It took him a minute to reply, saying, "You mean play it for you?"

"Not particularly... for... for... me," I began stuttering. "I meant... If I liked... liked... a so... song... in general. Like, could you play it? Just for me to hear?"

He nodded like he understood, grinning.

I already predicted the answer would be "yeah right" or a sarcastic remark like "maybe in our next life".

"Sure." He suddenly said.

"Huh?" I asked, turning around.

"Sure." He repeated. "Just tell me what song you like. I can play it for you to hear."

I looked at him again, a bit surprised, but grinning.

I looked down at my sneakers, playing around with the strings of my sweatpants, not knowing what to say.

"Thanks." I said, plaintively.

He began playing something random, knowing he was trying to make the silent awkwardness less awkward.

"Cold, huh?" I asked, trying to not sound like an idiot.

He stopped playing again, and chuckled, "Nothing else to complain about?"

I choked a little, trying to let out a laugh, but only hit his shoulders, "Anytime you're not a meanie?"

"Hey, complaining again."

I pouted my mouth in slight frustration, resting my chin on my left hand, with my elbow on my legs to support it.

"Fine," I said, giving up. "You talk then. Apparently everything that comes out of my mouth seems to be complaints. That's not only according to you. That's according to my best friend, my mother, my stepfather, my boyfriend and now you."

"And that should prove my point."

I smirked, "Like I said. I'm not talking."

He only smiled, staying quiet for a very long time.

He didn't even play with his strings on his guitar, so the only sounds we could hear was the wind, the trees brushing against each other and the very far echo of the people at the bonfire. I looked up at the stars, noticing that the sky was extremely clear making think about a bunch of things in life.

It was when I was about six or seven years old, I sat in the backyard with Dad, looking at the stars.

He was telling me all the names of the stars that he knew and making short fairytales of the stars.

I always believed them when they were younger, but growing up, I began thinking that Dad's stories about stars were just ridiculous. So I stopped listening to them.

He kept telling them every night to me and I just sat there with a solemn face, not wanting to hear them anymore.

I regret every moment that I didn't listen to him.

I wish I could take the moments that I didn't listen to his stories back.

I wish I could have him back.

Ever since Dad passed away, I have been admiring every single star since then, and I try to relive the stories that he used to tell. I sometimes end up laughing thinking about how he told them to me when I was just a little child.

I missed him so much that I couldn't explain.

Dad always promised me that he was going to name a star after me, but that didn't happen because he passed away right before.

But I've always remembered the last words that he said to me...

"I hope that when you look up into the sky, the first thing that you will come into your head is Daddy. You will get to be a star one day, and I will be in heaven congratulating you every step of the way. My little baby girl will always be my shining star.

I smiled to myself, thinking about his last words to me.

It might be sad to say that I've always wanted to be an actress, but I feel like that isn't going to happen anytime soon, or ever. But I've always had high hopes that someone would actually name a star after me.

A star named Janie.

That actually sounds decent.

"Deep thinking?" I heard Nate ask.

I turned around, with a questioning look as he had a smirk on his face.

I slightly chuckled, replying, "Just... Thinking about my Dad..."

He looked surprised with my answer because it was one of the more serious ones that I've given him. He only nodded at me, looking down at his guitar so I stretched my neck left to right.

"Did you lose your Mom like I lost like my Dad?"

I heard him choke a little, which resulted in a small cough, staring at me like I had two heads or something.

I only looked at him with a straight face, but I wanted to know.

I don't care how straight forward the answer was, I just... Wanted to know.

"What?" He assured.

"Did you lose your Mom?" I repeated. "I lost my Dad from cancer. So I wanted to know if you lost your Mom. Or did your Mom leave you guys?"

"Why are you all of a sudden asking about my Mom?"

When he asked that question, it made me realized that I might've been too straight forward with him.

He probably doesn't even want to talk about it at all.

I felt like a jerk now.

I pulled my bangs out of the way and sighed, "Sorry... I just... You don't have to answer it."

I began standing up, because I felt embarrassed with myself.

As I began turning around to leave, I heard him call, "Janie."

I stopped right at my tracks, with my arms crossed, wondering if that call was in my head or was it real.

I only turned my head around to see him looking at me.

We met eyes, but I couldn't possibly come up with any words to say to him.

I saw him gulp once, and continued, "My Mom was murdered."

My eyes widened, but he only turned back to look at the dark lake. His back was facing me and his answer made me even feel more worse that I already felt.

I sighed to myself, hitting my forehead with my knuckles multiple times.

Why did I do that?

I'm so stupid sometimes.

I turned back around, walking up behind him, just standing there.

Very slowly, I raised my hands towards his shoulders, and hesitated a little before actually touching it. I closed my eyes a little, then finally touched his shoulders.

Since I was being a jerk, I felt like I should've comforted him in someway.

He looked up at me, so I smiled at him, sitting down to the right of him. I continued patting his shoulders, just looking at him as he looked down.

He seemed like he wanted to cry, but I didn't see any tears. He only looked very upset, so I apologized.

"Sorry." I said, softly.

He finally looked at me, studying my face a little, then back to looking at my eyes.

I saw a small grin come out of him, so I didn't let go of his shoulders.

There's too much that I need to learn now.



"Say what now?" I asked Mom, who just announced that Nate and I were sleeping in the same tent.

After Michael literally dragged us to come back to the campsite, Mom somehow convinced Michael that Nate and I were sleeping in the same tent.

"You really should be thanking me Janie," Mom stated. "I'm the one making the effort for you to become closer to your stepbrother. You said so yourself you were excited to have a new brother."

I placed my palm on my forehead, trying to find a way to disagree with Mom.

"I know," I groaned. "But... He's a dude... And we're not related..."

There was some awkward silence for a minute or two, and she narrowed her eyes at me, "Are you getting thoughts?"

"NO!" I immediately screamed, probably scaring other campers. Mom shushed me so I quickly continued, "I'm not getting thoughts. You should know me better than that."

"That's what I figured. Now, hurry up before the guys get back."

I clicked my tongue against my teeth, scratching my head.

Michael and Nate came back, walking next to each other, with very faces that I couldn't really analyze.

They came up to us and Michael immediately placed his hands on Nate's backs.

"You guys should really go to sleep," Michael started. "Tomorrow's gonna be another long day. We're gonna do some more exploring, then we're finally heading home. You up for the early morning Janie?"

I smiled, looking down at the ankle, that was now an actual white wrap instead of Nate's turned up shirt. I nodded, "I should be able to. My ankle's feeling much better after medications."

Michael nodded and sighed, "Alright then. Goodnight guys."

He looked at Nate once more and nudged his head. Nate headed into our tent, laying himself on the right side, near the tent window.

"Go to sleep Nate," Michael kept insisting.

"I think he gets it," Mom added.

I saw Nate crossing his arms, pulling a blanket over what he was sleeping on, which was his sleeping bag. He began closing his eyes so I looked over at Mom and Michael to see them smirking at me.

"Alright," I announced. "Good night then. Wake me up tomorrow."

"Sure do." Michael answered.

Awkwardly shifting my body around, I waved at them and slowly went into the tent. I stepped onto the other side, as I heard Mom and Michael's footsteps go back into their tent. At the window, I saw Michael sleeping on the side that had the window, and we met eyes, waving at each other.

I zippered the tent door up and locked it at the top. Seeing Michael closing his windows, I saw Nate already sleeping.

Man, he fell asleep fast.

I started zippering up the windows, trying not to fall over Nate, but it wasn't going up.

I stepped back, taking a breath, and reached my hand out for the second time.

You can do this.

Don't wake Nate up.

I began zippering about half of a quarter of it successfully, when all of a sudden, Nate sat up to grab my wrists, which made me jump and shriek softly.

"I thought you went to sleep!" I exclaimed, softly.

He didn't respond, but only sat up, to zipper the rest of the canopy to close the tent windows.

"I didn't want you to fall on me."

I glared at him, narrowing my eyes, a bit offended.

I took Jackson's sweatshirt off and laid it near my pillow, laying down on my sleeping bag as well. I pulled my flower patterned blanket over me, leaving my arms out.

I looked to my left seeing Nate with his eyes still wide open so I wanted to conclude before I went to sleep, "Sorry about your Mom."

He turned to face me, slightly smiling, "Yeah. I am too."

"Well," I sighed. "I guess... Good night."

I turned my body the other way, having my back facing him, curling myself up to sleep. At this moment, I was wondering what he was thinking about.

What his thoughts were on us sleeping in the same tent, very close to each other.

"I forgot to tell you something." Nate suddenly said, way out of the blue.

I shifted my body back to face him again, curious to know what he was gonna say next.

"Hmm?" I said, with our eyes locking each other.

"I forgot to say that this was the second day I've seen you without makeup."

I narrowed my eyes, puzzled, not knowing where he was going with that statement. "I guess that's a bad thing, right?"

He shook his head and grinned, "The exact opposite."

With that, he turned around, with his back facing me and left me there smiling. I smiled very widely, not able to control my happiness. I turned back around, curling myself up, smirking to myself.

I'm just glad to know that he wasn't mad at me.



I felt like my head was hurting as I was struggling to get my eyes to open. I finally began flickering them as I was drifting away from my dream, feeling the warmth of the sun pierce through whatever I was sleeping in.

When I fully opened my eyes, I realized I was still sleeping under the tent, on the very soft sleeping bag and my head was off the pillow.

That's why my head hurt.

But there was something way worse than my head hurting.

Where my arms were placed and where my face was facing.

My right arm was wrapped around Nathan and my face was right in front of him.

He was still sleeping, so I got a clear view of his face.

It was so white.

So clear.

So...

Cute.

The definition of handsome.

If he woke up right now, this would be the most embarrassing and awkward thing ever.

How did I even change positions?

I knew I should've something in between us.

I breathed heavily to myself, slowly moving my arms off his waist at the softest motion ever. It took me a good two minutes, but I finally did it and he didn't move a muscle.

I exhaled a breath out of relief and turned to the other side of him.

The position I was supposed to be in.

I could feel my entire face turning red because touching them, I could feel the warmth at the palm of my hands.

"Oh thank God he didn't wake up," I sighed to myself, feeling all flustered.

If Mom knew I woke up in that position, she would kill me.

Even worse, Jackson would go over the extremes.



After a long and silent trip back from Yellowstone National Park, I finally saw the sign of Summit Drive appear at the blink of my eyes.

My face finally lit up, knowing that I was finally going to collapse on my bed after a night of sleeping on the dirt, a night sleeping in a small tent and another night sleeping in the backseat of a car, sitting up.

I glanced at the clock, seeing that it was already twelve in the afternoon, but Michael really did take his time coming back home.

I took my headphones out, rolling it around my phone and seeing Nate getting his backpack out.

Our eyes locked with one another and he only raised his eyebrows at me, while I smirked.

It took Michael about another ten minutes to actually reach our actual home and I got even more excited.

Almost pulling into the driveway, I saw a familiar looking dark gray car, but couldn't make out the license plate.

"Janie," Mom started. "What's Jackson doing here?"

Oh yeah.

Jackson said he was coming back earlier from his trip to France, but why was he at my house now?

"He said he came back early, but I thought I told him I would be back on Tuesday."

"He probably just couldn't wait to see you." Mom answered.

I snickered, glancing over at Nate who was only tying his shoelaces of his black sneakers.

I tied my entire hair up into a bun, placing my backpack on my legs. When we pulled into the driveway, I saw a clear view of Jackson's license plate and assured that it was him.

"I'll come back to help get the bags," I announced. "I just gotta go say hi to him."

When the car came to a full stop, I immediately unlocked the door and slid it open in order to get out. Shifting my backpack over my shoulders, I sprinted to the front door, ready to open it with my key, but at the exact same time, the door opened and Jackson came out.

"Hey!" He greeted, excitedly.

I smiled at him, as he kissed my cheeks and hugged me.

When we pulled away from each other, he studied my face a little and smiled, "You look quite different today."

I looked down at my outfit, which was a small blue plaid hoodie with shorts and my pink sneakers, and smiled, scratching my head.

Not exactly the first words I wanted to hear from my boyfriend after not seeing him for two weeks, but it wasn't bad.

"Bad thing or good thing?"

He shrugged, "Anything's fine with me."

I nodded, a little puzzled while he gave me another kiss on the cheek.

He held onto my hand, asking, "So how was your trip?"

"Oh, it was interesting." I answered, glancing at Nate, who seemed to be very focused on getting his bags out of the trunk.

Jackson gave me a puzzled look and continued, "Umm. Anyway. Sorry I came early. Mom and Dad wouldn't leave the house, so I took the advantage to leave first."

"Early?" I asked puzzled, not knowing what he was talking about.

"Yeah. I know you said 12:30 but I figured you wanted to go wash up and stuff."

I was still confused on what he was saying.

But it took a few minutes for a lightbulb to hit my head.

I told Jackson I would come back and help pick a birthday present for his Dad because it was tomorrow. And Jackson's Dad always loved my gifts.

I placed my palm on my forehead and groaned, "Your Dad's birthday present... Right..."

"Did you forget?"

"No," I lied... Trying to make an excuse, but I had to confess. "Yes. I'm sorry. It's just a lot of unexpected things happened on this trip and everything is just a blur to me. I'm sorry."

"Do you not wanna go... Or...?"

"No," I immediately said, cutting him off. "Just give me a few minutes. I gotta go wash up. Umm, maybe you could help get the bags out of the trunk? It would be less of a load on Nate and Michael."

"Nate?"

I nodded, looking towards Nate's direction. Nate looked up at us and I only smiled at him. I turned back to Jackson to see him glaring at Nate, so I hit his arm, nudging my head to help them.

Jackson grinned at me, giving me a peck on the lips, then heading towards the van.

I held my backpack straps over my shoulders and walked into the front door.

Closing it, I leaned against the door and groaned to myself, "So much for relaxing."