I Like The Way It Sounds

A few days later, I was eager to go out and do something,... anything. Despite staying inside for a week to avoid the sweltering Arizona heat, my thirst for the good ol'Tempe sunshine was greater than my fear of heatstroke. Ross came into my room at about 6:30 one morning and woke me up, somehow convincing me to go on a hike with him. Actually, it wasn't really hard to talk me into it, considering how much I loved hiking, especially with Ross - it was kind of our "thing". John and I had music, Shane and I loved sports and Ross and I bonded over being "outdoors-y" (something I certainly was never able to take advantage of while in the middle of New York City). The amazing part though, was that I was able to get out of bed and really do anything so early in the morning.

We were out of the house by 7 and drove about 30 minutes to our favorite hiking spot. We took our time making it to the peak and appreciated that the desert air was still tolerable from the chilly nighttime. Ross led the way and I trailed behind, watching each step to avoid stepping on a snakes.

In most situations he'd probably tease me for being so hyper-aware of the possible presence of the slithery reptiles, but he never meant it. He was actually the only one brave enough to even pretend to poke fun at my fear. To this day, Garrett remains the only person outside of my immediate family that I've directly told about my Mother's death, and how it happened. It's not something I particularly like talking about, but it did leave me with this intense, paralyzing fear of snakes. She was bitten by one when my parents had taken John and myself on a camping trip just before I was supposed to start kindergarten. John and I had been messing around by a cactus near our campsite and the snake came out of nowhere, it was just hanging out, but I heard the rattles and screamed. My Mom came running and, in her haste to help me, she got too close and it attacked. The snake got away, and my Dad took quick action, trying to suck the venom out, while picking her up and ushering John and I to the truck. We rushed her to the hospital, but it was too late. We lost her within a few hours. It was terrible, obviously, and scarring. But with time, and people who realized that I was still ME, not some fragile doll, I came to terms with it. Ross' "jokes" helped me because he wasn't afraid of hurting my feelings, and he shouldn't be. He's my brother - it's his job.

Anyway, by the time we reached the peak, we sat down and stayed there for a bit. We had a great view and it was a beautiful day, and it was only just starting to get hot out. We caught up a bit before heading home. On the way, I had him pull over at a Starbucks where I treated us to overpriced coffee and surprisingly yummy muffins for breakfast.

Walking in the door of John and Jenny's house a little later, I was met with all 5 members of The Maine sprawled across the couch, game controllers in hand. A chorus of "hi"'s and "good morning"'s were shot my way, while a sixth controller was tossed to Ross who quickly activated it and joined the game. The only one who actually tried to start a conversation with me was John. I was already half way up the stairs to my room when he called after me, "Yo, Caites! You gonna finish your coffee?" Typical. Truthfully, I wasn't really planning on finishing it anyway, though. "Nah, gimme a sec!," I called down as I jogged the rest of the way to my room. Quickly changing into my favorite bikini and throwing on a light tank top and my sunglasses, I grabbed my iPod and my mini-speakers before quickly descending the stairs two at a time. The remainder of my coffee sloshed around in the cup the whole way down, right until I plopped it into John's outstretched hand. As I entered the room I noticed two heads turned in my general direction. One head had a set of eyes attachted to my body as if they'd never noticed that I was an actual girl who had a body like a girl. The other head was focus on the boy who was staring at me, his own face a mixture of confusion and realization. John, however, was oblivous and slurped on My coffee loudly as I sauntered out of the house, exaggerating the swaying of my hips for the benefit of the boy who I knew was watching me.

About an hour later, I was distracted from my tanning by two girls screaming my name from across the lawn. Gina (Kennedy's on-again-off-again girlfriend who I met when I was 16) and a new girl that Jared dating came running over. She was a pretty blonde who was on the quiet side, but that suited Jared - from what I'd heard they were cute together. Her name was Tiffany. Gina was a little more outgoing and was tall and model thin with shiny chesnut hair cut in a cute bob at her chin. She wrapped me in a warm, excited hug when she finally got over by my poolside spot. Tiffany pulled over a couple of chairs so that she and Gina could sit beside me, once they both sat, she leaned over to give me a one-armed hug. “It’s so nice to finally meet you,” she gushed “everyone always talks about how great you are!” She smiled sincerely and I blushed, looking down at and fiddling with the painted guitar pick wrapped around my wrist. “Aw, thank you! This is why I love Arizona, everyone here talks me up so much when I’m gone that the rest of the world automatically worships me.” I stood up and flung my arms dramatically and pretended to bow just to prove that I was joking, the last thing I needed was for Tiffany to think I was a narcissistic bitch upon knowing me for two minutes. I smiled and added with sincerity, “Seriously though, everyone’s told me how sweet you are, I know we’re going to be good friends.” “THE THREE MUSKATEERS!” Gina added excitedly. Looking at each other, Tiffany and I shouted “ALL FOR ONE AND ONE FOR ALL!” at the same time and the three of us burst into a fit of giggles.

Tiff and I went through the awkward “getting to know you” conversation pretty easily before they both started grilling me on my current “status” with Garrett. The nosy boy in the house must’ve tipped off his girlfriend. Before I had the chance to accuse, Gina cut me off – “Yeah, Ken told us, but we have a plan! We kind of figured you were both confused, especially since you were both just cheated on and you’re such close friends, but…” Tiffany took over, “if you’re willing to find out where this could go, you need to!” I wanted to protest, but I was also curious. What was this plan?

Before I even had a chance to ask, the back door burst open and all of the guys came barreling into the yard, shirtless and ready to cannonball into the pool and soak us with chlorinated water. As his toes skimmed the surface of the water mid-jump, Pat informed us that we were going to Halvo’s in an hour for a rager that was supposedly going on there later. Everyone else jumped in as we nodded in agreement, and while they were submerged, Gina shot me a glance and whispered "tonight."