Heart It Races

"Have you decided about Thanksgiving?" My dad asked as I sat at the counter eating breakfast, it was Saturday morning, and all four of the boys, who had slept over last night were still asleep upstairs.

"No, not yet, I haven't thought about it really." I groaned running a hand through my hair, not wanting to have this conversation right now. It was too early.

"Well be thinking about it because we'll need to book your flight soon."

"Okay."

I stood up putting my cereal bowl in the sink before going outside. It was rather cloudy out and looked like it could start raining at any minute.

Going over to my car I opened the glove box, pulling out the disk book that was in there, before unzipping the otherwise empty thing, pulling out an almost empty carton of cigarettes and a lighter.

I sneaked to the side of the house, sitting behind a small shrub so the neighbors wouldn't see, before lighting the thing and inhaling my sweet relief. The burn of nicotine felt good against my throat and my mind began to calm, removing all current worry of November.

I finished quickly, not wanting to get caught, taking a quick body spray bath before reentering the house. I could hear Michael and Ashton in the kitchen.

When I entered the room they were the only two to be seen, leaving me slightly relieved in case any smoke remnants clung to my clothes or hair.

"Where's my dad?"

"Well, good morning to you too." Mike said, offended.

"My apologies, good morning Michael and Ashton, now answer my question."

"He said he was going to change because he's taking Veronica out today or something."

I nodded, taking a seat at the table in between the two, who were scarfing down their own breakfast.

"Did you sleep well?" Michael asked thoughtfully glancing at me.

We had all fallen asleep on the couch last night watching a movie, and I did not in any sense of the word get a good night's rest.

"Well, seeing how Luke's foot was in my face the whole time, and you were laying on my arm," I glared at Michael, "I'm gonna have to say no." I stood, grabbing a juice box from the fridge.

"Weird, I slept like a baby."

I rolled my eyes, hopping up on the counter.

"Good morning." Calum sighed loudly, walking groggily into the room, hair standing up all over the place.

"Nice hair." I laughed, earning small giggles from Ash and Mike.

"Fuck off." He flipped me the finger, a small smile on his lips, telling me he wasn't really annoyed.

"What are we doing today?" Ash asked, putting his bowl in the sink.

"I don't know, what do you want to do?"

"What is there to do?"

"Well, there's the mall, downtown will be super crowded so that's out of the question, there's this one place by th-"

"We should go camping!" Calum suggested, leaning against the counter next to me.

"Yeah let's go camping!" Ashton piped.

They all looked at me expectantly and I didn't even have to think about it, I loved camping, all the being out in nature and places to explore fueled my fascination with the world. I guess my treat would have to wait until next weekend.

"Yeah, that sounds fun! There's this place in San Marcos, like 20 minutes away, I'll call and see if they have any spots open, someone wake up Luke."

I hopped off the counter going upstairs to grab my phone, searching the interwebs from the number to Rob's Place.

"Hello, Rob's Place, Rob speaking."

"I'd like to know if you have any spots open for today and tomorrow?"

"Sure do! In fact, we've only got two other people in for the weekend, both only here for a canoe race down river, so it'll be like you have the whole place to yourselves!"

"Awesome! Thank you so much!"

"Sure thing!"

I hung up excitedly before taking the small tabs out of my phone case and putting them in the small velvet box that had held a pair of earrings my dad had purchased for me, knowing they would tempt me over the weekend.

There was a knock at my door.

"Come in!" I put the box in my sock drawer quickly.

I turned from where I was leaning over my dresser to see my dad standing in the door way, dressed in dark jeans and a button up shirt, his combed and perfectly placed hair reminded me he was going out with Veronica, "Hey, I'm going to brunch with Ronnie, and then I think we're gonna go to that new art museum."

"Okay. The boys and I are gonna go down to Rob's Place and camp for the weekend, is that cool with you?"

"When are you coming back?"

"Sunday night probably."

"That's fine with me."

Neither of us said anything else and I was expecting him to leave now but he still sat on the edge of my bed.

"How would you feel about me asking Veronica to move in with us?"

The question shocked me, not the idea of it, just that he would bring it up right now. I liked Veronica a lot, and the thought of her made me realize it had been a while since I'd seen her. I missed her. She was like a mother to me already, but a good one.

"Yeah, that'd be cool."

"Really?" He sounded surprised.

"Yeah, I like Veronica."

He broke out into a wide smile, "I'm gonna ask her today! I hope she says yes! Have fun on your trip by the way!" He called over his shoulder as he left my room.

"Wait! Where's the tent?"

"In the garage!"

"I'm taking the Expedition!"

I walked into the upstairs game room, seeing Luke finally awake, the other boys lounging about as well, all looking expectantly at me.

"He said there are plenty of spots open, so, we should leave soon, that way we have time set up and swim and explore and stuff!"

I made a list of all the things we would need, tent, food, sleeping bags, ect., making sure not to leave anything out, taking note of the fact that we would need to stop and buy food as well as stop by the boys' house so that they could get clothes. I then collected what we did have, as well as my clothes, taking them out to the car with help from Luke and Mike, Calum and Ashton too busy adding on to the list of food.

***

I followed Michael up to his room, plopping down on the unmade bed as he scrambled around to get his clothes together.

"I've never been camping." He voiced, attempting to put his clothes neatly in his bag.

"Really?" I wasn't really surprised, he didn't seem like the camping type.

"Yeah, I'm kind of excited." He smiled, zipping up the duffle and flopping next to me, pulling me to lay down with him. His green eyes bore into my own, neither of us saying anything.

"What song is playing in your head right now?" I asked him softly, bringing my fingers to run through his hair, his eyes closed and he pulled me closer to him, humming with satisfaction.

"What do you mean?" He was confused.

"Everyone always has a song playing in their head." I shrugged.

He seemed to think about it, "Heart It Races, the cover by Dr. Dog."

"Why?"

His cheeks seemed to warm at the question, "I don't know."

"What do you think that song is about?"

"Why do you ask a lot of weird questions?"

I shrugged, not sure why I did it, although they we're all the spawn of my curiosity.

"I think it's kind of about problems or worries that you try not to acknowledge, and how nervous they make you, they make your heart race because the first line in the song 'And we're slow to acknowledge the knots in our laces, heart it races' is basically saying you don't want to deal with the issue at hand, but I could be wrong, it could just be about some kid with a hard on for some girl."

"Michael!" I laughed thumping him on the head.

"Well it's true!" He opened his eyes lazily, grabbing my hand from his hair and intertwining our fingers, making my heart flutter. Our faces were close together and I could feel his warm breath against my skin, his perfect pink lips only inches from mine. "I like your weird questions."

"Michael hurry up! Everyone's waiting on you!" Calum whined from the door.

"Coming!" He stood up, holding his hand out for me, which I took letting him bring me to my feet.

***

"Go! Go! Go!" I yelled at Calum jumping in the grocery cart, the other three hot on our tails. It was just past noon and we had stopped to get food on our way to the campsite.

"You'll never catch us!" Calum screeched, running through the aisles, pushing me along. I could see Ashton pushing a very cramped Luke and Michael in the cart behind us.

"They're gonna catch us Cal!" As the words left my mouth the two boys jumped out of the cart all three chasing us on foot.

Ashton grabbed Calum around the middle pulling him to the ground, leaving me still flying down the aisle at full speed.

"Calum!"

"I'm sorry m'lady! I've failed you!"

Michael seized the drama, quickly catching the basket before I could go spinning out of control.

We ransacked the store, grabbing way too much food for just the five of us, before going back out to the car, finally heading to the campsite.