We spent our last day in our little slice of paradise swimming, exploring, driving, dancing, running, and most importantly, laughing. Like all the others, today was bright and sunny, and we spent most of it outdoors, soaking up the last full day here at the lake doing anything and everything we wanted.
And now, well past midnight, we were all gathered around the kitchen table with beers playing drinking games. The game we were all currently invested in is called Kings. We spread out a deck of cards to form a circle and then put a Bud Light in the center. Each card means something different, but after you draw one, you put it under the beer tab. Currently, the beer tab was stuffed with miscellaneous cards, close to popping.
“Nine,” Asher reads the card then grins, and clarifies the rule: “Bust a rhyme.”
I laughed, a hiccup of a giggle, and Vincent tried to drop a beat; key word being tried. But Vincent kept going with the beatbox and left Asher to start the challenge.
“Sometimes I sleep in and come to school late,” Asher raps, bobbing his head while he does so.
It goes next to Tess, who picks up, “The secretaries get so pissed that they close the gate.”
“I just go to school and decide I’ll leave it up to fate,” Nathan continues flawlessly.
I lift my head up, not ready or prepared, but open my mouth and hope for the best. “Whatever though because after school I got a real hot date.”
Vincent drops the beat all at once, removing his hands from his mouth and cursing under his breath. “I wasn’t expecting it to get back to me.”
Everyone started laughing and shouting “Drink!” at Vincent, and so he did. Asher carefully stuck the card under the beer tab and miraculously, it didn’t pop open yet. Tess picks up a card and groans, and I can already guess what it is.
Queen. “Questions,” She mumbles, confirming my thoughts.
Tess hated drawing a queen, or when anyone ever drew a queen, because she hated the questions category. And she should, because she sucks at it.
You can never answer a question with anything other than another question, but for some reason, Tess always ends up answering the question.
“Why is the sky blue?” Tess asks half heartedly.
Nate shrugs, “Does it have to do with why the grass is green?”
“Do you think a blue sky is better than a sunset?” I question thoughtlessly.
Vincent’s tone shifts and he asks seriously, “Why is it so hard to find a cute pair of shoes for a reasonable price?”
“I know right! It’s like impossible to-” Tess stops herself mid sentence when she sees Vincent’s victorious smirk, and she groans loudly into her hands.
Poor Tess. She just gets easily distracted.
Muttering obscenities, Tess leans forward and slides the card under the tab, and a resounding pop echoes from the can. Everyone starts cheering while Tess just glares at the can, probably hating her life. Whoever breaks the tab has to chug the beer.
Tess glares at the can for a few more minutes before she suddenly leans forward, grabs the can, and begins drinking it.
Everyone’s laughing and cheering and hooting and hollering for Tess to go on. And, after a few moments, she crushes the can and throws it on the table.
“Nicely done,” I commend, patting her on the back reassuringly. “You did what needed to be done.”
“Another game?” Asher suggests.
I make a noise of disproval and I’m content to hear everyone else side with me. While Tess, Vince and Asher begin arguing about what game we should play next, I feel a tug on my head, and glance beside me to look at Nathan.
“Come on,” He says softly with the beginning of a smile on his lips. “I want to take you somewhere.”
Wordlessly, I get up and follow him out the front door and toward the cars. For a second I watch him with a furrowed brow as I wonder if he wanted to try to drive, but the confusion passes when he walks by the drivers seat of Vincent’s truck and toward he back. I follow him slowly, where he stopped at the bed of the truck, and watch as he throws me a lopsided smile.
He holds his hand out for me to take, and without words, I take it and let him pull me into the pickup bed. Nathan hoists me up and I stumble a little, giggling as I do so, and end up on my butt. He chuckles too, the sound deep and sexy, and effortlessly pulls himself onto the truck bed. Then he walks over to me and sits down beside me.
“This is where you wanted to take me?” I ask softly with a trace of a smile on my lips as I looked at him through the darkness, the moon our only source of light.
He glances at me sideways and grins. “I think it’s a nice night to lay outside with my girl, don’t you?”
My girl.
The words still sent shivers through me.
“Well,” I hum softly as my lips tug into a broad smile. I lay down slowly in the bed of the truck and glance at him. “I definitely can’t argue with that.”
Nathan lays down beside me on the truck bed and I look up at the sky. From here, you could see all of the millions of bright stars in the sky. The ones you couldn’t see from Philadelphia, because of all the city lights. But lying down on this truck in the middle of the woods, the stars were bright and abundant and beautiful.
I felt Nathan’s hand fishing for mine before his fingers slide between my own and our hands lay together in between us. Lying down beside Nathan, gazing at the stars, I realized before the moment was even over that this was my favorite memory. We could hear the muffled sounds of the music from inside, occasional laughter from our friends, but mostly each other.
I could hear Nathan’s soft breath, and I liked to believe that I could hear the beating of his heart against his chest. Every noise was soft and delicate, beautiful in its own right. I wondered if he could hear my breath or my heart, too.
“The stars are beautiful,” I whisper, eyes glued to the sky, trying to make out the constellations.
“Do you see the Little Dipper?” Nathan asks, his voice just as soft beside me.
I try to find it but can’t, so I turn my head so my cheek is pressing against the truck bed and I can look at Nathan straight on. “Can you show me?”
He smiles at me and moves closer, so his head is against mine, and he pulls our hands up so he can point to the stars. I look at the sky again as Nate points at a collection of stars in front of my face. Sure enough, I spot the Little Dipper, traced by Nathan’s fingers. I smile when I see it, and then wonder which of the other constellations he could see.
“Do you want to know more?” Nathan asks, surprising me, but doesn’t wait for an answer. “That’s Orion’s Belt, but it’s kind of hard to make out.”
His finger moves in front of me, and I focus on the movement as he traces a shape in the sky. I retrace the constellation with my eyes a few more times over, trying to make out the image there. Eventually, it’s all I can see in the sky: Orion’s Belt and the Little Dipper, when previously all I could see in the sky were messily placed stars.
I finally move my gaze from the sky to Nathan, and ask incredulously, “How do you know the constellations?”
He smiles a little and a faraway look enters his eyes. “My dad was really into astronomy. We used to drive the truck out to a field and park and he pointed the constellations out for me.” Nathan suddenly comes to and sees my awestruck expression, and I swear that his face flushed. “It’s stupid, I know.”
I shake my head and immediately explain: “No, it isn’t. I’m just surprised. I never would’ve expected Nathan Rhodes to know constellations.”
Who would ever think Nathan Rhodes could lay down beside you and point out the Little Dipper and Orion’s Belt? No one in the entire school, at least, could expect that of the leather wearing, motorcycle driving, drag racing, hot headed, bad boy had a soft side.
He still looks sheepish, so I smile and continue explaining my thoughts. “I think it’s really cool, actually.”
“No you don’t,” Nathan mutters stubbornly.
I squeeze his hand. “Yes, I do.” And then I look up at the never ending sky, a perpetual slab of black, and say, “It’s amazing that you can look up at something so vast and identify hidden patterns. There’s something really beautiful about that.”
Nathan is silent for a moment, and I’m nervous he’s going to try to keep fighting it, but he doesn’t.
“I know more,” Nathan says eventually. “Do you want to see the Big Dipper?”
I smile widely and tell him that I do, and that’s how the night goes. Lying next to each other, our chests rising and falling in similar rhythm, looking at the stars and making out the constellations, our words coming out in unnecessary whispers.
. . .
“Please Nathan,” I beg as I pull my best pout. “I don’t want to face them alone.”
“You think I want to be the one to tell them?” Nathan asks sarcastically before he scoffs at the thought. “You’re on your own.”
“Please?”
“No.”
“Pleeeeeease, Nate?” I try again, looking directly into his eyes. “I would be so grateful. I’d owe you one.”
This gets his attention.
His eyes light up in familiar boyish mischief and he asks, “Owe me one what?”
I roll my eyes. “So you won’t do it because I want you to, but you’ll do it if I give you something?”
Nathan smirks. “Depends what the ‘something’ is.”
I groan at his boyish behavior before I decide to suck it up and do it alone. With an exaggerated sigh, I open the door to Nathan’s Mustang, which is currently parked outside of my house, and brace myself. Begrudgingly, I grab my bags from his back seat, secretly hoping that he would get out of the car.
But, of course, that stubborn boy never moved out of his seat.
“Okay, here I go,” I say dramatically, looking at Nathan from the open window. “All alone, into the depths of the unknown.”
Nathan chuckled. “The depths of the unknown?”
Finally, I realize that he really was going to make me tell my family that we were together now without his assistance, and I let out a discouraged breath. “Fine,” I finally mutter. “I’ll text you later, okay?”
I take my sweet time trudging up the walkway to my house for a few reasons. Firstly, I didn’t want vacation to officially be over, and I knew that it would be the second I stepped foot back inside. And, secondly, I didn’t want to deal with Luke’s smug face when I told him that Nathan and I were finally dating.
But, of course, both were inevitable to face, so I continued on my way toward the first door. And when I was halfway there, I heard a car door shut, and turned to see Nathan jogging up to me. He was half smirking, like he was going to come with me all along, but loved seeing me get so worked up.
“I’ll help you deal with Luke, but you’re dealing with your mom,” Nathan teases cheekily.
Despite my previous annoyance, I now feel relieved, and I can’t help but crack a smile at Nathan. I nod with a sense of finality and we begin to approach the door together, this time faster than I wanted to. We both stop when we’re in front of the door, and I glance at him nervously.
“Now or never,” I mutter.
Nathan rolls his eyes. “It’ll be fine. I’m more worried about Stephanie’s reaction. I don’t think she likes me very much.”
I wave him off. “Steph will be easy,” I assure, and then reach for the doorknob. “Let’s do this.”
I open the door and take a bold move by stepping inside. There were voices coming from the living room, faint and muffled, but I could hear Luke’s. I drop my bags by the door and then grab Nathan’s hand for support, feeling a bit more relaxed when he squeezes my hand.
We walk toward the voices as they grow clearer and clearer, and I hear my mom speak too. Her voice sounds somber, but I ignore it and continue walking until I reach the doorway. I step inside and see three figures sitting on the couches, all of their heads popping up at my entrance.
Mom and Luke looked at me nervously, and when I looked at the other person in the room, I knew why my moms voice had been so somber. The third person stood up from his seat quickly and looked at me with wide eyes, a shade of green that matched mine.
“Dad?” I whisper incredulously.
He looks surprised to see me, but regains mobility and takes a step toward me. I know he’s going to hug me, and because the last thing I want is for him to touch me, I take a step backward. I bump into Nathan’s chest, but I don’t care. That’s the least of my worries.
I’m staring at my father trying to tell myself it isn’t really him. But it is; he just looks older. His hair is now grey but looks kept and tidy, he’s wearing a button down shirt and dress pants with nice shoes, and his wrinkles became more distinguished when he stood up.
“Lauren, it’s-” He begins speaking, but I shake my head and cut him off.
“Don’t,” I say fiercely.
I knew things were going too well. Everything was too perfect, so now it all has to fall apart.