The Senior Camping Trip
“Make yourself useful.” Jill chucked her a sleeping bag.
Abby caught it and groaned. Kate staggered out of the blue house garage behind her with additional gear. After dumping it at the car, she plucked the cigarette from Abby’s mouth.
“Hey.” Abby scowled. “That’s my last one in civilization. Maybe ever. Have you seen The Blair Witch Project?”
“No.” Kate squashed it beneath her hiking boot. “Are you really afraid of camping?”
She shook her head. “I’m not afraid.”
“You are, aren’t you?” Kate grinned.
Abby smiled back, her cheeks reaching for the corners of her eyes. “I am not.”
“Can you two stop flirting and help me?” Jill grunted as she maneuvered gear into her trunk.
Kate blushed and started loading sleeping bags. Abby frantically hefted up a cooler, thankful for the distraction of T.K.’s Mercedes swerving to a crooked park job along the curb.
“Please tell me we’re not actually doing this.” T.K. stomped over to join them.
“It’s a tradition,” Kate said.
“I don’t need to sleep in the woods and squat piss to bond with you.”
“It’s one night, T.K., I don’t want to either,” Abby said.
“There better be cell service.” T.K. tossed her designer bag to Kate before plopping into the passenger seat and slamming her door.
“Don’t tell her,” Jill muttered. “Okay, let’s get going! Mick! Enough already!”
While everyone else packed the car, Mick lingered on the front steps, kissing Haley.
“I can’t deal with this. It’s not even cute anymore,” Jill said. “You two get her. Sixty seconds and I’m leaving.”
Abby and Kate chuckled. They observed the make-out session, leaning against the car as dried leaves clattered across the pavement.
“Have you ever liked someone that much?” Kate asked.
Abby’s mouth quirked. “Not yet.” She glanced at Kate. “You?”
“No.” Kate shook her head but smiled.
Abby nudged her shoulder. “I’ll get her.”
Jill blasted her horn. “Sadie Louise McMechan, I swear to God if you don’t stop sucking face, I’m going to leave you here!”
“Who the fuck is Sadie? Can I stay behind too?” T.K. asked. “I’ll suck someone’s face.”
“I’m afraid that’s not all you’d suck.”
Abby bounded up the steps and grabbed Mick, who uttered a few final sweet nothings to Haley as if leaving for war and not twenty-four hours in the woods.
They rolled down the windows and blasted music on the drive to Lost Lake.
The road winded up toward Mount Hood, bordered on either side by trees, jade and gold rushing by as Abby let the air slice through her fingers.
A near perfect morning. One that still didn’t compare to Kate’s thigh brushing hers, stripes of light painting her cheeks, putting sparkles in her irises and smile.
Coach Whitley and her right hand, Coach Ackers, met them at the campsite, a dirt clearing nestled in ferns and overgrown brush.
Jill and Kate took charge of setting up while T.K.
raised her phone to the legion of trees and paced for service.
Abby cursed and fumbled over the tent poles, though she considered it well worth it every time Kate’s hand swooped against hers.
The coaches led them on a hike around the lake and up the butte.
Mountains surrounded them on all sides, their visages mirrored in the water.
Abby hung back with Mick, eyeing Kate ahead.
She wrestled with the usual, expected longing, but today it was enough.
In this slice of wonder, simple nearness felt like transcendence.
Plus, Kate’s ass looked fantastic in those hiking shorts.
Abby bit her lip as she stared and tripped over a root.
Mick laughed and caught her by the hood of her sweatshirt. “Nice view back here, huh?”
Abby jerked away. “Thanks.”
Mick raised her eyebrows as they trudged along. “I’m onto you.”
“What are you talking about?” she asked, swatting at a bug buzzing near her ear. “I’m getting eaten alive.”
“I’m talking about Hutch,” Mick whispered.
Abby watched the group ahead, slowing to keep her distance. “What about her?”
“How long have you been in love with her?”
She kicked at the dirt. “I’m not in love with her.”
“At first, I thought you were just giving her shit, but then I realized you were flirting. You’re always together, always looking at each other.”
“Coach partnered us together.”
“You even started doing those awful morning runs with her. There’s no way your chain-smoking ass is doing that voluntarily. Even Haley notices.”
“Oh, well, fuck, if she notices it, then it must be true.” Abby swatted another bug. “You’re just so blinded by love that you think everyone else around you is too.”
“You two are obsessed with each other.”
“Shut up.” Abby hissed. “I’m going to shove you off when we get to the top.”
“You okay back there?” Coach Whitley shouted.
“All good!” Abby waved. Kate glanced over her shoulder at them. Abby growled into Mick’s ear. “Kate is with Blake. I’m not in love with her and she’s not in love with me.”
Mick chuckled. “Well, I think she has a huge crush on you.”
Suddenly a figure launched out of the woods, roared violently, and clenched Abby’s shoulders. She jumped back and screamed, Mick cowering next to her. Abby raised a fist to strike when Jill’s obnoxious laughter erupted, arms shielding her face.
“It’s just me! It’s me!” Jill cackled.
“Fuck!” Abby lowered her fist.
Jill doubled over, tears in her eyes as she hooted. T.K., Kate, and the coaches snickered too. Abby yanked Mick off the ground where she’d dropped to the fetal position.
“You suck,” Mick said to Jill.
“I’m sorry.” Jill wheezed. “Hutch told me that Cruz is afraid of the woods, and I couldn’t help it.”
Abby’s mouth dropped. “I’m not afraid.”
“You seemed pretty scared.” Kate smiled.
“You almost punched me in the face,” Jill said.
“I did warn you she’d do that.”
“Okay, ladies, let’s go!” Coach Whitley ordered.
Abby shoved Jill before bounding to catch up with Kate. Undeterred by her conversation with Mick, Abby prodded her sides, rousing a yelp. She tickled fingers up her back and arms as Kate squirmed, the sliver of contact, the sweep of fingers, a nibble for her larger hunger.
“Did you tell her to do that?” Abby chuckled.
“No, no.” Kate laughed. “I swear.”
“You’re proving my point!” Mick yelled.
“What point?” Kate asked breathlessly.
Abby stopped tickling, glared at Mick, and mouthed a clear expletive. Kate didn’t notice, or at least pretended she didn’t as she hiked ahead. Abby stared after her, wondering how long she could keep up the charade everyone seemed to see through.
They stoked a fire and assembled s’mores when the moon and stars emerged.
After hours of team building and setting goals, the conversation swerved from talk of softball to talk of summer.
Coach Whitley, usually uninterested in their personal lives, asked about Mick’s new girlfriend at T.K.
’s behest. Jill shared her enduring relationship with Dylan Farrelly, a cross-country-running accounting major who was as goofy and redheaded as she was.
Jokes about their future ginger children piled on.
When it got to Kate and Blake, Abby’s back tightened.
She glared into the fire, didn’t partake as T.K.
and Jill screeched about the prospect of a wedding, and shoved a s’more into her mouth.
“What about you, Cruz?” T.K. asked.
Abby shook her head, cheeks stuffed with an aggrieved mouthful. “Not much to tell.”
Mick snickered. “More like too much to tell.”
T.K.’s mouth dropped. “Oh, now I have to know.”
“There’s nothing to know,” Abby said, gaze darting to Kate, who stared at her through the fire.
“Let’s just say people weren’t only interested in her windsurfing lessons,” Mick said. Abby smacked Mick’s roasting stick, sending her golden marshmallow into the flames. “That one was perfect, dick!”
“I didn’t know you were giving lessons.” Kate frowned.
“She wasn’t certified to, but don’t tell the tourists that,” Jill said. “Not that I think they cared, or that they were actually going to her for lessons.”
“Honestly, I’m impressed with your ingenuity, Cruz,” T.K. said.
“I’m impressed you know how to use ingenuity in a sentence, T.K.,” Abby said, desperate to change the subject and hide her escapades from the one person they might hurt. “Tell us about Spain.”
“Oh, where to begin?” T.K. threw her head back. “It started with Andres in Barcelona. I thought he was the most beautiful man I’d ever seen in my life. He walked right up to me and called me an angel. Best sex ever. I’m talking hours.”
Coach Whitley stood. “Okay, it might be time for us to say good night.”
“No, but Coach, there’s more. He took me to a yacht party and introduced me to Valentina. A goddess. I kissed her all night, until her husband, Felipe, showed up. He’s a professional polo player. He wasn’t even mad. It was my first threesome.”
“Okay, that’s enough,” Coach Whitley said as the girls shrieked with laughter. “We’re going to bed. Don’t stay up too late.”
“Good night!” they called.
With the coaches gone, Jill sighed in relief and dug in her pocket. “Thank God. I thought they’d never leave. Good work, T.K.”
“All of that was true. Valentina did this amazing thing with her hips where she rolled and put pressure on my—”
“Okay, enough.” Jill revealed a brownie wrapped in cellophane. “You all down?”
“Hell yes.” Abby smiled. “I’m not sleeping out here sober.”
Jill unwrapped the edible and passed out a few pieces, pausing when she reached Kate. “You want to, Hutch?”
Kate bit her lip. “It’s uh, pot, right?”
Jill nodded.
“Have you ever gotten high?” T.K. asked.
“No.” Kate shook her head. “We signed a contract to not.”
“Oh, please. This shit is legal.”
Abby leaned in and lowered her voice. “Don’t make her do it if she doesn’t want to.”
Kate ignored her. “It won’t make me feel crazy, right? It doesn’t last too long?”
“You’ll just feel relaxed. It’s nice.” T.K. broke off a fifth of the brownie. “Here.”
“Give her a smaller piece,” Abby said.
“I can handle it.” Kate glared.