The Senior Camping Trip #2
She narrowed her brow back. “Fine.”
“Bon appétit.” Jill grinned.
Abby gritted her teeth to resist stopping Kate.
Her eyes still said as much to her. And Kate’s eyes responded in defiance, brow raised as she took her bite.
Abby grumbled under her breath, and while she couldn’t stop Kate, she could stop herself.
She nibbled a crumb of brownie, then covertly slid the larger remaining portion into her jacket.
They poked at the fire and fell into low conversation as they awaited the edible’s effects.
T.K. groaned. “I don’t think I took enough. Do you have more?”
“No, just be patient. You’re lucky I thought to bring any,” Jill said.
“Fine.” T.K. huffed and peered up at the sky. The others followed suit. “Is that Orion’s Belt?”
“No,” Mick said.
“Is it the Big Dipper?”
“No.”
“Is it a UFO?”
“Yes,” Jill said.
“Really?” Kate asked.
Jill sat up. “I mean, fuck, there’s so many out there.” Her eyes expanded to saucers. “As far as we know, all the stars are UFOs. And maybe the UFOs are actually stars.”
Abby scoffed. “What?”
“The government wants to hide aliens from us. Best way to do it is in plain sight.” Jill tapped her temple.
Mick snorted. “They’re just stars.”
“But you don’t know. Have you been up there?” Jill asked.
“I just know what I know.”
“But why?”
“Because I do. Don’t fuck with me right now.”
“I love you guys,” T.K. sighed, throwing her arms around Kate’s and Mick’s shoulders.
Abby chuckled and poked at the fire.
“I’m just saying, how do you really know that they’re stars and not UFOs?” Jill pressed.
Mick huffed. “Because I went to school. Because that’s what we learned.”
“Brainwashing!” Jill shouted.
“Keep it down,” Abby said, glancing over at the coaches’ tent.
“It’s just always been that way,” Mick said.
“Since when?” Jill asked.
“Since always, I don’t fucking know. Since the history of education, Shupe, you stoner, conspiracy theory idiot.”
“Socrates,” Kate said.
The four of them swiveled their heads to her.
“What?”
“The history of education. Socrates would’ve been one of the earliest teachers, right?” She paused, glassily watching the fire, shoving a marshmallow into her already full mouth. “Or I guess the Egyptians, maybe? They had scribes. The Babylonians had libraries…”
T.K. and Jill snorted. Abby grinned, smitten as always.
“God, you’re a nerd, Hutch,” Mick said. Abby raised her roasting stick to hit Mick’s, but she slyly moved it out of the way. “Knew that would get you wound up.”
“Shut up.” Abby blushed.
“I don’t feel anything. I don’t think pot works on me.” Kate ate another marshmallow, her cheeks as plump as a squirrel’s.
T.K. grinned. “I think it’s working.”
“How do you know?” she asked around a mouthful.
“How many of those have you had?”
Kate looked down as she tore another marshmallow in half, prepared to stuff it in her mouth. She shrugged, and they hooted uncontrollably. Kate chuckled along until they reached the point of tears.
“Go to bed!” Coach Whitley yelled from her tent.
While the scolding intensified their wheezing laughter, Kate stiffened. Her eyes stretched wide. “Coach knows.”
Jill looked around. “Knows what?”
“She knows I’m high.” Kate covered her mouth. “What do I do?”
“You’re fine.” T.K. patted her shoulder.
“I think she’s really mad at me,” Kate whispered.
Abby stifled a laugh. “You’re just paranoid. It’s okay.”
“I’m paranoid? I’m not paranoid. Why do you think I’m paranoid?”
Mick snorted and buried her face in her hands. The harder they tried not to, the more they cackled. Except for Kate, who bit her thumb and clutched the marshmallow bag.
“What do we do?” Kate walked around the firepit, stumbling over a log on her way to Abby, who steadied her. “Am I stoned? What do you feel like? Do you know how I feel? You always know.”
“I think maybe we should go to bed,” Abby said. “Everybody.”
“I’m going to watch for UFOs,” Jill said, staring at the treetops.
T.K. raised her eyebrows at Abby. “Cruz, let’s ditch these losers and go skinny-dipping.”
“Jesus, no.” Abby grabbed Kate’s hand. “Come on, you’ll feel better if you sleep it off.”
She used a flashlight to navigate to their small tent, Kate clumsily bumping behind her. It felt strange to not be the one completely plastered. Usually, it was Kate with her wits about, watching over Abby. She didn’t mind the reversal.
“Okay, come on, get in your sleeping bag,” Abby said once in the tent, but Kate just plopped on her sleeping mat.
“No. I’m good.”
Abby shoved the sleeping bag at her. “You’re going to freeze out here.”
“No, it’s like, tight, you know, like a…a…a…bug thing…What am I saying?”
“I don’t know.”
Kate flopped down on her pillow. “Do you still hate camping?”
“No.”
“Are you still afraid?” Kate snorted. “I’ll protect you.”
“Shhhhhh.” Abby put a finger to her lips.
Kate smiled against it. “No, you shhhhh.”
“Hutch, shut up!” Mick yelled from outside.
“You shut up!” Kate shouted back.
“Hey, hey, stop.” Abby covered her mouth with her hand, her lower gut waking at the brief contact, Kate’s amusement, and their proximity.
“Okay, okay.” Kate laughed softly. “Oh, you’re mad.”
Abby smirked. She hovered over Kate, inches away in the flashlight beam. “I’m not. Just keep it down.”
“You’re so mad at me,” Kate whispered.
“Stop.” Abby chuckled, pulsing in the worst places. Her throat, her stomach, her groin.
Kate’s mouth dropped. “Oh my gosh, are you high? You’re so high.”
Abby laughed, unable to control herself. Kate giggled too, her breath warm on her neck, her body brushing into Abby’s. It took astounding willpower to not press back into her.
The tent shook as a softball hit it. “Shut up!” Mick shouted.
They reined in their hysterics, simmered down to a hiss, and then finally panted for air. Abby struggled to breathe against the throbbing, her elbow propping her above Kate on the pillow next to hers.
“I feel funny,” Kate said.
Abby stared at her lips. “You’ll be okay.”
“Do you ever?” Kate cupped her cheek, traced her thumb at the corner of her mouth. “Feel funny?”
“Yeah.” Abby squeezed her eyes shut.
“Do you still love me?”
Abby sighed, a sob unexpectedly bubbling in her throat. She muffled it, turned her face beneath Kate’s hand, and deposited a kiss on her palm.
Kate grasped Abby’s other cheek so that she held her face. “I love you too,” she whispered.
A kiss waited on the end of the confession, pleading like so many times before. Abby swallowed it with the rest of what she wouldn’t allow herself, determined to protect Kate, to not take what wasn’t hers, especially in a haze of drugs and dizzying closeness. “We should sleep.”
Kate’s chin crumpled but she nodded.
Abby unzipped their sleeping bags and draped them over their bodies. She clicked off the flashlight, inconsolably aroused. “Good night.”
Kate grasped her hand and Abby froze. She eased into her until they were spooning, and Abby couldn’t help but move like they’d always done it.
She wrapped her arms around Kate’s chest and nestled her nose into her neck.
Her heart quickened, the curve of Kate’s backside between her hips, pushing her to the edge of giving in.
She trembled as she inhaled the spot behind Kate’s ear, before placing a careful kiss there. Kate exhaled into the dark.
“Is this okay?” Abby whispered.
“Don’t go.” Kate clutched her hand and shivered. “I feel like I’m going to float away.”
Abby held her tighter. “I got you. You’re just high.”
“No.” Kate brushed her lips to Abby’s fingers. A slight second of contact that her breath hitched at. “It’s just you.”
Abby didn’t dare break their enmeshed bodies. She already dreaded the morning, aware that this might be the closest they’d ever get. A blessing and a curse. A miserable pleasure that she sank into as she closed her eyes.
Kate woke to a throb so powerful that a moan gushed out of her like steam from a boiling kettle.
And she was boiling, her skin burning with fever.
She assumed she must be dreaming, eyes still shut, as the tingle between her legs overpowered everything else.
Its demand for release had her instinctually thrusting.
When friction met the itch with a pleasant wave of calm, she sighed, only to realize that she wasn’t dreaming.
She flashed open her eyes, full consciousness hitting like a fire hose, as she discovered the warmth wasn’t a fever, but Abby wrapped around her, and the euphoric friction came from Abby’s thigh between her legs.
Kate stiffened and peered up at her. She’d slept nestled in Abby’s neck, locked in her arms, legs knitted together.
Abby didn’t stir, lips slightly parted as she breathed.
They’d slept next to each other before during road games, but never like this.
Never close enough for Kate to detect the tinge of cardamom and salt from her skin or to relish its heat.
She scooted away, so close to climax that it hurt. But before she could completely detach, Abby’s arms tightened around her.
“Stay,” she murmured.
Her stomach somersaulted. She prayed it didn’t mean Abby had been awakened by Kate humping her leg.
She wished to disappear when fingers traced between her shoulder blades.
Kate’s lungs released enough for her to draw in the chilly mountain air.
And Abby’s caress, more sweet than sexual, inspired her to dissolve into her while she reflected on how they ended up in a tangle of limbs.
She remembered being high. She remembered getting high because Abby thought she wouldn’t and shouldn’t. But she wanted some sort of vengeance, a defense against the anguish of Abby spending the summer having sex with tourists. The crushing truth that Abby wasn’t hers and she wasn’t Abby’s.
Abby muttered incoherently and rolled to her back.
She kept hold of her as Kate rested her head on her chest and draped an arm across her stomach.
Abby’s heartbeat echoed in her ear. Her chest oscillated as if on a sprint, and Kate wondered if it meant Abby was as turned on as she was.
Just the prospect of Abby’s arousal rekindled Kate’s, and she sighed against it.
“Did you sleep all right?” Abby asked.
“Yeah.” Kate swallowed.
“You were funny last night.” Abby put her cheek on Kate’s forehead.
“Sorry,” Kate whispered.
“You feel okay now?”
“Just a little lightheaded.”
“Me too.”
Abby’s hand stopped stroking Kate’s back and shifted lower, rested on her hip, just above her ass.
Abby turned so they were flush. Her eyes dilated and aimed at her mouth.
Her lips coasted nearer. Kate clenched a fistful of her sweatshirt.
She didn’t care about Blake or her family or God.
Just those lips. She panted, prepared to jolt up to meet Abby, to end the ache, when the tent shook.
“Wake up!” T.K.’s shadow hovered outside. “I literally can’t go another minute without hot water or service.”
Kate jerked away from Abby, who groaned, “Fuck.”
“You guys, come on!” T.K. kicked the tent before stalking away.
“Are you okay?” Abby asked her.
Kate threw on her coat and tripped out of the tent.
She hurried from the campsite, dodging trees and other campers, gasping, and staggering until she reached the lake.
Fog drifted over the motionless water. Tears welled in Kate’s eyes.
She berated herself for how far she let it go.
For how close she came to betraying Blake and everything she’d been taught.
Her stomach lurched. Kate leaned against a tree trunk and gagged.
Nothing came up. Just panic and a few hiccups. She pressed her forehead to the bark.
“You okay?”
Kate whipped around to find Jill. “I’m fine,” she said.
Jill frowned as she wandered closer. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing. I’m fine.”
“You don’t seem fine.”
“It’s probably just from the weed.” Kate didn’t know if that was possible, but she didn’t care, and was thankful that Jill simply went along with it.
“Yeah, probably,” she whispered before embracing her.
Kate sniffled into her shoulder. The enormity of her fear shrank her even further among the trees. Jill rocked her for the brief minute it took to recollect herself.
“You want to talk about it?” she asked.
“No,” Kate said.
Jill’s eyes met her with sympathy, and maybe a semblance of understanding.
Part of her wished she knew. Wished that maybe Jill had the answer.
But she knew with unbearable weight in her heart that no one else could help her.
She prayed on the walk back to the campsite, but stopped halfway through, no longer sure that God would answer.