A Camping We Will Go

I never heard from Brandon all weekend. I waited desperately all weekend, always keeping my phone by my side. I even convinced everyone I wasn’t feeling well on Saturday just so I could stay home in case he called. How pathetic is that. 

Sunday I picked up an extra shift at work as we were still down people. Sadly, it was a beautiful day and evening so it wasn’t very busy. Liam wasn’t even in to distract me. Thankfully because my job mostly has me interacting with the public I had to remain friendly. In reality all I wanted to do was be moody and eat everything in sight.

I even broke down and texted him again, sneaking my phone out as we weren’t technically allowed them on the floor. Again, I tried to keep it light and just asked what he was up to. When 11 pm came and still no response I was pissed. Then a minute later I was sad. This kept up for the rest of the night. When I finally got home and saw there was still no texts, I turned the phone off and chucked it on a pile of clothes. Within minutes I got up and grabbed it and turn it back on.  I resorted to trying to sleep but all I did was toss and turn all night. 

On Monday, it ended up that Tara, Chelsea and I were all off. After spending the day laying outside tanning, we hit the grocery store. We decided we wanted to do some planning for the camping trip and then have a Mexican night, complete with tacos and margaritas. 

When we came back, we went online and found a campsite that would allow a group and made a booking. We had decided we wanted to do an throwback theme for the weekend – perhaps how much fun we had at the bar the other night when they played the old school mix inspired us.

We created a menu to suit – hotdogs, s’mores, jello shots and a ton of other junk food from back when calories didn’t count. We also downloaded a ton of songs to make a playlist and thought up some games like twister, drunk Simon Says and Frisbee.

“Omg!!” Tara shrieked. “We have to play truth or dare! That’s the ultimate teen game!”

“Yeah but when we play that, people always get put on the spot and can’t think of anything good,” Chelsea said. “The dares are always lame.”

I thought for a moment. “What if we have people think of things in advance and write them down on pieces of paper. We can all secretly put them in separate truth or dare piles and then pick one out when it’s your go.”

“That could work,” Chelsea said thinking it through. “What will make it even better is that you may potentially pick your own so hopefully people won’t make the dares too bad!”

We uploaded our ideas to the facebook group and asked everyone for confirmations on who was coming. We were going in two weeks, so we needed to get this ball rolling. Within an hour or so we had a tentative list. Luckily everyone knew each other from various gatherings and birthday parties through the years.

For the girls: myself, Tara, Chelsea, Shelli – a pretty blond girl who was friends with us from high school and super friendly and Kelsey – another blond that worked with us at Chester’s, who was totally clueless at times but a blast to party with. The last girl sadly was Melissa. I only tolerate Melissa because she’s a friend of Kelsey’s but she’s a massive flirt and is always hanging off the guys. I’m not sure if the rumours about her sleeping around are true, but I wouldn’t doubt it for how boy crazy she is. “She better stay away from Liam!” I thought, and then I realised I had no claim on him. Where are these thoughts coming from?

The guys coming were Ryan (Tara’s cousin), his best friend James, Stephen and Gary – two of the part time bouncers at Chester’s. All very good looking and fit guys who were all easy going and fun. Lastly there were two who were tentative: Liam– he needed to see if he could ask for the weekend off, and Brandon – who I had yet to ask (and I never even told anyone I was hoping to invite).

We posted the truth or dare instructions to the group, and then went to the kitchen to make the tacos and margaritas. The more we discussed the trip the more excited we became. We tried thinking up some truth or dare questions, each one getting more extreme than the last. Easy to say the alcohol was already hitting us. We finished off the pitcher and made our way back to the living room and back on facebook.

We already had a ton of replies about the game idea.

Ryan: What are we, 12? If you ladies want to see me take my shirt off you just need to tell me, we don’t need to play games.

James: If you are stripping I’m not coming. Unless I can cover you in honey and then tie you to a tree for the bears

Kelsey: Do all bears like honey or just Pooh?

Ryan: Whatever @James. You know if I’m naked you will be begging to be in my tent

 

Tara: EWWW! @Ryan you are my cousin. You are not getting naked near me

Melissa: Hey @Ryan…I’ll share with you ;)

Alya: Woahhhh! When did this turn X-rated? This is supposed to be innocent fun like when we were 12 & 13

Gary: Speak for yourself @Alya…some of us were never innocent. Besides if Liam gets the weekend off and wants to get a little freaky I doubt any of you ladies will be complaining.

Liam: How did I get involved in this? BTW…I did get the time off. I’ll bring the beer!

Melissa: I’ll bring my bikini

Chelsea: I’ll bring some bail money. Who thought this was going to be a good idea?

We tried to do a bit more planning but the drinks were hindering any real progress so we settled for some trashy reality tv instead. Finally around 11 we headed to bed. Both of the girls had to work early and didn’t want to be hung over. 

I went on my phone to see if there was any more replies about the camping trip. Seeing none, I scrolled through the feeds for a moment and then got bored. I decided to look to see if Brandon had a profile – how had I not done this before?  I was able to find it quickly but it was private. Damn it! I was just trying to click on his friends list to see if any of those were open when I got a text from the man himself. I near jumped out of my skin. I know he can’t tell that I was trying to spy on him, but I felt like I had been caught red handed. I quickly exited facebook in fear that I may accidentally click “add friend” to someone on his list.

Brandon: Hey sexy. Whatcha wearing? ;)

I waited for a moment to see if he would write more. I hadn’t heard from him since Thursday, he never replied to either of my texts and now he was trying to flirt? When nothing came through, I finally texted back.

Alya: Just hanging out talking to some friends 

He didn’t know that I was mostly hanging out with them virtually!

Brandon: Anyone as cute as me?

Alya: Hmm I don’t know. Maybe. At least they talk to me.

My finger paused when I wrote that, then I figured “Screw it!” and hit send. I wanted to see what his excuse was.

Brandon: Aww don’t be like that. I’ve been busy working all weekend. The only thing I’ve seen is my desk and since you weren’t spread on top of it, it wasn’t overly exciting.

I couldn’t help it. I started to smile and get a little wet, thinking of the scenario he planted in my mind.

Alya: You poor thing. Maybe if you had texted me I could have paid you a visit, wearing nothing but a trench coat 

Brandon: Does that offer stand right now? I’m not at work but I do have a kitchen table

Alya: What? You don’t talk to me all weekend and then want me to come over at 11 pm? Whatever

Brandon: Come on. I said I was busy. I do run a company you know and I’m not off for the summer like some people

Ouch. Really? Why would he say that. It’s not like I was just some party bimbo. I was in school and by this time next year I expected to have a regular job like his. Plus I was working full time all summer, just in shifts. Not my fault I was younger than him.

Alya: Wow low blow dude

Brandon: I’m sorry. I’m just missing you. And now you had to go and use the word blow 

Brandon: Come over so I can make it up to you. Now I have this image of you on my table so I can’t sleep. I promise it won’t be pizza I’m eating

Oh god. Why was he able to get to me turned on so easy. There was no way I was going to be able to sleep either at this point and sexting held no appeal to me. Correcting typos as I typed in a rush annoyed me. Besides my hands had better things they could be doing.

Alya: Well now you went and mentioned pizza! Throw that in and you have a deal.

I waited for his his reply, and for the longest time there was nothing. I wondered if maybe he was just joking or if he fell asleep.

Suddenly the familiar “….” showed up. Then an image came on my phone. It was a picture of the confirmation of a delivery order from Pizza Hut.

I smiled and went in search on my trench coat. Ten minutes later I snuck out the door and made my way to his house.