So you know how a tent is meant for a certain number of people but if you really pack that number of people in it, it seems incredibly cramped? Well apparently no one thought of that when we borrowed Mitch’s six person tent. After we had it set up and tried laying all our sleeping bags in there, we quickly realized that it wasn’t going to work.

Lucky for everyone, I had brought my small tent to put all our bags in so I once again saved the day. Well I guess that depends on who you ask because no one wanted to sleep in it because it’s a little ghetto. I really had no problem staying in there but, of course, everyone else had to make this big production of drawing sticks to see who else had to sleep in there. I’m not going to lie and say I wasn’t a little pleased when I saw Justin got the short stick and was going to be stuck in there with me. He’s always so high maintenance and I like when he actually has to rough it. What’s best is his big air mattress won’t fit in my tent so he has to use Lola’s old one. Is it so wrong that I’m getting pleasure out of his misfortune?

It turned out that his misfortune turned into my misfortune that night because my tent definitely isn’t well insulated and by time we were trying to sleep at two thirty in the morning, I swear it was like maybe five degrees in there. I was laying there trying not to let any of the cold air into my sleeping bag that was wrapped tightly around me, while Justin kept tossing and turning beside me. How it could be so hot this afternoon and so cold tonight is beyond me.

“Justin!” I whispered into the dark. “Are you absolutely freezing?”

“Shit, yeah,” came his grumbled reply. “You know, maybe I had my air mattress and I was comfortable I could overlook the cold but Lo’s mattress is a piece of shit. Is there a hole in this thing cause I can completely feel the ground.”

I sighed. “This sucks.”

“Maybe if your tent wasn’t so ghetto…”

My voice was turning into a whine. “Justin, I’m so cold!”

This time he sighed and I heard him moving around again. “Get up for a minute.”

“Are you crazy? I’m already cold.”

“Just for a minute.”

Groaning and frowning, I pulled myself out of my sleeping bag. There are no words to describe how cold the air was that hit me. I pulled myself into a ball into the corner of the small tent while Justin messed around with our sleeping bags. It took about a full minute before he told me to get back in bed. I found my sleeping bag in the dark and jumped a bit when I realized he had zipped our sleeping bags together.

“Why’d you do that?”

“Cause body heat will keep us warm.” I felt him move over to me in the sleeping bag. “Who cares.”

Let’s be honest, I was still a little drunk from that night and it was just enough to not care about sharing a sleeping bag with him. So I moved closer to him and once I found his body, I curled myself into a ball against him. He put his arms around me and pulled me a little tighter against him.

“Tell me you aren’t seriously wearing shorts right now,” he said after a moment of silence.

“I always wear shorts to bed.”

He began to laugh. “But we’re camping and it’s always cold at night.”

“Look, this is how I camp,” I defended myself.

“By freezing your ass off?”

A chill went through me and I curled into a tighter ball. “So maybe I wasn’t thinking when I packed.” I tucked my head into his chest and sighed. We both fell silent and after a few minutes, some tension left my body as I warmed slightly. Maybe this body heat thing wasn’t such a bad idea.

Although it was really late-or really early, depending on how you looked at it-I wasn’t tired. I had been previously but after all the moving around, I was once again wide awake and now my mind was drifting to other places. Finally after a few minutes, the question inside of me was itching to come out.

“Justin?” I asked, lifting my head so I could see his face. His eyes stayed closed but he responded.

“Yeah.”

I bit my lower lip and was quiet for a moment. “This afternoon when you got that text message from Ben…”

His eyes opened.

“You said Katrina was a girl he was dating.”

“Yeah.”

“How long have they been dating?”

“They aren’t like dating-dating. It’s not super serious.”

“But for how long?”

“Maybe a week.”

My eyes moved away from his eyes as my mind processed his answer. “But…but when I saw him yesterday he never said he was seeing anyone.”

“Did you ask?”

“No. But he told me he wanted to get back together. Why would he say that if he was already seeing someone else?”

Justin didn’t say anything and he began to shift a bit, seemingly uncomfortable.

“Not that I would have gotten back together with him, but if I had, what would have happened with that girl?”

He was still silent and I turned my eyes up to his face again. Come on, Justin. I really need some words of wisdom.

“Don’t you dare fall asleep,” I said and his eyes opened and he smiled.

“I’m not. I’m just trying to figure out what to say without pissing off you or him.” He sighed. “Ben and this girl are really casual right now and when you talked to him they were probably even more casual. Maybe it was really nothing when he talked to you. And maybe when you said no he decided to move on.”

“Or maybe he just wanted to keep a few options so he’d never be without a bedmate.”

Justin paused at my words. “Maybe.”

My eyebrows rose. I hadn’t expected that response. “You think that’s what he’s doing?”

“I dunno, Em. I can’t explain Ben’s behavior. I don’t think he’s out to continually screw you over though.”

“He’s done enough of that to last me a lifetime,” I mumbled, tucking my head down again. The tent was silent again. Finally Justin’s quiet voice met my ears.

“All I know is that Ben would be a fool to not try to get you back every chance he got.”

He was trying to make me feel better but as much as he said, I couldn’t stop myself from feeling sad about the whole Ben thing. Not that I wanted to get back together with him because I had learned my lesson and I’m not stupid. I totally believe in that whole fool me once, fool me twice thing. But that sure as hell isn’t stopping these tears from forming in my eyes and falling down my cheeks. I squeezed my eyes shut tight and pressed my lips together. I didn’t want Justin to know I was crying or he’d want me to divulge every feeling inside of me. I swear he’s such a girl sometimes.

So I kept my head down and didn’t say anything, letting the tears just silently roll down my cheeks so Justin wouldn’t know.

* * *

Emily cried herself to sleep last night. She was trying to hide it but when you were laying as close as we were and she couldn’t stop sniffing, it was kind of obvious. I really should have said something but she obviously didn’t want to talk about it since she was trying to hide it and is it wrong to say that I was just really tired and wanted to sleep? I don’t even know how long she stayed awake because I passed out soon after we stopped talking.

I think the one thing I completely hate about camping is waking up in the morning. Anyone who tells you that you can be comfortable sleeping on the ground is a liar. The rest of camping I love, it’s just the mornings. Especially this morning when there’s at least three large rocks jabbing into my side and Emily’s rolled over a bit so my arm is wedged under her hip and it’s completely numb.

I gave my arm a bit of a yank and pulled it free, wincing as I flexed it to get some blood flow going. I pulled myself up and leaned forward to grab some clothes from my bag.

The air was still a bit chilly when I unzipped the flap of the tent but the sun was already shining and I could tell it would be another hot day. No one else was up yet so I walked to the bathrooms by myself and changed into a pair of shorts and hoodie. I figured showering could wait a couple more days so I simply washed my face and left.

By time I got back to our site, Trace was up and standing by the fire pit.

“Thought you’d be sleeping off a hangover,” I said as I neared him.

Trace pulled his hat down further on his head. “Becca’s snoring and I couldn’t sleep. And Gavin was moaning in his sleep all night.”

I snorted in laughter.

“I am NOT sleeping beside that dude tonight,” he mumbled, sitting down in one of the chairs by the fire.

I sat down in the chair beside him and slouched down in it. Maybe I could spend another night in Emily’s reject tent. It was kind of sounding like the lesser of two evils at this point.

Trace poked at the fire he had made with a long stick. “Em’s still sleeping?”

I nodded. “She’ll probably be up soon. She never sleeps in.”

“You guys have a fun time alone in that tent last night?”

I scoffed at the way Trace asked that. “Right.”

He gave me this long sideways look and then smirked and looked back ahead. I rolled my eyes and looked away from him. I guess Trace had always known I kind of have a thing for Emily. Every once in a while he’ll say something about it, usually around other people who don’t get it and I’ll be embarrassed. He thinks it’s funny. I do not. One of these days someone’s going to figure out what he’s talking about what’s going on. And nobody needs to know. I don’t sit around and broadcast it. In fact, I hide it and don’t act on it.

Okay, so maybe not last night. Last night I used the coldness to my advantage as an excuse to be close to her. I could have easily stolen a couple blankets from the other tent and solved that problem. But instead I made up some kind of bullshit about body heat and took the situation as an opportunity to be able to sleep with her right beside me. It’s not like we’re going to get together so honestly, I’ll take what I can get.

The sound of Emily’s laughter pulled me away from my thoughts about her and I raised my eyes to find her standing there.

“What’s with your fire?”

I focused my eyes on the fire pit and realized the previous fire was not simply a cloud of smoke. “It’s Trace’s fire.”

“Least I made the effort,” Trace grumbled.

“You guys are useless,” Emily laughed, grabbing some newspaper and firewood. We both watched her begin to set up the wood in the pit. “You gotta use some kindling not just newspaper and logs. You guys would suck on Survivor.”

“We were just waiting for you to wake up and demonstrate your mastery fire making skills,” I said.

She rolled her eyes. “Speaking of me waking up, Justin, tomorrow morning, let’s try NOT getting up and moving all the sleeping bag off me. Waking up with hypothermia isn’t my idea of a good time.”

I rubbed my eyes with the heals of my palms and smiled. “Sorry.”

“Are you staying in that tent for the rest of the week?” Trace asked.

I shrugged. “Probably. I don’t want to be the star of Gavin’s wet dream like you, Trace.”

His face darkened. “Shut the hell up.”

Emily looked between us. “What?”

“Gavin was apparently moaning in his sleep last night,” I explained to her.

“Yeah, he does that. Didn’t you know that?”

“Wait, you knew?” Trace asked.

“Everybody does. He always does that.”

“Well why didn’t anyone tell me? I was ready to sleep in the car!”

She began to laugh. “You were worried he was fantasizing about you? That’s a pretty healthy ego you’ve got there, Trace.”

“Well I didn’t know! That’s really something you should be telling a person before you sleep beside them. Shit.”

Emily giggled and put another log on the fire. “Here I thought you guys were all sleeping like babies in that tent.”

“I think tonight I just have to get more drunk so I don’t wake up for anything.”

“Don’t get too drunk of you’ll hear Gavin moaning and not be sober enough to resist acting on it,” I said.

And all I got in a response was a glare from him before he got up and stalked off towards the bathroom. Serves him right for ragging on me about Emily before.

Emily sat in the chair he had vacated and pulled her knees up to her chest. “Looks like it’s going to be hot today.”

“Still want to go for that hike?”

“Yeah. As long as I have suntanning time.”

“Worried about the bet?”

She scoffed. “No. You’ve never seen me in my prime suntanning mode. You’re in for a big surprise, buddy.”

“You’re all talk,” I dismissed.

She grumbled something under her breath and then said, “You’re going to be out money.” She pointed her finger at me. “AND have a dirty house.”

I began to laugh and shook my head. Honestly, tell me how I couldn’t have at least a small crush on this girl.