“Want some fish?” Mrs. Hanson put another filet into the frying pan over the fire. Mr. Hanson was scaling and de-yuckifying all the fish behind the cabin. Just knowing he was back there doing that made me totally lose my appetite.
“Um, no thanks,” I tried not to gag all over myself.
“More?” she offered Zac. He took two of the already cooked filets and chowed down.
“Not hungry?” Taylor smiled, helping himself to his third piece.
I shook my head, feeling positively green. The sun was setting over the woods, shedding a warm glow over everything. I sat on the log next to Heidi, who was nibbling the fish. She had been a vegetarian for many years, but just a few months earlier, she decided to eat meat if she ever wanted any. The doctor had told her it may be healthier because she was so skinny or something.
“So what did you girls do out there while the menfolk were fishing?” Mrs. Herbert laughed.
“We collected rocks,” Avie smiled.
“I sketched,” Heidi motioned to her black sketchbook at her side.
“And you, Tayler?” Mrs. Hanson smiled at me, thinking I was being shy by not answering.
“Oh, she communed with nature,” Carla spat out sarcastically.
I glared at her, warning her with my eyes to say anything else.
There was a moment of tense silence when the parents wondered if there was going to be another fight or something.
“Who wants more?” Mr. Hanson emerged with a few more pieces of fish, breaking the silence.
“I’ll have some,” Carla smiled, and the parents relaxed.
When they were all engrossed in conversation, I quietly excused myself to go shower. Mr. and Mrs. Hanson had brought some sort of biodegradable organic shampoo that we could use to shower under the waterfall, but I really didn’t feel like getting on my bathing suit and all that. Far off in the woods somewhere there was one of those camping showers set up. I grabbed all my shower gear and my towel and set off to find it.
I didn’t know exactly what I was looking for, but a long time after the voices from the cabin faded, I saw it. There was a group of three trees close together on a little hill, and in the branches of one of the trees was this huge, plastic bag type thing filled with water. A clothesline rope was strung between the three trees, and from the rope hung huge tie-dyed cloths. They’re such hippies, I laughed to myself. I undressed and left all my stuff on the outside of the psychedelic enclosure. Once inside, I saw that the huge bag had a spigot type thing so that the water could be turned off and not wasted. On the floor was a large stone slab, so that one’s feet would not get muddy. It was a very intelligent invention.
Opening the spigot, I was pleased to find that the water was a comfy, lukewarm temperature from having been in the sun all day. After I was wet enough to lather up, I turned the water off so as not to use it all up before I was done.
As the water from my shower trickled down the hill, I pondered. This was a really cute little thing, this outdoor shower. Now I really was communing with nature. Damn that Carla, why did she have to be such a bitch? I didn’t do anything that would make her want to say that to the parents. Well, I guess I did. I called her a retard, made fun of her disease, intruded on her family, took her place as Tay’s pair, and made her parents get angry with her. Actually, if I was Carla, I probably would do worse to me than just make little side comments. I’d kick my ass.
I turned the water on again to wash the shampoo and soap off. I started to feel even dirtier though. Here I was, breaking the traditional family outing, causing all these traumas and unrest among people that usually loved to be around one another. I felt bad for having a good time. I guess I would have felt worse if I was having a crappy time though, and I guess it’s not totally my fault because they did invite- I heard footsteps.
Dammit, Carla was really going to kick my ass now. I shut off the spigot and began to wring out my hair, ready to grab my towel and run. I should have seen that one coming. She knew I was all alone out here. How could I be so stupid? I was definitely losing my New York common sense.
The tie dyed curtain flung open, and I got ready to fight. “Taylor?!”
“Hi,” he smirked. “What the hell are you doing?!” I grabbed the curtain and covered myself. “Dude, I thought you were Carla, like coming to kill me or something!” I breathed a heavy sigh of relief.
He laughed, “Why?”
“Well, I was thinking about her and all this. I really shouldn’t have done that today, I mean, called her all that and grabbed the camera and jumped on her-”
Tay took my face in his hands and kissed me softly, making me lose my train of thought. “Do you do that on purpose?” I asked, fourteen thousand times more calm when our mouths parted.
“What?” he laughed.
“Kissing me so that I shut up or stop freaking out or something? Do you plan that?”
“I like to keep you grounded,” he shrugged, kissing me again.
“Do your parents know where you are?” I asked after the second kiss was done.
“Do you do that on purpose?” he laughed.
“What?”
“Talk about my parents just about every single time we make out?”
I laughed, “Shut up,” and the tie-dyed curtain fell away.
Laughing and singing “Jeremiah was a bullfrog…” Tay and I arrived back at the cabin. There was a surprising lack of people. As a matter of fact, there were no people.
“What the hell?” I asked.
“There’s a note,” Tay went to the front door of the cabin and pulled off the piece of paper. “They went hiking up the hill. We’re going to sleep there tonight. My dad brought the telescopes.”
“That’s so much fun!” I got excited and dropped my towel and shampoo. “Are we in trouble?” I asked.
“What?” he laughed.
“Well, I mean, we’re gone suspiciously at the same time…”
“I told my parents that I was going for a walk by the river.”
“So we’ll walk together and say that I didn’t know how to get here, and-“
“Dude,” he interrupted me, laughing, “They won’t ask.”
“But-”
“There’s like five thousand kids up there. They probably don’t even notice we’re not there.”
“Are you sure?” I bit my lip, really not wanting bad things to happen.
“Chill,” he slid his arm around my waist.
We collected out sleeping bags (after we made out for like a half an hour) and hiked up to the top of the hill.
“Sorry we left kinda suddenly,” Mrs. Hanson apologized when she saw us. “Tayler, I know you don’t know how to get up here. Tay found you and got you here okay?”
I nodded.
“You never can tell if it’s gonna be a clear night or not, so we made the decision pretty fast.”
“It’s okay, Mom,” Tay gave her a kiss on the cheek. It was just about the cutest thing I ever saw in my life. It made me want to jump Tay right there and then.
But I didn’t. They built a bonfire in the little fire circle that was set up there, and as the sun set, we laid out our sleeping bags.
We had a sing along, during which Mr. Hanson and Ike switched off playing guitar. Mr. and Mrs. Hanson sang harmony with each other. It was so cute. I wished that one day my marriage would be like that. I was sitting next to Heidi, and I looked across the fire at Tay. He winked discreetly at me. I wondered if he was thinking the same thing as I was. Probably not. Boys don’t really think that way. Plus, he was probably used to this adorable, functioning family, and the singing didn’t make him think differently about anything.
Ike took over the guitar, and Taylor the singing as The Herbert parents and the Hansons wrestled with the two telescopes they’d brought up with them. I think that I could have sat there in the warm firelight, listening to Taylor sing until I died. Mr. Hanson called over the kids to look at the constellations, and everyone but Heidi, Ike, Tay, and I ran over. We stayed around the firelight singing songs with a lot of harmony like Simon and Garfunkel’s “Sound of Silence” and “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen.
We stayed there for a long time, long enough for the little kids to be lulled to sleep by our harmonies, and for the adults to pack up the telescopes and go to sleep themselves. Francis, Carla, Heidi, Ike, Tay, Zac, Billy, and I convened around the fire, which was separated enough from the sleeping people to keep on singing and telling stories.
Heidi and I recounted the story about the times that, when we were younger, we would sit out on the corner and sing selected songs from Les Mis with my pink Barbie doll case in front of us to collect money. We saved up for almost an entire year, and then spent it all at FAO Schwarz. I got a huge stuffed elephant (which I named Phant) and Heidi bought a huge bulldog (which she named Narfi).
“How cute,” Carla was not amused.
I tried amazingly not to give her a dirty look, but I think I did anyway.
Francis launched into another story about one of his drunken parties after which he vomited on a horse in the stable of the guy who lived next door. We all agreed thar was just nasty and that he definitely needed help.
That followed with the story of the time Tay, Dave, and I hid in the closet after the party (I was proud to see that Carla recoiled at the mention of Tay and I in a dark closet for an extended period of time). Thinking about Dave darkened my mood for the rest of the storytelling until Ike picked up the guitar again and we sang Billy Joel and Beatles songs until half of our group fell asleep.
Carla, Tay, and I were left. Carla looked like she was rather tired, but I knew she’d rather jumped into the fire than to leave me alone there with Tay.
“So,” Tay said, noting the obvious discomfort.
“So,” I repeated, throwing him a pleading look to make her go away.
Carla narrowed her eyes at me and stared intently, most likely hoping I would fall into the fire. “So,” she then turned to Tay and smiled. “What’s up?”
Tay shrugged, poking the fire with a long stick. Little orange sparks flew up into the air.
Carla looked pained, “Well since I’m obviously not wanted here, I’ll go,” and she jumped up and into the darkness.
After a few second of silence, Taylor got up and came around the fire to sit by me. “I’m worried about Carla.”
“You are?” I was kinda surprised.
“Well, I mean, I’m scared of what she’s going to do…”
“What do you mean?”
Tay remained silent for a few minutes, staring into the fire. I was going to ask him if he was okay, because his face got so serious all of a sudden. I remained silent, however, letting him have his silence.
What exactly was he worried about? I mean, I’d already had two physical fights with her, and we exchanged dirty looks constantly. She treated me like crap already, and we both were fine with the fact that we hated each other. Maybe he was worried because he liked her. It never occurred to me that that could be the case. Maybe he just wanted to tell her that after we broke up, he would still love her. I got the chills. When we broke up. I knew it was bound to happen… we were too young to get married, and neither of us had really dated anyone else. Sitting there by the fire, I tried to soak in every detail. One day I would have only the memory of this. One day, maybe next year or next month or in ten minutes, Tay and I would not be going out anymore, and all I would have was the memories of this night by the fire. Tears caught in my throat.
As if reading my mind, Tay started to sing softly to himself “Save Tonight” by Eagle Eye Cherry. So true. He sang “Girl you know I got to go. Lord, I wish it wasn’t so.” A huge, depressed feeling sank over me, and I got the chills.
Taking his eyes off the fire for the first time, Tay wrapped his arm around my shoulder when he saw me shiver. Except for Tay’s singing, neither of us said a word. I rested my head on his shoulder and closed my eyes.
