This story is loosely based on my own experiences. Highly exaggerated, as in, I WISH this had happened. Its not even this interesting without the characters. I think its gonna be short. I was taking a stroll down memory lane talking to Gin last night and this came up. If anyone knows the lyrics to the song "Natural Selection" by Natural Selection, please pass them on to me. It was a song that came out in the early to mid nineties I think and it was the song one of my friends played the entire weekend this sorta happened. The Hardy’s are the only wrestling characters in this, everyone else is real.

I frowned at the tent the 4 of us had put up. I cocked my head to the side and laughed. "Its crooked!"

Jill turned her head to the side too and laughed. "Yeah it is, but it’ll do."

Heather shook her head. "This will never do! Its going to fall in the second we get inside and we’ll have to put it up in the dark. C’mon girls.. help me get this down."

Cathy rolled her eyes and continued filing her nails. Heather did a head count and realized there were only three of us working. She spun on her heels and looked at Cathy. "Hey, come help with this!"

Cathy shook her head. "I JUST got this manicure, I’m NOT getting it dirty or breaking a nail." She popped in her single cassette. Natural Selection by Natural Selection. "Here, jam while you work!" Only she laughed.

Jill sighed. "Cath, I know you’re my cousin and all, and I’m supposed to love you, but can you shut that damn thing off?! We had to listen to it all the way up here."

Here was Hammonasset. It was a family camp ground by the beach and that’s where I spent Labor Day weekend every year of my high school days. This happened the first year. This is where LYONES had their yearly youth retreat/camp out thing. LYONES is Lutheran Youth Organization, New England Synod. It was basically a bunch of hormone driven teenagers that were supposed to mingle. I groaned at this idea at first, but my parents made me go. Cathy, Jill, Heather and I were the only ones from our church going. Cathy was pretty Ms. Popular, short with dark hair. Jill was her cousin and the Watertown version of Cathy. Jill was popular as well, she had blond hair, was tall, lanky and rich. Heather was a year older than the three of us. Her father was a minister in the military. She was a bossy know it all for the most part, tall with long blond hair. And then there was me. Melissa, short, long brown hair, studious little bookworm that never got out. The only reason Cathy liked me is because we studied together.

Cathy sniffed and faked a sob before reaching for the machine.

"Hey, wait! That’s a cool jam," came a voice from down the road. Coming towards us were 3 guys. Cathy’s turn to shine.

"Hey guys, you like this jam?"

"Hell yeah!" came their reply. I remained quiet as they talked to Cathy and Jill while I just eyed them. All three were very good looking. One was tall with dark hair, kinda short, crew cut style. He had these eyes that were just, mesmerizing. The guy standing next to him was shorter with short blond hair, his stomach was chiseled as well as his arms. The one next to him made me do a double take. He had long blond hair to his shoulders, cat green eyes and a grin to beat the band. He caught my eye and winked. I chewed my lip and smiled back at him politely. He elbowed the blond next to him who talking to Jill, he also smiled and winked. I think I blushed. I was startled out of my mind when the counselor came up behind us.

"C’mon girls, stop talking. You have to get your tent up before it gets dark." How do I know Heather went running to her when they started talking to the guys?

"But Jenn," Cathy complained. "We can’t. Its not working."

"Pardon me, Ma’am but we’ll help," came the cheery reply of the blond with the long hair. Jennifer eyed him wearily. "I’m Jeff Hardy, this is Jay Gray," he pointed to the blond beside him. "and that’s Matt Ruby." He pointed to the Vanilla Ice lookalike with the crew cut. That sly dog Matt winked at her. "We’re from The Resurrection Church in Hartford."

"Oh, very well then, that IS our sister church," she sighed but smiled, flattered by the wink. I was beginning to sense this was a trend as he then turned and winked at me as well.

"We’ll take care of everything, don’t worry about a thing Miss." Matt purred. Yes, he WAS a sly one. I caught Cathy biting her lip out of the corner of my eye.

Jay and Jeff started on the tent and Matt soon joined them. We watched for a while and did what we could. "So, who are you ladies?" Jay turned to Jill and asked.

She smiled. "I’m Jill, that’s Cathy, my cousin flirting with Matt."

"I am not!" Cathy replied red in the face as she dropped the pole she was holding.

Jill chuckled and went on. "That’s Heather and Melissa." She indicated the two of us who were trying to get the poles to stand straight.

"Nice to meet you," he replied. The bunch of us, sans Heather, who just sulked and worked, chatted politely as we finished setting up the tent. When we were done, it stood straight. Matt swung his arm around Cathy’s shoulder and we laughed, proud of ourselves.

Just then a guitar chord rang out and an announcement was made. "Services will start in about ten minutes, if everyone can make their way to the auditorium at the front of the camp we could get this kickin’ weekend off with a bang."

The "auditorium" they spoke of was a sectioned off incline with wooden benches and a makeshift stage. It was set up with Christmas lights and colorful posters. An outdoors thing. It was a good thing it was nice weather. Our camp was right next to it and we could see two guys setting up musical equipment.

"We gotta go back to camp and check in, we’ll meet you at Services?" Jay suggested.

"Great! See you there!" Cathy replied in that overly perky and friendly voice of hers. We watched them go and she shook her hand. "OH MY GOD! Ladies!! They were SOOOO HOTTT!" We all agreed except for Heather.

"We’re here for God, not men." I laughed as I heard Jill mumble something about maybe Heather isn’t, but she was. "I’m going to go get a seat." Heather continued. "Melissa? Are you coming?" We had been paired off, I kinda had to. I nodded and shrugged at Jill and Cathy. Heather of course dragged me to the front. Ugh. Just where I didn’t want to be. Front and Center for a church service I really didn’t want to be at. She went on and on about the youth retreat she went to in Dallas and how it was so many more people than this and it was so much better. I rolled my eyes but listened, knowing I was better off being paired with Heather. Guys usually weren’t interested in my the way they were interested in Cathy and Jill. Heather would stick with me and not leave me.

As people started to file in, I realized how wrong I was. Heather spotted some people she had roomed with in Dallas. What are the odds, really? I couldn’t believe it. She didn’t even so much as introduce me as she left with them to find a seat in the back. I felt my stomach turn at being alone. I stood up and looked to the back to see if I could spot Cathy and Jill. No luck, they would probably not show. I sighed and sat down nearly crushing the guy that sat next to me. "Hey!" I heard behind me and jumped.

"Oh!! I’m so sorry! I.. I didn’t know you were there." My mouth hung open as my eyes focused on him. He was tall, at least six feet, long black curls hung down his back and around his face to his broad shoulders, his well sculpted arms had reached out to hold me off from sitting on him. A big warm hand rested on my bare arm which was chilly. We realized this at the same time as he jerked his hand back and I called my arm back to my body. "I-I’m sorry I.." I tried to apologize again as dark brown eyes went from hard stones to soft buttons.

"Its okay. I kinda had it coming. I didn’t mean to get this close, I thought you were leaving. You were standing and all."

I shook my head about to tell him no when Cathy came up beside me. "Melissa! There you are, we saw Heather leave you. C’mon up with us, they guys are there!"

I shot a glance at the guy beside me again. Suddenly being in front next to this good looking guy didn’t seem so bad, but on the other hand, three good looking guys that were already talking to us were waiting. The dark beauty beside me turned his attention to the front and I turned to Cathy again. "Sure, lead on."

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<br> To Be Continued, more coming, just was getting long and didn’t want it to cut off.</center>

Note about the first part. Yes we really did talk like that. Calling music a "jam" and all. It was 1991 and we were like 15 or 16! And Pay attention, there are TWO Matt’s in this story, one is Matt Hardy, Matt Ruby was real. I know I shoulda changed his name but Vanilla Ice, like I want to call him, wouldn’t be right.

We joined the guys and immediately I was thrust towards Jeff. Jay had hooked on to Jill and Cathy and had taken to Matt. I smiled shyly at him. "Hi."

He smiled brightly. "Hey, looks like they already paired up, huh?" I nodded with false hope. Did that mean he was interested? "I don’t want this to sound like I don’t find you attractive to anything, I do. But I DON’T want to hook up. I have a girlfriend at home and she’d kill me if I did anything here." My heart fell. "I just wanted to be honest with you Mel, you seem like a nice girl." Yeah, a nice girl. I always get that. No one likes the nice quiet girl. "But I do wanna be friends, maybe keep in touch after this weekend, maybe if me and her ever break up?" He grinned and I was unable to resist.

"Yeah, that sounds great." I returned his smile. We wound up chatting about school and life. Conversation turned to siblings and I found out he had a brother who was here somewhere. He was single but he doesn’t think I’d like him.

I laughed. "Why not?"

Jeff scrunched his nose. "He’s a quiet book worm do-gooder religious buff who is probably sitting in front. I bet he’s still a virgin too."

I blushed. So was I, what was wrong with that I wondered. But didn’t ask. I was also quiet and book worm like, while not overly religious I wasn’t exactly a heathen. I believed in God, just not the way He’s always taught. Jeff asked what was wrong when I got quiet. I was thankfully saved.

"Alright ladies and gentleman we’re gonna kick this thing off with LOST AND FOUND!" Two guys took to the stage and started singing a lively song that was just slightly Christian. We were all on our feet and into it, clapping and hollering when it was over. Another two guys got up and proclaimed the theme for the weekend was "Marty and Phil’s Excellent Adventure" named after Martin Luther and Phillip someone or something, the theme a take off on the popular Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure movie. They introduced us to Michael and George of Lost and Found and explained that in the next two days we would be meeting in workshops and learning different lessons for a few hours then the rest of the time was ours. It seemed like a pretty mild thing to endure.

Lost and Found took the stage again and began speaking about their little group and how they went around to retreats like this. They told us they had a rule and asked if we remembered the show "Pee Wee’s Playhouse" we did and they mentioned that this whole weekend whenever we heard the word "good" we were to scream really loud like the word of the day. We shrugged and they made us try it a few times. It sounded stupid, but it was actually kind of fun. Our group went with it for a while but as the sermons and services progressed we became engrossed talking to each other. We missed a "good" and realized it too late. I still don’t know why, but after everyone screamed and it got quiet, the six of us screamed. The guys looked up to us from the stage as everyone laughed. "It seems we have some late screamers up there! Guys? You with us?"

Matt stood up. "WE’RE WITH YOU!" The entire assembly laughed and they got back into talking. It happened again and this time we screamed for fun. They laughed and went on. It became a trend and soon we had a bunch of people doing it screaming after 3 seconds. It was a fun time and I felt we all bonded quite nicely. When it was over the guys dragged us to their campsite where we had hot cocoa.

Jeff grinned at me with a cocoa moustache as he handed me my glass. "Here, this will warm you up, I felt your arms were getting chilly."

I thanked him nicely and sipped quietly, my eyes scanning and people watching. My gaze rested on the guy from earlier sitting at a nearby picnic table. At least I thought it was him, it was starting to get dark and all I saw was his back. Jeff noticed me staring. "That’s my brother." He said offhandedly.

"Y-your brother? I nearly crushed him today." I felt a giggle bubble inside of me.

"Crushed him?" He titled his head and smirked. "How’d you do that?"

I smiled, recalling the memory. "I almost sat on him before Cathy came over to get me after Heather left me."

He nodded. "I doubt you’d crush him, he’s a big guy. But yep, that’s my brother. Want an intro?"

I shook my head, blushing from head to toe. I found him extremely attractive, Jeff was wrong. I WAS interested in his brother and I knew it from the second I laid eyes on him. But if what Jeff had said was true, he probably wouldn’t be interested in me and I didn’t want to set myself up for that kind of disappointment. Jeff shrugged his shoulders as Cathy approached.

"Hey guys, we’re gonna play truth or dare, you playin?"

"Yeah! Count us in!" Jeff replied for me. I sighed. I was used to truth or dare with Cathy and Jill, it was always embarrassing for me and here I was with a cute guy I wanted to be friends with, I just didn’t know if I wanted to play. He turned to me realizing he hadn’t asked me. "I’m sorry, did you want to do something else?"

My eyes went to his brother and back to Jeff. "No, that’s okay, we can play. It’ll be.." embarrassing was the word that came to mind, "interesting." I faltered.

He grinned and I rubbed my upper arms. "Cold?" he asked with concern.

"No," I lied. He shrugged and we all sat in a circle on the grass. I made sure I was facing Jeff’s brother and I remember sneaking glances at him as he twisted and turned, stretching and sitting back down during our game. The more I watched him, I found I did want to meet him. Little did I know I was going to get my chance.

"I’ll go first," Jill volunteered, starting the game. "Matt! Truth or Dare?"

He grinned. "Dare, darlin’!"

She smiled. "I dare you to kiss Cathy someplace other than her mouth, and you have to use your tongue."

We all stared at Jill in shock. I can’t believe she said that. Matt grinned ferally and leaned down to Cathy’s neck, giving it a wet suck and kiss before whispering in her ear. I don’t know what he said, but it caused her to blush. I gulped, so afraid I’d be next. Matt rested his eyes on me and smiled. I paled, he turned his gaze to Jay. "Truth or Dare?"

Jay smiled and winked at Jill. "Truth."

Matt scrunched his nose. "Jay you are NO fun man and for that you’re gonna get it. Are you a virgin? And don’t lie, you know I know."

Jay blushed and looked to Jill. "Yeah," he mumbled low. She smiled and placed her hand over his. My heart clenched, how sweet was that. Suddenly, Jay was looking really good to me. I was disappointed I hadn’t been paired with him. For a second I thought he was going to look at me next, thankfully he didn’t. "Cathy, Truth or Dare." She smiled slyly at Matt but chose Truth. All talk and no action, that was Cathy. Jay frowned, he hadn’t expected that. "Are you a virgin?"

She paled and I smiled. Truth time! And Jill knew so she couldn’t lie! Cathy gulped. "Yeah." She sighed and looked to Matt, expecting to find a disapproving look on his face. Everything about him was sexual, you just knew he wasn’t. Instead she found his eyes raking over her body with the look of hunger you might find in a man that hadn’t eaten in weeks. I worried for her right then. He nodded and she blushed. She looked to me. OH GOD CATH DON’T CHOOSE ME! That’s what I hope my look screamed. "Jeff," I breathed a sigh of relief. "Truth or Dare?" He grinned and chose truth. I knew her question, she never was very original. "Are you a virgin?"

Jeff grinned like a cat. "Nope, me and my girlfriend been goin strong for 3 years!" My stomach fell, three years? No chance he’d break it with her. I had NO CHANCE at hooking up this weekend. My eyes pleaded with him not to choose me. He could have chosen Jill! But his look told me it was me, I wasn’t getting out of it. "Meli, Truth or Dare?"

I gulped. Oh man. I saw how the truth questions were going, I didn’t want to admit that. How bad could a dare be? "Dare"

Jill and Cathy say stunned. I was always teased as no fun cuz I always chose Truth. They couldn’t understand it but I smiled at them and shrugged. Jeff thought for a minute and smiled. "I dare you to go kiss Matt." My eyes shot to Vanilla Ice. THAT’S HOW BAD A DARE COULD BE APPARENTLY. Cathy narrowed her eyes at me as my jaw dropped. Jeff shook his head. "No! Not that Matt!" I breathed a sigh of relief. "My brother, Matt."

I gulped. I think I was shaking. Why did I choose dare? "But I don’t even know him, can’t you pick another dare, Jeff? Please?" I begged, I pleaded, ANYTHING BUT THAT!

They all shook their heads. "Sorry baby, thems the rules. A dare can not be un-dared. Besides, I’ve seen you staring at him and devouring him all night. You know you want to. Plus it will really flip him out!" He clapped and laughed.

I shot Jeff a sideways glance as stood up. They all encouraged me to go on. With a brave deep breath I made my way to the picnic table.

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<br> To Be Continued, more coming, long again, sorry. </center>

I sat down at the picnic table on the other side of Matt, facing the group. Jeff kept pointing to his mouth. Oh no, there was no way I was kissing him on the mouth. Matt looked at me briefly, barely looking up from his book. "Hi," I started

He looked up again and grunted. "Hey." He looked down at his book, squinting.

I decided to try light conversation. "How are you reading that, isn’t it kinda dark?"

"Not really," he began, again barely looking up. I thought I detected a hint of an accent I didn’t hear in Jeff’s voice. "I have the streetlight there." He explained.

"Oh," I chewed my lip. "I-I wanted to apologize for almost sitting on your earlier."

He put his book down and squinted at me. "Oh yeah, I thought I recognized you." Yeah right, he barely looked at me. "Like I said," he continued. "No problem. How’d you find me?"

I pointed to Jeff and the group. "I’m with them We’re playing truth or dare."

He glanced at the group, noticing the obviously paired up couples. "Jeff has a girlfriend, ya know. I hope he’s not leading you on."

I shivered and crossed my arms over my chest. "Yeah, he told me, we’re just friends."

Matt nodded and looked at me expecting me to continue. I was captured by his eyes. They were engaging and polite like Jeff’s but they were deep dark pools of emotion. Windows into his soul. He was a lot like Jeff in that way, expressive eyes. I looked over at the group, they were still watching and motioning me to go on. "Um, hehe," I laughed nervously. "Like I said, we’re playing truth or dare and um.. I chose dare." He raised an eyebrow. I suppressed a groan. "I’m supposed to kiss you." I closed my eyes and blushed a hot red from head to toe. I felt Matt shift on the bench across from me.

He shot a glance at Jeff, I almost felt his annoyance. I was crushed and started to get up. "I’m sorry, I’ll make them make me do something else. I shouldn’t have agreed." I walked past him heading toward the group when he grabbed my arm.

"No, don’t worry about it. I know Jeff, he won’t change it anyway." He turned his eyes to my face and motioned for me to sit down next to him. I sat next to him and suddenly found my fingers fascinating as I fiddled with them. "Since we’re gonna do this, I guess we should introduce ourselves. I’m Matt Hardy."

I gulped. "Melissa May." I could hear the tremble in my voice and I prayed he didn’t notice.

"Pretty," he breathed as he leaned closer to me. He tilted my chin up with his finger and looked into my eyes. "Want to make this good?"

I must have looked like a deer in headlights. This was soooo NOT how I pictured it. I nodded anyway, unable to stop myself. He bent his head and slanted his lips against mine, brushing them gently. I was overwhelmed with his scent. It was heady and male. My lips parted involuntarily as he ran his tongue against it. I began kissing him back, his taste was sweet. My hand stole up into his hair as I played my own tongue against his mouth. We deepened the kiss and I realized I was almost in Matt’s lap.

Cheering, hooting and hollering snapped us out of our hot embrace like cold water in the morning. Matt stiffened and looked at me. My heart pounded in my ears and I would swear he heard it. Our breathing was quick and I wondered if these feelings of desire that I hadn’t felt before were evident in my eyes. Matt’s eyes flashed and returned to the hard black stone eyes I had seen when I almost sat on him. Without taking his eyes from me he yelled to the group. "There Jeff, your dare has been completed. Now leave me the hell alone." He pushed me away and turned back to his book.

Is it possible to hear your heart break? I think I heard it happen. I know I felt it. My chest tightened and my eyes watered. I got up and sniffled. I thought I saw Matt flinch out of the corner of my eye as I headed back to the group. I looked back to Matt. He had tensed considerably and had a hand shoved into his dark hair. I wrapped my arms around myself and sat a little further from Jeff than I had before.

"Your turn," he prodded me gently. "You have to ask Jill a Truth or Dare." I didn’t look up I just tightened my hold on myself.

"I don’t feel like it, I pass." I looked up to see the now quiet group exchanging ashamed glances between each other.

Jeff moved closer to me and put his arm around me. "Aw Meli, it was just a kiss, Matt just can be an asshole sometimes."

I drew my eyebrows together and frowned shrugging him off. "Matt’s NOT an asshole, he’s actually very nice. YOU’RE an asshole, Jeff." I pulled out of his arms and stood up. "I’m going back to camp, see you tomorrow."

I stomped toward our camp and ignored them when they called after me. I froze though when I heard their next bit of conversation.

"Geez, what did I do?" Jeff asked, exasperated.

"I think it was her first kiss, smart ass." I heard Cathy say. I took off in a run back to our camp, a telltale sign that that was the truth.

I zipped myself up in the tent and threw myself down against my sleeping bag. I cried into my pillow until I couldn’t cry anymore. I barely heard voices outside. There was a change in shadows and a knock on the tent door. "Meli, are you decent?" Jeff’s voice. I squelched the urge to shout, yes but you aren’t but I settled for just wiping my eyes and sitting up, composing myself.

"Yeah."

Jeff unzipped the tent and crawled inside. I felt a smile tug at my lips. He could have stepped in. He crawled over to me and put his head in my lap. "I’m sorry Mel."

I shrugged. "No skin off my back. I was getting cold, so I came back here." I realized what I just said made no sense but it was better than going, yeah you are sorry get the hell out of here.

He rubbed his head against my thigh and we sat there for a while. He spoke first after moments of just our breathing. "I didn’t know it was your first."

I shrugged. "Yeah well, now you know. I guess I wound up answering the truth question anyway." I laughed at that.

He frowned and sat up. "What truth question?"

I rolled my eyes. "Oh come on, the way that was going, weren’t you going to ask if I was a virgin? Well, I didn’t want to tell you."

He shook his head and laughed. "No! I didn’t think that was any of my business. I was gonna ask you if you wanted to meet my brother."

My jaw dropped. He had to be kidding. I was so stupid sometimes, and I had chosen dare thinking it would be better than the alternative. Man… I frowned. "Why did you ask me to kiss him?"

Jeff shrugged. "I thought you’d want to. I think you two would be cute together."

"I thought you said I wouldn’t like him and he wasn’t my type."

"Yeah, well, I saw that kiss. He doesn’t kiss any girl like that. I think he likes you. Please come back with me."

I stiffened. "Um, no. He did that for show. He just wanted to flip you out because you tried to flip him out. He doesn’t like me. In fact, I don’t think he likes me at all. I doubt he’d want to see me again." Thanks to you! I wanted to bite out.

Jeff grinned. "Then why did he come over and hit me when Cathy suggested that was your first kiss? He blamed me for making him act like an asshole. He was mad at me for driving you away and he demanded that if I didn’t bring you back so he could apologize that he would kick my ass."

I stared at Jeff in disbelief. "He did that, he said that?"

Jeff nodded. "Yeah, and I’ll have the bruise on my jaw tomorrow to prove it too. So please just come back with me so I don’t get hurt. I know I deserve for him to kill me but I really don’t want to be in pain this whole weekend."

I felt a smile creep to my lips. I actually wanted to watch Matt pound on him. A giggle escaped me. I looked at the pathetic and pleading look on Jeff’s face and I started laughing. He stared at me in horror. He swallowed nervously. "Will you come with me?"

I nodded and continued laugh, wiping tears of mirth. This was too funny. I had to see this for myself.

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<br> To Be Continued, more tomorrow, I need to sleep. </center>

I followed Jeff back to his campsite. On our way there we passed Cathy with her man and Jill with hers heading in the direction of the dark beach. I had a pretty good idea what was on Cathy’s Matt’s mind, Jay remained unreadable to me. Images flashed through my mind as I suddenly recalled Matt’s kiss to me and I froze. My hand went to my lips as I stopped walking. Jeff, not hearing my footsteps, turned around.

"Oh no, Mel, what’s wrong?" I shook my head and backed up a step. Panic set over Jeff’s handsome features. "No, Mel, baby, please don’t do this to me, he’s gonna kill me. He’s serious, he’s ripping pissed. Please Melissa, you have to come."

"This is stupid Jeff. I can’t face him tonight. As funny as I thought it was a few minutes ago is how stupid I’m going to feel now, facing him. I’d rather see him again when its light out. I don’t think I can do this in the dark." I turned on my heel and walked back to my camp. Strong arms wrapped around me moments later.

"Melissa, please, he wants to see you and tell you that he’s sorry." I stopped walking as Jeff held onto me.

"Jeff?" I let a whimper escape my lips. I wanted to melt into his arms. I took a deep breath.

"Please baby, he’s sorry."

I swallowed hard and relaxed in his arms. "Okay hun, I’ll go."

We turned around to see Matt coming towards us. It didn’t look like I had much more of a choice. He shot an angry look at Jeff and turned to me. "Melissa, will you excuse us a moment," he turned to Jeff and growled. "Tent. Now." And with that he stalked off to the tent the brothers were sharing.

Jeff paled. "He’s so pissed at me. Stand outside and listen, okay? If it sounds like he’s pounding on me, come inside and save me. He’ll listen to you."

I laughed at the look on Jeff’s face, it was so serious. "Oh come on. I doubt your brother is violent."

Jeff snorted. "Tell that to my broken jaw tomorrow." He hung his head and entered the tent. I stood outside in the shadows, my arms folded.

"Where is she?" I think that was Matt.

Through the shadows Jeff shrugged. "I dunno, over at the camper I think."

I heard the buzz of a zipper and ducked out of the light as Matt stuck his head out and looked around. He closed it again and turned back to Jeff. "I didn’t see her. What are you doin’ man?"

"Doing? You wanted me to bring her back here!"

"You HAVE a girlfriend. I don’t want to see you hurting Melissa."

"Matt, man, what are you talking about? I told her!"

"Then quit hanging on her like you hang on your woman."

"I was trying to get her to come back here."

"Why are you leading her on?"

"Matt, what are you talking about? I’m not! She likes you!"

"Do you like her?" Asked by Matt. I held my breath.

He nodded. "Yeah, I do, but she likes you. She’s scared now though. She just thinks you’re going to make her feel stupid."

"I just want to tell her I’m sorry. Ya know, you started this. Why did you dare her to kiss me?"

I saw Jeff shrug. "I thought you’d like her."

"You expect me to believe you did this for me?"

"Dude, I watched her staring at you." I felt my cheeks blush hot and I wanted to run. "I did it cuz I knew she wanted to meet you. She was checkin you out."

There was silence for a minute. "She was?"

Jeff nodded enthusiastically. "Oh yeah! I swear, she couldn’t take her eyes off of you."

"You’re not just saying that to keep me from hitting you? Cuz you know I want to."

"No! I swear it’s the truth man." More silence. "Do you like her?"

My heart stopped in my throat, I felt like I shouldn’t listen. "I don’t know her."

"She’s great Matt, you’ll like her."

Matt appeared to think about this for a minute. "Go get her."

Jeff popped his head out of the tent and his body followed right after. He looked up and down the short road, looking for me. He frowned and I heard him mutter to himself about thinking I had left him. I stepped into the light from the dark shadows and he nearly screamed. "Damn Mel, you almost scared me to death! He wants to talk to you."

I nodded. "I know. I heard him." I bit my lip and took his hand. His eyes met mine and I kissed his cheek. "Thank you." He blushed. I started toward the tent.

"Hey Mel?"

"Hmm?" I turned around.

"Are you mad I made you kiss him?"

I bit my lip and grinned. "You know I’m not."

He nodded. "Are you sorry you kissed him?"

I blushed. "No baby." I blew him a kiss. He pretend caught it and motioned his head toward the tent door. I spun to see the flaps swaying. I felt a knot in my stomach. I think Matt had been listening.

I turned back to a grinning Jeff. He jogged to me. "Go get him girl, he’s yours." I laughed and knocked on the tent door.

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<br> To Be Continued, Damn this is getting long, SORRY! </center>

"Melissa?" came the answer from inside.

"Yup, its me, can I come in?"

"Yeah." Came the short reply. I started to regret it again my self consciousness sneaking in to tell me this was a bad idea.

I walked in and stepped on a purple sleeping bag. I looked up to see Matt sitting Indian style cross legged on a dark green bag in the far corner. "Hi." I addressed, shyly.

He motioned toward the bag I was standing on. "Have a seat, please."

I looked at the purple bag below my feet, it made me laugh. This was definitely a guy’s tent, there were bike magazines and dirty clothes strewn all around the tent but this bag was out of place. I looked to the bag again as I sat down. "This yours?" I couldn’t help the smirk from my face. The color seemed so out of place for a guy’s tent.

"Nope, that’s Jeff’s. He has a thing for purple."

I nodded. "I see that."

"He has a thing for you, too."

I blinked. Huh? "Huh?"

"He likes you, do you like him?"

I shrugged. "Jeff’s a great guy, but like I said, he told me he has a girlfriend. I have no notions of wanting to hook up with him this weekend. You saw me kiss him?"

He nodded. "Yeah."

I smiled though I was confused by his behavior. Not to flatter myself, but it seemed like jealousy. "I kissed you too." I giggled purely from nerves.

He frowned. "Yeah, sorry. I wouldn’t have been such an asshole.. ya know.. if I knew."

I smiled. "Its okay."

"No, its not. I shouldn’t have… I shouldn’t have kissed you just to flip out Jeff. He shouldn’t have made you kiss me." I bit my lip and mumbled to myself. "What’d you say?" he asked.

I tilted my head, might as well admit it. "No, I wanted to kiss you, don’t blame Jeff."

"You did?"

I blushed and looked down. "Yeah. I’m sorry."

He laughed. "For what?"

"For kissing you?" I wasn’t exactly sure why I apologized either.

He smiled. "Well don’t, I liked it."

"You did?" My eyes shot to his, hopeful. I couldn’t stand how pathetic I was sometimes.

He moved forward, scooting from his bag to Jeff’s. "Yeah, I did. Want to try again, without an audience?"

I swallowed hard and remembered my reaction to him. Oh boy. I found myself nodding as he cupped my chin again. He kissed my lips gently, a chaste peck. I shifted and heard the bushes behind the tent rustle. I opened my eyes to see Matt had frozen, I think he heard it too. "Jeff?" I mouthed. He nodded and started to get up. I shook my head, indicating he should forget it. I leaned over Matt, brushing against his chest and shut off the portable light so our silhouettes no longer showed through the thin walls. He smiled at me in the dark and captured my lips again, we made loud noises as we kissed. I can’t say it was unpleasant. We heard him mumble outside and it was all we could do to keep from laughing.

"Would you be interested in flipping out Mr. Meddle?" Matt whispered against my lips.

"Yeah," I whispered, my breath hot against him.

"You trust me?" I nodded. He captured my lips again and moaned. "Oh Melissa, yeah, right there."

I almost squealed laughing as we heard a thud outside. Matt licked my lips then trailed his tongue down my neck and nuzzled. "Oh baby, yeah.. that’s it. Put your hand right there." My eyes bugged as Matt went on. I was biting my lip hard as he purred against me talking dirty about absolutely nothing but a little making out. He lay me on my back, took my hands in his and folded his fingers with mine. As my eyes adjusted to the dark, I saw his eyes twinkle mischievously. "Oh Mel, Meli, yeah… yeah.. you feel so good" A giggle bubbled from my lips. Matt silenced me with another searing kiss. We heard footsteps outside and held our breaths. "Say something" he whispered when he finally let me move.

I said the first thing that came to mind. "Do you think he’ll mind if we use his sleeping bag?"

Matt laughed loudly as we heard Jeff squeal "HEY!" and quickly unzip the tent. He took one look at us on top of his bag, Matt holding my hands as we lay there fully clothed. He frowned. "What the hell?"

Matt let my hands go and sat up. "Problem, Jeff?"

"Uh.." he drew his eyebrows together in confusion. "What were you doing?"

Matt looked at me to keep from laughing. He couldn’t keep a straight face. I sat up on my elbows. "Nothing Jeff. Why? What’d you hear?" I tried to sound panicked and had to look at Matt to keep from laughing as well.

"Uh, well. Um.. nothing.. I was just… uh…. walking by and uh.."

"Butt out, Jeff. Melissa and I can take it from here."

"That’s just what I’m afraid of. C’mon Melissa, I’m taking you back to your camp."

I blinked. "What? Oh heck no, Jeff. Where do you think you get off?"

"I don’t want you doing something you regret. Lets go!"

I shook my head, this was funny, it was like a protective jealousy. "Doing what, Jeff? Look at us, we weren’t doing anything except kissing."

"Ohhhh no! You can’t fool me. I heard you!"

Matt groaned "Oh Meli baby, right there, yeah.. mnn."

Jeff blinked and Matt and I doubled over in peals of laughter. Jeff stamped his foot and gave a frustrated huff.

I explained gently. "That was our way of saying, butt out baby. We got it. Thanks for setting us up and all, but we got it from here, okay?"

"You mean.. there was nothing, he wasn’t just… you know?"

I shook my head. "No sweetie."

He frowned. "Y’all are on my bag though!" he complained.

Matt laughed and stood up offering me his hand. I took it and he pulled me up against him. We nearly fell over again as we snuggled close. "Now we’re not. If you’ll excuse us, I’m going to take Melissa for a walk before I send her back to her camp for goodnight. Is that okay Dad? Do I have to be back by a certain time?"

Jeff sighed. He knew he’d been duped. "Jerk."

Matt helped me out of the tent as Jeff turned the light on. He was about to follow after me when Jeff called to him. He told me to hold on as he stepped back inside and zipped the tent shut again at Jeff’s order.

"Don’t hurt her Matt, she’s special." Jeff whispered quietly, but I still heard him.

Matt nodded. "I know Jeff, I won’t. Thanks bud."

Jeff shrugged. "No problem. Ya know, I could have had her."

Matt nodded again. "Yeah, but then I would have had to take her." He laughed and the brothers shook hands. I smiled to myself, my ego inflating just a bit. I quickly and quietly walked away from the tent and smelled Matt’s leather like scent as he came up behind me. "Wanna take a walk?" he asked.

"Yeah, but lets go back to my site first, I’m getting cold again."

"No problem, just a sec." He popped his head back into the tent and retrieved a light windbreaker jacket. I pulled it over my head as he wrapped an arm around me. "Still cold?" I shook my head and smiled up at him.

He led me around the campsite for what felt like hours. We walked slowly, stopping to kiss in the moonlight when we felt it call us. We talked and found out we had a lot in common. It wasn’t that Matt was overly religious, it was just that he was always looking for the truth. He was studious and I found out he might graduate a year earlier than planned. I adored his intelligence. His eyes shone with his wit and knowledge. He talked about secret passions too, I found it all fascinating. It seemed like hours we walked, but it felt too soon as we yawned together and he led me back to my site.

I looked reluctantly at the tent, I wondered if the girls were in yet. The suspense was killing me. "Just a sec." I slipped from underneath his arm and peeked in the tent. Heather was snuggled way in the back, the other bags were still vacant. I sighed hoping they were okay. I turned back to Matt and attempted to take off the jacket he had loaned me. "Thanks"

"No, keep it, sleep in it tonight. Its Jeff’s." He laughed. "Seriously." I smiled and inhaled, it was Jeff.

"I can’t," I smiled and started to take it off again.

"No, if I bring it back he’s gonna be mad. He wants to make sure it stayed on you." He laughed and rolled his eyes. I smiled and smoothed it out again. Unsure how this was going to end. "We should try and get in a group together tomorrow or something."

I nodded. "Yeah, we can try. I hope we do."

He nodded. "Me too." He bit his lip. "It was great meeting you tonight, Melis. I’m glad I came."

I smiled shyly and looked up. "I’m glad I came too."

He bent his head and pecked my lips again, sweetly. He opened his eyes and smiled at me. "See you tomorrow, sweetie."

I nodded. "Till then, hun." I turned toward the tent and listened to his footsteps go. I bit my lip and spun around again. "Matt!" I whispered loudly.

He turned to me. "Hmm?"

I smiled and blew him a kiss. "Tomorrow!"

He nodded and caught the kiss, placing it against his lips, waved and headed back to his camp. I climbed into the tent, too dead tired to change my clothes. I crept into my bag and snuggled against my pillow with visions of Hardy boys dancing in my head.

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<br> To Be Continued, soon I hope. </center>