“...And the boy was never heard from again.”

Nicole jabbed a finger into the young girl’s cheek and twisted. “That was the stupidest ghost story I have ever had the displeasure of sitting through.”

Aubrey gently pushed Nicole’s arm back down. “It wasn’t that bad. It… had a beginning, middle, and end.”

That was about the most you could credit the story for, as her story sure as hell didn’t have a plot that made any sense. I pulled my stick out from the fire, only for Serena to once again yank the marshmallow from the end and toss it into her mouth. She smacked her lips together, making a disgusting show of the crime she had committed. Ever the calm person, I simply grabbed another marshmallow from the bag and began the roasting process all over again.

“Thanks, Grant!” she said, after swallowing the remainder of what should have been my sweet treat.

“Karma will come for you.”

Serena tilted her head to the side. “Who’s karma?”

Miss Halsey pulled a face. “You are a sophomore, aren’t you?”

“Yeah, why?”

She hefted a long sigh. “No reason in particular. Just always surprised to see the education system at work.”

The fire had dimmed some again, so I stretched my leg outward and tapped one of the sticks we had simmering on the edge of the stone ring with the edge of my shoe. Greedily, the blaze claimed it, and the fire wicked back to life. It danced a steady orange, tossing a few embers in my direction and casting my shadow on either side of the bench. The girls’ shadows were a conglomerate of darkness, appearing like something out of a horror movie. They had all squeezed together on a single bench, much to the chagrin of Nicole. Yet, despite her protests, she didn’t make a move to escape the overcrowding. I was sitting next to our teacher, partly to hide her flask from view and partly to feel more included.

“I can’t believe it’s only a little past ten o’clock,” our teacher said, leaning forward with her hands in her face. “It feels like I’m back on a twenty-four-hour shift like I was when I first graduated.”

“With the way you were driving, you probably shaved a few years off your life,” Nicole sniped. “Or it could just be that you’re getting to that age.”

“Har-har.” She gave her best impression of a pirate, which was rather lackluster if I was being truthful. “You get funnier and funnier by the day.”

“What kind of job did you use to work, Miss Halsey?” Aubrey asked, doing us all a favor and avoiding the two of them from going tit-for-tat the rest of the night.

“I used to work at a call center that expected me to be available all the time. It was a shit job with shit pay and no future.”

“You must have been happy when you finally landed a job as a teacher.”

She smirked, the corner of her mouth upturning slightly. “It’s got a lot of the same cons going for it, but at least I can say I’m growing the minds of our youth.”

“You must mean poisoning,” Nicole muttered.

She laughed loudly, which caused Nicole to jump and immediately deny doing so when Serena started teasing her. “You could be right about that. Either way, I think it’s time I go to bed. Make sure you all start to wrap it up soon too. Otherwise, you’ll be tired on the way back.”

Risking the exhaustion might be a chance I was willing to take. Maybe then I could ignore the heart-pounding, adrenaline-pumping car ride home.

With a quick wave, Miss Halsey snatched up her steel flask. She unzipped the flap of the nearest tent, crawled inside, and closed it back up. Her departure brought a sudden quiet, broken only by the periodic snapping of burning wood. It was growing dim again, so I poked at the fire with a non-roasting stick, sending a fountain of sparks drifting into the night sky. Their brief glow faded back into darkness as they floated away from their birthplace.

“So…” Serena said slowly, “anyone else got a scary story that they want to share?”

“God, if anyone tries to tell another ghost story, I’m going to lose it,” Nicole said.

“Like in a fun kind of way?” Serna asked.

Nicole smiled darkly, the low light of the fire making it even more ominous. “Like the ‘and she was never heard from again’ kind of way.”

Serena scooted away from the frankly terrifying girl, which pushed Aubrey to the end of the bench. She bore it with the patience of a saint and just patted Serena’s arm. Faintly amused, I withdrew my marshmallow, having charred it to a solid black mass. Serena considered it for a moment, then generously allowed me to claim it. I blew on it until I was certain I wasn’t going to burn the inside of my mouth and enjoyed every bite of pure charcoal.

Serena popped off the bench. “If all of you are just going to be party poopers, I’m going to hit the hay.”

Nicole snorted. “You’re such a little kid.”

“And maybe you wouldn’t be such a grouch if you followed my example.”

“You little bi–”

“Hold that thought real quick.” She stalked over to the tent that the three of them were sharing and returned with the DSLR camera. “If you can get any good shots of the stars go ahead and take a picture. I got it on auto mode right now, so even amateurs like you can get some nice pics.”

Serena shoved it into my lap, and I shifted to ensure the thing didn’t tumble to the dirt. Setting the stick aside, I took the rope cord and placed it around my neck. The camera dangled a few inches below my neck, settling on the top of my stomach.

“Great,” Serena gave us a thumbs-up. “With that, I bid you adieu until tomorrow.”

After she vanished into her tent, we were left sitting around the dying fire. The silence was a little more oppressive this time around, and I wasn’t confident in striking up a conversation with just the two of them. It had been a small blessing that Serena and Miss Halsey had been on this trip, ensuring that things never became awkward. With them no out of the picture, I was no better than a floundering idiot. Still, since there was no more wood to stoke the fire with, I could use that as an excuse to go gather some and buy myself a little time to come up with some safe topics.

Sometimes I was too smart for my own good.

“I’m going to get–”

“Why haven’t you made a move?” Nicole interrupted.

“I… uh, what?”

Out of all the possible stuff that could have come out of her mouth, that was the last thing I had expected. And how was I supposed to respond to that? Sorry, I thought we had decided to maintain our current relationship. Fat chance she would buy into that. Hell, it was more likely I’d leave with a fat lip if that was what I went with.

“Hey, Nicole, that’s not fair. He was obviously trying to be considerate and not pressure us into anything.”

“I know, and I can appreciate that. How long are we going to dance around each other like this, though? I agreed with you to take it slow and not try to one-up each other, but we’re never going to get anywhere like this.”

“To be fair, we didn’t tell Grant any of this,” Aubrey pointed out. “And we have kind of been avoiding this whole conversation. Not that I’m blaming you”–she clicked Nicole’s jaw shut with her finger–“it’s my fault it turned out like this.”

“It’s not. It’s just as much mine.”

“Sorry, I didn’t realize either,” I interjected, not knowing what else to say.

“Damn it, it’s not like I meant it like that! It’s just that things are going to be different, and I’d rather rip off the bandaid and get it over with, you know?”

“I get it. We can’t stay like this forever.”

“I wish we could,” Aubrey whispered, hugging her knees to her chest.

“Something’s always changing, no matter whether you want it to or not,” Nicole said. “That doesn’t mean it has to be bad.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” Aubrey smiled. “Maybe a little change could be good for us. It’s not like we’ll go back on the promise we made.”

“Of course not. I still don’t understand half of what you troublesome people are thinking.” I laughed, bouncing the camera up and down. “There’d be no point in giving up now.”

Nicole sighed, laying across the bench, and allowing her feet to dangle off the edge. Plopping her head in Aubrey’s lap, she turned slightly to glare at me. “That’s some big talk. I hope you’re ready to back it up with an answer for us.”

I nodded confidently. “I will soon. I promise.”

"I'll hold you to it."

“Ah, a meteor shower!” Aubrey blurted out and drew our attention upward. “Quick, get a picture!”

The heavenly bodies of light streaked across the sky. I raised the camera and snapped a shot while the girls grinned at the display. Glancing at the capture screen, there was the faintest tug at my heart, a feeling of contentment that I couldn’t keep at bay. Serena and Miss Halsey would be upset with me tomorrow once they realized I had missed getting a picture of the shower.

Instead, I had gone for a shot of something a little more down-to-earth but no less mesmerizing.

LonMair399

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