The teenage orphan [Being edited]

24. Family Camping

It was about 6:30 in the afternoon when Nolan and I made our way back home. "Lony, let's stop by my house so I could change and I'll drive you home."

He said at a stop light. "Why don't you stay for dinner and sleepover so you could get to know everyone. I know you're going to be spending a lot of time with us."

"Well that would be cool. What should I bring?" "Just like clothes to sleep in." I said. We continued driving.

"You know I'm still in shock to see you here." Nolan said to me. "You know, I could say the exact same thing to you."

I shut my eyes and fell asleep for most of the ride back.

A solid 45 minutes later Nolan woke me up. "Avalon, were at your house." He said. "So you're sleeping over?" I asked. "Yeah."

We walked in and I didn't see anyone. I walked to the backyard and there everyone was.

I took off my shorts, converse, muscle tee and jumped straight into the pool. Nolan sat with Zack and Derek. I was swimming around with everyone.

It was about 7:45, the sun slowly started setting, which meant the lights come up in the backyard.

We turned on the terrace lights, the pool lights, the "fairy lights", and the guys put up a campfire.

For about an hour, everyone was either in the pool, on the trampoline, or cooking dinner. Zack and Derek were barbecuing burgers for all of us.

I cut up tomatoes, lettuce, and put out the ketchup. We all handed out the plates and then got our burgers.

I sat on the blanket next to the fire and ate. "How was the trip today?" Zack said while sitting next to me.

"Amazing. That's like. It like. Well it. It just took my breath away." "Well maybe you could bring me one day."

"Nope, can't do that." I said shaking my head. "Why not?" Zack said while swinging his arm around my shoulder.

"It's a top secret place." I said smiling. "Well, we need to go out. Just the two of us. Because the last time we did, we got interrupted and Lily could've died."

"True, then tom- then the day after tomorrow. Tomorrow I kinda wanna stay home with the fam." "You called them your family." Zack said smiling at me.

Everyone got their burgers and sat around the fire. "Well that's what they are to me." I said smiling at all of them.

I looked at Nolan and smiled. A thought then popped up into my head.

I quickly ran into the house and got the guitar that was sitting in the living room. I then ran back out to everyone.

"Avalon you never told us you played the guitar..." Morgan said smiling. Nolan looked at me smiled and shook his head.

"Oh no, I don't. But Nolan, he does." I said smiling. "PLAY US A SONG!" Lily yelled.

Everyone then started asking him to play a song. "Fine!" He gave up.

Everyone started cheering. "BUT! Only if Avalon sings with me." Everyone looked at me.

"Avalon you never told us you sing..." Jack said. "Well everyone sings. I'm just bad at it." "Are you kidding me? Avalon won the 4th grade talent show." He said.

"Oh my gosh, I can't believe you just told them that." I said covering my face and laughing. "Come on Avalon!"

I rolled my eyes, got up, and sat next to Nolan. "What do you guys want to hear Avalon sing?" "What do you guys want to hear Noah play?" "Avalon sing." "Nolan play." "Avalon SING." "Nolan PLAY." "AVALON SING." "NOLAN PLAY."

Nolan and I kept on yelling back and forth. "Fine I'm not singing." I said while getting up. Nolan stood up.

"Oh yeah you are." He said smiling at me. I smiled at him and started to run around the back yard.

He chased me around. Around trees, the trampoline, and I jumped into the pool and he jumped in and grabbed my arm. "Your singing." "Your playing." We said laughing.

"FINE! NEITHER OF YOU HAVE TO PLAY OR SING." Zack yelled out.

All of us stared at him and he walked inside. I got out of the pool, whipped myself down with a towel, and walked inside and looked for Zack.

I found him sitting on the windowsill in my room. "It's a good place to sit and think, right?" He looked at me and back out the window.

"Zack, what's wrong? What did I do?" I asked while sitting next to him. "You didn't do anything. He did."

"He as in Nolan?" "Yeah."

"What did Nolan do to you?" I asked while taking a hold of Zack's hand. "Don't you see? He's taking you away from me. Soon enough you'd be running away with him. Doing stuff that you don't do."

"Zack, seriously? First of all, you were the one who let me go on that trip with him today. And second of all he's been my best friend for as long as I could remember and he left eight years ago, and I finally have him back in my life." "So, you have me and I'm your boyfriend." Zack said.

"But my relationship with him is different than yours." "Fine then explain." Zack said.

"He was always my bestfriend. And it's only been a day since he showed up in my life again. This is a big deal for me because he's always been that best friend I went to about everything and who I hung out with every day after school. When he left I only had my family. And when I lost my family I thought I had no one. And now that he's the only one who literally remembers my childhood, and the one who's been with me through it all, I'd like to keep him as a friend."

"But you have me to hold on to and go to me about everything." Zack said.

"Zack, okay. Look. I met you just a little over a week ago. And you barely know anything about me." "Pfffft I know so much about you."

"What's my middle name?" I asked. Zack sat silent.

"Exactly. Nolan's the only one who I grew up with, who's still alive. I have a lot of people who I grew up with, but it's either that they are now dead, or they still live in New York. And if I have their phone number, it's so much harder to talk to them like that. Or I wasn't even that close with them. Nolan lost his dad and his little sister in a car crash, and his mom remarried. Nolan and my family were the only ones who understood me. And now that my family is dead. I only have Nolan, he's the only one who has pictures of me growing up and he's still my best friend. I need to cherish that I still have him before he dies or I die. Him and I missed eight years of our friendship. So I was hoping him and I could catch up, but I guess you don't want me to talk to him anymore so I'll go kick him out of our house." I got up and started to walk out of my room.

"Avalon, I'm sorry. I didn't know th-" I cut him off. "Zack, you don't even know three fourths of me or my life."

I walked out and downstairs. I jumped into the pool and swam to the mini pool bar. It was about 10:30 and everyone was pretty much asleep.

I went into the cooler and punched in the password that Derek gave me. I took a beer out and took a sip out of it.

"You drink?" Nolan came up behind me and sat in the underwater chair next to me. "Not really, only when I need to think off less stuff."

"What happened with Zack?" "He was just mad." "At what?"

I sat silent. "Lony, you could tell me anything." "He was mad because he thought you were pulling me away from him." "Oh."

"But I explained to him why we were so close and stuff, so yeah."

I gave him the beer. "Drink the rest of it." I said. He chugged it down and threw out the bottle. "We should dry up and get to bed."

"Yeah." I hugged him, we dried ourselves up and went into our tents.