Dramatic Summer Love Story

Campers

I sigh so loudly that Thomas wakes up, his eyes flutter open and he stretches his limbs out, I smile at him and he reaches out to me. I scoot closer to Thomas so he can wrap me up in his arms. Today we're going to drive two and a half hours out of Hampstead to go camping and spend two days with the group in nature. We want to be at the campsite before one o'clock but before two o'clock is also fine. Speaking of the clock I reach over to Thomas's bedside table and find my phone. I bring it back to us and we look at the clock together, we need to start getting ready soon. Thomas however, doesn't think that soon should be later because he jumps up, he literally sits up straight really quickly after seeing the clock.
"Thomas, no, stay for a bit longer," I whine for him to come back to cuddle but he gets up and starts searching for his pants.
"Tay, stay in bed a bit longer, okay trust me." Thomas gives me instructions and I don't protest because protesting might mean I have to get out of bed and I don't want to do that, I'm too lazy. Thomas finishes getting dressed and takes our bags upstairs, while Thomas is gone I scroll through Snapchat and Instagram I see that Chloe and Aaron have been dating for nine months today, and of course, they make a post about it even though it's just nine months, I mean not that it's a small amount of time but just that it's not a milestone many people celebrate. Moving on from the rambling I continue to be on my phone until I hear Thomas is headed back down the stairs toward me, I put my phone down and wait for him.
The door is opened and in the doorway stands Thomas with a tray filled with food, okay maybe not totally filled but there is food on the tray meaning he made some food for me to eat in bed. How cute is that, he's so sweet, sweeter than I realized he would be.
"Thomas!" I sing his name and he smiles. He brings the tray to me and sits down beside me. We eat breakfast together and enjoy the birds that sing outside Thomas's window. "It's so weird to think that summer is ending in a few days, we're going back to school and we're just getting old."
"Yeah but we're not that old," Thomas says and we argue until we go to the car about whether or not we are old, of course, I have the last word because he gives up on trying to disagree with me on the way to pick up the boys, Gabe and Aaron from Chloe, the other girls are going together in one car, I decided to let them be in a car without me so they'd have more space because it's better to be able to be four in one car and four in the other instead of being crammed together.
The two-and-a-half-hour drive is filled with rock and rap music the whole ride, we talk a lot through the music about some shit like soccer and other things boys usually talk about, there are sometimes I'm not sure what they are talking about but I just listen and stay quiet or check my phone until the conversation changes.
We arrive at just one o'clock and we wait for the girls who arrive about ten minutes after us, when they do join us at the camping ground we pick a spot to set up our tents, one tent for the girls, which is bigger than the tent for the boys because we are more than them.
"Is it just me or am I starving after all of this." Aaron asks us and refers to 'all of this' as the ride and setting up the tents, and he is totally right my stomach rumbles at the mention of food, and people who are near me can even hear it it's so loud.
"I think we all agree," Chloe answers, she's one of the people who heard my stomach and so she smiles at my then Aaron when answering him. We decide that for lunch we will grill hot dogs, so we all walk down to the lake beside the camp where there are the gills and seating to eat. Chloe and the boys grill while we sit and wait for them to deliver us food.
"You know we should jump into the water after eating," I suggest as I eye the water in the hot air, it's one of the last summer days left this summer and the weather is beautiful, it's so nice that I think we should grab the opportunity to could down in the lake.
"Are we even allowed to do it?" Soph asks and everyone who's not rolling turns their head toward the water and admires it all thinking the same thing as me I hope, that the water looks too nice not to pass up this chance to jump in it.
"I see people in the water," Chloe says but she's standing up so I do too and immediately spot a few people in the water splashing around and having fun.
"Then it's settled, we'll go swimming in the lake after eating," Thomas says to us over his shoulder, but he never takes his eyes off the grill.
The plan Thomas comes up with, which isn't very intricate, goes exactly how he spoke, we eat lunch and talk, and afterward, we go back to our tents to change into swimwear. we girls are all in bikinis except for Millie who doesn't feel comfortable in a two-piece so she wears a one-piece. The boys are in shorts, no one looks as good as Thomas though, his skin glows in the sun and his muscles flex when he walks, I admire everything about his physique and am captivated by him until Chloe pushes me a bit.
"What?" I ask quite angrily because she pushed me, why the hell would she do that?
"We were trying to talk to you and I did poke you but you didn't even acknowledge it." Chloe defended herself and so I ask her what they were talking about. They tell me about some things they want to do tomorrow and I agree and finally, we get onto the small beach by the lake.
I walk into the water first and it's the colder side of lukewarm, which feels very good in the heat. The girls come in after me and we start by sitting down so we're barely out in the water, the water is just over our feet. I look around to see the boys and they're checking out a tree, it would be a great tree to have a rope fastened to, to swing out into the water, I suspect the boys are talking about it because they're pointing up into the branches. I look away but am pulled back to look at them when they shout a victory exclamation. Aaron holds a rope that is fastened to one of the branches, they must have found a rope someone else made.
I stand up and tread my way out of the water and over the beach to them. "Can I have the first swing?" I ask and show them my puppy eyes along with batting my eyelashes.
Thomas wraps me up and kisses my forehead. "Sure you can." The boys start arguing that it's not fair and they want to compete in a rock, paper, scissors game to see who really should have the first swing, I'm ready to do that but before we can start competing Thomas speaks up again. "Guys, think about this, this might be a very old rope, it might fall apart as soon as someone swings so why not let her go first to see if it's sturdy?" The boys quiet down and I'm glad they do but also find it kind of funny that I'm his girlfriend and he's willing to let me hurt myself.
The boys back away from the tree and let me be the testing subject, I grab the rope and walk backward as much as I can before I run and jump off the small ledge, and with the rope, I leap over the lake, I let go of the rope and my heart thumps loudly in my ears as I fly into the water, I think I might have yelled before I went underwater but I'm not sure, I'm so distracted by the fun I had that the only thing I can think about is that I want to do that again!
I come up again and I take a deep breath of air to catch my breath, I look back to the beach and see Aaron getting ready to swing, Thomas is looking toward the water and I give him a thumbs-up, he smiles and turns his attention to Aaron who starts towards his swing just as I start swimming away so he won't land on me and hurt us both. He lands in the water and when he comes up he laughs. "That was so great right!" I exclaim and he agrees. The girls have joined Thomas and Gabe at the rope and like the gentlemen they are they let them go first.
Every having taken one turn, we start swimming back for one more swing each, we decide not to take a risk at anyone seeing us because we're not sure the rope swing is allowed since it was hidden pretty well. This time around I'm the last, everyone is in the water already and so I wait until they've cleared the spot where we usually land, and then I do the same as before and I back up and run towards the water with the ope in hand and jump, I swing and immediately I feel a bit of adrenaline take over my body, I scream when I let go but not out of fear but just because of the excitement that comes with the adrenaline.
"Do y'all remember when our swim teacher would make us compete in who could stay underwater for the longest time? We should do that." Gabe says.
"We have been doing that almost every time we go swimming," Chloe tells Gabe.
"I don't want to hold my breath right now so I'll be the judge," I announce and no one argues.
Everyone gets in a circle in front of me and I count down from five, when I say zero everyone takes a deep breath and goes underwater. It doesn't take long until the first person, which is Millie, comes up and it continues like that until Chloe and Thomas are the last ones underwater.
"Should we bet?" I joke and the others begin talking about how much they would bet on either one of them, I'm starting to zone out when Chloe finally gives up and somehow Thomas doesn't come up right after her.
"Now he's just showing off!" Gabe laughs and a few seconds later when Thomas decides that he has shown off enough Gabe splashes water at him. I laugh as Thomas coughs a bit and splashes Gabe's back, except it doesn't hit Gabe it goes on Penny who splashes back. It turns into a full-on splashing battle where it's everyone versus everyone. But the boys team up and attack us girls, we surrender after a long and heroic fight against them.
We play a few more games in the water but we end the water adventures when we notice it's getting late and the sky is starting to turn a darker shade of blue than it was before.
"Is anyone going to take a shower?" Aaron and a few others go take a shower and the others including me set up a small campfire to grill hotdogs and s'mores over. I snuggle up with Thomas on a log in front of the fire we made. I feel him lean down to my ear, his lips barely touch my skin but I shiver.
"I have a great idea," Thomas whispers to me and I listen, with all my attention on him he continues, "We should meet up later, after everyone's asleep."
"I like the sound of that," I whisper back. "Where should we meet up?" Thomas is kissing my neck and I struggle to keep my face together because of the naughty thoughts that fill my mind because of his idea and actions.
"The public bathrooms probably won't be very busy tonight, let's meet up there." He says and gives me two more kisses before sitting back up straight, the people who took a shower are back and sit down with us around the fire.
"We should tell each other ghost stories!" Chloe suggests as she sits down.
"I'll start." Millie does the rare thing and put herself out there, but since it's dark like her humor and something she likes it's not going to be as hard as it would be if it wasn't something she liked. "So, Annabell Sweet was a very stable person when she moved into her first apartment, she had just turned 25 and was going to celebrate in a few days by throwing a party for her birthday and moving in, however with each day she lost sense of reality more and more..." Millie continued the story, at first it didn't seem really creepy but at the end, the hairs all over my body were standing up and my spine was shivering.
"That was a great story and I don't think we need anymore creepy stories for the rest of our lives," I commented as she finished and then shoved a s'more into my mouth.
"Agreed." Other people say and Millie calls us all cowards, it was obviously a joke and so everyone laughs and we start talking about things that are not creepy.
"Well, I'm headed to bed now," Soph says, and shortly after we all follow.
"Tay," Thomas says my name and we let the other walk a bit away from us. "Are we still meeting up later?"He asks me and I give him a smile and nod through a yawn. "We don't have to if you don't want to." He says and I appreciate him saying it, no one has ever done that to me, ask for consent and make sure I totally want to do something it makes me really happy that Thomas is like this and it turns me on which wakes me up.
"I'll see you after the girls fall asleep." I kiss him quickly and leave to get into bed. The girls start laying down too and we do talk for a while but I can't stop thinking of Thomas and the fact that I want his hands on me so I suggest to the girls that we should go to bed because we have a lot of things to do tomorrow, they agree and I stare up at the roof of the tent thinking and listening to the girls' breaths.
It doesn't take a long or short time for them to fall asleep but when I hear a tent open up near us I know it's Thomas getting out, I wait a few more minutes before deciding that if they are awake I'll tell them I needed to go to the bathroom, which I do but not for the reason they will assume.