Reignite | Currently Revising

Chapter Twenty-Seven

~Melanie~

The car ride back to the cabin is also silent as the sun starts to set.

When we pull into the driveway, I see my dad standing there with two plates of food.

"Hey," he says as we walk up to him.

He hands my mom a plate of a burger and potato salad.

"Well, she'll need to wear this cast," my mom says, pointing to my turquoise casted arm, "for six weeks."

"Only six weeks? That's not so bad, Melliebean," my dad replies while handing me a plate of two hot dogs and pasta salad.

I cringe at the childhood nickname. We make our way over to a picnic table under the white canopy next to James and Bianca, who are already sitting there.

"Are you okay?" James asks with raised eyebrows.

I nod.

"Turquoise, huh?" Bianca asks, looking at my cast.

I shrug as I take a bite of the hotdog.

"Where is everyone else?" my mom asks.

"Most are swimming in the lake. The water is really warm today. Others are starting up the fire pit, which reminds me I should help," my dad answers.

He starts heading the way of the fire pit in the center of our tents.

"I should see if they need any help, too," James says, then gets up and jogs to catch up to my dad.

Bianca eyes me, but I look down at my plate, feeling like an idiot as I eat dinner.

After my mom and I finish eating, we make our way over with Bianca to the fire pit where a large fire is already roaring.

Most of everyone sits around on fallen logs for chairs while all the grandmas sit in folding chairs far from the fire smoke.

Kara and Graham are already roasting marshmallows on sticks from the nearby forest.

~~~

Ethan approaches me later in the night after I leave the firepit to use the outhouse.

"Please don't say anything," I say as I turn around to face him in the tall grassy field. "Last night was just a meaningless kiss, nothing more."

I turn around to head back toward the outhouse.

"You and I both know that's not true. I know you felt what I felt. I know you still feel the same way as you did all those years ago."

"You don't know what you're talking about," I say as I continue marching forward.

"Yes, I do. I can see it in your eyes," Ethan says as he jogs in front of me, making me come to a complete halt.

"Ethan, please just stop," I say as I try to move around him.

"No, don't you understand, I think I love you!" he shouts, placing his hands on my shoulders to hold me in place.

My breath catches in my throat. What if the group just heard him? What is James just heard him?

"You need to shut up," I say through clenched teeth. "You don't know what love is, Ethan."

"If I don't know what love is, then neither do you! You go around saying you love James, that you're going to move to Boston with him. I heard him talking to Kevin that he has plans to marry you... Marry you, Mel! Are you ready for that? Ready for a life of marriage, as a wife?"

"Shut up!" I yell as I try to cover my ears, but it hurts to move my left arm even though it's in the cast. I whimper.

Ethan's breath catches, "Are you okay?"

I nod and pull away as he tries to place a hand on my shoulder.

"Tell me you want that, and I'll leave you alone. Mel, tell me!"

I look into his blue eyes at a loss for words.

"Is everything okay over here?" Bianca yells from a short distance in the field. "I heard yelling."

Bianca jogs closer until she's next to us, waiting for an answer.

I continue to look into Ethan's eyes, then say, "Everything's fine." I quickly brush past him and head toward the outhouse.

~~~

I toss and turn all night beside a sleeping James in a stagnantly hot tent. It doesn't help that I can't find a comfortable position with my casted arm and that I'm still in a sleeping bag on the bumpy ground. I should have listened to my mom and slept on the living room couch inside the cabin.

I sigh as my mind also won't leave thoughts of Ethan alone. Not only did he kiss me, but he saved me when James apparently couldn't. I look over at James in the dark and curse myself as guilt attacks my stomach. I can't believe I'm thinking these things while lying right next to James...

~~~