What Happens on the Fourth

SATURDAY

There wasn't much food to pick over when I returned to the fire, to my disappointment, but Max thankfully saved me twenty minutes later after appearing out of his camper with a pizza- which he only shared with me- and we devoured the entire thing in a matter of ten minutes.

I had run to the tent, opting to change into a pair of jeans and an oversized hoodie with the cold that had set in upon the sun's setting, and was about to walk back to the fire when Camila called me over to the trailer.

"Are you drinking tonight, Brooks?"

I shrugged "Sure, why not?" She tossed me a shooter, and I caught it before downing it. She drank one of her own simultaneously.

"Oooo, are you guys doing shots?" Kate appeared from inside the trailer. Camila tossed her one, handing me another, and we easily sent those down, too. "I have these, too." She pulled some colorful drinks out of a portable cooler that had been hanging from her arm. Camila and I both took one, popping the top off and taking a big swig each.

"So- what did you and Max talk about?" Camila asked too innocently, wiggling her eyebrows.

"Max and I are just friends," I said. No one really knew how close Max and I were, but I wasn't bothered by it- and neither was he.

"What about Alex?"

"Apparently they're just friends, too," Kate said as she opened her own drink. I nodded in confirmation.

"If you say so," was thankfully Camila's only response.

"How do you like your new job?" I asked- and so begun a conversation of work and school- which somehow led to talking about her decorating Sam's house- and before I knew it, we had all finished two drinks and were somehow talking about ideal phrases for kitchen hand towels.

"I found one to put by Sam's wet bar that says, 'step aside coffee, this is a job for alcohol'," Camila said, and I laughed.

"I like that one."

"Right? Found it at a craft fair. They had a lot of cute ones."

"I have one," Kate started, "that has a picture of a whisk and says, 'whip it real good'."

"You don't have to ask me twice," Daniel approached us with a wink, and I chuckled as Kate teasingly rolled her eyes. Daniel dropped an arm around her waist and placed a quick peck on her cheek. "We were wondering what you ladies were up to. I have to say that I still don't know."

"We were talking about tea towels," I clarified, my words coming out more stalled than I intended. I hadn't realized how much we had drank standing here.

"Ahh," he smiled. "It all makes sense now. Well," he pulled Kate into his side, "if you two don't mind, I'm going to steal my girlfriend back."

"We were just making our way over there," Kate's words were as slow as mine, and I realized I wasn't the only one that the alcohol was affecting.

Camila and I followed Daniel and Kate back to the fire. Camila went over to Sam upon approaching, and I walked over to the only empty lawn chair. When I was only a few feet away, however, Max flopped into it, shooting me a wink as his gaze flashed to Alex, who sat nearby.

"You knew I was," I fought a hiccup, "I was going to sit there."

"You snooze, you lose, Brooks," he smirked, then said a bit more loudly, "you can sit on my lap if you want."