Fighting Fire - s.k.

Chapter Three

Today was the last day that the twins would be in town. Everyone gathered around the table, having breakfast together: Jake, Josh, Sam, Ronnie, Kelly, Karen, and Stevie. Stevie was trying so hard to take photos in her mind of this breakfast to hold onto when she would be forced back into her reality of living alone and catching glimpses of her friends on the internet. When everyone was done and just sitting around, talking, Josh and Ronnie got up to start helping with the clean up and Stevie felt the tension rising in her body. 

The more she dragged the day along, the more she could relish in the unity of her friends. She didn't want to start their adventure yet, because it would be over before she knew it. She sighed, taking long glances at each of them and Jake gave her a quizzing smirk.

"What's up, Steve?" he asked and she smiled sheepishly at him, resting her chin on her palm.

"I'm just savoring this," Stevie admitted and Sam rolled his eyes, pretending to gag. She pouted at him, kicking his shin under the table and he glared at her.

"You're one of the sappiest people I've ever met," Sam laughed, "And that's saying something when I'm related to Josh."

Karen scoffed and shook her head, "You're pretty sappy too, Sam."

Stevie raised her eyebrows at Karen and started laughing, "Damn, even your mom is calling you on your bullshit."

Sam shook his head, looking dramatically off into the distance but managing to smile anyway. Stevie smiled too, feeling pretty confident that getting him out of his room for movies last night boosted his mood a bit. As much as she was dreading saying goodbye to Jake, she was at least a little thankful that Sam would be around. Just as long as his attitude didn't completely kill her summer. She wasn't sure if she could deal with her grief and Sam's dramatics on top of that too. 

Josh walked over when he was finished with the dishes and rested a hand on Stevie's shoulder, "Alright gang! Are you ready? We gotta get out there before the trails get too hot!"

Stevie took a deep breath and smiled up at him, "Alright, let's get the show on the road."

Today, the group of them were aiming to do all of the fun things they used to do together growing up, starting with hiking, a picnic afterwards maybe, and seeing where the rest of the day took them. She didn't really care what they did together though. She was just scared that the day would come and go too quickly and tomorrow was going to be too hard to handle. After she says her goodbyes to the twins, she had to work one more shift before her vacation time started. On top of that, Ronnie wasn't scheduled to work tomorrow and was also going on a vacation of her own with Tyler. So, she really would be alone until it was Project Lake House time, and even then, that wasn't really something she was looking forward to either. 

The group of them gathered their stuff for their day and said their goodbyes to Karen and Kelly. Stevie had talked to each of them briefly this morning about the lake house trip, mentioning the plan she had with the twins about helping take Sam's mind off of everything. Thankfully, they were both on board, but had their reservations about it. Karen was adamant about Stevie contacting her at any time for anything at all, worried that she was taking too much of this on herself. 

"I'm not too worried about it, honestly," Stevie told her, "It kind of works out perfectly for me because without the help, I'd never go back to face the lake house."

Karen had given her a hug at that point and Kelly chimed in too, "Well, don't be afraid to put his ass to work."

She smiled at the memory, tugging her duffle bag over her shoulder and following the rest of them to Josh's Jeep. This time, Ronnie sat up front with Josh and Stevie was stuck in the middle between Jake and Sam. Once in the car, Ronnie took it upon herself to be the DJ and she turned back to look at Stevie with a mischievous smile.