The Bad Idea

Chapter Six

Eli

My favorite part about our friend campouts was partly the drama that always ensued, and partly the late nights – food comas, drinking, leaning on each other over the warm fire, spilling secrets, telling stories... Even if arguments were had and disagreements were rampant during a campout, I always left feeling like my soul needed that shit.

Seriously, I looked forward to these campouts. It was always a good time.

This night had been pretty uneventful. I was on my third beer and had spent most of my time catching up with Gary and Frank, because it'd been a while since I talked to either of them.

Once I'd finished catching up with those two, I was surprised when Wayne suddenly approached me by the fire, and said he wanted to talk to me privately.

He walked with me out of the campsite between everyone's parked cars.

"What's all this about?" I asked, haphazardly kicking the gravel of the group lot. "You finally caving in? Are we about to fuck in someone's car? Because I love that idea..."

He scoffed, smirking, and I laughed.

I knew that was not what was going on, and Wayne also knew I was humoring myself. He finally stopped next to Gary's black Toyota Prius and turned to me.

"Eli, I just wanted us to clear the air... You know?" He put his beefy hands into his jacket pockets.

"Clear the air on what?"

"...Us. This thing between us has to be put to rest, and –"

I interrupted him with a laugh and he looked at me, confused.

"What's funny?" he asked in his deep southern accent, crossing his arms now. He seemed insecure... Probably because I had interrupted his serious tone with my laughter, I guessed...

"Uh," I paused.

What's funny...?

I'm over you?

My strategy to distract myself with Aubrey worked fantastically fucking well, and now I have a different problem?

"I really am okay Wayne, I promise. I'm just fucking with you...the whole flirting thing," I punched him in the shoulder. "We can pretend all that never happened if you want – me trying to get in your pants and all. I'll stop if it bothers you so damn much, but... I'm over all that."

He smiled then, laughing a little.

"Look, Todd and I had a talk... We need to close chapters, with you and with Aubrey... So we can all finally fucking move on. Otherwise this ridiculous drama is going to keep going, and Gary's going to lose his goddamn mind one of these days."

I grinned. Yeah, he was...

"...Okay. I get that. The chapter is closed, though, dude. Don't even worry about it."

"Is it though? Eli, for years this has been a thing... I'm fucking serious, we need to clear the air. So that it all stops, you know? It has to stop."

"...The air is cleared."

Wayne sighed, frustrated. "Fine. I'll clear it, then..." He paused for a moment, staring at me as if he was formulating what to say. He then surprised me by taking my hand in his. What the fuck was this?

"Eli, I can't thank you enough for fixing my car when we first met. You helped me when I really needed it... When I was real down. I'll never forget that shit. We got to know each other really well, and you're such a solid part of the crew now... We were meant to have met, you know? It's not that I don't care. I can't imagine what my life would be like without having met you –"