Best Friends Forever

Chapter Seven

"Dalton!"

The sudden use of my name startled me so much that my eyes shot open with a gasp. Before I could sit up or even look around, however, I felt the bed start to rock around me violently.

"Come on, Dalton! Get up!" Courtney chanted over me loudly. "Get up Dalton! Get up, get up, get up!"

"I'm up!" I grumbled and sat up finally so I could set her with a bleary eyed glare. "Now what do you want?"

Courtney hopped off the bed neatly before she crossed her arms over her chest with a huff.

"I came to see if you were still alive," she said. "Otherwise I was gonna get on your ass for abandoning me all day."

"Huh?"

My brows furrowed in confusion at her before I turned in the bed and pulled back the curtains. The sun was starting to settle low in the sky already, creating a golden blanket over the lake that signified dusk would be rolling in soon.

"Yeah, I thought that you might have been getting to know people or maybe just getting some you time out on the lake, but after looking everywhere I realized, duh!" Courtney smacked her forehead with the palm of her hand. "Dahl doesn't do social stuff willingly. They're probably in the cabin. And here you are. Sleeping the day away."

I rubbed a hand over my face and scooted to the edge of the bed with a groan.

"What time is it anyway?"

"Almost six," she deadpanned.

"Jesus Christ," I groaned and stood up, hoping that I could get some alertness in me from the cold boards of the cabin floor under my bare feet.

Courtney hummed sarcastically. "Do you see why I might have been a little upset?"

I sucked my lips between my teeth and nodded, trying to look both innocent and apologetic at the same time.

"I'm so sorry, Court. I wasn't trying to leave you alone, but I didn't sleep last night and," I rubbed the back of my neck and shrugged, "I was just really tired."

Courtney's jaw tightened and her eyes narrowed. "It is so hard to be mad at you sometimes." She threw her arms up dramatically. "Even when I should be allowed to!"

It was hard not to smile at the way Courtney went over the top when she was emotional about something. Whether she was happy, sad or angry, she always took that emotion to ten–and it never failed to make me feel a little piece of what she felt too.

I scooped both of her raised hands in mine, already finding it to be so easy and automatic to take her hands whenever the mood struck me, before I swung them between us gently and asked, "What can I do to make it up to you?"

"The guys are putting together a bonfire," she said with a motion of her head toward the door. "I need you to get dressed and get yourself together so I can have something tall and cute to hang off of all night."

"Cute, huh?"

I knew I was probably pushing my luck by asking her something like this, but she was the one that said it and that gave me the right to push. Just a little.

"Of course you're cute," Courtney said and rolled her eyes, as if this were absolutely obvious. "I wouldn't let you be my date if you weren't cute."

I scoffed out a laugh and shook my head.

"Not shallow at all, I see."

Courtney held up a finger in front of my face.

"In normal circumstances, I judge things by a lot more than just looks, so step back bitch." She dropped her finger and crossed that arm over her stomach. "But I need someone who will make me look better here. Which meant that I needed somebody of at least my cuteness without exceeding it."