The Lying Serpent

Chapter Twenty-Two: Lover's War

I lay in bed, utterly scared.

After I poured Fanta down his shirt, Ryan had caught up to me, but didn't do anything in revenge. Instead, he gave me a creepily sweet smile, and said how he smelt amazing.

That's how I knew he was planning something. Something bad.

And so, I couldn't help but stay awake, pondering all the bad things he could do. Maybe he'd prank me by dressing up and scaring me. Maybe he'd dump a bucket of dead worms over my sleeping self.

Many more thoughts swirled around in my head as I slowly fell to sleep.

~~~

The peace and quiet of the early morning was disrupted by the pompous blare of an airhorn in my ear.

I groaned, blinking to see out of my bleary eyes., only to see Ryan standing over me with a boyish grin on his face.

"Is that all-" I was cut off as someone to my right assaulted me with ice cubes. After the ice cube attack ended, I sat up, rubbing my cold and bruising arms.

"Where did you even get ice?" I snapped at Ryan.

"I have my ways," he replied devilishly.

"He got me to drive out and buy them," Taylor clarified from my right.

"Dude, you just ruined it!" Ryan groaned.

"Sorry man."

"Ugh, whatever. I'm freezing. Grab me a towel, would ya?" I muttered.

Ryan handed me a blue towel, and I clambered out of the sleeping bag, wrapping myself in the towel.

"How many bags of ice did you buy?"

"....Five," Taylor answered after a pause.

"Five?!"

"Yeah," Taylor winced.

"No wonder it went on forever! No wonder I'm freezing!"

"Did we take it too far?" Ryan asked.

"Too far? Just you wait till I get my hands on you!" I scoffed.

"It's on," Ryan grinned.

Taylor, however, shook his head. "Look, I just helped out once. I'm not gonna get in the middle of this weird lover's war or whatever."

I grimaced. "Ew! This isn't a 'lover's war', Taylor! It's a sophisticated feud."

"Yeah!" Ryan agreed.

"Whatever, Nita would agree that it's a lover's war."

"Taylor, Nita is literally the female version of you. Of course she'd agree! Now get out both of you. I need to change into warmer clothes."

"Sure you don't want to give Ryan a show, Linda?" Taylor smirked.

"Out!"

"Ok, ok, I'm leaving!"

I let out a relieved sigh as the tent flap fluttered shut behind them.

~~~

I trudged over to the lake, the wind whipping my hair. It was nearly the middle of fall, the air turning chillier and sharper as winter approached. Spotting Nita chasing Ley and Lissie, with Summer jumping into the lake despite the freezing temperature, I continued to walk towards the lake's edge.

"Hey guys!" I greeted.

"Linda! Come help me get my phone back from these idiots!" Nita shouted.

Instead of helping her, I sat down near the water, watching as Nita tried, and failed to get her phone back.

"Let us just text him one thing!" Ley laughed.

"What's going on?" I asked amused.

"Well, apparently Nita here is close enough to good ole Marty to have his number. So, we thought, why not bring them closer by texting him a simple love message?" Lissie yelled over her shoulder as they ran past.

I laughed, shaking my head. Trust Lissie and Ley to pull a stunt like this.

Summer emerged from the water, shivering yet smiling.

"Hey Summer. You should get the guys to light a fire again, you must be freezing." I suggested.

"That's a good idea. It's so cold!" she chattered.

"Then why'd you get into the water?"

"I felt like it. Anyway, guess I'll go warm up."

She slowly walked off, legs wobbling from the chilly air. Suddenly, Nita collapsed beside me, huffing in frustration.

"I give up," she sighed.

"Aw come on Nita! You don't want ole Marty to find out about your undying love, do you?" I smirked.

"Not you too!"

I laughed at her dismay. "Oh, Nita, you should know by now not to trust us."

Nita smiled, shaking her head. "Oh, Linda, you should know by now, you guys are the only ones I truly trust."

"Me too," I smiled.

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A/N: Sorry for missing an update yesterday! Here it is, hopefully you enjoyed! I'm updating again tomorrow and White Roses will be updated on Saturday (pssst, go read it!) Deds to felixstar4 again because his birthday recently passed!