Always

Chapter 26

Not that you wouldn't get scared. You guys put rat traps in my shower!!! I almost broke my neck. You had this coming." Jake spoke up. "He's not wrong. We knew they would get us back, just not how. I think they're winning right now." "Yeah, no doubt...but we'll think of something." Corey said, looking at Jake. "We got this brother! and it'll be way better than this...this measly little scare prank." He looked back to Sam. "I wasn't even scared. That was just dumb. Not even a little bit. I did not poop my pants." He was shaking his head and pursing his lips a little. We all started laughing, until we heard limbs cracking in the woods. We all stopped immediately looking in the direction of the sound. "Okay, everyone calm down. It's probably just a squirrel or something. It's fine." Jake said, holding his hands up. Colby nodded. "Yeah, he's right. We're in the woods. There are bound to be animals. It could be a deer or something even." Let's just make sure the fire doesn't go out so that they stay away." The fire was dimming a little by now so Colby went to work on getting it going again. Before long, the flames were blazing high again. Sam backed away from it. "Wow, maybe you went a little too hard on this?" He asked, holding his hand in front of his face to block the heat, while he looked at Colby. Colby shook his head. "Nah, it'll die down soon, just like the other one. I got this man!" He said smiling, and meeting Sam's gaze. We all hung out around the fire for a while after this. I think we were all still a little spooked. I couldn't stop myself from glancing around at every little sound and I noticed that the others were inconspicuously doing the same.  We stayed up most of the night, just hanging out, talking and enjoying each others company. I can honestly say that it was one of the best nights of my life. The bond that I have with these people was already so strong but having a night like this...it only intensified the friendship between us. I looked around at all of them, thinking about how much I loved them. Then my eyes found Colby. He was laughing at something Jake had said, then replying in a goofy voice. His smiled was huge, his blue eyes twinkling, and his cheeks lifted up in laughter. The blue in his hair was streaking throughout the brown, laying softly over his forehead, almost in front of his eye. I took my phone out and snapped a photo without him knowing. I looked at the photo smiling. He was just amazing. His hair, his eyes, his body...just him, but more than that. His personality. His serious side, his emo side, his goofiness, his seductiveness...there was literally nothing that I didn't love about this man. Even when he got into his moods and didn't want to really talk to anyone, I loved him, because I understood. He worked so hard on doing what he thought was best for me, for his friends, and even for his fans. He really needed to start thinking about himself more often. I shook my head, bringing myself back to reality. The guys were stuffing marshmallows in their mouths, trying to talk, and seeing how many they could fit. This was getting gross. I laughed when Sam tried to talk and a big marshmallow fell out of his mouth onto Colby's foot. "Oh Dude, that's gross!" Colby kicked his foot back towards Sam and the marshmallow went flying, landing at Corey's feet. Corey dodged it and wagged his finger at Colby. "No playing with your food boys." We laughed, and then Jake stood up walking towards Corey. "Hey, are you gonna eat that?" "Oh ew, Jake no, don't!" Tara cried out. Jake picked up the dirty marshmallow, and brought it almost to his mouth while we were all screaming at him not to do it. He tossed it over his shoulder and laughed. "Did you really think that I was going to do that?" "Well yeah.." Colby replied. "You've eaten worse." Jake eyes cut up, and he had a half smirk. "Okay, you're right...but that was in Sam's mouth." "So, you've been in my mouth before." Sam replied. "Brotheeeer." Corey exclaimed, smiling. "Are you cheating on me Sam?" Colby asked. "Excuse me?" Kat replied laughing. "You guys need to stop!" "Okay, so we're all sleeping in one tent tonight and the girls can have the rest of them?" Corey asked. "Do you see what you started Sam?" I asked, shaking my head at him, grinning. Everyone laughed. "Hey look." Tara tapped my arm, pointing out towards the lake. The sky was just barely lighting up at the bottom, casting a deep purple blue into the sky. "It's almost morning. Maybe we can sleep a little now." I yawned. "That's probably a good idea. We'll probably be up all night tonight too." Everyone said goodnight, and we crawled into our separate tents. I was too tired to worry about the air mattress that Colby had brought, so I just crashed into my sleeping bag. I wouldn't be up long enough to wait for it to be blown up. Colby lie down next to me, snuggling into his sleeping bag. I scooted closer to him, wanting to feel his warmth. He put his arm around me pulling me closer. Leaning over to kiss my cheek, he whispered in my ear, "You know, if we weren't surrounded by our friends right now, I would take advantage of you." I felt his lips turn up into a smile on my ear. I turned my face to press my lips against his. "We would have to be really really quiet." I whispered back. "You're not quiet enough!" I heard Jake yell from the tent next too us. "Damn it." Colby growled, smiling down at me. His eyes were drooping with how tired he was.