Read Online The Story of Us by AuthorStephanieHenry - Free Book Online Page B

Tyler and I’m excited about getting away from school and
cheerleading practices, even just for one night. Cheerleading has
been especially demanding lately, leaving little time for anything
else other than homework and term papers. I make time for Tyler
here and there but I’m glad he’s on the football team and
completely understands a busy schedule. Hailey and I’s dorm-mates
Ashley and Julie, or the twins as I still jokingly call them, are
coming too. Julie is bringing her boyfriend and Ashley is bringing
a girlfriend of hers. When we get there, I notice that Tiffany has
also brought a girlfriend of hers too. That makes eleven of us in
four tents. The twins are sharing a two-bedroom tent though. It’s
practically state-of-the-art, since Julie’s boyfriend used to be a
boy scout. It makes the rest of our smaller tents pale in
comparison. Tyler and Drew start setting up the tents right away,
as the rest of us unpack the coolers and bags. Before anyone’s
settled in, Craig takes out cups and alcohol.
    “What’s the rush?” I ask, “We have all
night.”
    “What’s camping without alcohol?” he
counters, as if it’s an obvious match.
    Despite the fact that I’m clearly here
with Tyler, I get a death glare from Tiffany for daring to talk to
Craig, so I make a mental note to avoid both of them for the rest
of the night. I don’t need the drama.
    As it gets darker, the guys start a
campfire and we all gather around it. I snuggle up to Tyler and he
wraps a blanket around us both. I glance over at Craig to find him
full on making out with Tiffany. I don’t know why my stomach drops.
I’m with Tyler and it feels good to have his arms wrapped around
me. So why do I feel what I can only define as jealousy towards the
scene to my right? It’s absurd. I need a distraction.
    “Let’s tell ghost stories,” I
suggest.
    This gets everyone’s
attention.
    “Ooh, I’ll go first!” It’s Tiffany’s
girlfriend who speaks up. I figure she probably needs a distraction
too. Watching her best friend make out with a guy right beside her
all night is probably not her idea of fun. She tells a story about
her friend’s house being haunted. Lights would turn on randomly,
things would move. She swears someone took the blanket off of her
in the middle of the night one time when she slept over. Stuff like
that. Everyone listens intently, but I can tell no one’s buying
into it.
    “Val, come to the bathroom with me?”
Hailey holds out her hand for me to grab.
    “I’ll go,” Ashley offers.
    “I’ll still go too.” I grab Hailey’s
hand and let her pull me up off of Tyler’s lap. I figure I might as
well walk with them now rather than by myself later. The bathroom
is about a five minute walk from our campsite up to the main
building. Ashley’s friend and Julie trail along behind us
too.
    When we return to the campsite, about
twenty minutes later, no one’s there. All of our cups are thrown on
the ground, food left out, and blankets tossed about. None of us
look surprised, only annoyed. It figures they’d do something like
this to try to scare us. So instead of looking for them, we figure
we’ll let them sweat it out. We make new drinks and the four of us
sit around together drinking and talking. About an hour goes by
before we do actually start to get worried.
    “You know what gets me?” I ask the
girls. “I’d expect this from Craig, but not Drew and
Tyler.”
    “I was thinking that too,” Hailey
admits. “I don’t think Drew would be gone for this long. I mean if
he were trying to scare me, I think he would have just jumped out
and said ‘boo’ by now. What are they doing in the woods for a whole
hour? I’m starting to get nervous.”
    Julie, on the other hand, replies,
“Nope. This is Dave all the way. He’d wait it out until we went to
search for them. I know my boyfriend. He doesn’t
surrender.”
    “Let’s just go check,” Ashley suggest,
wringing her hands together. I can tell she’s getting