Page 21 of Strictly Curious
“I’d offer to help, but…”
“Yeah,” I sighed. “I had the same thought.” I watched as he ran the rag through his pits, grabbing the stick of deodorant off the counter and applying a fresh coat. I was immediately smacked with the scent of it and him mixing and I wanted to bury my nose in him and live there. Maybe that was a weird thought. I’d certainly never had it before.
We traded places at the sink and I copied his motions applying fresh deodorant. Once we were cleaned up, we had no choice but to part ways. We stood awkwardly, staring at each other in nothing but our underwear in my room. Neither of us wanted to separate yet.
“Garrett! Tyler!” Ava hollering at the bottom of the stairs seemed to snap us out of whatever was about to transpire. Garrett quickly grabbed his clothes that had been strewn around my room from last night and ducked out the door.
I took a deep breath to steady myself because the next week was going to be hell.
Thetrunkslammedshut,and I glared at Ava’s smug face. She convinced Lucy that they needed to ride with Garrett and I. Not that I really thought anything was going to happen on a drive, but it didn’t give us any privacy either.
“Oh, come on, Tyler. You love me.” She wrapped an arm around my shoulder and mussed my hair.
Garrett crossed his arms and leaned against the side of the car. He kept a close eye on her and I gathered pretty quickly he didn’t like it when other people had their hands on me.
“You boys drive safely and try to follow us. I’ve texted the address to the campgrounds to Ava in case we get separated,” Mom explained. She climbed into the passenger seat of the SUV and we all loaded into our Honda. It was a little cramped for four grown people, but we could survive for the hour and a half drive to the campgrounds.
Mom and Dad backed out of the driveway and headed down the road, and I rushed to follow them. Lucy and Ava were tucked into the backseat and her parents’ car followed behind us. As we followed the road, Garrett’s hand snuck across the center console and he rested it on top of mine on the shifter.
Ava giggled from the back seat and he flipped her off over his shoulder.
This was going to be an eventful trip.
Garrett
Thelightfilteredthroughthe leaves of the trees that loomed overhead. It was hot, and the sweat beaded down my back as I helped to unload the last of the equipment from the back of Tyler’s car. At least the campgrounds were nice.
“Boys, can you bring that cooler over here, please?” Mom called across the road that separated the small campsites. Mom and Dad had chosen the larger of the four spaces they had reserved. Dad had already gotten to work setting up the large tent for them to sleep in.
I rolled my eyes and motioned for Tyler to help me carry it. It contained a large amount of the food we’d brought for the few days we were going to be out here. He dropped the duffle bags that he was carrying and crossed his arms.
“Don’t make that face at me. I don’t want to carry it either,” I remarked at the scowl he shot my way. He let out a heavy sigh, coming and grabbing the other handle. With great difficulty we hauled it across the street, although, I think I had an easier time carrying it than he did.
Once the cooler was on the ground, Tyler rubbed at his arm. I moved to his side and grabbed it, rubbing it for him. Mom gave us a puzzled look, but didn’t comment on it. “Do you think you can go over and help Ava and Lucy set up their tent?” she asked. I let out a breath of frustration because at some point Tyler and I needed to set up our own site, and the day was just going to get hotter.
“Sure, not a problem,” I answered, dropping Tyler’s arm and steering him over to help Lucy and Ava. We found them sitting around the firepit on their site. Ava had a bottle of Jack Daniels hanging from her hand and the two were laughing about something.
I raised my brows when Tyler walked up to Ava and snatched the bottle from her. He wasn’t really a partier, but he’d never been shy about joining in for some fun either.
“That’s mine!” Ava protested as Tyler opened the bottle and took a swig. He made a face, screwing the cap back on and tossing it across to me. I copied him, taking my own swig before handing the bottle back to my cousin. I sat on the bench next to her and looked between her and her girlfriend.
“You think I can get through one of these family trips without some sort of liquid courage?” she asked. I had to laugh because she wasn’t wrong.
“Okay, you got me. Mom seems to think you and Lucy need help setting up.” I motioned to the tent poles laying haphazardly across the ground.
“Nah, we have this handled, but I appreciate the company.” She twisted the cap off the bottle again, taking her own swig, and handing it over to Lucy.
We continued passing the bottle around for a while until we all felt more than a little buzzed and it was probably a good idea that we stopped. We’d never get our campsites set up at this rate. The sun was already high in the sky and it was hotter than ever.
Tyler and I stumbled our way back to our space, and I pulled the tent out of the bag. Shit. How had we ended up with this tiny thing? Was my family not aware that I was over six feet tall? My eyes struggled to focus on putting the polls together and the next thing I knew a cold bottle of water was being pressed into the back of my neck.
“Goddamn,” I shouted falling forward, and landing hard in the dirt. Tyler’s dad laughed as he tossed the bottle onto the pile of polls next to me.
“You boys need some help over here?”
I blinked up at him stupidly. Sweat rolled into my eyes, and I could feel my curls sticking to my forehead.
“Drink up. Don’t need you boys getting dehydrated. And don’t think I don’t know about Ava giving you boys that booze. That doesn’t count. It’ll just dehydrate you faster.”
