Page 30 of Strictly Curious
Tabitha had made us all dinner, and I’d made it across the street on my own, limping the entire way. Chances were high it was just a really bad sprain. We’d see how I felt in the morning, and if I wanted to stay here or go home. I didn’t want to force everyone to leave on my account. Part of me wondered if I could convince everyone to stay behind for the camping trip and have Garrett take me home alone.
Once we were back in the tent for the night, I struggled to keep my hands off him. A soon as he zipped the tent closed, I was on him, pushing him onto his back, and straddling his hips. My injury was forgotten for the moment as I focused solely on Garrett. With my admission that I wasn’t leaving for college, I hungered for him and wanted to push our boundaries. When I crushed my lips to his, he grunted, but instead of kissing me back, he eased me back up.
“Slow down, Ty.”
I rolled my eyes and huffed. “I’m fine. Please let me touch you.”
My pouting seemed to have worked, but things didn’t go in the direction I’d hoped. Instead, he rolled me onto my side, and I landed on the sleeping bags with a soft thud.
“I’m not going to be responsible for you getting hurt further. We rest today, you hear me?”
I sighed and tried to understand where he was coming from. What I wanted to do wouldn’t affect my ankle at all, but I appreciated his concern. It was still really risky being out here where we couldn’t see or hear anyone coming. Maybe I’d insist on us going home tomorrow after all.
“Fine, no play time tonight.”
“Tyler, it’s not that I don’t want to explore with you—“
“I know it’s risky.” I propped myself up on my arm and watched him, loving the way his curls spread on the pillow. It was kind of interesting that his hair wasn’t that long, but the top part seemed to just spread when he was laying down. “Maybe…” I chewed my lip trying to think of how I wanted to ask this.
“You want to see about you and me heading back tomorrow?”
It was as if he’d read my mind and I nodded. He blew out a breath and ran a hand down his face as he thought it over. It was so tempting and we had a logical excuse at this point.
“Does that make me a bad person for wanting to cut this family vacation short?” I asked.
Garrett laughed. “If you were still leaving? I’d call it a dick move. But now that you’re not going anywhere… Not that they know that.”
The guilt crashed down on me again. I hated that I hadn’t said anything yet, but I knew Dad would want reasons and telling him I felt hopelessly attached to Garrett didn’t seem like it would go over very well. I wondered if Dad and Mom knew Garrett was bisexual and if they’d have a problem if they knew. Although, Mom had seemed pretty oblivious with Toby.
“I need to tell them, but I’m just not sure—“
“How to do it? We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”
It was kind of funny how he completed my sentence for me. I also really liked the way he’d said we. Like we were more than two stepbrothers fucking around with each other. That was another thing I needed to think about. He’d been fine with things while there was an expiration date and now I’d just removed it.
When he saw me stiffen from my thoughts, he pulled me down to snuggle against his side again. He was so warm and comfortable, it was no wonder I’d always favored sleeping next to him like this. It was something I never wanted to lose and part of why I freaked out about leaving for college. Would I still be able to sleep without him by my side? He’d been there since we were ten.
In no time at all we both drifted off to sleep, tangled around each other in comfort.
“Areyousureyoudon’t want us to come with you guys?” Mom asked.
Ava covered her mouth trying not to laugh. Leave it to her to figure out that there was an ulterior motive behind Garrett and I heading home before everyone else. She just needed to keep her mouth shut.
“It’s fine, Mom. Tyler just really wants to rest. There’s no point in everyone else missing out on this trip. You look forward to it every summer,” Garrett said.
Mom huffed and crossed her arms, gaze flicking between the two of us. Did she figure out there was something going on between us? We’d been so careful in front of our parents.
“If you say so. You boys just drive carefully and let us know when you make it home.”
It was such a mom thing to say, and I bit back my laugh. “We’ll do our best. Although, it’ll be hard to do that without you having a cell signal.”
Mom rolled her eyes, moving to open the passenger side door to my car for me. “Don’t be a smart ass, Tyler. Call the ranger station if you can’t get a hold of us. And no parties. We’re out here for four more days.”
There had only been that one time in tenth grade when Garrett thought he wanted to have a party when Mom and Dad went on an anniversary trip. We quickly got busted because I’d told Maisy about it, who told her parents. It was kind of screwed up that my girlfriend had sold us out, but she swore they wouldn’t have let her out of the house if she didn’t tell them exactly what was going on. Our parents had been good friends, so her parents told mine.
“We’ll try not to trash the house,” Garrett teased, and I didn’t miss the scowl his Mom tossed his way. He slid into the driver’s side and readjusted the seat. It wasn’t often that he drove my car, but his legs were considerably longer than mine.
The drive home was calm and quiet. I flicked through the radio stations a few times until I settled on music that I could tolerate listening to for an extended period. I hated being a passenger in my own car, but my foot and ankle would have hurt too bad to press on the pedals. It was better than yesterday, but was still really tender.
