Page 27 of West Bound

“You were like, sixteen years old when we were slamming beers on the beach and sleeping in a house crammed with thirty people. Guys included. Mom and dad never would’ve let you come with us. I’m still surprised they didn’t send Dre as a chaperone,” Camille says to her sister and I notice she has taken to running her fingers through the hair on the nape of Vaughan’s neck.

He, in turn, is gliding his fingers up and down her neck and collarbone. I feel like my confession to Bishop yesterday about being lonely has sparked a sixth sense in me, making it so I notice all the little touches and looks passed between two people in love.

I fucking hate it.

What I don’t hate is how easily we all fall into conversations. I talk a lot more with Vaughan and find out he’s got a ranch in a small town north of here called Magnolia Creek. Hayes is a partner of his, and Camille has started working with them.

CeCe lives not too far from them, while Vivian and Cat live closer to downtown Houston. Although, from the way it sounds, Cat is looking to move back to Magnolia Creek and willing to make a longer commute to work just to be closer to her sister who’s been gone for several years.

When Camille and Vaughan excuse themselves to go dance, Bishop quickly leans over and tells me about Camille’s husband passing away about a year ago. He also informs me that Vaughan’s wife died four years ago and that the entire marriage was a sham. Something about her taking advantage of him in order to get pregnant so he’d leave Camille.

He doesn’t get too specific but the whole thing sounds like the plot of one of those soap operas my mom used to watch. I’m just waiting for him to tell me that someone has an evil twin who is back from the dead and plotting their revenge.

After thirty minutes, Vaughan and Camille return to the table looking slightly disheveled. Far more than a couple should if they were just dancing.

Camille’s cheeks are flushed and Vaughan has the beginnings of what looks like hickey on his neck. I decide that since I’ve been initiated into this group, I can fuck with them and not get it blown back in my face.

“Hey Vaughan,” I call out, and he lifts his face to look at me. “D’you burn yourself with a curling iron, or something?” I ask and motion to the area of his neck where broken blood vessels have clustered.

“What?” He asks, blinking away the love fog he was clearly in.

“Your neck is all red and it kinda looks like when my sister would burn her neck with a curling iron. I thought that little flip to your hair was all natural.”

Camille’s eyes grow to the size of the coaster her beer sits on and she slaps her hand on his neck.

“Ow. Fuck, babe. What was that for?”

Camille leans in and says something into his ear. We all watch as his eyes grow bigger, and wider, and larger until they look like they might fall right out of his head.

“We’ve been here for one goddamn hour and you two couldn’t stop from fucking each other?” Vivian calls out. “Please tell me you didn’t do it in these nasty bathrooms? I’ve been in there before and had to fake an orgasm just so we could get out faster. They’re gross.”

My jaw tightens at the mention of Vivian having sex with some douche in the bathroom. What kind of asshole screws a girl in a public bathroom?

You, asshole. You do…like dozens of times.

I pretend to not hear my subconscious tapping his toes and crossing his arms over his chest.

“No, we did not…do it in the bathroom,” Camille says in a barely audible tone.

“Don’t say do it, Cam. Say fuck like the rest of the adults at the table,” CeCe chastises her.

Camille’s cheeks blush for an entirely different reason and Vaughan pulls her close to him.

“So then where’d you ‘do it’ if it wasn’t in the restroom?” Bishop asks with a mischievous smile.

He’s a pot stirrer so I know this’ll be good.

We all lean in expecting her to whisper, but it’s not necessary as Vaughan, loudly and proudly, shouts out, “in the Rover.”

“Goddammit, Camille,” Cat gripes and throws down a napkin. “Viv, can you take me home? I am not riding in their sex mobile smelling like Thai food and sweat.”

I bark out a loud laugh along with the rest of the table and watch as Camille sinks further into her seat.

“Do you have to be so loud, Cat? Jesus,” Camille scolds her.

“Do you two have to screw at every bar, every restaurant, every house we visit? I know you guys were fucking in Viv’s bathroom last weekend?” Cat throws that little snippet out there presumably to get a rise out of Vivian.

“I know they were, too. I figured it out when I saw Cam wiping down the counter with bleach wipes,” she says with a snort.

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