The trip down to the lake house was long. Two cars, three people per car, including my sister and I were all going down for my 18th birthday. My sister, Haley, was turning 17 the following month, so the birthday party was both for me and her.
My friends Kyle and Seth were in one car with Haley's friend Jenna and I was driving the other with my sister and Kyle's girlfriend Virginia. We were packed tight with food, luggage, sleeping bags and lots of alcohol.
I looked over at Virginia sitting in the passengers seat. Her black hair blowing back in the wind gave the illusion she was flying. Haley, in back, was listening to her old Sum41 album on her ipod.
"We're almost there. Just one more hour to go." I said.
"I can't wait. We should really get wasted tonight!" Virginia replied, her head turned towards me.
I looked back at her. Her face was covered by her sunglasses, but it was pretty much well known that she was a good-looking girl.
"No doubt. A trip this long deserves a celebration. Well, that and my birthday."
"Good." She said, "That means we can get wasted twice this weekend."
We finally arrived, 2 and a half hours later around 7:30 P.M. and immediately unpacked both cars. As soon as we were settled in, Kyle and I started preparing a bond fire while Haley and Virginia prepared some food and Seth and Jenna were probably gone to make out in the woods.
A few hours went buy and just the right buzz of alcohol had settled in. The fire was nice, the marshmellows were good and the jokes seemed quite funnier than they actually were.
I was sitting on a lawn chair and Haley was lying in front of me, her head settled against my legs I had put up in front of me.
"What are the sleeping arrangements for tonight?" She asked.
"Well, I thought about it. We only have 3 beds, so Jenna and Seth can sleep in the Queen, Virginia and Kyle can have the small mattress downstairs and we can sleep in the other bed across from them." I answered back.
"What, you mean us together? In the same bed?" She asked.
"Well, yeah. Why, you have a problem with that?"
"Aw, gross! I don't wanna' sleep in the same bed as my brother. That's just weird."
"Oh God! Take it easy, there's nothing weird about it. I won't fondle you for Christ sakes!" I later regretted saying that. It was quite innapropriate, I know, but I just thought she was over-reacting.
"Oh my God!" She shouted, "I'm not fuckin' sleeping in the same bed as you, and that's final!"
I sighed heavily and rolled my eyes.
"What do you propose, then?"
"I don't know. Why don't I sleep with V?" She suggested.
V was the nickname we had given Kyle's girlfriend, Virginia.
That's when Kyle interrupted.
"No way, there's no way in hell your brother and I are sleeping in the same bed." He said.
I didn't mind him saying that at all. There was no way in hell I was gonna' sleep in the same bed as my best friend either.
"Dude, if you don't mind", he said, "why don't you just sleep with V and I'll sleep in the same bed as your sister?"
My heart suddenly stopped and I prayed to God they didn't notice my sudden change of facial expressions. I had had an eye on Virginia ever since I was 16. Unfortunately, I had fallen into the infamous "friend" zone and I guess she never realized I had feelings for her. I never had a problem with my best friend dating her, however. They had been going out for a year and to me, it was just nice to finally have the chance to get over her. There were just no chances of us ever coming together, so it was a good chance to move on.
But now, I had the opportunity to sleep in the same bed as her and I wasn't sure if I could ever pull off a whole 9 hours alone with her without doing anything stupid... especially under the influence of alcohol (although I wasn't anywhere close to being poor-judgementally drunk and neither was anyone else).
Everyone was staring at me, waiting for my response, but I was still undecided. I had been trying so hard to forget about her and move on, I didn't want to throw all that effort away. But at the same time, a big part of me wanted to spend the night alone with her. I knew the chances of anything happening were infinitesimally small. She was quite loyal to Kyle even though their relationship together was in the middle of a rough spot. And besides, Kyle was my best friend and I didn't want to risk losing that too.
"I don't know. You and my sister?" I asked reluctantly.
"Well it's better if HE fondles me rather than you, don't you think?" Replied Haley.
As soon as she said it, it was easy to notice she wished she hadn't. Virginia's head turned straight towards Haley and she gave her "the look".
"Don't worry, dude," Replied Kyle, "She's your sister and I'm your best friend. Nothing'll happen. And I trust you with V, and her with you. Besides, you'll be right next to us, if anything happens, you'll know." He added with a laugh.
"So it's settled," Virginia said, "Haley and Kyle sleep together right across from me and him."
She was looking at me, the light from the fire lighting up her green eyes. My head was racing with thoughts and I was filled with mixed feelings and emotions.
"Why don't we all just sleep downstairs?" Seth suggested, "Like that we can all chat and whatnot before going to bed."
"And how do you plan on bringing the Queen-sized bed downstairs?" Kyle asked.
"We can just get two of us to grab the mattress and bring it down. No need to bring the whole bed." He answered.
So it was decided, we were all going to sleep downstairs. I felt a little reassured but I was still nervous and reluctant about sleeping with Virginia.
The night ended a few minutes later and we all started heading inside. While Kyle and Seth brought the mattress into the basement, Jenna and I made the beds. Jenna was a cute girl. She had been dating Seth since just last week but they were both madly in love which got on Haley's nerves. Jenna was her best friend but it seemed she was always off with Seth.
When we were done making the beds, Jenna went upstairs and I slipped my PJ pants on and put on another t-shirt. The collar was still a little wet from left over water that was on my neck after taking a shower. Jenna and Seth were outside doing whatever (I didn't really want to know anyways), Kyle was upstairs making food, Haley was watching TV and chatting with Kyle and Jenna, and Virginia was taking a shower. Myself, I was now sitting quietly on my bed in the basement thinking everything over. I was still confused and nervous.
I got up quickly when I saw someone was coming down. It was Virginia. She was wearing a white tank top and pink pajama bottoms. Her wet black hair had made a see-through stain on her shoulder, just missing her right breast. I immediately turned away as to not look at it. She came over to me.
"Well, this'll be a first, eh," she said, "Me and you sleeping together." She smiled and was looking straight up at me.
I laughed a little, nervous laugh.
"Yeah, it'll definately be a first." was all I managed to get out. Her beautiful green eyes felt like knives to my heart and the butterflies in my stomach seemed to be flustered.
"I think I'll go to bed, I'm getting pretty tired." I said.
"Ok, I'll try not to wake you up when I get in." She replied.
I woke up some time after that when I heard commotion upstairs. The whole room was dark. It was past 2:00 A.M., I had been asleep for almost forty minutes. It was Virginia and Kyle having another arguement.
Kyle had told me some time ago, when he and V had first split up that he had the desire to be free. He told me had had so many chances to sleep with other women since he had been going out with V that he couldn't bare being restrained to just her. Two days after they had broken up, he had had a threeway with an ex-girlfriend and her best friend in his shower and he had slepped with another girl at a club 3 days later. After that week, he had started going out with V again but had sworn me to secrecy. Unfortunately for him, Virginia suspected something had gone on after finding a make-up kit in his room that wasn't hers.
I could overhear Virginia telling him she couldn't believe he could be so cold-hearted, that she felt so betrayed, and all Kyle managed to relpy was "Quiet, you'll wake everyone up."
A few minutes later, Kyle came down slowly and went straight to bed, being careful not to wake Haley up. Virginia stayed upstairs and I fell back asleep. I woke up again when I felt Virginia getting in. I could tell she had been crying. I could hear her still sniffling and her breathing seemed a little heavy. I asked her if she'd rather sleep alone. I offered to go upstairs and sleep on the floor with covers and sleeping bags under me. She said it was ok, that she'd rather not be alone. I turned my back to her to at least give her the most privacy possible. She was curled up in a ball and I could still hear here sniffling.
She turned her head around over her shoulder and quietly asked me if I could scratch her back to help her fall asleep. My eyes shot open and again, my heart started pounding, but I turned over towards her and started scrathing her back. When I thought she was asleep, I stopped and fell back asleep.
Again, I woke up and realized Virginia was no longer next to me. I guessed she was probably upstairs talking things out with Kyle when I realized Kyle was still in bed. I looked at the time. It was 3:20 A.M. and everyone seemed to be fast asleep. I got out of bed and went upstairs to get a glass of water. When I put my cup next to the sink, I noticed V was on the wharf down by the lake, sitting alone, her feet in the water.
I felt really bad for her. Every single boyfriend she had ever gone out with had cheated on her. I had assured her that Kyle wasn't like that when they first started going out. I was wrong, but I really didn't expect Kyle to have a sudden change of heart. He had been madly in love with her almost a year before they finally ended up together.
I debated for a few seconds if I should leave her alone or if I should go down and talk to her. I always seemed to have a good friendship with V in the past. She would easily open up to me and, in fact, that's how I ended up finding out she too had feelings for Kyle, almost a year ago. So I decided to go down and see her.
I brought a big blanket with me and a hoodie so I wouldn't be cold and we could sit on the blanket instead of one the cold, wet wharf. When I got there, I noticed she was surprised to see me.
"You wanna' talk?" I asked her.
She tapped the wharf with her hand, signaling me to sit next to her. I put the blanket down and sat.
"What's up?" I asked her.