The next morning my dad woke everyone up at dawn for The Annual Family Hike. I had spent the entire day before so caught up in thinking about Nora that it had completely slipped my mind. Even after Nora and I got back to the campsite, I had crawled in my tent and stayed awake for hours replaying the whole day in my mind. I kept thinking about how it felt to be inside her and hold her body against mine. I couldn't get our walk back to the camp out of my head. We had held hands and I was starting to think this week might end up as more than a few hookups.
I had spent so long thinking about Nora that I didn't get more than a couple hours of sleep. So I could barely keep my eyes open as I threw on some clothes for our hike. Because it had cooled off a bit overnight, I threw on a hoodie and stumbled out to the picnic table. My dad was already sitting there and he poured me a cup of black coffee, which I accepted without a word.
"You gonna make it, Kiddo?" he asked.
"Hmm?"
"You look rough. How late did you stay up with those new friends of yours?"
I almost blew my cover, because I had no idea what he was talking about. At the last second, I remembered my excuse for disappearing the night before. "It was kinda late."
"Were you drinking?" I could tell he was trying to keep it casual and not make it seem like I was in trouble.
"Nah," I responded. It wasn't even a lie, but I think he thought it was. No, Dad, I just had the best night of my life hooking up with Amy's hot best friend in the camp showers and I stayed up all night because I was too excited to sleep. A smile crossed my lips as I remembered showering with Nora.
"Alright, keep your secrets," my Dad said before leaving to go check on the girl's progress getting ready.
I sipped my coffee, only burning my lips a little. It didn't matter. I needed every ounce of caffeine to get through the hike. The whole day felt like it was stretching out before me and I was dreading every minute. I had to spend a whole day around Nora, but not with her. We would have to pretend nothing had happened between us and let nothing slip. Nora would go back to treating me like her friend's little brother so that Amy wouldn't catch on. It seemed like too much to bear. I drained the coffee even though it was still too hot. I shook my head. I needed to be strong today. All I had to do was treat Nora like I had every day before yesterday. It sounded easy when I thought about it that way.
That was until Nora and Amy came out of their tent and walked over to the picnic table. My breath caught in my throat. Nora was wearing blue leggings and a matching crop top. She had her hair pulled back in braided pig tails. I just about died. She looked fucking stunning. How is that possible, I thought. I had practically dragged myself out of my tent this morning and Nora looked like she was about to go on a photoshoot for athletic wear.
Amy came over and gave me a playful shove. "You ok, Dude?" she asked. That's when I realized I had been staring at Nora. This was going to be so much harder than I thought. I tried to play it off like I had just been zoned out. I think it was convincing because of how tired I must have looked. Nora sat down at the picnic table opposite me. She was on her phone and had barely even glanced at me. Nora was so much better at this than I was.
I felt my phone buzz in my pocket. There was a text from Nora. I glanced up at Amy. She wasn't paying attention to me. I opened the text:
Nora: Stop staring :P
I typed out a response:
Me: I can't help it. You look so fucking hot.
Nora: I know.
I glanced up at Nora. She was looking off in another direction, but she was smirking. It was me that she was looking this good for. I so badly wanted to quit the charade and pull her into my lap. I would have been ecstatic to go on this hike if it meant I could go alone with Nora. My heart beat faster at the thought of taking Nora out on a proper date. I didn't fully realize it at the time, but in the span of one day I had gone from having a pretty standard crush on one of my sister's friends to catching feelings for her. I wasn't even thinking about that kind of thing in the moment. I just wanted so badly to spend time with her.
We all piled in my Mom's SUV to drive over to the trail. My parents in the front, the girls in the middle row, and I reclined in the back. The trail we were going to hike was about half an hour away and I slept the whole way. When we got there Amy woke me up by tousling my hair, "Wake up, Grant. Less napping and more hiking!"
When I hopped out of the car, I could feel how hot the day was going to get. The sun was out and things were warming up fast. The air felt thick and humid. I pulled off my hoodie and my shirt rode up, exposing my stomach and the chest hair that Nora had been running her fingers through the night before. Amy made a joke of pretending to recoil at the sight, "Eww, Grant! Keep your shirt on or at least warn us first." I shared a flicker of eye contact with Nora. I had a joke about how Nora probably didn't mind on the tip of my tongue, but I held it in. Instead I tossed my hoodie back in the car and we began our hike.
Once we were on the trail, my parents set the pace out in front of us. Nora and Amy followed closely behind them chatting and laughing. I lagged behind everyone, exhausted and plodding along. The main thing that kept me in a good mood was that I had a great view of Nora's ass as we walked. She always looked great, but in a pair of tight, stretchy pants she looked incredible. I found myself day-dreaming about pulling her pants down and taking her right there on the side of the trail. If only I could get her alone somehow. My cock started to stiffen in my shorts. I shook my head to get rid of those kinds of thoughts. The last thing I needed today was to get caught with a visible erection while out on a family hike.
We got to a section of the trail where the trees closed in around us. We were mostly out of the sun. I had my eyes down on the ground in front of me to keep my thoughts from straying to Nora. I hadn't realized how far back I had fallen from the pace that the others were walking. Nora and Amy fell back to check on me.
"Hey, Grant. Are you feeling ok?" Nora asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine," I assured them, "I'm just exhausted."
