I woke up hours later, feeling disoriented in the dark tent. I felt around for my phone. The screen was so bright I had to squint. According to the clock, it was almost 9 PM. My mind buzzed with the dazed feeling that you get from sleeping the day away and waking up after dark. I unzipped the tent flap and crawled out. The air was surprisingly cool after the heat of the day. My parents, Amy, and Nora all sat around a crackling fire, which flung sparks up into the sky. Nora, I noticed, was dressed for bed, wearing baggy sweatpants and a hoodie from her school. She was sitting on a log with Amy and resting her head on Amy's shoulder.
Everyone turned to look at me as I walked over. "Well, look who's back from the dead!" My dad laughed. I grunted in response. After grabbing a bottle of water from the cooler, I fell into one of the empty camp chairs. I was trying not to look at Nora too much and I felt like she was doing the same. God, it was so hard keeping up the charade. All I wanted to do was pull her into my lap.
"If you're hungry, there are plenty of hot dogs in the cooler. I'm sure you can handle making your own," my mom said, without looking up from the book she was reading.
I nodded and took a big swig of water.
"You slept all afternoon. You must be starving, Bud," my dad said.
"Yeah," I grunted, "I just need to work up the energy."
"Oh fine, I'll make you one," Amy said, before grabbing a hot dog from the cooler. She skewered it and thrust it into the flames. I watched the flames dance around it, hypnotized. As much as we bickered, I could tell that Amy liked treating me like her baby brother when she could. I glanced over at Nora and found her staring back at me. I tried to put as much meaning as I could into my expression.
I hoped my eyes were telling her what I wanted to say: "This sucks. I miss you."
I couldn't tell if she understood. She looked back at the campfire. I did the same.
My mom placed a bookmark to hold her spot and closed her book. "Well, Grant, you slept through the big news." I raised my eyebrows. "Amy has to leave first thing in the morning. She has an interview for an assistant photographer job."
"Hey, that's great!" I said to Amy. She put the hot dog in a bun and squeezed out a line of mustard on it, before handing it to me.
"It's a start," Amy said, trying to be modest.
"You're gonna do great, Sweetie," my Dad beamed at her.
"I hope you don't mind, Grant, but Nora is gonna have to drive you back home. Amy's taking your dad's car and the SUV is gonna be filled up with all our gear," my mom said.
"Nope, that's fine." I said, trying to sound as nonchalant as possible. That meant a whole afternoon alone with Nora. My mind was already racing. We could find a quiet place to pull off. I don't know how well I hid my excitement, because my mom had a strange expression. Not unlike a smirk. I glanced over at Nora, but her eyes were closed and she was resting on Amy's shoulder again.
I started placing new logs and sticks in the fire, bringing it back to life. I threw in everything I could find. That's how I passed the last night of the camping trip. Trying my best to ignore Nora and distracting myself with the fire. My parents went to bed first, but not before extracting a promise from me not to stay up too late. We would have to start packing everything up first thing in the morning. I wanted to get it done as fast as possible so Nora and I could squeeze as much out of the day as we could. After a while, Amy and Nora decided to go to bed too. They went to the camp bathrooms first. I didn't watch as they left. I just kept thinking about all the things I wanted to do with Nora the next day.
Amy came back first and then a few minutes later Nora followed. I had watched Amy crawl into their tent and zip it shut, so when Nora walked by me I reached out for her wrist and pulled her into my lap. She squealed with surprise, her eyes wide. She looked around to make sure we were alone and then glared at me.
"Grant! What are you doing?" she hissed at me.
"I missed you," I whispered in her ear.
Nora softened a little in my arms. "We'll get caught," she protested. She looked back over her shoulder to make sure we were alone.
"You better keep quiet then," I told her.
I pulled her into a deep kiss. She melted into it, needing my lips just as badly as I needed hers. I slid my hand into her sweatpants. Her breath caught. I leaned in close to her ear and told her to spread her legs for me. Nora nodded and obeyed. I rubbed her clit. She was already so wet. I slid a couple fingers inside her pussy. Her head rolled back and she moaned in my ear.
I took my hand out of her pants and sucked the pussy juice off of my fingers in front of her. "I can't wait for tomorrow. Now, go to bed before we get caught."
Reluctantly, Nora climbed off my lap. I gave her tight, little ass a spank as she walked away. She turned back to look at me. Fuck, I thought, tomorrow is gonna be the best day ever.
I have never worked as hard as I did the next morning to get all the camping gear packed away in my parent's SUV. In hindsight, I have no doubt that my parents noticed how desperate I was to leave. They also weren't stupid and may have even connected the dots that there was something between me and Nora, or at least that I wanted there to be. Not that I was thinking about that at the time. I was just focused on getting a day alone with Nora. I hadn't given much thought to what would happen after the trip was over. Sneaking around with Nora would become a lot more difficult. Amy and Nora shared an apartment in a nearby city. It was going to be nearly impossible to keep our relationship under wraps for long. That morning, however, I couldn't see anything beyond the perfect afternoon I was planning to have.
It felt like it took forever, but it was only the early afternoon when we had everything loaded up. I hopped into the passenger seat of Nora's car. My heart was slamming in my chest. I could barely contain my excitement, but I was trying to hide it from my parents to the best of my ability. I glanced over at Nora. She looked calm. I was impressed with her acting abilities. If I hadn't known better, I would have thought she really was just giving her best friend's brother a ride home as a favor.
After a few minutes on the road, I turned to Nora. I put my hand on her thigh. "We're finally alone," I said.
Nora glanced down at my hand and then looked back at the road. "It seems like we are."
"Wanna find a quiet place to park?" I continued.
Nora opened her mouth to say something and then seemed to change her mind. She checked the rearview mirror. My parents weren't driving behind us. They probably hadn't left right after we did. Nora nodded like she made a decision and whipped the car into a gas station parking lot.
"I had something a bit more private in mind," I laughed.
