Tom turned his car onto the dirt road. It had been a long lonely drive from his home in Ohio, but now he was nearly at the West Virginia campsite. In his teens and through college he had gone camping with his best friend Jim every summer, but those trips stopped after graduation. They got busy with jobs and moved to different parts of the country. Jim now lived in New York City, they'd still text back and forth but it had been years since he'd seen him.
Tom was getting married in a month, but he didn't want a crazy bachelor party. He just wanted a weekend of camping with his best man like they used to all those years ago.
Jim was the first one to arrive at the campsite. He pulled out his phone to check on Jim's progress, but his phone had no service. He walked around the campsite looking for a spot with reception. There wasn't much to the campsite, a large dirt circle just off the small access road. There were 30 other campsites, but most of them were empty. There wasn't a long distance between campsites, but the thick vegetation made them hard to spot once you were off the road.
Tom sighed when he gave up the search for signal. The campsite was simple, just a fire pit and a picnic table. He set up the tent away from both. The tent was labeled as having an 8-person capacity, but it felt a little cramp the summer 6 of them went camping. It was always random who Tom and Jim could convince to go camping with them. The usual was for 1 or 2 other guys to join them, but this time Tom didn't invite anyone other than Jim. He just wanted a weekend away with his oldest friend.
The tent was fairly easy to set up, nothing like the one his dad loaned him that first summer. This tent had a string to hold the pieces in order even when apart and pins for the ends to snap into. Although the string was not as tight as it used to be. Once he connected all the pieces there was a wad of extra rope that he balled up and shoved into the end.
Once the tent was standing, Tom unrolled his sleeping bag at one end and then sat down on it for a moment. He looked at Jim's empty half of the tent. This may not be their last time camping together, but it certainly felt like it. There were a lot of good memories together in this tent, but life had moved them on to other pursuits.
Tom pulled a book out of his backpack and took it to the picnic table. He wanted to be out and ready the second Jim arrived. Throughout the first chapter he'd eagerly glance up at every sound, but by the second chapter he had gotten into the book and looked up less. Chapters later Tom placed the book down as his stomach growled.
Jim was in charge of brining the bulk of the food. All Tom had were some free range eggs a coworker gifted to him and some snacks for tomorrow's hike. Tom grabbed a protein bar to hold him over until Jim's arrival.
They both had so far to travel. Tom should have foreseen that they could arrive at wildly different times. Jim now lived in a such a large city for so long, the long haul highway drives were probably foreign to him now, he likely needed frequent stops.
He tried his phone again to see if he could get a text out, but it would not deliver. He decided to gather wood so they could start the fire once Jim arrived. He tried to stay close to the campsite, so he wouldn't miss a moment when Jim arrived.
After the wood was gathered it was time to stack it in the fire pit. Rummaging through his car he found many receipts that he strategically placed in the timber pile to help the fire get started once it was time to lite it. With everything ready, it was time to return to his book.
It was hours later when Jim's car finally arrived. Tom's ass and back ached slightly from sitting on the hard picnic table for so long, but he wasn't going to let that stop him. He stumbled as he rose to his feet. Stretching out his arms and arching his back Jim tried to quickly awaken all of his muscles.
Tom's smile beamed as Jim got out of the car, but it dropped ever so slightly as a woman climbed out of the passenger seat. She looked just out of college, long straight black hair, a round face with a button nose. She wore brown shorts that just barely contained a juicy ass. Her legs were short, but creamy and flawless.
"Hi, I'm Iza," she said. "I've heard so much about you."
"Hi," Tom stumbled out.
Jim grabbed Tom's hand and took his gaze off this new girl. "It's good to see you. How was your drive?"
"Not bad. Yours?"
"It was long. Glad to have arrived. Not a bad place I picked out. I liked looking at all the mountains as we drove in."
"Yea man, thanks for booking it for us. Um, I'm sorry, Iza it's nice to meet you. Are you... um..."
"Jim you didn't tell him I was coming?"
"We always try to bring a group, but she was the only one I could talk into it this year."
"I'm Jim's girlfriend. He's been talking about this trip all month. He's made it sound like so much fun that I couldn't resist coming."
"Plus she helped me stay awake on the drive."
"Um, how long have you two been together?"
She grabbed his arm with both hands and rested her head on his shoulder. "We met on Valentine's Day."
Tom did the math in his head. February, March, April, May, June, so they've been together four months. Tom shook his head to stop himself from saying something he'd regret. "Well I don't know about you, but I'm famished. I got the wood stacked ready to lite."
Jim frowned. "Yea but it'll still take awhile for the fire to get big enough to cook off of."
"We passed through a cute little town on the way in," said Iza with a smile.
Tom sighed. It was already starting to get dark. "You're right, it's late."
"Do you mind driving?" Jim asked. "I just got out from behind the wheel and need to take a break before I fall asleep."
"Yea, no problem. I've been here awhile and had some time to rest." Tom climbed into the driver's seat of his car, while the other two climbed into the back seat. Tom raised his eyebrow as he looked at them in the rear view mirror, but he did not say anything.
In town they selected a small pizza place that was objectively quite good. There was a sign advertising a local band was playing tomorrow night. Iza suggested that would be fun and Jim agreed. Tom hoped that was just conversational and not a serious suggestion. They were already losing one night away from the woods.
It was dark by the time they returned to the campsite. Jim pulled a tent out of his car and asked Tom for help setting it up. Tom silently helped. Their tent was a small rectangle held up by only two poles. It was especially easy working together on the small job after assembling his larger L-shaped tent on his own.
"Tom, your tent is so much larger than ours," Iza commented when they finished.
"Yea, it was a Christmas gift from my dad after we told him stories of struggling so much that first year."
Jim laughed. "That tent we used the first time was so terrible. We couldn't get any of the poles to stay together, plus there was a hole in that tent."
Tom laughed too. "We never got it fully standing. Ended up stacking our backpacks inside of it to keep the plastic roof off our faces."
The laughter died down into an awkward silence.
"Well I'm beat," said Jim. "See you in the morning?"
"Got the firewood stacked; I'll cook the eggs."
"Sounds yummy," Iza said with a big smile.
Tom had trouble sleeping that night. At first he heard the muffled sounds of Jim and Iza talking. Then it was the moans of their fucking. They tried to keep it quiet but they infrequently let out a louder noise. Eventually they fell quiet and Tom was left alone with his thoughts.
His sleeping bag was still pushed over to one side despite being its only resident. He always slept in the right wing of the L with Jim meant to take the other side. Their fucking would be a lot more uncomfortable if they were in the same test. Tom guessed that's one good thing about having two tents. Was fucking Iza the only thing Jim thought about this week?
Tom sat up when he heard a zipper. There was a light moving outside his tent, a flashlight. Eager to talk to Jim, Tom climbed out of his tent as well. "Can't sleep?" he called out.
It was Iza's voice that replied. "No, I'm um fine."
"Sorry I thought you were Jim."
"No he's passed out and now um I may need some privacy to do something that I'm very uncomfortable doing right now to be honest."
Tom chuckled. "There's an outhouse not far from here. It's not great, but probably better than a bush. I can lead you there."
"That would be great."
"Is this your first time camping?"
"My family stayed in a log cabin once if that counts."
