Between The Tent Pegs

"Fuck you, ya arse hole!"

"No, Lizzy, wait!"

Those words were the most panic-inducing sounds my eighteen year old self had heard, only to be immediately beaten by the sounds of two engines starting up and their corresponding cars speeding away. Those cars and voices belonged to my friend Lizzy and her boyfriend, Dave.

You see, Lizzy had dragged me on a camping trip along with her boyfriend, Dave, and three of his mates; Luke, Vaibhav and Mark. I had met the three of them once or twice before, said maybe four sentences in total between them before today and now shared a very worried glance with them before we all sprinted towards the lay-by where we'd parked up.

Yup. The cars were gone, our friends with them.

"Fuck." Vaibhav cursed as I drew up to him, both of us watching as Luke ran on into the road, limbs pumping as he chased down the road.

"Yeah," I know, I'm an amazing conversationalist. We stared at the empty road, watching as Luke's flailing limbs carried him forwards. A wheezing shuffle brought Mark to my other side, he had been at the furthest from the road when we heard the last of the argument, and the few extra pounds he carried didn't help.

"Fuck," he huffed. Vaibhav snorted.

"Yeah, we covered that already. You two wait here, I'll go get Luke back." He waited for our agreement before he began to jog down the road. I looked at Mark. He looked at me. We both shrugged, chuckled a little nervously and looked back to the road.

Oh boy did this feel awkward.

I'd had my misgivings from the moment Lizzy had mentioned a holiday. You see, she wanted a weekend with Dave but her folks wouldn't agree to the two going away together. Her parents hadn't reckoned on her guile. You know what? Scrap that guile crap. Lizzy had been my best friend for years so believe me when I say she can be a devious bitch if she wants to. And she did this time.

It started with her suggesting that a few of us go away in our summer before university, go to Brighton or Cardiff or something, somewhere with a beach and a nightlife. Sounds good, huh? A girls holiday, one last time as school friends before we'd clearly mature in higher education (spoiler, I didn't). We were all eighteen by then, four of us leapt at the idea.

Then the date changed. Instead of a weekend, "let's do Monday to Thursday, eh? Cheaper rooms, extra night to party!" Made sense, but now one girl had to drop because she was already away with her folks.

No problem, I was still excited to get some proper girl time in (that's a rarity for me, always been more of a tomboy) and not only was I with Lizzy but Claire and Beth too.

Only, and I can't blame Lizzy for this one, it turns out that Claire and Beth had secretly been dating each other. And Claire decided to cheat, surprisingly blatantly given how well they hide their relationship. We found out in the form of one explosive argument that outed both of them in front of far too many of the girls in my sixth form.

We heard both sides and, well, Claire really was shitty, so she dropped out of the holiday and our friendship circle. Shame, I'd liked her, but she had been two timing Beth with a girl from her weekend job for quite a while.

As for Beth, the poor girl was heartbroken. Claire had wanted to experiment, but Beth was a hopeless romantic that had fallen deep. She chose to spend her summer at some kids camp place as a counselor instead of stay at home near us.

That changed things again for Lizzy. "Let's not go party, seems wrong. You always tell me to be more practical (I don't, but I'd learned long ago not to bother trying to interrupt Lizzy when she monologued), let's go camping." Uhhh... "Oh come on, Amanda, puh-lease? It'll be good. We'll bond and be better friends. Then we'll be sure to visit each other at Uni, right?"

I caved. Lizzy and Amanda's camping trip was on.

Only, as we packed on the Sunday I realised why Lizzy had been distracted. We just "happened" to be camping at the same place as Dave, the on-again, off-again boyfriend she'd had for over a year, and his mates.

It wasn't that I didn't like Dave. Lizzy has a dollop of ADD and he's good for her most of the time, and from what I knew of them his friends seemed okay and all. The issue was that I hated being manipulated like this. Lizzy had, best I figure it, spent months orchestrating things so she could shag her boyfriend in the woods. I damn near stormed out and left her to it. I probably would have, except my older sister was back home from university and annoying the tits off me, so off I went.

"Luke really can run, huh?" Mark's attempt at small talk broke my reverie. I glanced at him but he didn't meet my gaze, which is sadly something I'm used to. Normally, they are either intimidated by me or just plain eying Lizzy, or Claire, or Beth, or, well, anyone that isn't six foot and stronger than them.

Yeah, I wasn't your average girl then and am not your average woman now. In a normal set of shoes, I reach six foot. My hair is a muddy brown and, like normal, tugged out of the way into a pony tail. My mum left when my sister and I were young, my response was to latch onto my dad, who just happened to be a mechanic. Days spent working in his garage with him have meant I'm pretty strong and inheriting his broad shoulders helped. I'm not pretty and dainty like Lizzy and that had scared off any guy I'd fancied. I was a virgin.

"Yeah. I can't believe they..." I trailed off, remembering just how volatile Lizzy and Dave's relationship was at times. We'd clearly heard the end of their argument, she had left and he had followed. "Never mind, I can totally believe they'd fight."

Mark snorted, met my gaze and shook his head. His disbelief at our predicament was his agreement. We stood in an uncomfortable silence for a long couple of minutes until Vaibhav and Luke walked back into view.

"Here they are," Mark broke the silence. I 'uh huh'd' my agreement and shuffled back onto the verge a way, clearing a space for the two to join us.

"Both are gone." Luke's voice was clipped short with anger. "Dave, the cunt, has my phone." Mark made a hushing squeak at the curse, I just closed my eyes and groaned internally.

"Langua-"

"Fuckballs," I cut Mark off. "Lizzy has mine in her glove-box too." Mark was goggling at me, Luke frowned down the road and Vaibhav watched Mark with amusement. "What? Never heard a girl swear? Shit, cock, fuck, cunt, bollocks. There, now you have, can we move on?"

Mark looked utterly bemused and abashed as the other guys bursting into laughter. I felt a thrill of excitement at their reaction mixed with sympathy for Mark being the butt of the joke. Aw hell, now I felt bad for the guy. "Thanks though, not really used to chivalry," I offered.

"You should be," his frown raised my heckles.

"Why? Because I'm a girl?" I swear, if he called me a little lady...

"No. It's polite. You know, 'only takes a second to have manners' and all." Well that shot down my anger, he seemed so genuine. I blinked at him and think I managed an "Oh. Umm." In response.

"Well," Vaibhav broke the pause, "shall we go check what they left us with?"

***

Vaibhav, to my surprise, was a boy scout. Yes, I admonished myself for my unthinking racism at that thought. He had organised us as we sorted the mess that our friends friskiness and arguing had scattered. We had a fair amount of stuff as the guys had arrived early and mostly emptied Dave's car.

What we lacked was the second and third tents, camping chairs, camping stove, four sleeping bags and my bag. Weirdly, we had Lizzy's though and I fully intended to raid her gear if she stayed away.

"Well," Luke picked up the bottle of vodka Mark had found, "we could be worse off."

"Says someone who doesn't have to share a tent with three strange guys in the middle of the woods. Wiiiiith only two sleeping bags between the four of us." I tried to make it into banter with them but, well, it was true and a worry. If one or more of these guys turned out to be a, you know, a "Ted Bundy enthusiast" then I was a goner.

"Oh, you don't have to worry. None of us would do anything like that," Mark offered, palms out as if those few words would solve any doubts.

"Nah, that's not enough, mate," Luke beat me to the response. "She's totally right, we barely know her, she barely knows us. We're, what, at least twenty miles from anywhere? Our choices are either try and hitchhike somewhere..." we all followed his gesture back down the path to an out-of-the-way country road we'd picked deliberately for solitude, "or we wait for one of the lovers to remember they've stranded us.

"And if we choose to wait, we should be gracious hosts and let Amanda learn who we are. Then maybe, just maybe, we can squeeze in that tent together if we need to, instead of us lot sleeping outside while she has it to herself."

"Woah, Luke, I'm not taking the tent off you three. I'll sleep outside... ehm," I couldn't hide my worry at that prospect and he smirked as my voice faltered. Damn that guy was annoying.

"Guess you'll have to accept more chivalry, eh? Anyway, that might not happen. First, we should choose, is any of us willing to try hitch hiking to a town?"

We glanced between each other. No one volunteered. I can't say I'm surprised by this, we'd arrived fairly late in the afternoon after several hours driving. While it was still summer, the solstice was nearly two months ago and there was only a couple of hours of sunlight left. If someone did choose to go walking, they'd arrive in town well after dark.

"Fine, then we're staying. Okay, boy scout, what do we need to do to eat and get through the night?"

***

Luke had exaggerated our plight. It was August, so the night would be plenty warm for us. We had food and drink but no camping stove, all we really had to get was firewood and let Vaibhav build the fire. Soon enough, we were sat around on clothing pilfered from Dave and Lizzy (least they could do) and had eaten a good portion of the food we'd brought. Vaibhav insisted we pack away the leftovers correctly, which admittedly was wise, and the we were sitting in a crescent looking at the fire.

"So," Luke drew out the word, "I figure we can just let Amanda ask us questions, we keep each other honest and we go from there?"

"Oh, like truth or dare, but only truth?" Mark clarified. I wrinkled my nose.

"It's a bit boring. And kinda intense on me to ask the right questions, don't you think? How about 'I have never'?" Mark looked puzzled so I clarified, "you know, one of us declares something like 'I have never eaten a cheese sandwich', and if you have, you take a drink."

"Oh. For a cheese sandwich?" He was not impressed at the idea. I flapped a hand in the air.

"That was a bad example, it could be anything at all. Probably not something that lame. Now, we have no cups so we'd have to pass the vodka round and sip if it's a right guess. Who's in?"

Vaibhav was in straight away, Mark shrugged and agreed. Luke only answered with some reluctance. Huh, interesting. I couldn't help but wonder what he wanted to hide, and whether it was something he wanted to hide from me or his friends?

We moved away from the fire, settling ourselves into a small circle. I had Luke to my left, Mark opposite and Vaibhav on the right. We'd found three lanterns in the supplies and Vaibhav placed the around us so we could see each other. He then cracked the seal of the bottle and offered it to me. "Your game, you start."

I shrugged and took the bottle, swirling it as I thought. "Let's see, something easy. I have never... been camping." I sipped the vodka, it was cheap and burned all the way down. I smothered a cough as I passed it to Luke, who drank, Mark who didn't and Vaibhav who... also didn't? "Seriously? The Boy Scout hasn't camped?"

He grinned and drank, earning a laugh from the others and a shove of annoyance from me. He tried to pass the vodka back to me but I shook my head.

"Nope, you are the last player so it's your turn. Then it'll be Mark's turn to ask a question, then Luke's and then back to me. Got it?"

"Sure," he nodded, his dark eyes fixed on mine and I could swear I saw amusement in them, "I have never sucked a dick." I baulked instantly. At that moment in my life, I had never even kissed someone romantically, let alone even touched their fun parts with any bit of my body. Vaibhav shook the bottle at me to take.

"No no no, you're supposed to build up to the rude questions! Not just fire them off to start." I think I may have actually spluttered out the words.

"You never said that," he grinned at me, "just that we ask a question, drink if we've done it and pass the bottle on. I asked, I didn't drink, I passed the bottle on. Drink or pass it on."

My cheeks were flaming as a passed it on without drinking. Surely he realised that this was not how the game worked? Everyone started nervous and asked lame things that made you laugh and get settled, then things slowly escalated to the ruder questions.

Luke took the bottle but did not drink or pass it on. Instead, he fixed Vaibhav with a pointed look. "V, dude, what the hell? The point of this is for Amanda to get to know us, not to get her embarrassed and thinking we're all arseholes. Not cool." Vaibhav simply shrugged back. Ugh, boys, I thought.

Luke passed the bottle to Mark. Mark drank.

"Woah," I blinked at him.

"Mate, what?" Luke said, disbelief clear in his voice.

"I knew it!" Vaibhav crowed with glee, "was it Stephen? I bet it was."

Mark... wait, let me take a moment to describe us. Luke is a clear gym bunny, toned arms and a tight top that showed off his pecs and trim waist. Great arse accentuated well in his skinny jeans. Yeah, I'd snuck in a few looks at him and liked what I saw. Aside from the copious amounts of hair gel darkening what I think was his blond hair, he was a total hottie that I could fantasize over later, in some alone time.

Vaibhav had a runners leanness to him, though I've no idea if he ran. Long limbed and thin, he was the only one of the three taller than me (Luke and I were roughly the same). If you hadn't guessed from his name, he's Asian, both parents born in Bangladesh. He kept his hair in a ruffled, just fell out of bed look that totally worked with his rich brown eyes. I, uh, may have had some idle thoughts about Vaibhav starring in some fantasies too

Then there's Mark. A little shorter than me, maybe a stone overweight and hair in a side parting like he'd stepped out of the fifties. I did like his choice in clothes, the South Park T-Shirt had made me smile when I saw it and I remembered him wearing a Super Mario one last time we met. Being confident about your geekiness is cool and cool can be hot.

Right now I was doing something completely new though and picturing him with a dick in his mouth. Oh yeah, that was definitely a hot image and my hormones made themselves known by flooding me with that tingling warmth of arousal.

Mark shrugged, "I have never-"

"No! Details, man, now." Luke had a pleading tone. A glance showed him looking like he was trying to hide his interest but fooling no one.

"Well it's fairly simple, you open your mouth, put in the dick and suck." I would never have expected Mark to enjoy teasing us with those words. I was totally wrong, he looked smug as the proverbial cream-filled cat. Heh. Cream filled. I may have been a virgin, but I'd heard enough stories from Lizzy and bragging from my sister to know a few things.

"Yeah, but, whose cock was it? Did he come? Did you swallow?" I couldn't believe that we were having this conversation two questions in, and I had to restrain my ovaries to stop me drooling over the details.

I chose, wisely I think, to keep quiet and dedicate this story to be mulled over later.

Mark shrugged again. My cheeks still felt warm with embarrassment at being asked, yet he seemed perfectly at ease. "I don't have to answer that, it's not the game. So.. I have never... ehm... sucked a nipple."

We all groaned at the let down. "That's just what I asked, but lamer?" This time Mark's shrug of response to Vaibhav also had a small shift of discomfort. I figured he didn't have great imagination under pressure. "Well, I knew my mum breastfed me, so that's easy."

"No no," Mark pulled the bottle away from Vaibhav's grasp. "Fine. Let me change the phrasing, I have never erotically sucked a nipple."

I rolled my eyes, resigned to taking the next sip. Sure enough, the bottle came straight to me. I sipped and passed it to Luke, who simply took it from me.

Huh.

It wasn't just Luke, none of them commented. Okay, that was weird. Luke did not drink, we watched him swirl the mostly full bottle. "I have never... been airsick." At least one of the guys knew how the game was supposed to go. Interesting that it was the sensitive, athletic guy. I mean, if I hadn't already put two and two together by now, I'm sure that would have tipped me off.

***

Several easy rounds passed as I learned more about the three amigos. The highlights were that Mark had given and received a hand job from the as yet unnamed blow job-guy, Luke was a virgin despite his good looks and Vaibhav... well, he was odd. Not a virgin (the only one of us), yet had never touched a boob or received a hand job from someone. He was cheeky too but you should have figured that from his first question. Given his crowing though, I was now sure that question had been aimed at Mark, and I was just a red-faced bystander.

More important to me though was their friendship. I was being drawn into the mocking-yet-good-natured banter, laughing as one of them set up another to drink. I howled with laughter when Mark declared that he had never "torn off his shorts and pants falling out of a tree and run home crying, arse free in the wind." It was such a random sequence of events. I laughed out tears when Luke sipped the Vodka with an embarrassed mumbled explanation of "I was ten and I fell, okay?"

As for me, they'd learned that I was the most mechanically able of them, thanks to my "have never stripped and rebuilt a car engine" (only I drank), had never touched a guy's stuff or had a date (that got me two aww's out of three). They also knew that I squealed in horror films, had an 'embarrassing' taste in music (according to the three of them, but I maintain to this day that Bewitched are a fun band to listen to) and that I once helped a classmate I didn't really like cheat in a maths test because I was scared of her bullying me. They'd been surprised by that, assuming that my size had dissuaded any potential bullies. I snorted that stupidity away, it just made me a target.

Oh, and for those wondering, we'd drunk about a third of the bottle between us. We had a nice buzz going on but still sober enough to think and make decisions.

"I have never," started Vaibhav, that cheeky grin back, "wished I was dating someone of the same sex." Oh now this was interesting, between Luke (I would have bet money now that he played for the home team) and Mark, who had definitely done several things with guys, if not have full sex yet. Vaibhav didn't drink but offered me the bottle and I immediately passed it to Luke.

Who stared at me and didn't touch the thing.

"What?" I shook the bottle to draw his attention to it.

"Err, shouldn't you drink?" This came from Mark, who looked at me puzzled. I blinked stupidly at him, then turned further to find Vaibhav mimicking his look.

"Why? You said date the same sex, so other girls for me, right?" I laid out slowly. He nodded. "Well," I thrust the bottle to Luke again, "here's my answer."

"But you're a lesbian!" He blurted. I blinked, pulling the vodka back to me.

"Lesbian? No, I'm not! No, I like guys." I shook my head, "I want to date guys. Want to, you know, have sex with some of them. Girls? Why would I... No, they're not for me." I looked between the three of them and saw skepticism on each of their faces. "Oh come on! I've been honest every time so far, why would I lie now?"