Double Time (31 page)

***

Dear Readers,

I have a surprise for you. Some bonus material! Keep reading to find out what happens at the end of the summer as Meg and crew are about to begin their final year of high school.

Happy reading,

Julie

A Double Threat Summer

Please, Daddy

“
Daddy, you have to say
yes
.” I don’t know why hearing a
no
makes me revert back to being a whiny four-year-old.

“
Don’t daddy me, Meg. I said no. Discussion over.” He grabs the newspaper, his cup of coffee, and sits at the breakfast table.

“
But it can’t be. This is important. This is my last summer in high school. Mom doesn’t think it’s a big deal.”

His paper flops down on the table. His brow rises in my mom’s direction.

“
What?” she says, a sly grin spreading across her face.

“
You’re okay with this?”

Mom tilts her head and gives him a weak smile. She’s on my side, I know it. But it’s going to take some convincing. “A little camping trip is harmless, really. I think it’s fine, but if you’re uncomfortable with it, then I support your decision.” Oh no, Mom. You’re giving him a way out. You’re supposed to put your foot down.

He takes a deep breath causing his chest to puff out like a superhero. “Who’s going again?”

Yes, we’re making progress. “Um. Steph, Keesh, Dominic, Alex, Travis, Ben, Josh, and Andi.”

He shoots a look at my mom again. “Mostly boys, and you’re still okay with this?”

“
That’s it. They’re just boys, not grown men,” she tells him.

Oh shit. I know where he’s going next.

“
Alex is a grown man. So are Ben and Dominic for that matter.”

“
They’re harmless and will make sure the rest of the crew is taken care of. If I thought they weren’t responsible, I wouldn’t even consider it. But they are, and it’s just three days. One whole day actually, since they’re going and coming on the other two.”

Dad brings his coffee to his lips and takes a long slow sip while I stare at him pleadingly, my hands folded together at my chest like I’m praying. His eyes narrow at me and the corner of his mouth starts to lift. I can tell he’s fighting it. I give him my biggest smile, and then it happens. His shoulders relax, and he shakes his head with a tired grin. Yes, we wore him down.

He folds his paper and tosses it on the table. Leaning back in his chair, he brings his arms across his chest. “Okay. You can go. I want your cell phone on the entire time, and if I call you and you don’t answer, you’re grounded for your entire senior year, and I don’t care how many times you call me daddy with that pouty face of yours.” He stops to take a breath and I don’t say a word. His demands are completely doable. “And, I want to have a long talk with Alex before you leave. Alone.”

Great. I better warn him. Alex might need to wear a bullet-proof vest.

Road Trip

“
You sure you still want to go?” I ask Alex as he tosses my bag in the back of his dad’s truck. He didn’t want to risk driving the mountains in his little car.

He drops the bag and turns to face me. “Of course. Why wouldn’t I?”

“
Well, dealing with my dad can be a bit difficult.”

Alex chuckles. “You’re kidding, right? Your dad wouldn’t hurt a fly. He’s cool. I don’t know if I’d let my daughter take off on a weekend camping trip with a bunch of dudes.”

I shake my head. “Me neither. My parents are crazy.” We both laugh.

“
I’m still surprised Stephanie convinced her parents to let her go. I thought she’d be the one to stay behind.” He takes my hand and we walk back up toward my house to say goodbye to my parents.

“
Me too. But we all did it. We’re all going.”

“
We’re gonna have a blast. And then it’s gonna suck because I have to drive up to school when we get back.”

“
Let’s not talk about that now. Let’s just forget about it and have fun,” I tell him, as if that’s really going to happen. Like I can forget he’s leaving, again.

When we finally make it on the freeway, heading north on the 15, we’re only a half hour behind schedule. We would’ve been right on time if Keesh hadn’t packed her whole bedroom. It took what seemed like hours in the blazing sun for the guys to rearrange the gear so that Keeeh’s stuff would fit.

“
Are we there yet?” Stephanie asks, from the backseat.

I laugh at her. “It’s only been an hour. Try that again in about five.”

“
I know, I’m just bored already.” She gestures over at lifeless Dominic.

Alex smiles at her through his rear view mirror. “The big guy can sleep anywhere.”

“
Tell me about it.” She pulls out a book and settles herself with her back against the door, and her feet in Dom’s lap. He doesn’t budge a inch.

I’m playing Words With Friends with Andi—who is in Ben’s car behind us—when my phone rings for the first time. “Hi, Dad.”

“
How’s it going?” he asks.

“
Good, we just passed Kramer Junction.”

“
Did you stop?”

“
No, we didn’t need to.”

“
Okay. Call me when you make your first pit stop.”

“
Sounds good.”

He lingers on the phone in silence.

“
Okay, Dad, I’ll call you.”

“
Bye.”

I look over at Alex. “Well, he lasted a lot longer than I thought he would.”

He nods.

Back to my fake Scrabble game. Andi is killing me with some made up words. There should be a rule. If you’ve never in your life used the word in a sentence, you shouldn’t be able to play it. What the fuck is
qua
? What does that mean? I’ve looked it up and I still don’t get it. I’ve never heard Andi say it in conversation. Not qua, qi, or qat. If I need to use a Q word, I always hold out for queen, or quite, or something that makes sense. Words With Friends should block that shit.

A honk snaps me from my concentration. I glance out my window and do a double take. Bare asses are greeting me.

“
Oh crap, babe, look.” Steph shakes Dom awake.

Alex is cracking up and I’m still in shock, although I shouldn’t be.

I press a button and my window slides down. “Josh, your ass needs some sun.”

He sticks his head out his window and yells, “I know. I was trying to get a tan.”

“
I should moon them back,” Dom says, his voice raspy after having slept for a few hours.

“
No, Meggie and I will do it,” Steph says, as she jumps over his lap.

“
I’m not flashing my ass at them.”

She starts tugging at her shirt. “Just lift up your top.”

I glance over at Alex, and he’s still chuckling.

“
Fine.” I flip the shoulder part of my seatbelt behind me and push myself up on one knee.

“
Ready?” Steph shouts. “On the count of three, we flash, and Alex honks. One. Two. Three.”

Here it goes. I flash my boobs to my friends in the car beside us. Ben swerves and almost hits our truck. Andi’s face looks panicked. Keesh has her hand over her mouth. And Josh and Travis are pumping their fists in the air.

“
What did you do, Meg? Ben almost caused an accident,” Steph asks me.

“
Same thing you did. I flashed them.” I sit back in my seat, and pull my seatbelt on correctly.

“
Just your bra, right?”

I whip around to look at her, my face heating up to about a thousand degrees. “No, you said to flash them. You didn’t say to
fake
flash them. You left your bra on?”

“
You didn’t?”

Dom busts up laughing, “I should’ve been in the other car.”

Alex joins him. “Me too.”

By the time we make it to our campsite in Mammoth, we’ve made two pit stops. Once to eat, and another to pee. And each time, I called my dad to give him an update. I told my mom I can’t believe he’s freaking out. I’m almost eighteen. She said it wouldn’t matter if I was forty, he’d still worry about me. Cute, I guess.

“
Let’s go for a walk so we can see where the bathrooms, showers, and stuff are before it gets dark,” Ben says as everyone piles out of the cars and stretches after the long drive.

“
Who needs bathrooms? We can just change right here. We all know Meg’s not shy.” Josh is shaking with giggles.

I roll my eyes. “Isn’t it getting old already?” They cracked jokes about my Playboy pose and porn star status at both stops. I was hoping they had forgotten by now.

Alex tosses an arm over my shoulder. “Oh, I think you’re in for it for a while.”

“
Yup,” Josh says, “it’s not getting old anytime soon.”

Keesh smacks him in the chest. “Okay, dumb ass. Let’s go.”

Ben and Dominic walk ahead as we follow them on the trails around the campsite. This is one of the few with showers. Though, it might be better to just put on some deodorant and call it a day. The facilities are kinda lacking in luxury.

We’re all quiet as we walk around, taking in the vast scenery, listening to the crunch of gravel under our shoes. The trees are enormous, tall, wide, and lush with branches, leaves, and some with needles. The smell of the fresh air is cool on my nose. It’s all so much bigger than anything I’ve ever experienced.

“
This is beautiful,” Steph says, looking in all directions.

“
Dude, it totally is,” Andi agrees. Travis pulls her close to him and kisses the side of her head. The two of them have to be the cutest couple I’ve ever seen.

“
Alright. Now that we know where everything is, let’s get back to camp and set up the tents.” Ben dishes out orders like an expert camper.

We survive Operation Tent Construction with only a few cuts and bruises. Josh almost lost an eye but that doesn’t count since it was his fault he was playing with the poles. He was fascinated with their flexibility and one kind of bounced back into his eye. After screaming like a little girl, flushing it with water like he got some kind of chemical burn, and then putting ice on it, he seems to be fine. Those poles are dangerous though. One snapped back and scraped Alex’s leg, and another one smacked Keesh in her arm.

Just as the sun starts to disappear, two fully constructed family-sized tents stand before us.

“
Okay, how about we unload the bags now. Put your stuff in your tent and don’t leave any food around.” Ben continues to lead the group and we all do as we’re told.

Dominic whistles to get everyone’s attention. “Don’t open any bags of food you’re not going to eat. Bears can smell that shit and we’ll end up having unwanted visitors.”

“
Don’t they have those bear-resistant containers here? Or aren’t we supposed to tie the food high up in a tree?” Travis asks.

“
That’s dumb,” Keesh tells him.

“
Dude, it’s true. I’ve read about it,” Andi comes to his defense.

Just when I thought all was good, now we’re worried about bears. Maybe we should’ve gone desert camping. No. Then, we’d have to worry about snakes.

“
Travis is right. Most campgrounds have metal storage containers. I didn’t see them around here so when we’re done eating, we’ll pack everything up and put it in the back of the truck. With the lid on, it should be hard for bears to smell anything.” Alex has a good plan. Sounds easy enough.

“
We also need to put all our deodorant, toothpaste, and lotion in there. Basically, anything with a scent,” Dom adds.

“
I guess we should throw Josh in there too,” Travis jokes.

Josh bats his lashes at him. “Aww, you think I smell pretty?”

We all chuckle at the boys, before Trav says, “Dom said scent. No one said anything about you smelling good. If anything, your stench should keep all the animals away.”

Josh lifts his arm to get a whiff of his pits. “Dang, you’re right. We don’t have to worry about any bears tonight.”

Dominic and Alex have finished setting up the camping stove. It’s a lot bigger than I thought it would be. It almost looks like a mini version of my dad’s BBQ grill. Of course, it only has two burners but Dom is laying griddles across the grill. Interesting.