Chapter 4:

NOAH

"Explain to me again why we're going to have dinner with these two?" Noah questioned. He and Owen were in their hotel room at the resort. They had changed out of their skiing gear, showered, and were getting prepped for dinner. Noah looked at himself in the mirror, trying to gage the proper shirt to wear. He had no idea whether to go casual or nice. Owen, on the other hand, was already dressed in a white t-shirt and cargo pants. He lounged casually on the bed, drinking one of the beers they brought at the start of the weekend.

"We're celebrating. Kitty just won a major snowboarding competition! If that's not a reason to celebrate, I don't know what is."

"Sure, but why are we celebrating it?"

"We're her fans!" Owen called out, raising his hands into the air.

"You met her this morning."

"So? That doesn't mean we shouldn't help her make tonight memorable."

Noah turned to him. "You don't, like, have a thing for this girl?"

"What? Kitty? No! She's like a teenager. Who do you think I am Noah? Look, we've been over this. We're here to party. Any excuse is a good excuse to party. These two girls want to party, so we are going to party with them. It's simple. Plus, after we have dinner with these two, I'm sure they'll know where the action's at tonight."

Noah tossed the shirt he was holding away. He grabbed another from his bag, and brought it up over his chest. "It just seems unnecessary. We can have a good time just the two of us."

"I'm not doubting that. But, if we just wanted to light a joint and hang out, we could have stayed home." Owen smiled playfully. "I think you're scared, little buddy."

"Scared? Why would I be scared? What gave you that impression?"

"I don't know. How about the fact that you're looking for any excuse not to grab dinner with two attractive ladies. One of which hit on you last night. Are you afraid she's going to reject you? We're at a ski resort man! That's the whole point of these things. They're like a mini-Las Vegas, except colder and without gambling."

"Let's be clear, I would not call her interactions with me last night flirting. It was more like drunken rambling. Also, I'm much more afraid of making an ass out of myself than any of that. I feel like your attitude is not helping.

"My attitude's not helping? I'm helping as much as I can," Owen announced exasperatedly. "Do you have any idea how hard it is to get you laid? It's like a full-time job trying to wingman for you. The fact that we're even at this point is because of me."

"What are you even talking about?" Noah said with a small bit of frustration. "Who asked you to help me like this? Haven't you stopped to consider whether I actually want your help?"

"You want my help whether you're willing to admit it or not. Come on Noah, this girl is totally into you! You think she randomly just started squeezing your hand during Kitty's run for no reason? Don't think I didn't see that."

Noah sighed, "What's in it for you then?"

"If this means getting you out of your shell just a little bit more it will be more than worth it. And even if everything turns out wrong at the very least we will be able to look back at this trip and say, 'hey remember when we went to that ski lodge, met the two sisters and you totally tried to hook up with one and failed miserably'. Rather than 'hey remember when we went to that ski lodge and did nothing'."

"One of those sounds infinitely better to me and I don't think it's the same one as you."

Owen walked over and put his arm around Noah. "Listen little buddy. We're just grabbing dinner with them. If you really have a terrible time you can just leave and head back to the room. I'm not going to stop you. Let's just try to have a good time okay? And if you get laid you can totally thank me."

Noah shook his head. "Fine. Whatever. She is pretty cute."

"That's what I'm talking about!" Owen said. He grabbed another beer from the cooler and tossed one towards Noah. "Now start drinking. You're going to need to loosen up a lot more, if you're going to have any chance."

MACARTHUR

MacArthur and Sanders entered the staff locker room. "That shift lasted forever," MacArthur spoke, tossing her Security jacket onto a bench. "I'm not sure I could stand another minute of it."

"Yeah. It must have been so tough on you," Sanders said deadpan. "You only made us avoid the few hot guys on the mountain. It would have been an easy shift, if you let us talk to anyone."

"I couldn't let my guard down, even for a second. They might have snuck up on us. What I wouldn't have given for one fight to break up. Those snowboards really let me down across the board today." MacArthur untied her boots and switched them for her runners she stored in a locker.

Sanders shook her head. "We could have at least went to talk with Brody after he crashed. I mean, he looked fine. I'm sure he was happy about Mr. Cowboy hat, Geoff, winning. But, crashing out like that must have sucked. From the way he spoke to us, I'm sure he would have appreciated you speaking with him."

"Not my problem."

"You're pretty cold sometimes MacArthur."

The door to the locker room shot open. Josee and Jacques walked in together. Their bright neon skiing gear continued to look immaculate, despite the ending of their shift.

"I know Josee," Jacques continued their conversation from outside. "I just think, as ski instructors, we should teach them how break before we tell them to go down the mountain." They moved in unison towards a locker.

"No Jacques, for the last time, the number one rule of the mountain is you either sink or swim. That's what they should learn first and the only way to learn that is by going down the mountain. It's not our fault if they crash. Some people sink."

"But we are instructors Josee! Our job is to stop them from crashing. I do not understand how you are not getting this. At least we should go over how to turn."

Josee let out a grunt and did not respond. She threw open her locker. Sanders and MacArthur watched them silently. Josee, noticing the two security guards, turned her head in their direction. "Well, if it isn't the rent-a-cops. How was chasing after your lover boy?"

"Back off, I'm not in the mood." MacArthur said bluntly. "Today's sucked enough I don't need you two making it any worse."

Josee gasped exagurretly. "All this over a boy? Jacques! I think our little human bulldog has fallen in love!"

Jacques clapped his hands together. "How wonderful! I never imagined this day would ever come, ever."

MacArthur slammed her locker closed. "Open your stupid French mouth again and I swear to god you'll need a piece of metal to open it back up again." MacArthur grabbed her stuff and stomped out of the locker room.

"That girl has some problems." Jacques commented. "And I still don't get the French thing."

"Don't look at me." Sanders said with a shrug, packing her stuff into her backpack. "Hey wait a minute, Jacques what are you doing in the girls locker room?"

JUNIOR

Dwayne and Junior sat together at a table in the restaurant at the resort. "Eighth place. Guess I can't call you a boy anymore. You're a proven man amongst men."

"Great." Junior muttered poking at his food. He was just glad there did not seem to be any other snowboarders that he recognized in the restaurant.

"I liked that Geoff guy. I think he's got a good judge of character. Did you see he won? Now I didn't think his run was all that impressive, not as impressive as yours. But I'm not one of the judges. Otherwise I think you might have placed even higher."

"Uh-huh." Junior did not care for his father's musing at the moment. "Hey, dad? Can I ask you something?"

"Sure sonny, ask away."

"There's a party happening tonight with all the snowboarders in the competition. I was hoping I could go. It'd be a really good chance to really meet some of the other competitors."

Dwayne finished a bite of his food before answering. "No." He answered flatly.

"No? Why not?"

"There's no way you're going to an unsupervised gathering with those kinds of people. You're still a boy and most of them are adults."

"But I thought you just said I'm no longer a boy."

"I was talking figuratively." Dwayne finished another bite of his meal. "This food is so fancy."

"You're eating a hamburger dad."

Dwayne pointed at his hamburger. "Yeah but do you see the stuff they've put on this? I think this is artichoke on it. Who puts artichoke on a burger? Fancy people, that's who."

"What about the party?" Junior said trying to get his father back onto the topic at hand.

"I already said no. These people are snowboarders, they are degenerates who waste their time on ski hills all days."

"Dad! I'm a snowboarder!"

"Right. Sorry, forgot for a second. You're still young so you're fine. These adults, they don't have responsibilities, real responsibilities. They have no idea what it's like to slave away at a desk nine to five to provide for a family. They don't understand boundaries. It's all sex, rock and roll and drugs. They're not the kind of people I want you to be associated with. Remember I was a badminton player back in my youth. I've seen what people at these kinds of sporting events do: drinking, smoking dope, shooting up heroin."

"People shot up heroin at badminton tournaments?" Junior asked confused.

"Well no, badminton players are the apex of society, which is why I tried to get you to do that instead. There's no telling what these snowboarders might do."

"They are not going to be shooting up heroin dad. That's crazy. That's like the last drug anyone would do."

"Well, what drugs will they be doing if you're such an expert." Dwayne asked back. Junior rolled his eyes and did not respond. "That's what I thought."

"Geoff's going to be there."

"So? Geoff might be a good snowboarder and a good judge of character. But that does not mean he is a trustworthy individual. Plus I think he might have a few screws loose up top if you know what I mean."

"Dad!"

"You're not going and that's final! I'm not going to let you go to your party. It's going to be filled with reckless strangers who will be drinking, along with other things. Why would I let you go to an environment like that? You're fourteen. Way too young. Now finish eating and then we'll go back to our room." Dwayne said with finality.

Junior sat back in his chair. He looked up to the ceiling and tried to figure out what he was going to do now. Because there was no way his father was going to stop him from going to that party.

Afterword:

Hope you enjoyed this chapter. Thank you to everyone who has been reading this story. It has been a lot of fun writing these different characters.

Please leave a review.

Till Next Time -Nyhlus and BJ.