Note: Another note to say I love all the support. Seriously. This chapter would have been even longer but it's sort of hard to write certain flirtatious things while singing "Let It Go" repeatedly with a 2 year old.
Holly seemed suspicious when Gail offered to carry the cooler but she let her do it anyway, though she kept eying the blonde every once in awhile. Lucky for Gail, Emily showed up as the kids started to gather together outside the cafeteria to leave for the trip and she was able to sneak the wine bottle to the bottom of the cooler with the tequila. Dov had tried to interrogate her when she declined his tent offer but she just shrugged him off saying she'd rather have nerd cooties than Epstein cooties. Nick was quick to take up the extra tent.
If Gail had been aware of the hike it took to get to the camping site, not only would she have complained more, she wouldn't have offered to carry Holly's dumb cooler. The brunette could have just had hot wine for all grumpy Gail cared about. She probably would have worn better shoes too, instead of her boots. Although, she was glad she had worn a tank top and shorts. Otherwise that would have sucked because of how hot she was getting.
"You looking a little hot there, Gail. Need some help?" Nick walked up beside her as they followed behind a group of teens.
"Oh my god yes," said Gail as she quickly shoved the cooler into Nick's arms. "But you look in there and you die, Collins. You understand me?"
"Affirmative. No looking in your secret cooler."
"I just don't want you to be the reason we get caught with booze, numb-nuts," growled Gail, flexing her arms. They had started to cramp up.
Gail stayed pretty quiet for the rest of the hike, preferring instead to listen to music and watch Holly walk further up the path. Before Holly, Gail had never really thought of women like the way she found herself daydreaming about Holly. Sure, she had found women attractive and she had even kissed a few at parties but none of it was like this.
Could it just be misplaced affection based on the closeness of their friendship? Misplaced affection usually involved imagining shoving someone against a tree and kissing her like the world was ending. Right? Otherwise, why would Gail be picturing that? It was also probably just misplaced affection to wonder how smooth Holly's thighs were, how soft her lips were, how loud she could get, how she tasted…
Gail shook her head and looked at the people around her, praying to God that telepathy really was just science fiction. Although from the way Holly was looking back at her, with a bemused smile, she was suddenly not so sure. Blushing, Gail decided it was safer to stare at the ground the rest of the hike.
Setting up all the tents turned out to be not so hard. It was easy for Gail, anyways. She refused to help and instead stayed nearby and ate cheese puffs. Anytime someone protested she would just explain that she was a spoiled upper middle class girl who had never gone camping and would probably end up stabbing someone with one of the stakes on accident. People tended to leave her alone after that. Even Doug just laughed and shook his head as he walked off to help his wife set up their own tent.
The kids' tents, which fit four kids per tent, were all set up in circular rings around a huge campfire area in the middle. There were logs cut in half for seats and a huge bonfire area in the middle. Then the counselor's and staff were set up in smaller circles around the outside of the inner tents. Solar powered lights were strung up in the trees all around the site and then strung down two small dirt paths. One led to an outhouse for the boys and the other to an outhouse for the girls.
By the time everything had gotten set up and everyone had figured out where they were sleeping, Doug and a few of the older staff had already pulled out food and were cooking it on a portable grill platform over a raging fire. Gail had been watching them set everything up from one of the back rows of log seats. It was amazing how much these people loved being out and doing this stuff. Then there was Gail who just sat back and silently hated all the nature around her. She was actually rather envious and thought that maybe she should have at least tried to help set up the tents.
"Hey," said Holly as she plopped down next to Gail. "You look tired from all your snacking."
"Exhausted. You don't even know." Gail leaned back to look at Holly. Her long brown hair was pulled back into a ponytail, her glasses pushed up to the top of her head, her shirt and shorts looked a little worn and dusty, and her skin glistened with sweat. Another pang of guilt hit her. "Sorry for being useless. I'm pretty uncoordinated. I really would have ended up injuring someone."
"She would have. She can barely work a toaster," said Nick, sitting down on the log in front of them. Gail scowled at him and he smiled. Andy, Dov, and Chloe weren't far behind Nick.
"First off, it wasn't a normal toaster. It was one of those toaster oven things. Second, it was possessed by Satan," shrugged Gail. "There was no saving it."
"Woah. How did you mess up with a toaster?" Dov was smiling at the thought as kids started to fill in the empty seats around them with food. The counselors were supposed to wait until the campers had their own to go get theirs. "I mean, she works a blender quite well."
"You know, Dov," said Nick. "I still don't actually know. She won't tell me. All I know is that when I went to bed I had a toaster oven and when I woke up it looked like it had been set on fire and smashed with a hammer."
Gail just shrugged again as everyone around her laughed. She wasn't a huge fan of the rest of them laughing but the way Holly was bent over holding her sides, she just ignored the others.
"Dov," said Gail. "The day a toaster can provide me with a delicious alcoholic beverage is the day I care about its continual existence. A blender is a girl's best friend."
"I think that should just be 'a blender is Gail's best friend'," added Chloe. Another round of laugher followed. "Oh! It looks like we can get food now. Come on."
They all headed to the line and filled up their plates with hot dogs, burgers, coleslaw, potato salad, and beans. Gail refused to put any extra stuff on her burger because the lettuce, onions, and pickles were all on the same plate as tomatoes and she would rather spend the trip not breaking out in hives. By the time everyone had gotten food and taken seats around the campfire, Doug had removed the grill to make the fire larger. The sun had completely vanished from the sky when everyone had thrown out their plates and been given graham crackers and chocolate bars. Nick and Andy offered to help roast the marshmallows and when they were done cooking they would walk to one of the kids and let the kid grab it between the crackers.
Gail sat next to Holly in the back. She leaned back, resting on her hands, looking up at the sky. The stars looked so much brighter than she could ever remember seeing. It was beautiful. She figured that even if she were to suddenly get eaten by a bear, it wouldn't be so bad. It wouldn't be too bad to only die with one regret.
The chattering around her started to die down and she looked down toward the fire to see Doug raising his hands far above him, walking around the fire so everyone saw him. The way he was silhouetted against the fire looked pretty haunting. You couldn't make out his features. All you saw was this black form.
"A crazed man had escaped from a nearby asylum, blared the reports," started Doug in a deep rasping voice that carried to every part of the campsite. He was telling a scary story that Gail had heard a million times but the way Doug told it, even Gail had to admit that the hairs on the back of her neck stood up a little.
Gail looked next to her to see Holly watching Doug with a smile, like she was merely enjoying a nice story from a friend about shopping or going to a movie. Even though she sort of felt like a creep, she found herself watching Holly. The brunette had her legs pulled up to her body and crossed, with her hands resting on the wood next to her. Gail looked at the hand next to her and furrowed her brow.
Sitting up, Gail reached over and lightly ran her fingers over Holly's wrist before resting her hand on top of the other woman's. She felt Holly tense for a moment so she glanced over to see Holly looking down at their hands. A look of confusion turned into a small smile before Holly went back to watching Doug. Gail exhaled the breath she realized she was holding and Holly's fingers spread out to allow Gail's to slip in between them.
After two more scary stories, the older staff started to herd the tired and terrified kids into their tents while doing a head count. Without a word, Holly had gotten up to go say goodnight to Emily and Gail already missed the warmth of her hand. She followed Chloe and Dov back to where their tents had been set up and sat down next to a small fire Nick was working on in the middle of the tents. Chloe and Andy were sharing a tent, while Dov and Nick had single tents set up side by side. Gail figured the other tent was Holly's and moved to look inside it. The cooler sat to the side of the door and she saw her stuff had been set on top of an extra sleeping bag.
Clicking on the small tent light hanging from the top of tent, Gail sat next to her pack. Pulling a sweater out of her bag she tried to throw it on only to yelp and throw it across the tent. Gail's skin was on fire and she immediately realized she hadn't put any sunscreen on that morning.
"Gail? Are you…?" Holly's head quickly appeared in the tent opening. "Oh my god. You are so red."
Gail couldn't even think of a smart-ass retort. She just whimpered and looked up at Holly while holding her arms out in front of her. Now that her body had registered the pain it's like every movement hurt. How had she not felt this earlier? Was Holly really that distracting?
"Hey, Holly, is Gail okay?" Chloe's voice could be heard from outside the tent.
"Yeah. She just…got a bit sunburnt. No big deal. You guys start without us," said Holly, pulling herself from the tent for a moment to talk to Chloe. "I'll help her and we'll be right out."
"Okay," said Chloe before raising her voice and directing it in the tent. "Sorry about your sunburn Gail."
Holly entered the tent with an apologetic smile. The kind you give a little kid who just said something really stupid but in a kind of endearing way. Gail just looked at her arms and whimpered again. She heard rustling behind her before feeling the coldest, most amazing, feeling in the world on her shoulders. Holly had brought obviously brought aloe vera for the kids and was now rubbing it on Gail's exposed skin. While the blonde had been thinking of Holly touching her all day, she had to admit this was not what she had in mind. Though, it still felt pretty great.
"I don't see any blisters but you're still going to hurt for a few days." Holly rubbed the cooling lotion over the burnt spots of her back and upper arms before moving to sit in front of her. She held the bottle in front of her for Gail to take but being the sly dog she was Gail just whimpered and pouted while slightly wiggling her arms in front of her. "You are not that burned, Gail. Although with your complexion, I'm sure it hurts a lot."
Gail pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes at Holly before closing them and turning her head up in a mock huff. "Maybe it just feels better when you do it."
A moment of silence and Gail was getting tempted to look over at Holly. Then she felt her outstretched arms being lightly pulled to rest in her lap before cold lotion was being rubbed in on them. Gail chanced a peek at her friend and saw her smiling down at Gail's arms. If Gail didn't know any better she could have sworn the other woman was blushing. Every time Gail flirted with her, Holly seemed to just become completely knocked off balance. It was adorable and before she really thought about what she was doing, Gail was dipping her head down to kiss Holly.
Holly hesitated for a second before leaning into the kiss. Gail reached a sunburnt hand up to lightly run her fingers across the brunette's jaw, tilting her head up to deepen the kiss. The kiss broke when both women realized how quickly they were running out of air and even then they rested their foreheads together, not wanting to move away from the moment. Gail watched Holly's face and tried to figure out what the emotions flittering across her face meant as she kept her eyes closed and her brow furrowed.
"Am I that bad at kissing," joked Gail, trying to shield herself from the moment she thought was coming where Holly would shove her away and their friendship would be over. Holly's eyes snapped open and she leaned backwards slightly but more out of embarrassment from what Gail could tell. She was never great at body language.
"What? No. I just…" stammered Holly. She sighed and stared down at Gail's hands, hesitantly touching them and rubbing in what was left of the aloe vera on her own hands. "I just…don't want to be an experiment, Gail. Not with you."
"I don't do experiments," whispered Gail leaning in and capturing Holly's lips again for a much quicker kiss. "That's your job, nerd."
The adorable smile that crossed Holly's face made Gail's cheeks flush and she looked down at her legs. They weren't as red as her arms but her thighs were still pretty sore. She smirked and handed the bottle of aloe vera to Holly who titled her head.
"You missed a spot," said Gail, pointing at her thighs. Holly smirked and leaned in to kiss Gail as she ran lotion-covered hands from Gail's knees up to the bottoms of her shorts and back down.
"Hey losers, we'd kind of like some of that tequila before Gail downs it all," called Andy from outside the tent. Both women snapped their attention toward the tent flap. Gail thought it was nice to know that she wasn't the only one who forgot they were camping and surrounded by other people.
"Be out in a second. Don't worry though," stammered Holly. Gail loved how cute Holly was when she was flustered and she decided to make it worse by kissing along Holly's jaw and nipping at her ear. "Gail's too…burned to move. L-let alone get the tequila out of the…um…cooler."
"Okay, well Dov is trying to finish the beers we saved for you," laughed Andy.
"Way to snitch," shouted Dov.
"Well, we'll be out in a second." Holly turned her head and narrowed her eyes at Gail, who had kept up her nipping along Holly's jaw. Gail just smiled innocently. Then Holly smirked and it was Gail's turn to be suspicious. The brunette ran her hands back up Gail's thighs, this time not stopping at her shorts and Gail had to bite her lip to keep from cursing. "You guys go ahead with the beer. I think tequila will be enough for me."
"Awww, but I brought you a present," said Gail.
"What kind of present?" Holly eyed the blonde suspiciously.
Despite the pain of moving, Gail got up and moved to the cooler. She reached through the ice, which felt amazing on her skin, and pulled out the bottle of wine, holding it out for Holly to grab and check out the label. Holly looked from the bottle to the blonde and that dorky smile Gail loved was on her face again. Even as Holly pulled Gail to her for a kiss, that smile stayed on her lips.