Hello everyone! I'm proud to present another update. The next few chapters I have planned start to really get the plot moving so I'm looking forward to writing and sharing it all with you guys. I'm still trying to catch the hang of writing again, considering it's been years since I've written extensively. Regardless I hope you enjoy :)

Today was Friday and the day of the camping trip with everyone. The school day ended in a similar fashion to yesterday and then it was time for everyone to meet up and head out. I didn't bother talking to Craig, Clyde and Token. Instead I opted to find Bebe and hitch a ride with her. I did at least text Craig my plans so that they wouldn't wait for me.

Everyone was already packed to go camping and my parents said they'd cover the shop for Craig, Bebe and I so that we could have fun. All that was left was to start driving an hour away to a location the locals nicknamed Eureka. The plan was that Craig, Clyde and Token (and originally me) would take Clyde's truck loaded with all the camping gear. Next Stan and Kyle and Wendy were going to drive up in Stan's mom's CRV. Then Bebe and Red were going to take Bebe's convertible. That is until I begged Bebe to let me ride with her. Which she said was no problem at all. Craig never responded to my text which I figured was because it pissed him off. But the text said "read at 3:06 pm" so I know he saw it.

Which brings us halfway through our hour long drive to the river. I sat in the backseat with the two girls up front. They were currently gushing about boys. Red was trying her hardest to drop hints to Token to ask her out. I pointed out to her she could always just ask him out herself but she scoffs at the idea.

"The guy is supposed to ask the girl out," Red insists as she looks over her shoulder at me. The convertible top is down and she practically has to scream to be heard over the wind. We were driving sixty some miles an hour.

"I feel like W-Wendy would disagree." Is all I can think of to say. It was true though. Wendy was a raging feminist and always advocated for breaking the patriarchy.

"Wendy is just aggressive. She doesn't understand the old fashioned way."

"You know I asked Clyde out," Bebe suddenly interjects. Both Red and I whip to stare at her surprised.

"What? Girl spill the tea!"

"Well technically he asked me out first like three times. Which I refused every time. But then, I don't know. He was kind of sweet so I surprised him and asked him out," the blonde explains.

"You call it sweet, I call it annoying." Red bluntly points out. "Token on the other hand is well composed and a gentleman."

"Okay, no-. We are not about to start comparing boy toys. Get out of here." Bebe scoffs. I giggle from the back seat and thank the gods again that I was riding with the girls.

Truth be told I was pretty mad at Craig. The last thing I wanted to do was delve into past traumas with him and explain my dream. He couldn't respect my boundaries and the fact I wanted to keep it to myself and I was honestly at wits end. If I had to be petty and avoid Craig then so be it.

The rest of the drive goes smoothly and Bebe turns on the radio. The last three miles of our drive is gravel road so Bebe puts up the top of her convertible so we don't get covered in dust. It's a steep road that follows down the side of a cliff down to water level. At the bottom of the ridge is a woodsy sandy area and a wide river.

We drive down the gravel road to the last camping spot. We're the last to arrive and all the guys are already working on building camp. Bebe turns off the car and we pile out. The blonde flocks to her boyfriend and Red wanders off to Wendy's side as she watches Stan and Kyle put up the tent. Clyde and Token are pulling the cooler out of Clyde's truck. Craig is just standing off to the side staring off into space.

Craig looks tired. He has bags under his eyes and his body is all sorts of tense. He didn't look good to be honest. He must feel my eyes on him because his blue-gray eyes shift over to stare at me. I quickly look away and cross my arms self consciously. This was going to be a long trip if Craig and I weren't talking.

Bebe is talking Clyde's ear off as him and Token set the cooler down in front of the truck. I linger beneath Bebe's car unsure of what to do. So instead I just watch. Clyde and Token start pulling out camping chairs and start setting them up in a circle around the fire pit. I count as they set them up and I'm honestly surprised that they brought enough for everyone. A part of me wonders if Token bought some just for the trip. It seemed like the type of thing he'd do.

The next forty minutes is spent as the two tents are set up and wood is gathered. It doesn't take too long for camp to finish getting set up and for Clyde to start busting out the alcohol. He held a canned beer in his hand and took large sips of it boisterously. Pretty much bragging about his dude-ism.

"Let's play a game." Red insists as she makes a mixed drink of Hawaiian punch and vodka. I know we're camping for two days but I was honestly surprised by how much alcohol and mixer everyone brought. There had to be two half gallons and three containers of Hawaiian punch. How much did they expect everyone to drink? Not to mention there was a 32 pack of beer. They did at least bring a multitude of water that I was sure would be enough.

"What game do you wanna play Babe?" Bebe questions as she leans heavily against her boyfriend.

"How about truth or dare?" Red asks eagerly. Kyle and Craig groan in unison. I glance over at Kyle who has his arms crossed and is tapping his foot.

"Please no," Kyle moans. Stan elbows him.

"C'mon man. Don't be lame," he insists. Kyle rolls his eyes but has no more complaints.

"Who wants to go first?" Token asks.

"Oh me, me!" Clyde holds up his hand and hops up and down eagerly. "I say dare. Someone dare me."

"Dare you to go home," Craig mutters so quietly I almost don't hear him from across the group. Clyde gasps dramatically and clutches his heart.

"Rude! You're grounded Craig." Said boy flips off Clyde.

"Hmmm, I dare you to shotgun the rest of that beer." Wendy suddenly suggests. Clyde looks around at the circle of people and nods determinedly.

A mixed drink gets handed to me as Clyde pulls out a pocket knife and punctures a hole in the bottom of his beer. He sighs and holds the hole to his mouth and starts chugging. I take a sip of my drink and am surprised to find that it's mixed fairly strongly. Watching Clyde shotgun a beer proves to be fairly entertaining as he ends up spilling at least half of it down his shirt and all over his face. He doesn't lack enthusiasm though, that's for sure.

Everyone is laughing and cheering on Clyde. I'm filled with anxiety over the whole dispute with Craig but this environment warms me up the slightest.

"Okay now truth or dare…" Clyde trails off as he looks around the group trying to decide who to pick on. He uses the sleeve of his lettermen to wipe the beer off his face. "Craig!"

"Oi fuck off," is my boyfriends answer.

"Truth or dare Craig," three or four people all say at once.

"Truth," he reluctantly states with arms crossed sternly.

"Fuck marry kill Donald Trump, Bill Gates and Elon Musk?" Clyde asks while starting to howl from his own question. He was just crackling up with laughter. I would admit I was pretty eager to hear Craig's response.

Craig looked ready to kill his best friend. To my surprise he sighs and goes along with it. "Obviously kill Donald Trump, fuck Elon Musk, and marry Bill Gates." Everyone cracks up with his answer and even I find myself laughing quietly. "Truth or dare Stan," Craig has a wicked look in his eye. It's only now that I remember that Craig and Stan always end up fist fighting when they get drunk around each other. I wonder if that's going to happen this weekend.

Stan stares back at Craig with an equally wicked stare. I had a feeling this was the beginning of a feud this weekend.

"Dare," Stan insists.

"I dare you to take a shot of mustard." Craig offers up. Stan winces but his expression shifts into cocky confidence quickly.

"Bring it on."
"Wait!" Bebe calls. She runs over to the cooler and rummages through it for a second before she pulls out a red bottle. "I have some hot sauce. Do a shot of this instead of mustard." Bebe has a sadistic smile on her face as she waves the little red bottle back and forth.

"Yes, yes. Good thinking blonde one." Craig says as he snaps his fingers and points at Bebe. "I dare you to do a shot of that hot sauce shit." Craig pauses, "if you're not a pussy that is."

"Bring it the hell on." Stan instantly replies with no hesitation. Someone hands Bebe a shot glass and then the blonde is filling it to the brim with sauce.

"You don't have to do this Stan," Kyle hesitantly warns. Stan pays him no attention and is instead rubbing his hands together competitively.

"Oh god Babe you're not kissing me for like hours after this. That stuff is nasty." Wendy hisses as she pinches her nose shut next to Bebe. Bebe holds out the shot and Stan steps across the group to retrieve it.

Everyone starts counting down and at zero Stan Marsh throws back the shot glass and drinks it all. His reaction is near instantaneous. The shot glass is tossed back on the cooler roughly as Stan starts gagging. His face turns bright red and he leans over coughing up a mess of spit. His eyes and nose are running and in no way do I envy him. That shit looked downright painful.

A couple people ask the teenager if he's okay and his only response is to hold up a thumb as he continues to cough. This satisfies everyone's concern and the attention gets brought back to the game at hand.

"Kyle…" Stan says between choking coughs. "Truth or dare?"

"I swear to god I'm not taking a shot of hot sauce or anything remotely like that." Kyle insists, waving his hands in front of his face.

"Don't be chicken shit, pick truth or dare." Clyde coos.

"Truth." Kyle says as Stan takes a few moments to get his choking under control. He's wheezing and the whole experience just looks so painful.

"Okay, when was the last time you cried?" Stan asks mischievously. Kyle's face sours but he quickly tries to mask it with indifference.

"Probably a couple months ago. I don't really remember, honest." Kyle states looking earnest as fuck. Stan cackles and crosses his arms.

"Oh really because Captain Shankle didn't die in the cartoon this very morning and you didn't cry like a little girl." Stan deadpans, obviously calling out Kyle. Kyle sputters and waves out his hand in dismissal.

"I don't even know what you're talking about." Kyle insists.

"Sure." Stan snickers. Everyone around the circle gets the idea Stan is suggesting and starts giggling themselves. Even I find myself giggling along to the nonsense which surprises me.

"Truth or dare Wendy." Kyle growls, trying to be undisturbed by Stan's attack.

"Bring it on. I say truth." The feminine fatale insists.

"Fuck, okay…" Kyle trails off as he thinks for a moment. "What's the grossest thing you've ever had in your mouth?"

Wendy baffles and chokes on her own spit. She tries to regain her own composure. "Good question Kyle…" She trails off. "Probably the doritos peach smoothie Bebe tried to make last year." Everyone collectively gags except for the blonde herself who shrugs.

"It was good." She insists.

"Truth or dare Token." Wendy states. My dark skinned friend pauses and turns his attention towards the group.

"Dare," Token states.
"I dare you to let Red rip a piece of duct tape off you from wherever she chooses." Wendy so eloquently states. Red turns- well- red and Bebe and Clyde are snickering. Token remains composed and simply raises an eyebrow questioningly.

"Is there even duct tape here?" He asks. Stan leaves the circle and opens up a plastic tub and rifles through it. Everyone watches expectantly, waiting to see what will happen. After thirty seconds he proudly holds up a roll of purple heavy duty tape.

"And I present, duct tape!" Everyone cheers and Stan walks across the circle and hands the roll to the blushing redhead.

"Well do your damage." Token sighs, admitting defeat. I smile slightly as Red tells Token to roll up his left pants leg. After doing so Red tears off a generous piece of tape and slaps it over Token's thick curly leg hair.

We could all see where this was going. The crowd counts down from ten and at zero the redhead rips off the tape eliciting a yowl from my dark skinned friend. Red proudly walks around the circle showing off the tape that was now covered in a blanket of hair.

The game continued on in this fashion with everyone eventually having a turn at least once or twice. I got asked what my favorite coffee was as my truth or dare which was a little disappointingly boring. But it proved to be a difficult question as I almost had a panic attack over the fact I simply couldn't pick one. Everyone laughed it off and let it go without me answering.

The worst dare was when Clyde got dared to eat a beetle and to everyone astonishment and horror he actually did it. Everyone heard the crunching and everything. By the time we were through with the game nearly two hours had passed and I had finished a total of two drinks. I was feeling pretty loose and giggly. I had kind of missed this feeling.

Currently Stan and Token were on cooking duty as they responsibly cooked hamburgers over the fire. Everyone else just kind of mingled as they continued drinking. I stood off to the side kind of just watching everyone but eventually I turned my gaze off to the water that was a good fifty feet away.

"Hiya Tweek!" A voice suddenly exclaimed in my ear as a hand slapped down on my shoulder. I jumped and let out a strangled shriek that luckily only Wendy noticed. She dismissed it though and turned back to her conversation with Kyle.

I turn to really look at who came up next to me. It was Clyde who looked laid back and not as drunk as I had thought he must have been when he chose to eat that damn beatle. He took a long swig of his beer and I mirrored him nervously. Obviously everyone had noticed that I wasn't acknowledging Craig but so far no one has said anything. I had a feeling that was about to change.

"Hi C-Clyde. How are y-you doing?" I ask sheepishly. I felt like a child caught for misbehaving. I was mentally preparing myself for a scolding.

"I'm doing absolutely fantastic. Like really, I'm golden. Got a little protein boost earlier, feeling all healthy and shit." I rolled my eyes and decided not to point out that eating bugs and drinking beer wasn't exactly healthy.

"That's g-good," I said tight lipped. I was really starting to tense up and at this point I wished I had brought along my special pills. But I had decided I wouldn't indulge on this trip and didn't even bring any to tempt myself with.

Clyde slides his hand across my shoulders and drapes his arm across my shoulders. He turns me and leads me towards the water. "Are you okay buddy? I'm worried about you." Clyde asked quietly once we were out of earshot from everyone else. I sighed heavily and looked down at my drink.

"I'm fine." I choke out.

Honestly I didn't really know how I felt. I was kind of just going through the motions. I had no idea what I was doing. At this point I had just decided to get drunk and deal with life later. Conflict always left me with a heavy feeling in my stomach.

"No Tweek, really. Craig hasn't told us anything but it's pretty obvious you two got into a fight. Just because you two aren't talking doesn't mean you have to avoid Token and I too." Clyde looked me sincerely in the eye and I swallowed heavily. I looked away and over his shoulder I met eyes with Craig who was openly watching us. When our eyes met we both stubbornly looked away.

"You're right. I'm s-sorry." Clyde gasps and waves his hands in front of him.

"No, no, no don't apologize. I'm just worried about you. Token is too. Look we don't gotta talk about what happened between you two. I just wanted to check in with you." Clyde explained.

I was honestly really touched by his action. I had been on my own for so long it felt nice for someone to be looking out for me. I smile at Clyde, really meaning it this time. I had to choke back the feeling of tears. Is this what it felt like having friends? I was filled with so much warmth at Clyde's concern.

"Thank y-you Clyde." I lift up my drink and chug the rest of it. Clyde mirrors me and when he finishes he crumples his can.

"Alright let's get back to everyone. And this time you're not gonna stand off to the side by yourself. Screw Craig," Clyde said with a wink. I smiled and nodded, following Clyde back towards everyone else.

Clyde comes to a stop next to his girlfriend and I turn toward them both and listen to them talk. An arm slings across my shoulder and for a moment I think it's Craig and my heart practically stops. But when I glance up I'm startled to see blonde hair and warm blue eyes staring down at me.

"K-Kenny!"

"Heya Tweekers. Miss me?" The blonde is smiling cheekily. His usual backpack slung over his shoulder.

"What are y-you doing here?" I ask genuinely confused. I couldn't recall Kenny being invited on this trip. Why - I don't know.

"How did you get here?" Clyde asks, looking impressed, having just now noticed him. Bebe smiled at us widely.

"Oh you know, a little birdy flew me." Kenny mysteriously states. I laughed nervously and wished I had refilled my drink already. "Didn't think you could go camping without me did ya?" Kenny elbows me playfully. I rub my arm where he elbowed me.

"Of course not. No party would be complete without Kenny McCormick." Bebe says with a chuckle. Kenny puffs out his chest and nods stiffly.

"Damn straight. How are things going at the shop? Is it falling apart without my charming presence?" Kenny whimsically questions. Bebe and I both roll our eyes at the same time.

"We're managing just fine. Don't forget I used to work there way before you did." Bebe reminds him. Kenny waves it off with his hand.

"Small details. I'm sure what's really being neglected is poor Tweekers. You missing me, aren't ya?" I glance over at the tall blonde male next to me and smile shyly.

I still see Kenny at school but I missed spending hours with him at work getting really high and entertaining ourselves with the silliest things. "A-Always," I murmur.

"Now, my real question. Why isn't anybody stoned yet? I know I sold y'all an ounce." Kenny points out looking amused. He magically produces a fat blunt and a lighter. I instantly straighten up feeling eager.

"Smoke circle!" Clyde hollers with a loud whoop whoop. Everyone herds back into a circle around Token and Stan who are still faithfully grilling.

The blunt gets passed around the circle until it goes out right about when dinner is finished. Everyone refilled their drinks, loaded their plates and took a seat. Kenny opted for the cooler as we were now short a chair. Conversation was kept light and playful as everyone ate.

By the time everyone finished eating the sun was beginning to set over the horizon. Everyone was gradually getting intoxicated. Nobody was really wasted yet but Bebe kind of swayed when she walked and Clyde was already shedding his jacket. Everyone has accepted Kenny's sudden mysterious arrival with ease and now the local drug dealer floated from person to person being extra boisterous today.

"Let's go to King's hill!" The blonde exclaims happily. Clyde, Stan, Red and Bebe all cheer their agreements. Everyone else looks a little less convinced.

"I don't feel like puking tonight," Kyle points out. I question what this means but in my intoxicated state I dismiss it fairly quickly.

"That's half the fun! C'mon at least drive over there with us. We can all pile into my truck and drive over there." Clyde offers.

"Well I'm down babe." Bebe says while nodding.

"Fuck it, let's go. We have to find something to do." This comes from Wendy who has a slight slur to her words.

"Alright but I'm driving. I'm probably the most sober," Token points out. He steps up to Clyde and holds out his hand. Clyde drops his keys in Token's hand with a disappointed frown.

"Fineeeeee."

"This will be good. I bet I can make it to the top first." Stan says as he starts walking to the red truck. He's rubbing his hands together and has a competitive glare in his eye

I'm surprised at who speaks next. "Not if I get there first," Craig casually drops. I finally allow myself to look at the noirette which isn't easy. He's standing next to Token and has one hand stuffed in his jacket pocket and the other holding his drink. He's smirking at Stan who has rifled up and started spewing insults. It looks like I was right about this feud between them.

"Bring it on Tucker." Stan spits. Craig turns and flips off Stan as he heads to the truck. My boyfriend claims the front seat and disappears from sight. Token sighs and shakes his head. As if accepting what just happened he heads to the truck himself.

That leaves everyone else to climb into the bed of Clyde's truck. Stan climbs in first, claiming the left back corner. Wendy climbs in on his left. They both have to scrunch up their legs to make room for everyone else. Then Clyde, Bebe, Kenny, Red and Kyle all climbed in as well. I ended up in between Bebe and Kenny.

Kyle who was on the end of the bed of the truck pulls up the latch, securing us all back there. Stan slaps the side of the truck and calls out to Token that we were ready. With the sound of crunching gravel the truck lurches to a start and takes off down the road. The wind whips at my hair and I sip from my drink as I take in the sights around me.

"I'm glad you came with us," Bebe suddenly says as she leans over into me. I glance over at her in surprise and smile hesitantly.

"Me t-too." Bebe looped her arm around my shoulders and I leaned into her, enjoying the contact.

My sense of time is distorted and I can't tell how long we're on the road for. Instead of driving back up the cliff side road we took to get down to water level we follow a gravel road that follows the cliff line. After a while of this we finally came to a stop.

As we all jump out of the truck I look to our left at a large steep gravel hill. The gravel was so fine it was almost as if it was sand. I had to guess this was the infamous King's hill. To our right is a radio tower that stretches a solid forty feet up into the air.

"W-We're climbing this?" I ask Kyle who is closest to me. The redhead empties his red solo cup with one final drink and throws it into the bed of the truck.

"Yeah. It's sort of a tradition. Everyone will race to the top. It's got a reputation though. It's impossible to climb to the top without puking when you've been drinking." Kyle explains. I swallow nervously and eye the top of the hill. You could barely make it out with your bare eye from down here.

"You don't always puke. I didn't puke one time," Stan points out.

"Wow, color me impressed. You just puke every other time." Kyle says sarcastically.

"Hey! I see something up there!" Clyde suddenly exclaims. I try to spot whatever he's looking at on top of the hill but I can't see anything up there. It takes me several moments to realize that everyone is actually looking up at the radio tower. And sure enough probably fifteen feet up there is a black bundle nestled into the crook of the tower.

"What is it?" Craig asks.

"I can't tell. Maybe a bag?" Wendy suggests. She steps up closer to the tower so that she's almost directly underneath this mysterious object.

"No, I think it's a shirt." Token says.

"Well that settles it. Who's gonna climb up there and find out what it is?" Kenny playfully asks.

"Don't be ridiculous, that's dangerous." Red criticizes.

"Oh, me me me!" Clyde has begun jumping up and down as he waves his arms around.

"No babe, you'll hurt yourself." Bebe says.

"I'll be fine. It's of the utmost importance I get that black thing down. I can so do it. I used to climb trees when I was a kid."

"You also used to fall out of a bunch of trees when you were a kid." Craig deadpans. Clyde dismisses the comment and puts his hands around one of the criss crossing bars five feet up. He hoists himself up and stands up where his hands were just a moment ago.

Stan, Craig and Token make a bet on whether or not Clyde will fall. Craig said most definitely while Stan and Token bet opposite. I watch nervously as Clyde climbs. It was honestly giving me a lot of anxiety and when I looked around at the faces of everyone around me I seem to be the only one with these feelings.

Finally Clyde climbs up so that his face is level with the black object. "Hey! It's a raccoon nest!" He says cheerfully. A mix of horror and amusement is chorused around the group.

"Get the hell-" Bebe's demand is interrupted with a loud growling and Clyde screaming. And then to everyone's horror Clyde falls straight backwards. He lands on his back with a groan. "Clyde!"

"Woah dude. You okay?" Stan asks, walking up to the brunette. Clyde groans again and weakly holds up a shaky thumb. It's only now that I notice parallel scratches running across Clyde's left cheek. It would seem he literally got attacked by the raccoon.

"Pay up." Craig's monotone voice states a few people away from me.

Stan helps Clyde up and he instantly starts brushing all the dirt and sticks off of his clothes. "Well I told you guys I could climb up there," Clyde points out with a shrug. He somehow seems unaffected by what just happened, meanwhile my heart was thundering in my chest.

"You are fucking rediculous." Mama Token groans.

"Let's just start our climb. It's gonna take a while." Wendy suggests. Everyone agrees and I quickly down the rest of my drink so I can make the climb empty handed.

With that Craig and Stan start practically running up the hill. Except the comical part is with the sandy gravel for every three steps forward they'll slide back down one. This looked like it was going to be a work out.

The girls start cheering as they much more slowly start walking up. I follow in the back with Kenny who is carrying his backpack. I almost ask why he's bothering to bring it but decide against it last second.

I know my sense of time is distorted but I know for a fact our climbing takes us at least an hour. We all climb in relative silence, instead focusing on the willpower to ascend. It's when we're about three quarters of the way up that people start puking, starting with Bebe. I thought I was safe until suddenly my heaving panting turned into dry heaving and then eventually I puked up my drink.

By the time we all make it to the top it is completely dark out. Thankfully the moon is full and lights up the area fairly well. The area is flattened out and is packed with real dirt so we're no longer sliding around. Out here away from town the stars shine brilliantly. I'm staring up at them literally starstruck when suddenly a large bang goes off twenty feet away from me.

I jump and scream, desperately looking around for the source of the noise. No one else looked concerned but I was trying to figure out if someone had brought a freaking gun or something. When another pop goes off in the distance I see bright red light out of the corner of my eye and realize with awe what was happening.

Fireworks.

Kenny had brought fireworks in his backpack and was now a little bit away from the group and was lighting them off. He was currently bent over another firework and was in the process of lighting it. I watch as he jogs several feet away from it and a few moments later with a loud pop it shoots off into the sky.

I crane my head back to get a proper look this time since I missed the last one. Fireworks tended to give me anxiety with all the explosions but right now in my intoxicated state it was just beautiful. Something about the bright colors contrasting with the dark sky and bright stars was really captivating.

I'm a bit far off from the group, having isolated myself once again. So it comes to a total surprise when I feel the presence of a person behind my right shoulder. "Hey," a soft voice says. I'd recognize that voice anywhere. I swivel around and look up into stormy blue-gray eyes that are staring at me intensely.

"C-Craig," I stutter, honestly surprised. I knew from growing up we could both be pretty stubborn so I hadn't expected him to talk to me at all tonight.

"Look I'm-" Craig's words are covered up with the sound of another firework going off. But the individual in front of me is much more distracting than the flashing lights.

"What?" I ask confused at what Craig had been trying to say. In the background I could hear the drunk shouting off my friends and my intoxicated brain was going back and forth in dividing its attention.

"I said I'm sorry," Craig begins softly. He reaches out and carefully takes my hand and I let him. If I thought I was starstruck earlier it was nothing compared to how I felt now looking at one Craig Tucker. The wind ruffles his black hair sending his bangs into his eyes that he brushes away in an absent minded manner. "I shouldn't have tried to force you to tell me what's wrong. At first I got really angry because I just didn't understand why you were hiding it from me but then I realized you wouldn't be doing it without a good reason."

It suddenly gets hard to swallow and for the second time today I get overwhelmed with emotions. I reach up with my free hand and tug at my hair but Craig automatically reaches out and pulls my fingers free of the wiry locks. He laces his fingers through mine.

"You don't have to tell me what's going on until you're ready." Craig softly murmurs. Another firework goes off followed in succession by another one seconds later. This time I allow myself to look up at the sky and watch the blossoming of a red one followed by a blue one. I feel Craig's eyes watching my face but I try to ignore the anxiety that gives me.

As the fireworks fade from existence I drag my eyes down to my lovers face and smile slowly. "Thank y-you Craig." I let go of one of his hands and reach up to grab his neck and pull him down to my level. He seemed to understand what I was doing and in my drunken state I felt much more confident than usual.

As more fireworks exploded above us our lips met in a desperate plea to establish that we were okay. I don't think either of us cared at the moment that we both threw up half an hour ago but instead focused only on eachother. The way his lips moved against mine told me that he had been just as upset about this silly little fight as I had been. And more than anything the closeness warmed my soul.

As the lights above us fade out we pull apart, eyes locked on eachother. I put my free hand on his cheek and stroke it slightly with my thumb. This makes Craig smile one of those all too rare grins. Finally I pull my hand away and anxiously grab my elbow.

"I'll tell y-you about it when I'm r-ready. I just can't y-yet. I'm sorry I just-" My boyfriend interrupts me with a finger to my lips.

"Shh, it's okay. Don't apologize. We're good again and that's all that matters." Craig and I stay leaning against each other a bit of a ways away from the group until Kenny runs out of fireworks. With that it was time to start our descent down the hill.

"This is the fun part," Craig tells me. "Just jump instead of taking a step, ok?" I nodded at him while not quite understanding why.

That is until I took my first step/jump down the hill and instead of moving down a couple feet my feet slid through the gravel and I had moved forward a solid six feet. I laugh and realize everyone else around me is laughing too as they hop and race down the hill.

I feel like a vampire from Twilight with how fast we all make it down the hill. By the time we all reach the bottom I'm breathless and I feel exhilarated. Craig takes my hand and leads me to the cabin of the truck and we climb up front next to Token and start heading to camp.

When we get back it's back to drinking and things are a little wild. I had been enjoying myself before but now that Craig and I were talking again I was just ecstatic. I was no longer filled with that heavy feeling in my stomach.

An hour after getting back to camp Stan is shit faced and trying to fight Craig. Clyde had somehow abandoned all of his clothes except for socks and shoes and was now running around in his underwear. Kenny was firewalking- which I've never seen before and let me just say it's terrifying. It's where you literally walk across the fire, preferably stepping on the less burning pieces of wood.

The girls have set up a speaker and are blasting cheesy 2000s pop songs off of it. Kyle and Token were actually talking about their calculus class (why, I have no idea).

After spending so many days apart Craig and I are practically glued to each other's side. I love it because every time he has some sparky comment to make he'll lean down and whisper it in my ear. As I continue to get more drunk he's a pillar by my side keeping me upright. With Craig by my side the night feels complete.