The rain stopped about an hour after it began, but no one left their tents. All six of them were either still sleeping or "together". None of them emerged for about an hour, until Ashton and Chisato unzipped the door and walked out out. They were both in a frisky mood, especially after an idea from Chisato. They walked the quarter-mile to Celine and Chris's tent. Their tent was under a tree with quite bushy leaves and moss.
Ashton climbed quietly up the tree, and Chisato slowly removed the ceiling tarp from their tent. Using hand signals to communicate, Ashton climbed slowly to the closest branch. They counted to three, and Ashton jumped with all his weight hitting his foothold, bringing a flood of rainwater down of the oblivous pairs poor tent. Chisato quickly climbed up the tree before Chris unzipped his tent and looked around, angrily.
They waited for Chris to reluctantly re-enter his tent, then they got down from their perch and ran to the mess area. They sat around the now extinguished fire and waited for everyone to get out of their tents.
"I think he was mad", Ashton said.
"No doubt about it", Chisato giggled.
They sat in the loveseat for another twenty minutes before they saw Claude walking up. Ashton and Chisato both shuddered; this was going to be awkward. However, Claude simply walked up to the mess area and grabbed a bag of strawberrys. He turned to look at the two.
"Hey guys! Want anything?"
Ashton and Chisato stared at him. He was acting like nothing had happened.
"Um, no thank you, Claude", Chisato replied.
Ashton shook his head.
Claude shrugged. "Your loss. Oh, and by the way...I hope you both know, I'm happy for you two. Rena isn't though...for some reason. She seems...I don't know. I can't describe it. Just let her calm down. I think that she thinks Ashton'll get hurt, but we all know that's not true, right 'Chis?"
Chisato's eyes widened. "Of course!"
Claude smiled. "Then everything is all good. See ya'll." He walked back in the direction of his tent.
The two stared blankely at him as he left. Claude, Ashton thought, you'll never cease to surprise me.
Another ten minutes passed and Celine came running up, drenched but excited. Chris followed her at a lesser pace.
"What's up?" Ashton asked.
Celine seemed to ignore the question as she pulled out their entire beer supply out of the coldbox.
"Beer, that's what's up! Tonight, we're going to drink this night and possibly several other nights away! Whooooo!"
Ashton whispered to Chisato. "We gonna drink?"
"Why not", she whispered back. "Peer pressure is fun."
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The night fell, and the smell of Alcohol drifted through the air. The six sat around the re-lit fire and drank beer after beer. Celine was up to five beers, and was now doing some sort of ancient dance, singing loudly. Claude was in a challenged with Ashton, and they both conked out into unconciousness at seven beers. Chris was at two beers, as he wasn't exactly the quickest drinker of the bunch. The two girls both had four bottles, and were now at ends with each other.
"I can outdrink you!" Chisato yelled at Rena.
"Just try it!" Rena retorted with a drunken smile.
"What's this about I'll hurt him?" Chisato asked, pointing at Ashton.
"I just don't want him hurt!"
"What makes you think I'll hurt him?"
"I don't know! Something just seems desperate about your choice!"
"Why is that?"
Rena shrugged. "You donn think soo?"
"Of course not!"
Rena then said something Chisato would never forget.
"Then why're you fucking so soon in your decision to stay with him!?"
Everything seemed to stop. The color in Chisato's face drained.
"You heard?"
"Truth is, I was spying on you to make sure."
"You spied and waiting until we made...??"
"Yep! But you won't remember thi-...this in the morning! Neither will I! We're all sooo wasted!!" Rena yelled loud enough for it to echo across the valley.
Chisato stood up and throw her bottle, crashing it into the fire. "This...is...Carrot...juice!! I don't like being drunk, so I'm 100 percent liquor free, Rena!!"
Rena stared at her for a second, with a slight giggle. Then she staggered, and fell backwards into drunken unconciousness.
Chisato sat next to Ashton, crying to herself, shivering for more reasons then being away from the fire.