Chapter 4: Bees and Fire
"Rachel!"
I wasn't used to hearing my name spoken like that. Deeply masculine, and yet extremely gentle, almost soothing.
I was standing on the outskirts of a field where a huge bonfire was burning and, what seemed like, the entire student body of Stars Hollow High were milling around it. From my vantage point I couldn't really make out any faces, just bodies coming together to form small groups then separating and regrouping with other bodies. Kind of an organized chaos, like bees in a bee hive. Only an entomologist could truly understand all the dynamics at work.
The body coming towards me was easy to make out. I smiled at him.
"Hi," was all I could think to say.
"Hey. What are you doing all the way out here? You've been standing here for almost five minutes."
I blushed. "Oh, yeah, I was just kind of watching everything."
He tilted his head to the side and gave me a funny look. "Watching everything?"
"Yeah, nevermind...it's just something I do."
"Okay..." he turned around and looked back at the crowd. "It is kind of nice over here."
I'm not sure how long we stood next to each other like that, because I lost all track of time while I focused on how close his hand was to mine.
"You brought your camera," he finally said.
"Yeah, you never know when you might see the perfect shot."
He looked over at me and smiled, but I couldn't tell what he was thinking.
Our moment was interrupted by a faceless body standing at the edge of the crowd. "Luke!"
I heard him sigh. "Yeah," he yelled back curtly.
"What'er you doin'? We need you over'ere to settle somethin'," this faceless person was obviously drunk, or headed that way.
He looked at me apologetically. "Hang on...I'm coming." He grabbed my hand. "Come on," he said and pulled me along with him.
It took my eyes a few moments to adjust to the fire light. When they did I recognized the faceless person who had called us as one of the other track team members. A guy named John, I think. Also around were four girls. One I recognized as being Luke's sister, Liz. The other three were seniors like her, Carrie, Anna, and Jill. They were dressed in outfits more appropriate for Studio 54 than a field party in Stars Hollow. All four were flushed from the combination of alcohol and heat.
"Luke! Thank God you're back," Liz threw her arms around her brother's neck, throwing them both off balance. He let go of my hand to push her back up.
"Geez Liz, you smell like a brewery," he told her. I hung back, wondering if he would introduce me or take my hand again.
"Aww, I just love when my brother calls me a drunk," she spat sarcastically to her posse with a roll of her eyes.
"What did you want?"
Carrie jumped in to answer. She leaned in and stroked his arm. "Well, we were just having a debate over here about perfume. John says most guys like a girl with a nice woodsy scent, but we think guys really want a girl who smells like flowers. And I thought, who better than Butch Danes to have the final say."
Luke was red and flustered. He was trying to get her off his arm and avoid eye contact with all of them. "Geez Carrie, I don't know. It's not like I go around sniffing women all the time."
"Oh, so only some of the time then," she laughed at her friends. "Well you can sniff me if you need to," she said trying to be seductive, but mostly just coming off as drunk.
He took a step back out of fear.
"You can sniff any of us when ever you want Butch," Jill added. The girls huddled together for a quick giggle.
"I'm not sniffing any of you. This is the stupidest argument I've ever heard."
John swayed a little then piped in, "naw, come on Luke, what about team spirit, you gotta be with me...you can't let me lose an argument to these beautiful ladies here. What would happen to my reputation?"
"This is ridiculous. I'm going to go get us something to drink. You'll have to fend for yourself buddy."
"Well what do you think?" Liz said.
It took me a minute to register that someone was actually talking to me now. They were all staring at me, waiting for my answer. Why couldn't I seem to make words come out of my mouth? Crap.
"I...uh...," how were four girls dressed like clowns this intimidating? Luke was looking at me now too. He put a hand on my shoulder and suddenly I felt a hundred times better. "I don't know. I don't go around sniffing women either." Luke chuckled quietly to himself. I realized I was breathing again.
The girls were glaring at me; especially Liz. "Who's your friend Luke?"
Luke looked at her startled. He pulled me in under his arm. "This is Rachel," he told them.
I felt the stabs of their inspection. The girls exchanged looks. "So you two are here...together?" Anna asked.
Luke nodded then smiled at me. "If you all will excuse us, we need to get something to drink."
"Of course buddy," John said pounding Luke on the shoulder in approval.
Luke gripped me tightly and steered me away from the crazy people. "Sorry about that," he whispered close to my ear.
I think the feeling of his breath on my neck made my heart skip a beat. "Oh, that's okay," I said, barely able to make the words out.
We wove through the crowd until finally we got to a huge cooler of drinks. He let go of me and opened it up. "What do you want?" he asked.
"Umm, just a soda is fine."
"Okay." He grabbed a soda for me and beer for himself then pulled me over to an empty hay bale.
"So...," he tried to start.
"So...," I smiled back.
"Those were some really great pictures you took the other day."
"Thanks."
"Yeah, how long have you been doing that?"
"Umm, probably five or six years now. It's mostly just a hobby."
"Well you're really good at it. Maybe you could be like a professional photographer or something."
"Ha! Well I don't know if I'm that good," I told him, blushing a little. I liked how the fire light was playing on his features, making them glow.
He smiled. "So...this is nice."
"Yeah," I grinned shyly, looking down at my drink as I took a sip.
"I, um...I was gonna ask you...," I looked back up at him as he spoke. "I was, um, I was wondering if you'd want to go maybe see a movie sometime."
My heart fluttered and I shivered as a chill ran over my body. He was asking me out on a real date, not just a tag along if you're not busy kind of thing. I shrugged my shoulders, tucked my chin down and looked up at him. "That would be nice," I said.
"Good," he said quietly and rested a hand on my knee.
"Yeah...good," I echoed back.
