Chapter 3

The plan was to get to the camp by early afternoon on Friday, and leave early Sunday. Brandon's big brother would drive Angela and Darlene and Elliot to the camp in his van, and they'd meet up with the others there.

Angela's mind still reeled with shock. She couldn't believe her dad had agreed to this. He even drove her to Elliot and Darlene's house, where Brandon and his brother would be picking them up shortly.

When Angela got there, she found Darlene already going insane with boredom. Once her patience ran out, however little she had, she could not be contained. Right now she was trying to scrabble up the neighbor's old, decrepit tree. Elliot watched her, making sure she didn't injure herself, but he didn't look too worried. Darlene only ever made it a foot or two up the tree before sliding back down again.

"Careful," Elliot told her.

Darlene groaned loudly as she stared up at the tree. "I've seen you climb trees like it's nothing!" she whined. "Why can't I do it?!"

"Hey, you guys," Angela greeted them cheerfully.

"Yeah! Angela!" Darlene darted away from the tree. "Where's this Brandon guy already? I'm bored!"

Angela chuckled. "He'll be here soon."

"That's good," Elliot said. "Darlene's been trying to climb the tree all morning." He shot her an amused look.

Darlene rolled her eyes. "Not all morning!"

Angela enjoyed watching the way Elliot dealt with his little sister when she was in one of her moods. He just stood there with a blank or vaguely entertained expression until she tired herself out. Over the years he'd matured and learned how to get through things in his own unique way. It was admirable. More than that, Angela had realized, it was actually…maybe just a bit—

"Hot," Darlene sighed.

Angela whipped her head around. "What?"

Darlene fanned her face. "It's way too hot today!" She huffed. "I'm sweating and it's gross! I wanna get in that air-conditioned van!"

Just as she'd finished speaking, an old, gray van came rattling around the corner, as though she'd summoned it.

Darlene screwed up her nose as the stinking van squeaked to a halt in front of them. "Is Brandon's brother a sex-offender or what?!" she shouted. "What's with this thing?"

An older guy, Angela guessed Brandon's brother, climbed out of the driver's seat with a chuckle. "Hey, don't pick on Rusty," he said lightly. "This guy's taken me halfway across the country."

Darlene crossed her arms as he approached. "You're one of those guys who names his car?" she scoffed.

Elliot stared wide-eyed at his feet, obviously embarrassed by his sister's behavior. But Brandon's brother just laughed again.

"I like cars," he said simply.

"Probably too much."

Angela turned to see Brandon jogging over to them. He flashed her a quick smile.

Brandon snorted. "Brent would marry a car if he could."

Darlene burst out laughing. "Angela, I like this guy already!"

Brandon smiled, almost smugly. He looked between her and her brother. "You're Darlene and Elliot, right?" he asked. "Angela told me about you guys." He smirked at Darlene. "She didn't tell me you were obnoxious, though."

Darlene bounced over to him. "Well, Angela didn't tell me that you are super hot!" She held out her hand. "It's really nice to meet you!" she said slowly, letting her eyes wander a bit too much.

Brandon rolled his eyes and shook her hand. "Yeah, likewise," he muttered.

Angela leaned closer to him. "She doesn't really have a filter," she murmured.

"I heard that!" Darlene snapped.

Brandon held out his hand to Elliot, who took just a moment too long to notice him and shake his hand. "Nice to meet you, Elliot."

"Yep." Elliot's eyes darted between him and the ground.

"So, do you agree your sister has no filter?" Brandon asked.

Elliot could see Darlene glaring at him out of the corner of his eye. "Kinda," he muttered, and Darlene smacked his shoulder.

Brent clapped his hands together. "All right, guys," he began. "This is fun and all but we should really get going. It's quite a ways to—"

"Wait wait wait!" Darlene shouted over him. She hopped over to Brent and poked his bicep. She nodded her approval. "Yeah, you're pretty strong, right?" She looked him dead in the eye, gaze sharp and serious. "Arm-wrestle me real quick!"

Brent spluttered in shock then let out a chuckle. "Wh-what?"

Darlene backed towards the abandoned house next to hers, where an old metal picnic table sat in the overgrown yard. "Come on! Just real quick! Please? Please?"

"The hell?" Brandon muttered.

Brent gave Angela a questioning look. "Umm…"

Angela smiled at him, breathing out a sigh. "I don't think she'll leave until you do it," she told him.

Darlene was going through an arm-wrestling phase. Her obsession was the result of her watching a late night airing of the Stallone movie, Over the Top. After that, she wanted to arm-wrestle basically anyone who came within fifty-feet of her. Her preferred opponents were guys twice her size and therefore nearly impossible to beat. She also pestered Elliot to arm-wrestle her when there was no one else around. Angela found it odd that the whole thing was that exhilarating to her.

Darlene and Brent sat across from each other at the dilapidated table. Brandon did the countdown, and the match started. Angela was surprised to see it go on for more than five seconds, before she realized Brent was just going easy on her.

"Come on, you can do it!" Darlene cheered herself on. "Top-roll! Top-roll!"

Her technique never worked. A second later Brent pinned her.

Darlene threw her head back in frustration. "Dammit, I almost had him!" she shouted at the sky or God or maybe just nothing and no one.

Brent stood up, chuckling. "Okay, now I think we should probably get—"

"Wait!" Darlene yelled again. "I'm warmed up now! I can finally beat my stupid brother!" She gave Elliot a hard look. "Sit down!" she barked.

Elliot obeyed with a quiet sigh and sat down at the table.

Brandon groaned. "Seriously?" He begrudgingly did the countdown again.

Elliot didn't take it easy on Darlene at all. After two seconds he'd slammed her hand onto the table.

"You cheated!" Darlene gasped. He hadn't, and never had. "Cheater! Re-match!"

"No, we're leaving," Brent told her nicely but firmly. He grabbed their bags from the sidewalk and hauled them to the back of the van.

Brandon shot Angela an exasperated look on his way to the passenger's seat. She just gave a what-can-ya-do? shrug in response, and went to the back seat. She found a blond boy about her age leaning against the back door. There was something vaguely familiar about him.

He straightened up as she approached, quietly stammering something Angela couldn't quite make out. He smiled, his face turning red. He sort of looked at her but not quite. Angela read him immediately: he was shy or socially awkward or had SAD like Elliot. That had to be why he hadn't joined the group earlier.

Angela smiled back at him, all the while trying to figure out where she'd seen him before. "Hello," she greeted him.

"Hi, I-I'm Reggie, how are you?" he mumbled quickly, holding out his hand. Obviously rehearsed. "W-we're in the same math class."

Angela nodded in recognition. "Oh! Right!" She shook his hand. "I'm Angela."

"I-I know." Reggie's face reddened even more.

Angela's smile faded a bit. She was sure making him awfully nervous without even trying. She pulled open the back door and climbed in. Elliot was seated beside her, and Darlene beside him. It was more cramped than Angela thought it would be. How were they all going to fit? As Reggie slid in next to her, she realized the answer was not very well. She ended up sandwiched between Elliot and Reggie From Math Class. She suppressed a sigh and tried to accept that this was her reality for the next few hours: Brandon and Brent in the comfortable, spacious front seats, Reggie-Angela-Elliot-Darlene sardine can in the back.

Brent glanced at them in the rearview mirror. "Y'all are super comfy, right?"

"Y-yep," Reggie squeaked.

Angela forced a smile, hoping he was joking with that question.

"Yeah," Elliot mumbled.

"This van sucks dick!" Darlene snapped, brutally honest as always.

Brent just laughed at her again. "Then let's go!"

The van revved to life and chugged noisily down the street. Rusty was exhausted before the journey had even started.

Angela shifted uncomfortably. She needed to distract herself from the current situation. "Brandon, do you like the outdoors? I mean you probably do, right? You said you go up to the camp every year."

Brandon shrugged. He stared out the window. "Yeah, it's pretty nice."

Angela waited for him to go on. He didn't. After a few moments, she tried again to strike up a conversation. "So what's the camp like?"

Brandon was quiet a moment. "Umm, yeah, it's nice," he said at last, distractedly. "You'll see it when we get there." He reached into his pocket and plucked out some device.

Angela blinked in confusion. Why was he so curt? Maybe it was just that he was nervous. She watched him play on what she could now see was a Gameboy, and tried yet again. "What are you playing?" she asked, in the most joyfully curious tone she could muster.

"Pokemon," he muttered in response.

Angela again waited for more, but again there wasn't any. Frustrated, she gave up on trying to talk to him. After several moments Brent and Darlene struck up a conversation, with Reggie jumping in every now and then.

None of that distracted Angela from her discomfort. She had just about no personal space, with only the teeniest amount of room to move. She contemplated whether she should sit closer to Elliot or Reggie. Elliot was the obvious choice. He was her friend, so she shouldn't mind sitting so close to him. But, since he was just a friend, she supposed she shouldn't have intimate knowledge of what it felt like to have his thigh pressed up against hers.

Well now the choice was pretty obvious. Angela shifted closer to Reggie. As she did, she saw his smile grow. Angela wasn't dense. She knew what was going on. She sighed and shifted away from him a little too quickly. She bumped into Elliot who bumped into Darlene who bumped into the door with a hard clunk.

Darlene groaned in aggravation.

"Sorry, guys," Angela mumbled.

"It's fine," Elliot said.

Angela didn't need to look at Darlene to know she was glaring daggers at her.

So Angela thought of Reggie's overly excited expression and convinced herself it was at least slightly less uncomfortable to sit near Elliot. She ignored the quiet voice in the back of her head that told her that wasn't true. She felt more awkward sitting close to her best friend than to a near-stranger.

A few moments or minutes passed, then Elliot leaned towards his sister and mumbled something. Angela didn't know what he'd said, but whatever it was, it made his little sister scoff.

"No, there's no room!" Darlene hissed. "I'm already crushed into the door, you freaking behemoth!"

Angela tensed even more. Obviously Elliot had asked Darlene if she could move over. He felt just as awkward about their seating arrangement.

Angela stared down at her hands and tried to act as though she'd not heard any of that exchange. All the van's windows were open, but she still felt so warm.

Angela looked hopefully to Brandon for a distraction once again. Then she saw the way his head was tilted back, and she heard the snores. He was asleep.

The outdoors! She could focus on that.

Angela stared out the window at the greenish blur of trees. They were in a much more rural area now. She felt a smile coming on. It was all very beautiful. The trees and the ferns and the streams and Elliot's arm pressed up against hers, hard with muscle but also still somehow very comfor—

Angela let her head fall back onto the seat and she closed her eyes to the world. She daydreamed about fading away into nothing and then being reborn in an alternate universe where she wasn't in this situation.

"Check out that little stream to the left!" Brent yelled out suddenly. "I used to catch minnows down there with my dad. Then we'd find salamanders too!" He nudged his little brother's shoulder. "Remember?"

Brandon awoke with a jerk and a snort. "Uhh, y-yeah," he mumbled tiredly.

Elliot leaned towards the front seat. "How much farther?" he asked, his voice actually at a normal, audible volume.

Brandon gasped in an overly dramatic fashion. "He speaks! You got anything else you wanna say for once?" he chuckled.

Angela watched Elliot sink back into his seat, his eyes on the floor. She noticed Brandon wave his hand dismissively. She wished he'd turn around, so he could see her glaring at him.

It was Brent who answered Elliot's question. "Still a while 'til we get to the camp. We're comin' up on a little diner. We could stop there."

After a few short minutes, Brent pulled the van over into a sea of gravel. Across it was a small building that resembled a log cabin. Rusty's brakes squealed as he came to stop.

Brent drummed on the wheel. "All right, everybody out!"

"Thank God!" Darlene rocketed out the door and Elliot followed her just as fast.

Angela breathed a quiet sigh of relief as she stepped out into the warm summer air. A gentle breeze rattled the leaves and ruffled her hair. The only sounds were the birdsong and cicadas. Angela was so much more used to the sounds of traffic and neighbors chatting just a little too loudly. She had to admit that this environment was the more peaceful of the two. However the quiet and picturesque place was currently being a bit spoiled by Darlene's barking.

"What are you doing?" Darlene demanded. She was shaking her head at her brother as he removed a bag from the trunk and slung it over his shoulder.

Angela recognized it as his laptop case. At first, Elliot had been predictably reluctant to go on the camping trip. There would be too many people he didn't know, too much social interaction. Darlene had gotten him to come along by promising that they could do stuff on their laptops in the evenings. What exactly that "stuff" was, Angela had no idea, even though they'd told her many times. It always went right over her head.

Darlene hurried to keep up with her brother. "You're gonna do that now?" she went on. "Can't you wait?"

"I'll just work for a bit," Elliot assured her.

As Angela followed them she heard the clacking of gravel behind her, then a hand took hers.

Brandon grinned at her. "You like it out here?" he murmured the question, so close to her that she felt his breath on her face.

"It's beautiful," Angela replied.

"Well, not as beautiful as you."

"So corny," Angela groaned.

Brandon raised his eyebrows. "But you like corny," he chuckled as he led her into the diner.

Angela rolled her eyes. "Yes, but I can only take so much corniness." She looked around the place. It was small, but spacious enough. It was a place where everything was made of wood. There were a few too many deer heads on the walls for Angela's liking. She wasn't a fan of being stared at by long dead animals while she ate.

As soon as they all sat down, Elliot was yanking his laptop from his pack.

Brent eyed the laptop curiously. "Ooh! You like computers, man?"

"Mmm-hmm." Elliot pushed the screen back, eyes darting between it and the keyboard.

"Cool. You know I got this buddy upstate who built his own computer. I don't know much about all this stuff, but, I guess the thing's super—"

"Don't bother talking to him," Brandon hissed. "Seriously it's a waste of time. He's not even listening anyway."

Angela shot another glare at her boyfriend to silence him. Darlene too was upset, scowling and shaking her head. Elliot looked up at Brandon only to give him a quick, sharp glance that told him he'd heard everything. Brandon didn't take notice of any of that as he conversed with Brent and Reggie.

At some point a waitress came around to take their orders. Angela didn't remember what she'd told her, as she was still too busy stewing with anger. She was already imagining the talk she'd have with Brandon about his behavior. It was far from the first time someone had treated Elliot this way, but none of these other people had been her boyfriend. She felt some responsibility to set things right.

The minutes flew by. Brandon and Brent and Darlene and occasionally Reggie From Math Class talked. Angela stayed mostly quiet, giving polite smiles whenever someone looked at her, hoping the storm in her mind was not obvious to them. Elliot was eternally silent, absorbed by whatever was happening on his computer screen.

Angela somewhat noticed the waitress arrive with their food. Apparently she'd ordered a sandwich of some sort. Right now the food and the diner and just about everything else seemed washed out. She was watching Elliot. How long she'd been doing that she didn't know. At some point she'd meant to glance quickly in his direction, and at some point after she'd forgotten to look away.

Angela had seen Elliot this way before. When he was in front of a computer, he had a look of such intense focus it was almost overpowering to witness. His eyes flitted around the screen, his fingers moved nimbly over the keys. Angela studied his face, mesmerized.

"Hey, you gonna eat that sandwich or what?"

Brandon's voice broke Angela out of her trance. She jerked her head around to look at him, her face burning. He was smiling, rather placidly. She forced a smile. "Umm, yeah," she muttered.

"Quit day-dreaming then," he chuckled. He took a bite of his burger, which was already half-finished.

Angela felt more nauseas than hungry. But she wasn't sure when she'd be eating again, so she forced some of her sandwich down. Her stomach churned with guilt, the same way it had on the car ride. She'd noticed it over the years: her changing feelings towards Elliot. But they didn't mean anything. He was her friend, her best friend. It was bizarre to imagine him as her boyfriend. Would she want that anyway, to suddenly start doing…couple stuff…with him? No, no, she told herself over and over. Of course not. This could all just be chalked up to some weird hormonal phenomenon. Right? It has to be. Well, whatever was going on, she had a boyfriend. So whatever weird thoughts she was having about Elliot, whatever inappropriate feelings she had, they all had to be nipped in the bud.

Starting right then.