Graduation Trip

Chapter 2

I want sitting on the porch steps, talking to Kristy and drinking a beer when Bert came out there. I didn't think anything of it as he sat down next to us. I figured he could at least talk to Kristy because I was about out of it. I think I had drank more beers than I planned to.

"Why are you guys out here?" Bert asked.

"To get away from Owen," Kristy said, shaking her head. "I hate his stupid music. You know that he was blasting it this morning, right?"

"I wasn't here. Me and Wes left early."

"To what?"

"Run."

Kristy rolled her eyes. "You guys have a weird idea of fun."

"You're telling me."

"Doesn't anyone want to go to beach?" Bert asked. "It's almost noon and all anyone has done is drink."

I stared at my beer can, realizing that he was right. This had to be my third beer in the past two hours. Setting it on the step next to me, I decided that I was done for the time being.

"Alright, who wants to go do something?" Wes asked as he walked out the backdoor. "Me, Owen, and Annabel are going to go down to the beach. Who wants to go?"

"Me," Bert said, jumping up. I tried to stand, but almost fell back down. Wes catching me stopped that.

"Have you just been out here drinking?"

I stared up at him and nodded. Wes sighed a little.

"Can you try walking without falling?"

Again, I nodded.

"Then do you want to come?"

Nod.

"Come on then."

Wes held my shoulders as he led me through the house. I tried to jerk away from him, but almost ended up falling. He just patted my head again like I was a kid.

"I'm not drunk, Wes."

"I know. Wish you were."

I elbowed him. "Let me go."

"Fine." He did so before looking around. "Guess Owen and Annabel already left."

"Dang," Bert said as he walked to his room to change into his trunks. "Wish they had waited for me."

Kristy tied her hair back, looking around. "Anyone seen Monica?"

"Not since this morning," Wes said, pulling off his shirt. "She probably went to smoke or something."

I didn't feel like hanging out at the beach, but I went with them, if only because I didn't want to be left home alone. Bert and Kristy were messing around in the water, but I just sat in the sand with Wes, ignoring some chick that kept staring at us.

"Jealous ex?" I asked him, glancing at her. He shook his head.

"Don't know her. Or do you have a dark secret lover from the past?"

"Nope."

"Darn. So much fun that could come from that just wasted."

I tossed some sand at him. "Anyways, you wanna play?"

"Whose turn is it?"

"Mine." I slipped off my flip flops and dug my toes into the sand. "Uh…have you ever had a pet?"

"My mom had a dog once."

"What happened to it?"

"My dad took it with him."

"Oh." I didn't know a lot about Wes and Bert's father and he was rarely mentioned. I was afraid that if I asked, he'd refuse to answer and end the game again. "What was its name?"

"Butter."

I giggled, making him smile.

"I hated that dog."

"Why?"

"It would always steal my food when I wasn't looking."

My laughter was broken up by Kristy screaming at Bert.

"I told you not to knock them off!"

Wes and I both looked up to see Kristy and his brother looking down into the ocean.

"What's wrong?" I called to them.

"He knocked my sunglasses off my head."

"It wasn't my fault! She shoved me down first."

Wes shook his head. "Kristy, it's a pair of sunglasses. Grow up."

I poked Wes. "Leave her alone."

"Don't poke me."

I did it again. "Why? You don't like that?"

"M-"

Again, I poked him. Finally, Wes just grabbed my finger and pulled me closer to him. Wrapping an arm around my neck, he held me close.

"Let me go."

"Nope, nope, nope."

"No need to repeat yourself."

He gave me a nuggie, which made me squeal, before finally letting me go. I just leaned against him, sighing as Kristy still searched in vain for her fallen glasses.

"They probably are already gone, Kristy," I called to her as Bert gave up. "I'm sure we can buy some new ones. Come on."

We left the brothers by themselves to go find sunglasses. It wasn't hard. Kristy dragged me into a store that also had bathing suits and the such, which she was having a fun time looking at. I was halfway listening to her talk and partially looking at flip flops, when she gasped.

"That's him," she hissed to me, pointing at some guy.

"Him who?"

"That guy that was making eyes at me."

The guy in question had a little girl in his arms, carrying her over to the counter.

"Hey, Heidi, brought Thisbe back."

The woman behind the counter took the little girl. "Thanks. Did you guys have fun?"

The little girl, who had clearly been crying, ignored both of them. Heidi frowned.

"What's wrong with her?" She asked, setting the little girl down.

"She wanted to stay with me, but I had plans tonight."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Everyone's down for the start of summer and we're going to hangout. I have her nearly every day. I figured you could take her."

"Of course. She is my daughter, you know."

The guy just nodded before taking off his baseball cap and setting it on the counter. "Give this to her when she calms down."

"I will. Can you tell him by, Thisbe?"

"No!" The little girl stomped off to the back, but the guy just shrugged before walking out of the store.

"That's perfection to you?" I asked, frowning.

"You don't know him like I do."

"You don't know him at all, Kristy."

"Whatever. Let's just get these sunglasses and go, alright?"

"That's fine."

Instead of going back to the beach afterwards, we went to the house. Monica was there, filing her nails on the couch. Owen was there too, back on his laptop again.

"Where's Annabel?" Kristy asked. When it was obvious he couldn't hear us due to his headphones being in, Kristy said to me, "He probably killed her because she called his music crap."

"You're really harping on that."

"You didn't have to ride down here with him."

Owen, who was sitting in the chair, finally noticed our presence and looked up. This time when Kristy asked, he told her that she was in the bathroom. It wasn't thirty seconds later that she returned.

"Hey, guys," she said, coming to sit down on the arm rest of Owen's chair. He pointed to something on the laptop, to which she nodded.

"There you guys are," Wes said as they too came into the house. Kristy went to go sit down next to her sister on the couch while I went over to Wes. I was starting to feel less dizzy now that time had passed. "We waited."

"I thought you'd come back here," I said as he gave me a kiss.

"Sorry about your sunglasses, Kristy," Bert said as he went to go stand next to the couch.

"Good. You owe me twenty bucks."

"What? No. I could have bought you some glasses for two dollars."

"I am not that cheap, Bert. You should know that by now."

Wes wrapped an arm around my shoulders. "What do you guys want to do? Kristy? Owen?"

Owen glanced up at him before looking back at his laptop. "I got to finish this. Sorry."

"What are you doing anyways?" Kristy asked him. When he didn't answer, Annabel did.

"He's trying to find new tracks for his radio show on Sunday. He has to send them to his friend so that he can set it up, since we're here."

I was going to comment, but then my cell phone rang. It was my mother. Groaning, I walked off to the room I was sharing with Wes, him following.

"Hello?" I answered as he closed the door behind me.

"Hi, Macy. How are you? Are things okay there?"

"Yeah, Mom," I said, smiling when Wes came up behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist. "Everything's good here."

"That's nice."

I had to elbow Wes when he started to put his hand up my shirt. "How did that open house go?"

"Good." I was talking about what she wanted now, so she went on for another ten minutes. After warning me to make sure that everyone behaved and not to let anything get out of hand, she let me hang up.

"Could you stop for like a minute?" I asked Wes, trying to move my neck away from his lips.

"What?"

"I was on the phone."

"I was quiet."

"Wes! Macy!" Bert stopped at the door this time, probably remembering his brother getting mad last time he just barged in. "Can I come in?"

"I said knock, not yell."

"So no?"

"What do you want, Bert?" I asked, pushing Wes away and opening the door.

"We're all going to go eat lunch. You wanna come?"

"Yeah," I said as Wes went to pull on a shirt. "Hurry up, Wes."

"You sure are demanding," he grumbling, following behind me closely.

We ended up at that same place my dad used to take me to eat every time he took us down to Colby. Last Chance is what it's called, I think. It was busy, but it was good food. We sat at a booth, borrowing a chair from another table so that all seven of us could fit. It was either that or make Bert go sit alone. Though Monica didn't seem to be enjoying us all that much.

"There he is,' Kristy hissed, making everyone else look at her. I just rolled my eyes. I was sitting between her and Wes, which I didn't mind, but I could tell that Monotone was hating being across from us, next to Owen.

"Who?" Wes asked, looking around.

"Mr. Everything," Kristy said, staring at him openly. He was with a bunch of other guys, not seeming to notice her watching.

Bert groaned. "Can we talk about something else? Like…Owen, talk more about the Mayans."

"They-"

"No thanks," Annabel said, rolling her eyes. "You two can do that on your own time."

"Isn't he amazing? Look, he's helping his drunk friend stand up."

"Sa-woon," I mumbled to Kristy, but she just shook her head. The drunk guy that her Mr. Everything helped up noticed us looking and began to make his way over to our table. "Great, Kristy. The drunk one's come over here."

"Stop looking at him and maybe he'll leave us alone."

"That only works with homeless beggars."

"Hey!" The drunk finally made it to our table and was standing over Bert, who was in the chair, leaning heavily on it. "Don't think'a that I'a don't see ya."

We all were quiet for a minute, hoping that Kristy was right, but she wasn't.

"I've'a seen a lot'a people 'round here," he went on, "but never, ever, ever, e…"

"…ver?" Bert offered up. Wes sent him a look, but the guy patted Bert on the head.

"Yeah. 'ver have I see someone as pretty as you'a."

We all assumed he was talking to Kristy since she was the one that basically summoned him over here. Then he turned to look dead straight at Annabel.

"What's your'a name'a?" He asked, starting to waver.

"Jake! Get your butt back over here," one of the guys called to him. Mr. Everything began to make his way over to come get him.

"Dude, just f off, alright?" Owen looked up from his mp3 player. "Go back over to your buddies and leave us alone."

"I wasn't talkin' to ya," the guy, Jake, said, frowning now. "Name?"

"Jake, come on," Mr. Everything said, grabbing his arm. "Don't bother people."

"Let me go, bro!" Jake jerked away from Kristy's dream guy. "I'mma get a hook up tonight, alright? No need to'a be jealous'a!"

"Seriously, knock it off, alright?" Owen sat up a little straighter, but Annabel just put a hand on his arm. Wes sighed.

"Dude, get your friend out of here, alright?" Wes said, frowning.

"No! I wanna talk'a to her'a," Jake complained, trying to shove the other guy off. One of their other friends came over to help. "No, Eli! Leave me alone! Adam, stop'a!"

The new guy let him go. "Fine. We won't touch you. Just come with us."

"I wanna talk to 'em."

"They don't want to talk to you."

"Yes!" Jake suddenly turned from Annabel to Kristy. "Scars wants'a me to'a stay."

For a second, I didn't get why he called her that. Then I did.

"Alright, you need to go," Wes said, standing up. "I'm serious. I will beat the shit out of you if you don't."

"Wes-" I tried, but I was interrupted.

"He's drunk alright? He's just talking," Mr. Everything said, frowning. "Come on, Jake."

"No!" He looked back at Annabel. "She wants'a me. I can tell. Looks like a slut."

Owen was quick to stand, even quicker to punch the guy. I told Wes that he would cause problems. I told him.

"Owen!" Annabel stood up and grabbed his arm. Mr. Everything caught Jake, but another one of their friends came running over.

"Hey, bro, you wanna start shit? Cause you got it now."

"Wallace, chill," Mr. Everything said, helping Jake stand up straight.

"I'll knock the shit out of all of you," Owen threatened.

"No you won't," Annabel said, trying to drag him away, but he wasn't budging. "Owen, now."

"You don't know who you're messing with, tourist dick," Wallace said, bucking up. Wes shoved him back.

"Yeah, I think we fucking do," Bert said, also standing. I reached over and grabbed his arm.

"Don't," I told him, standing up. "I mean it."

Monica got up and walked out, pulling out her cigarettes. One of the servers came over.

"You're going to have to leave, Jake," she said. "All of you, actually."

"We're going Colie," Mr. Everything said, dragging his half out of it friend away. "Come on, guys."

"You better watch yourself," Wallace called to us.

"Can say the same to you," Wes yelled back. I hit him in the head.

"Stop. You got your brother acting stupid too."

"You're going to have to go too," the server, Colie, told us.

"We're leaving," Wes said, sighing. "Come on, guys."

Bert picked up his fries before following up out. "Wes-"

"Not now."

'I wonder where Monica went," Kristy mused, walking next to me. "She gets so upset by arguments."

"Shut up," Wes said, frowning at her.

"What?"

"I said to shut up. All you ever do is give her these fake characteristics that you make up in your head. Just like you made up that that guy is interested in you. He's clearly not. Then you got that drunk to come over here and ruin everything."

"Hey, I'm not the one that punched someone," she said, glaring at Owen. "And you knew that we couldn't have gotten through this week without him flipping out. It's your fault, Wes, you invited him."

"It is not Owen's fault," Annabel spoke up. "He's going through-"

"Oh whatever," Kristy said, making Annabel frown, but she didn't say anything else. When we got back to the beach house, Owen and Annabel went outside to talk. Kristy went to her room, while I stayed in the living room with my boyfriend and his brother.

"That was fun," Bert mumbled, sitting down on the couch next to me.

"When your brother's acting stupid, Bert, you don't have to too."

"Yeah, I do," he said. "I had to back them in up in the fight. Without me, it was four on two. I had to even it up a little."

Wes laughed a little. "Which one did you have, Bert?"

"I liked the drunk guy, kind of, so I'd have gone for that one that came over there yelling at us. Like it's our fault that Owen had to punch the drunk. We weren't starting stuff, they were."

"You weren't going to fight any of them," I told him. "You either, Wes."

It was quiet as Wes came to sit on the other side of me. Then we heard Owen start yelling from the back porch, Annabel trying to yell over him. I interlaced Wes and my fingers. He smiled at me.

"At least we got Owen's one meltdown out of the way. It'll be smooth sailing from here."

"Yeah," I said, leaning against his arm. "You need to apologize to Kristy though. You hurt her feelings."

He huffed, clearly wishing I had just stayed silent on the subject. "I don't care, Macy."

"I know that you do though. That's why you got so upset when that drunken guy mentioned her scars. She's one of your friends and you were ready to beat him up about it."

Wes let out a breath slowly, not saying anything to this. Eventually, Owen and Annabel stopped too. Pretending that I was going to get a soda, I went to the backdoor and peaked out the window.

"Spying is not appreciated," Wes said, coming up behind me.

"It was so quiet that I just wanted to make sure that he didn't kill her."

Owen was now sitting on the porch steps, his head rested in his hands I think, but his back was to me. Annabel was sitting behind him, running her hands up and down his back and shoulders, whispering things to him.

"Alright, you saw, now leave them alone," Wes said, going over to the fridge. He pulled out a beer. "I'd offer you one, but I fear you're turning into an alcoholic."

"Oh, shut up. I only had three today."

"In like the span of an hour."

"Shut up."

We heard the front door close and looked into the living room to see Monica. Bert called a greeting to her, to which she nodded a little before heading to the room she was sharing with Kristy and him.

"At least we know she's okay," I said, walking back to the living room. "Now Kristy can vent to someone."

"Thank God it's not me," Bert said as Wes came in there too. "Last night, all she talked about was that guy."

"She can be a bit obsessive sometimes."

"Sometimes?" Bert questioned his brother. "Try all the time."

"Chill out, dude."

"You're mad at her too."

Wes shook his head. "I'm just…I don't know. I'm gonna, uh, go take a shower."

He gave me the rest of his beer before leaving. I sat back down next to Bert.

"So what's going on with Armageddon, Bert?" I asked, knowing I would regret it, but trying to be nice. Luckily, Owen and Annabel came back and Bert got distracted by talking to the older man.

"Hey, Owen, you wanna talk about the Mayans now?"

"We can," he said, sitting down. "Or I can show you some videos on my laptop. You're into the apocalypse right?"

"Yeah."

"It's about the Inca, instead of the Mayans, but it's pretty good," he said, coming to sit down on the couch. I got up and left them, though Annabel didn't seem that thrilled to have to watch the video.

"Hey, Kristy," I said, coming into her room. She was on the bottom bunk, talking to Monica, who was sitting on her sleeping bag. "You okay?"

"Yeah, of course, except for your douche of a boyfriend."

I gave her a weak smile, coming to sit down next to her. "He's sorry, if that helps."

"Gee, no?" Kristy blew her hair out of her face. "He acted like a real jerk to me."

"Mmmhmm," Monica agreed.

"He was just angry."

"Doneven."

"Angry? Why? He ate and got a show. If anything, I should be angry that I let Mr. Everything go without even getting a chance to talk to him."

I rolled my eyes. "He didn't seem that great."

"Yes he did. He resisted beating up Owen."

"I don't think he could."

"Oh, ye of little faith, I bet he could."

"You don't even know him."

"And? You don't know Owen all that well."

"Yeah, but I know that he could kick Mr. Extraordinary's butt."

"Please, save me your drooling. Do I need to go warn Annabel about your apparent obsession with Owen?"

"Trust me, there's not one. Besides, this is heavy talk for someone that has a thing for my boyfriend."

"Doneven," Monica told me, pulling out her cigarettes. I sighed, standing and walking away, not even caring that Kristy was now probably mad at me too.

Wes was in bed when I came into the room. I just laid down next to him, sighing.

"What's wrong with you?" He asked after about my fifth sigh.

"Nothing."

Wes rolled onto his stomach. "Sorry that lunch sucked."

"It was fine. Until the end."

"Tonight for dinner, me and you can just go out. I mean, if you want."

"Yeah, sure."

He closed his eyes. "Not back to Last Chance though."

"I don't think we're allowed, anyways."

He laughed a little. "I'll give it to Owen though; he knows how to make a memorable day."

"Yeah, so that you remember you hated it."

"You do not hate today. It's not even over yet!" He patted my head again, which apparently isn't going to stop anytime soon. "I'll make it all up tonight."

"What do you want to do right now?"

"Rest," he said.

"Wes, come on."

"No. I couldn't sleep last night."

"Why not?"

"You wouldn't scoot over."

"You didn't say anything."

"When could I? You just decided that my side of the bed was yours and then you were out. I didn't want to wake you."

"Oh, whatever."

Wes moved his head closer to mine, nudging my arm until I wrapped it around him. I smiled at him.

"Now who's not on their side?"

"There are no sides with naps. Only with bedtime."

"You just make up rules as you go."

"Yep," he agreed. "It works. You should try it sometime."

"Who keeps texting you?" I asked Wes, glancing at him.

"Bert. He's mad that we didn't take him."

We had gone out to eat and were now back at the beach, sitting in the sand. When we announced we were leaving, Bert begged up to take him with us, if only because Kristy was on a rampage. Apparently, she was mad at everyone now. I told him that if she got too out of hand, I had no doubt that Owen would punch her in the face and knock her out. At the time, I was joking, but now that I think about it…

"He can just leave on his own and do something."

"He said that would be boring." Wes sighed, putting his phone away. "We should have left him at home."

"Owen too."

"And Kristy."

"Monica."

"Annabel."

"You," I said, making him laugh. We kissed quickly before turning back to the ocean. The sun was starting to go down and I wanted to go back to the beach house, but didn't feel like standing.

"So Kristy's mad at you too, huh?"

"Yeah. Apparently, I'm supposed to chose her over you."

"Chicks before dicks."

"Especially when they're so small."

He pushed me, making me laugh. "You're one to talk, A-Cup."

"I am not!"

Needless to say, we were still teasing each other by the time that we got back to the house. Owen was on the couch this time, his girlfriend nowhere to be found. I didn't hear Kristy or Monica in their room either, so I guess all of them went out. Bert must have gone, seeing as he had stopped texting Wes. Owen seemed like he was sleeping, his headphone put in his ears and his eyes closed. Wes just took my hand, dragging me to the bedroom.

"It looks like they all left," Wes told me as he made me lay down on the bed.

"Y- What are you doing?"

Locking the door, he asked, "What?"

"Wes, we can't. This is Caroline's- Stop!"

He just pushed me down on the bed and got over me. "Who said that we were?"

"You-" This time, he cut me off with kisses. When he pulled back to take off my shirt, I said, "We can't."

"Oh, but we can."

"Wes-"

"You want it just as much as me. I can tell." He ground his hips against mine, laughing at my expression.

"Fine. You never mention this to Caroline though."

"Darn, but I always give her a detailed essay on our sex."

"Wes."

He went back to kissing me while also undressing me and himself. We were almost both naked when he stood up.

"Wes," this time I whined it, but I wasn't embarrassed. "What are you doing?"

"Condoms are in my bag," he said, rifling through it.

"Oh, so you planned this?"

"Always come prepared, Macy."

Groaning, I laid my head back on the pillow, waiting. "Hurry up before they get back."

"I'm coming, I'm coming." Then he stopped to laugh at his own sentence. I just rolled my eyes.

"So did you and Wes have fun?"

My eyes widened. "What?"

"On your date," Annabel repeated. "Remember?"

"Oh. Uh, yeah." I was in the kitchen, looking for something to eat, when she came in there too. Apparently, the others had gotten back okay at some point.

"That's good."

"Where'd you guys go? Only Owen was here when we got back."

"To get something to eat. I brought him food back, since he started a fight last time."

"Yeah, he's good at staring those."

She smiled at me. "He got better, for a little while, but then his sister got sick and he decided to ignore everything he learned in Anger Management."

I didn't know what to say to that. I knew that I changed when my dad died and Wes became a delinquent when his mom got sick, so now, maybe, I could understand why he was so angry. And maybe I could forgive him for all the times we were all hanging out and his ruined it by punching someone. Maybe.