Luckily for me, the rain finally decided to stop. Why was this lucky for me? Well for one, no one wanted to sleep anymore. We were all so antsy from having to stay in the tent that the second the rain died down we all but jumped for joy.
After my little ‘episode’ as Howie liked to call it when he thought my headphones could block out his voice completely, they all decided it was best to hang around in the one big tent and even all bunk together for the night. Although this excited me to no end because the more the merrier as far as I was concerned, it further agitated AJ, who all but threatened to choke me the next time we were alone together.
Kevin started the fire outside as soon as the rain stopped and that was where we found ourselves sitting. I had my hands over the flames trying to warm myself up and Brian was sitting next to me ‘roasting his weenie.’
Howie handed me a stick and a hot dog of my own but I shooed his hand away, “I’m not hungry yet.” I simply said not expecting it to cause such a big deal. But silly me, I forgot that practically everything I ever did or said caused a HUGE stir.
“What do you mean you’re not hungry?”
Why I had to explain what I meant was beyond me, “I mean I’m not hungry Kevin as in belly full.”
“How can your belly be full, you haven’t eaten anything since breakfast.”
“God Kevin, leave the kid alone he said he wasn’t hungry. When he’s hungry he’ll eat.” Did my ears deceive me or did AJ just come to my defense?
“Whatever…I’m done worrying about him.” And there is the next phase of how Kevin deals with Nick, the talking about him as if he isn’t there phase. That’s my personal favorite one, because it involves the least amount of nagging. Unfortunately this phase lasts the least of all of them.
“At least drink some water Nick before you dehydrate on us.” See what I mean? That lasted all of two minutes tops.
I nodded and grabbed the water from him; forcing myself to take a swig and hoping I wouldn’t just barf it back up. My stomach was kind of in knots since…I don’t know…the ghost made an appearance in my tent and told me I should run for my life. Yeah that’ll do it.
Maybe that should be a new diet, the Apparition Diet. I could be onto something there; maybe I can go on Oprah’s show and make millions. Scare those pounds away by talking to weird pale spirits that happen to pop up in your tent and tell you that you should run for your life, only $19.99 plus shipping and handling.
“Does anyone know any spooky ghost stories?” Brian, why do you do this to me?
“I don’t think we should tell ghost stories on our first night here, its bad luck.”
“And where does it say that?” Brian asked me with the biggest smirk on his face.
“In Camping for Dummies. You know the book Kevin made me read while the two of you napped.” And it really did say that or something like that. Oh who am I kidding, I didn’t read it. I was too busy screaming, remember?
“Nick is right, maybe tomorrow. Who wants another hot dog?” Kevin asked as he passed out more food to the masses eyeing me suspiciously as I once again passed on the opportunity to roast my weenie on an open flame. Well I have to mock him somewhere right?
“So…” Now how do I causally bring up the whole weird guy in the tent thing exactly? “Did anyone else see their breath tonight?”
“What the hell does that mean?” The guys laughed at Kevin who rolled his eyes at my question. Okay so maybe my wording wasn’t that great. I do have a history of not making sense.
“What I mean was in the tent before, I saw my breath. I didn’t think it was that cold so I was wondering if anyone else saw theirs.” That was much smoother although it elicited the same response, the good old eye roll.
“How are you feeling Fracky?” Oh great and it got Brian thinking I was sick again.
“I’m okay.”
“Still shaken up?”
“A little but it’s all good. Sorry about that guys.”
“What’s done is done, no worries, now please eat.” Kevin had placed a hot dog onto a stick and held it over the fire.
“Okay yeah…sure…fine…whatever.” I said taking the stick and holding it out over the open flame.
“You know it’s weird that no one else is here with us isn’t it? I mean it’s the middle of the summer. You would think that more people would be out camping than just us.” One of the things I loved about Howie was the fact that every so often he displayed some common sense. That and he was the easiest person to make fun of on the planet.
“I did say this was a secluded place didn’t I?”
“Maybe they just bothered to listen to the weather report before randomly coming camping as opposed to us dumbasses.”
“Actually AJ, the weather was supposed to be beautiful all week, there wasn’t supposed to be any rain at all today. Guess we made the Gods angry.”
“It’s probably Nick’s fault.” AJ said of course which made everyone including me laugh.
“What if it is a sign for us to leave or something?” The laughing stopped, uh oh.
“Nick enough with the leaving thing, we are here for three days, like it or not. Next time don’t suggest something then try to back out of it!”
We were quiet for a few minutes as the fire popped and crackled. I loved the sounds of camping and that was by far the most relaxing one. When my family went camping, BJ and I would have this little game where we would try to guess the number of times the fire would crackle as we sat around it. I almost always won that game and then I would spend the rest of the trip gloating about it.
“Did you guys go camping a lot with your families?” I asked taking my hot dog and placing it on a bun, now that it was in front of my stomach, it finally woke up to the hunger it felt.
“We went camping a lot when I was younger,” Kevin replied taking a marshmallow and placing it on a stick. “We never cheated or anything, always just did the tent thing.”
“He is referring to the way MY family camped just in case you’re wondering.” Brian said rolling his eyes at his cousin. There was a whole lot of eye rolling going on already and it was only the first day. “My mom liked to do the RV thing so we would always camp out in one of those while the Richardsons went the ‘roughing it out’ way. Although I do have to say that almost always one of my cousins would end up sleeping in the RV with us…hrmm…can we guess which one?”
“Shut up Brian, my mom would make me do that. She was afraid it was too cold outside for her baby.”
“Uh huh.”
“I’ve only ever been to camps but have never actually gone camping before.” AJ admitted as he stuck the rest of his hot dog in his mouth.
“And I have never wanted to go camping before.” Howie said which made us all laugh.
“What about you?” He asked looking over my way.
“I have gone camping a lot. It was a cheap way for the family to go on vacation, so this feels like home to me in a way.”
“You mean when you aren’t crying that you want to leave?” Stupid AJ!
“Yeah, whatever.”
“I’m glad the wind died down a bit, maybe we’ll get a nice sunny day tomorrow and be able to go swimming in the lake.” Kevin said trying to ignore the impending tension between AJ and myself.
“That would be fun, we can play chicken!” Brian smiled at me and I nodded.
I was also glad the wind had died down a bit. I hadn’t heard my name since we were in the tent. I’m sure I was just being silly anyway, it’s not like the wind could actually call me by name or even know my name…unless it was a BSB fan. Then that would make sense.
“Who wants some S’mores?” Howie asked awaiting my excited answer to that question.
“Woohoo!! It’s S’more time!” And that would be the answer he was expecting.
“S’more time for the kiddies, but Miller Time for the adults.” Kevin responded going into the cooler and taking out a beer for the three people who were allowed to drink on this trip.
“I would like one too please!” AJ in his ultra cool way said as he attempted to reach across Kevin and grab a beer out of the cooler. I laughed with delight as his hand was slapped away like a child.
“Yeah nice try McLean, you aren’t getting drunk on my watch.”
“Jeez Kev, one beer won’t kill me besides I need some alcohol to put up with Carter’s crap.”
“Hey!”
“Uh…no!” HA!
Now let’s see if I can make it Nick 2 AJ 0. “And you don’t even ask!” Kevin said pointing at me which answered my question.
“Why don’t you go get the chocolate and graham crackers out of the tent Nicky so this way we can get those S’mores moving along?”
I nodded at D and jumped up and ran towards the tent. “So much for him not being hungry.” I heard Kevin say as I ran away.
When I got to the tent, it suddenly felt very cold and once again I got that uneasy feeling. I went for the light and put it on. The weird guy was sitting there staring at me again, Indian style with the box of chocolate bars beside him.
I was proud of myself for not screaming this time, even though the only reason I didn’t was because I was paralyzed in fear, but hey whatever works right? He just sat there staring, didn’t look mean or evil didn’t look ready to attack or eat me, just stared showing no emotion at all.
I tried my hardest to calm myself down as I felt my heart beating so fast in my chest I was afraid I’d burst. “What…who are you?” I managed to ask through stutters.
He didn’t answer only kept staring at me but this time tilted his head a little bit, “What do you want from me?” I was calming myself down a bit more but the shaking had intensified along with the coldness in the tent.
“When he comes for you, you better run.” He finally said. His voice was hard but not by any stretch of the imagination mean.
“Who?” I asked him wanting to know more suddenly.
I felt a hand on my shoulder and jumped back but once again only gasped, no more screaming for Nick. “Relax Nick, just came to make sure you didn’t get lost on the way to the tent, what on earth is taking you so long?” Brian asked as he smiled at me and walked into the tent.
I turned to look at the guy sitting there on the floor, and watched as Rok walked right to him bent down and grabbed the bag of chocolate before turning and facing me again, “Well? Are you coming or what?”
The ghost, I guess it was officially okay to call him a ghost by this point because well, Brian was standing IN him; anyway…the ghost never took his eyes off of me the entire time Brian was in the tent. Even as Brian was standing in the place where his legs were crossed, his eyes only fixed with mine.
“Earth to Nick…come in Nick!” Brian tapped my head so my gaze went back to him. “You okay? You look pale again.”
“I’m…fine.” I sounded detached from my own voice, but I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
“Alright well, let’s go make S’mores than baby…” He said in a really horrible British accent.
“When he comes for you, you better run…” The guy said to me again…Right in front of Brian!!
“Who?” I asked him one more time but he only stared at me.
“Who what?” Brian asked me, I turned towards him and smiled.
“What now?”
“You said who.”
“I meant…ooh?” He laughed at the confused look I had on my face and grabbed my shoulder.
“Come on we need to get chocolate in you stat!” I turned my head to the tent again but my ghost wasn’t there anymore.
“It got a little chilly suddenly didn’t it?” He asked zipping up his jacket as we walked back to the fire.
“Brian, did you see anything strange in there just now?” Maybe Brian did see the guy but was afraid he’d sound crazy if he admitted it so he chose to just ignore it completely? Maybe?
“Besides you staring off into space…nope.”
“Nothing at all?”
“No nothing at all, why, did you?”
I wanted to tell Brian everything at that point, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. Right now I felt like Brian was the only person on my side and the last thing I needed was for him to start thinking I was an idiot like everyone else.
“I think it was just shadows or something.” I finally said after awhile.
“Are you sure you’re okay Nick?”
“I told you I’m not sick.”
“I know you did, but I’m not talking about you being sick. You just seem down.”
“I’ll be okay.”
“I know that but if you need to talk to me I’m here okay?” He grabbed me by my shoulders again and pulled me in close and gave me a noogie on my head.
“Thanks Bri!”
“Not a problem now come on, let’s go make some S’Mores!”
I smiled at him and tried my hardest to get everything that was racing through my mind out of it.
I'll be back next Wednesday with chapter 5. Thans for reading and reviewing :O)
