Chapter Six

“Christian, put me down!” I scream as I flail about.

His response is a deep chuckle, followed by, “Just enjoy the moment, beautiful.”

I ignore his compliment as he enters the water. He continues further into the lake until the water is a bit above his waist. When I think he’s about to stop, he keeps walking forward.

Without a word, he drops me into the water. The cold instantly shocks me and I’m completely under the water. I fly up to the surface, have to shred the water to stay above. When he begins doubling over with laughter, I glare.

“I’m so sorry, I forgot how short you are!” he continues to die.

I swim past him and get to a spot where the water is just at my chest. From where he’s standing, the water is barely at his elbows, and I truly admire his height.

“What if I couldn’t swim?” I accuse.

He walks towards me. “I already asked Ariel. I was trying to figure out why you weren’t in the water with the rest of us.”

“Whatever,” I dismiss, flipping onto my back and allowing myself to float. My eyes are closed until I feel a presence over me.  “Can I help you?”

When I open my eyes, I’m surprised to see that it’s Ace above me. The third oldest brother grins down at my floating form. Suddenly, my body is being held under water. I thrash about, trying to free myself, but it only lasts for a few moments.

“Ace, you asshole!” I hear Ariel yelling once I reach above the water.

His back is to me as he laughs crazily. In that moment, I do the only thing I can think of.

I run at him, as fast as I can through the weight of the water, and jump onto his back. The force knocks him over, while I hold on for dear life. I push all of my weight onto him and hold him down for as long as I can before he rises back up with me now on his shoulders.

Instead of being mad, he begins laughing again. I join in too. I feel as if I have no cares in the world as I sit several feet in the air, arms wrapped around his neck. It takes a while before we can sober up, and as soon as he looks up at me from between my legs, I start dying again.

“You dumbass!” I choke. “You could have killed me!”

“The opportunity was there! I have zero regrets,” he chuckles, placing me back where I can stand.

This is what I enjoy about the Scotts. You really can’t be mad at them for long.

“Fuck off,” I let out my last long laugh before turning to the others. “Are you guys ready yet? I’m starving.”

*

The rest of the day is spent drinking and goofing around. I enjoy having the other girls around: much more than I thought I would. Addison is the oldest, she’s 23, which makes her a year younger than Adonis. Hailey is 22 like Alex. Next comes Olivia, who is 20 just like Christian. Finally, there’s Zoe and Maddy, who are the same age as us. I remember Zoe from high school, but we never spoke much before. She’s also the younger sister of Addison.

Now, it’s around 8pm and the sun has begun to set. We’re all broken off into little groups, doing our own thing after eating dinner. Although we’ve been drinking all day, we’ve been pacing ourselves and no one is completely drunk yet. Clearly, it isn’t going to stay this way for long.

“Guys!” yells a tipsy Hailey. “Gather ‘round!”

Everyone follows her command, and takes a seat around the fire.

“What’s up?” asks Alex, pulling her down to sit in his lap.

“Let’s play a game,” she says, twirling her hair around her slender fingers.

We all agree.

“How about, Truth or Dare?” suggests Adrian ominously.

All of the guys whoop and cheer while the girls roll their eyes, but agree nevertheless. Adonis and Alex get up to grab us all a drink.

“This is not going to end well, I can just feel it,” whispers Ariel from my left.

I chuckle and nod. “Nothing ever ends well when your brothers are involved.”

“I kind of like them. There’s never a dull moment,” says Christian from my right. “You have a cool family.”

Ariel smiles warmly as she looks around at her siblings. “They’re crazy, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

“If you like them, you’d love their parents. They’re ten times crazier,” I add.

Before Christian has the chance to reply, a high voice whines, “I’m cold!”

The three of us look over to Olivia, who is on the other side of Christian. It’s clear what she’s trying to do. Ever since we got here, she’s been ogling at him. It’s obvious that she’s attracted to him. To be honest, I’d be more surprised if she wasn’t attracted to him. I’m not sure if he feels the same way towards her, but he has been quite friendly with her.

“Here, take my sweater,” he offers, pulling the black hoodie over his head. As he does so, his shirt underneath rises slightly, and I can’t help but admire his physique. Olivia does the same, but much more bluntly. I can almost see the drool spilling from the corner of her mouth.

“Someone’s trying to take your man!” sings Ariel in my ear.

“Shut up!” I murmur, swatting at her.

Olivia smiles smugly as she slips on the sweater. For a second, I imagine how it would feel against my bare skin. I’m sure that I would be drunk off of his scent alone. A cool shiver runs down my spine at the thought.

“You cold too?” asks Christian, pulling me from my daydream.

Was he watching me? My face turns red but I nod at the excuse. He shifts closer to me and wraps a muscular arm around my shoulder. The heat from his body transfers to mine, and my face gets several degrees warmer.

Thankfully, the two older boys return before I can get lost in my thoughts again. Alex hands me a cool can, and it takes all of my self control not to press it against my burning forehead. Instead, I crack it open and allow the liquid to cool me from the inside.

“How long have you two been together?” asks Addison from across the circle.

My eyes widen when I realize she’s looking at me and Christian. “Oh- we’re not-” I stammer out quickly.

She raises her dark eyebrows, clearly not believing me. “Sorry, you guys would just be really cute together.”

“Give me some time, I’m working on it,” Christian assures, pulling me closer into his side. Sparks ignite, and I’m not talking about the campfire.

“Can we start the game already?” says Olivia. I don’t need to be looking at her to know that she’s scowling.

“Right,” says Adrian before turning to one of his brothers. “Don, truth of dare.”

Adonis takes a swig of his beer. “Dare me.”

Adrian smirks. “Do your best stripper routine.”

He shakes his head and quickly downs the rest of his drink before beginning to hum a made up song. Standing before the fire, he begins to shake his hips ‘seductively’, before taking off his shirt. The girls all yell words of encouragement while Ariel hides her face. His humming gets louder as he whips his shirt in a circle above him. Slowly stalking over to Addison, he winks and she cheers him on. He finishes off by giving her a horrible lap dance, making me divert my eyes as well.

Finally, he takes a bow, and lands a sloppy kiss on Addison’s lips. Ariel and I yell, “Gross!” while everyone else laughs and gives him a round of applause.

“Please hurry and ask the next person before I barf,” begs Ariel.

The 24 year old sticks out his tongue childishly, just as I’ve seen his sister do to Adrian many times before. He looks around the circle, trying to decide on his next victim. “Ace, my man, truth or dare?”

“Dare,” replies Ace dramatically.

“I dare you,” he starts before getting up and grabbing a cup along with a bottle of apple flavoured whiskey from the cooler, “to down this in one go.”

Adonis fills the red cup a third of the way and hands it to Ace, who raises an eyebrow. He runs a hand through his dark brown curls and tips the cup back. I feel like this is a good time to mention that, although Ace is the party type, he is definitely a lightweight. His brother knows this.

He clutches his chest as he empties the cup and I can literally feel the burning of his throat. Adonis throws him a water bottle and he downs half of that too. “Done,” he says weakly.

Once he recovers, he looks at Olivia. “Liv, truth or dare?”

“Dare, of course,”

“I dare you…” his eyes glint with mischief and I subconsciously shuffle away from Christian, “to grab an ice cube from the cooler, and pass it into the mouth of the person on your left.”

Olivia jumps up, all too eagerly, and grabs a piece of ice. When she returns she sits ten times closer to Christian than she was before. She pops the cube into her mouth and looks up at him through her lashes.

He won’t…

Oh, but he does.

Christian leans towards her. Olivia’s eyes flutter shut and she meets him halfway. She uses her tongue to pass along the ice cube. Just when I think it’s over, she wraps an arm around his neck and pulls him closer. Pressing her lips to his, she begins to kiss him passionately.

After a mere second, Christian pulls away and says, “I almost choked on the damn ice.”

He spits it out and everyone begins to laugh. Everyone but me. Even Ariel lets out a little chuckle. I shake my head, not allowing myself to feel hurt after all I’ve done since I met Christian is push him away. I did say that I’d keep him at arm's length and never any closer. It’s for his benefit, not mine.

Glad to have the attention on her, Olivia sends a look my way. “Amaya, truth or dare?”

“Truth,” I sigh.

She doesn’t miss a beat. “Who is the most attractive person here?”

I know that the point of her question is to embarrass me after what just happened. She wants me to say Christian so that she can look at me with pity, thinking that he’s already hers.

“Ariel,” I state simply, finding the loophole in her question. She looks at me confused, so I elaborate, “You said person, not guy. Besides, half these guys are like my brothers, and that’s gross.”

She groans in frustration at having been got.

“I think you’re the hottest here too!” grins Ariel, giving me a hug.

I chuckle and reply, “Alright, so truth or dare?”

“Dare,” she answers boldly.

“Ariel, I dare you to make out with the hottest guy here,”

Her face instantly flushes and she begins to bite her lip. I know that something’s going on between them, and I’ve decided that they need a little push. Slowly, she turns towards Justin. He smirks and motions for her to come closer. When their faces are less than an inch away from each other, he places a gentle hand on her cheek and closes the distance.

When their lengthy kiss comes to an end, I squeal with excitement and look pointedly in Olivia’s direction. “And that, my friends, is how you ask the question correctly.”

The rest of the Scotts have a look of disgust painted on their faces, urging Ariel to continue the game. She then asks Eli, whose truth is to tell his most embarrassing memory. He tells the story of his mom walking in on him having sex in his room.

By the time everyone has had either a truth or a dare, we are all wasted. You’d think that drunk adolescents and fire would be a bad mix, but the second Zoe brings out a box of graham crackers, chocolate, and a package of marshmallows, the thought escapes my mind.

“S’mores!” I scream giddily.

She passes out the ingredients and skewers and we begin to roast our marshmallows. Since the game, everyone has sort of paired up: Addison and Adonis; Ariel and Justin; Eli and Zoe; Adrian and Maddy; and of course Alex and Hailey. Even Christian and Olivia are acting especially chummy. I can’t help but feel bad for Ace, who is stuck with me.

“I thought you said he had a thing for you?” asks Ace, pushing a squishy sweet onto my stick for me.

I shrug before placing it into the fire. “I’ve told him before that it was never going to happen. Guess he gave up.”

“Who in their right mind would give up on you?” he says softly, almost to himself.

Choosing to ignore what he said, I try by best to not list off the people who had, in fact, given up on me. Let’s just say, the list is longer than the number of people currently present.

“Wanna go for a walk?” he asks once we finish with our s’mores.

I take him up on the offer and we separate from the group. He brings a flashlight so that we can see where we’re going, and we find ourselves back at the lake. The moonlight is illuminating the open space, and it looks utterly beautiful.

I’ve always been a ‘look at the moon!’ kind of girl, and I’m grateful for the quiet that the water brings. We sit down on the rocks, and I thank myself for applying bug spray a while ago. Many different animal sounds can be heard from every direction, the voices of our friends now inaudible.

“This is amazing,” I sigh, my eyes drifting over the ripples of the water.

Ace hums in approval, but when I turn to him, he’s already looking at me. For a split second I wonder if I could ever see him as more than just family, but I release the thought once I remember that we basically grew up together. There may have been a time when I thought we could be different, but he and his brothers have always treated me like I was one them, so to be completely honest, there was never a chance.

He too has the hazel-green eyes that I love and cherish. Other than the twins, he is probably the next that I’m closest to. That’s probably because he’s the next closest to my age, and we do share a lot of the same interests. I can remember countless nights when I’d sleep over with Ariel but I’d find myself in his room, listening to his stories or watching shows that we both enjoy.

Hell, if I had met him before Ariel, we’d probably be together already. I turn away from his gaze and look around at the trees.

What a world that would be.

Still, I wouldn’t trade my relationship with the Scott’s for anything in the world. That is the one thing that I’m truly afraid to lose.

After a few more minutes of silence, Ace gently grabs hold of my hand. He stands up, pulling me with him. I think we’re about to head back, but he pulls me in for a hug. While he squeezes me tightly, I can sense that something is off with him.

A pull away a bit, and look into his eyes. “You okay? What’s up?” I ask him, my voice just above a whisper.

Ace shakes his head, his hand finding its way to my face. Ever so softly, his thumb brushes across my bottom lip. He looks conflicted with himself, and just when I think he’s about to lean in, he pulls me in for another hug. “Just happy to be here with you right now.”

He lets me go, and just like that, the moment is over. It’s almost as if it never happened but the small smile he gives me proves that it was real. I return it and begin walking to the path. “Let’s head back.”

Before I can make it through the first set of trees, I hear yelling. Suddenly, a group of eight rushes past me.

“What the hell?” I yell, almost stumbling over.

“We’re going skinny dipping!” screams Hailey.

“I am definitely not staying to see that,” I mumble.

Ace chuckles from behind me and says, “You go on ahead, I’m gonna make sure none of these idiots drown.”

I chuckle and continue on the path until I reach the campsite. I’m happy to finally get some time with just my friends who are still sitting around the fire.

“Where’s Olivia?” I ask.

To my dismay, Christian is the one to answer. “Drank too much, she went back to her tent to sleep it off.”

I conceal my smirk as I go to grab a sweater. When I return, I take a seat next to Eli, who also had way too much to drink. As soon as I’m seated, he leans over and rests his head in my lap. I absentmindedly play with his dark hair as I watch the flames dance around.

“So,” Ariel speaks first. Immediately, I know where it’s going. “Where did you and Ace run off to?”

I meet her eyes, and I don’t see disapproval, just innocent curiosity. “We went to the lake.”

“Did that dumbass try anything?” she now glares, clearly still having alcohol in her system.

I notice a shift and I look over to Christian, who I find sitting straighter and struggling to look uninterested. “No…” I say, unsure.

Did I want him to try anything? I don’t know. For a second I thought he was going to kiss me. At that moment, I feel like I would have allowed it, but I’m grateful that he didn’t. At least I know that he values my friendship as much as I do his.

“I always thought you two would end up together,” admits Adrian through a long yawn.

“Really?” I ask, surprised. This is the first I’m hearing of this.

Ariel quickly nods. “Me too. I think my mom wanted it to happen too, so that you would literally be a part of the family one day; last name and all.”

I grin at the thought, but I don’t miss the way Christian scrunches up his face as he listens.

______

Team Ace or Team Chrissy??? Hmm... I wasn't really feeling Christian this chapter but I enjoyed writing that little lake scene at the end with Ace. Who will she end up with? Only God knows at the moment. Also, I LOVE the Scott brothers all so much! Who's your fave so far?

Next chapter will wrap up the next two days of camping! Take care until then x