Riley, Heather, and Skylar, who had never been to the waterfall before, quickly stripped down to their swimsuits. Knowing how cold the water was, I decided to skip the swimming and instead found Alex and Kim talking with a group of friends at the picnic table.
“Greetings, magnificent lady,” said one of the boys as I approached. His hair was long and hadn’t been washed in quite some time. Greasy bangs gleamed in the flicker of the tiki torches.
I looked to Alex for direction.
“Malcolm,” Alex said, as he pulled me down onto his lap, “this is my girlfriend, Jackie.” He made sure to stress the “girlfriend” part. “Jackie, this is Malcolm and the rest of my guild.”
Besides Malcolm, the GoG guild included two other boys—one with scrawny arms and a long, hooked nose, and another with hair dyed a shocking shade of blue.
“It is an honor to make the acquaintance of our fearless leader’s fair maiden,” Malcolm said, taking my hand and kissing it.
“Dude, are you trying to embarrass me?” Alex asked his friend, and Kim burst out laughing.
“Could be worse,” blue-haired boy said. “At least he didn’t greet her in Sindarin.”
“Um—it’s nice to meet you as well,” I told Malcolm, pulling my hand away from him. I had no clue what language Sindarin was, but as I wiped his kiss off on the back of my pants, I knew I already wanted to get away from this conversation. Maybe I should have gone swimming…
“Ah, the lady speaks, and in such a pleasing tone.”
“Seriously, man,” Alex said, slugging his friend on the shoulder. “If you don’t cut it out, I’m never going out in public with you again.”
“Want me to go grab some beer?” I asked Alex as I untangled our legs from beneath the picnic table and stepped over the bench. I wasn’t going to drink, not after last time, but at this point I was looking for any excuse to get away.
“That’d be amazing.”
I was gone before Malcolm could mutter another uncomfortable word. The keg was situated near the edge of the clearing, right at the line of trees. When I finally reached the front of the line, I found Nick running the tap.
“Hi,” I said, trying to be as brisk as possible. There was something about him that made me feel uneasy. Maybe it was the fact that he was Cole’s best friend, or maybe it was just because most of the time, he was so unfriendly. “I need two.”
“One at time,” he said, thrusting a single beer in my direction. “House rules.”
“Considering I live here and you don’t,” I said, putting my free hand on my hip, “bending the rules shouldn’t be a problem. And the second cup is for Alex who, if you didn’t know, also lives here.”
The people behind me in line snickered.
“All right, whatever,” he said. The air was tense for a moment as I waited for him to fill the second cup, and as soon as he handed it to me, I moved away from the keg without a thank-you.
“Hey, psst!” Someone yanked me into the trees, sloshing beer all over my arm.
“Cole?” I said when I straightened up and spotted him. “What the hell are you doing?”
“Can we talk?” he asked, gesturing behind him with a nod.
“I’m getting beers for Alex and myself,” I told him.
“This is important.”
“That’s nice, but I’m in the middle of an interesting conversation,” I lied, glancing back at the table where Alex and his friends were sitting.
“With whom? The Dungeons and Dragons freaks?”
“Do you always have to be so mean?”
“Do you always have to be so stubborn?”
“I am not.”
“I just need ten minutes. Is that really so much of your time?”
I thought about Malcolm, who would be waiting at the table when I returned. “Five,” I said, grumbling.
“That works,” Cole said, grabbing the beers out of my hands and tossing them to the ground. “Let’s go.”
“Hey!” I complained, glancing down at the now-empty cups. “I stood in line for those.”
But Cole wasn’t listening. He was tugging me through the undergrowth, pushing tree branches out of the way as he went.
“What’s so important that we need to trudge through half a jungle just to talk about it?” I demanded as we quickly moved deeper into the forest.
Ignoring me, he continued to plow through the vegetation until we broke through into a small clearing.
“Wow.” It was all I could mutter.
The moonlight poured over the tops of the trees and onto the small expanse of grass, bathing the area in beautiful white light. However, it wasn’t the moonlight that made me catch my breath. There were hundreds of little white flowers growing everywhere. I could feel Cole watching me as I took in the sight around me.
“Dicentra spectabilis,” he said.
“What?”
“The flowers.” He gestured with his head. “The common name is ‘bleeding hearts.’”
“They’re beautiful,” I said as I cradled one in my palm. They really did look like hearts.
“Most are normally pink,” he told me, grabbing my hand and directing me to a boulder in the middle of the clearing. “But some types are white.”