Chapter Three: Cloud Nine***
The next few days went by quickly. It seemed that almost everyone at school was still on some after prom high. I was too, I guess. My happy mood, though, was really because Keith seemed to be feeling well. He hadn’t complained once in the last few days about feeling sick. And that made me happy, really happy.
It was late Wednesday night and just as I had gotten into bed, Keith called. I was unable to prevent the smile that graced my face as I heard him instantly ask, “What are you doing this weekend?”
“I haven’t really thought about it,” I answered. “Hanging out with you,” I added seconds after. That’s all I wanted to do. Spend time with Keith.
“Good,” he said. “Because we’re going somewhere.”
“We are?” I asked, slightly curious and excited at the same time.
“Yup. We’re leaving Friday after school, okay?”
“Keith,” I laughed.
“What?”
“Don’t you think you should tell me what we’re doing? You know, give me the specifics?”
He sighed audibly. “Geez, partner, you and details.” I was silent. “Okay, if you must know, we’re going camping.”
“Camping?” I sputtered, quite surprised. I had no idea Keith had ever camped, or even liked to camp.
“Yes, camping. You do know how to camp, right?”
“Keith! Really?!” I decided that he didn’t need to know that the only camping experience I had had was in my backyard.
He chuckled, and all of the irritation that had built up inside me left as quickly as a flash of lightning. “Good. We’re going with my dad and the campground’s only like an hour away. We should be there by like six or so, we have to stop at the store and get supplies on the way.”
“Supplies?”
“Yup.”
“What kind of supplies?” I asked. What kind of supplies did one need when camping?
He huffed. “The most essential kind.”
At this, I knew exactly what he was talking about. “Let me guess…food?”
“You hit the nail on the head, partner.”
I grinned. “So, when will we back?”
“Well…Monday.”
“Monday!” I said, shocked. “Keith, what about school?”
“We’re not going,” he said, as if this was the most obvious thing.
“We’re not going?” I repeated. He expected me to skip school? Was he crazy?
“Well, unless you can be in two places at once, which I would be quite jealous about by the way, no, we’re not going.”
“How can we not go to school?” I asked, getting a little worried. I couldn’t just purposefully miss school—what was he thinking?
“It’s simple. You wake up and just…don’t go. I know it’ll be hard for you, partner, but I know you can do it.”
I huffed audibly, my irritation coming back. “Can’t we go after school ends for the summer? There’s only like two and a half weeks left. Plus, what if I miss something important?”
“Partner, there is only two and a half weeks left. No teacher is going to give new information now. That would be just plain stupid. What kind of student pays attention in classes this close to the end of the year, especially if it’s their senior year?”
“I do.” He chuckled, and I glared at the phone, even though I knew he couldn’t see me. “Stop laughing,” I said, even though I really didn’t want him to. “It’s not funny,” I added, trying my hardest to sound mad, as he continued to laugh mad; I didn’t think it was really working.
“Is there a reason why we can’t go after school ends? We can leave right after our last final, that Friday. We could even stay longer.”
There was a chilling pause on the other end of the phone, and when Keith spoke, his voice was considerably less excited. “I don’t think that’ll work.”
“Why not?” I asked, biting my lip in worry.
“It doesn’t fit into my plans.”
I felt dread fill my stomach. Doesn’t fit into my plans. What did that mean? “What does that mean, Keith?” I asked aloud, a little more harshly than I intended, but his comment worried me. It worried me a lot.
He sighed deeply. “It means what it means. We have to go this weekend. So, can you go?”
Was there something he wasn’t telling me? “Yeah,” I relented. There had to be a good reason why he felt this weekend was the one, and I figured no matter how much I pressured him to tell me, he never would. “I can go.” I wasn’t exactly sure how I would convince my parents to let me take a day off school, since it was so close to finals, but I honestly didn’t care. I would go no matter what. They could not take me away from Keith.
“Great!” he said, and I was never so glad to hear his voice become excited again.
“I’ll see you at school tomorrow,” he said and before I had the chance to ask him more about the camping trip, he hung up. I figured he might have been a bit worried that I would change my mind.
I numbly sank down onto my bed. The conversation with Keith, for some reason, left me with a strange feeling—like someone had dumped a bucket of ice cold water over my entire body. It was extremely unnerving.
Was he trying to tell me that he didn’t think he’d be around in a few weeks? I wanted to know why he would think that. Was he really not feeling as well as I had been thinking for the past few days?
Not being able to hold back my tears any longer, I grabbed my pillow—my only source of comfort –and cried, knowing that I’d probably find out what he meant sooner that I’d like.
***
I spent the next two days listening to Keith talk about camping. I swore I wore a huge grin on my face constantly; I just loved seeing Keith so happy and so excited.
After school on Friday, I met Keith at his house and while Henry packed my bag into the back of his truck, I went to find Keith. When I walked into his room, I saw him hastily throwing clothes into a duffel bag.
“You haven’t packed,” I stated.
He turned around to grin at me. “Partner, you’re here,” he said, affectively ignoring my question.
“I’m here,” I said. “I did practically follow you from school.”
He walked over to me, gave me a kiss on the cheek, before grabbing a few t-shirts from his dresser. He threw them carelessly into his bag, before heading into his bathroom.
I sat on the edge of his bed and waited for him to finish packing. Less than five minutes later, he dumped an armful of his toiletries into his bag. As he went to grab a sweater, my eyes caught at least a half a dozen bottles of pills. When he walked back over, he realized what I had been staring at, and quickly tossed in his sweater, before hastily zipping up his bag.
He didn’t look at me after that and became strangely interested with something on his desk. He surprised me when a few seconds later, when he murmured, “They’re just pills…for like if I get nauseous or something.”
He still wasn’t looking at me, but I could see the side of his face, which was red with what I assumed was embarrassment. I wasn’t sure what the right thing to say was, so I just said, “It’s okay.”
Luckily, it seemed to be the right thing, because he turned and looked at me. Really looked at me—his green eyes staring right into mine. Honestly, it was a bit intimidating, his gaze on mine. It felt like he could read everything I felt and everything I wanted him to know. “Keith,” I whispered, making sure I didn’t take my eyes away from his.
“Yeah?” he said. I just smiled at him. I didn’t really have anything to say. I just wanted to say his name, and hear him answer back to me. I wanted to know that he was here, with me. Still. I knew it was probably really stupid since he was standing right in front of me, but I couldn’t help it. His voice soothed me somehow, like being able to hear it really told me that he was with me. “Ready?” he asked after a few seconds, figuring I wasn’t going to say anything else to him.
I nodded and he grabbed my hand, pulling me off of his bed.
***
“Keith, do we really need two bags of marshmallows?” I asked, as I watched him grab two huge bags of marshmallows and throw them into our cart.
He gave me a look, like I was insane or something, before walking down the aisle without saying a word. He didn’t really need to; his expression had said it all.
Henry and I followed Keith to the next aisle, which were the chips. Keith stopped walking suddenly and turned to me expectantly and said, “What kind of chips do you want?”
“Um…” I started, trying to think of my favorite kind. There were too many. “I like them all,” I finally replied, shrugging meekly at my pathetic answer.
He rolled his eyes. “That doesn’t answer the question.”
He continued to stare at me expectantly. “Okay,” I finally said, walking down the aisle. I picked a bag of cheesy Doritos and asked, “How about these?”
He grinned and I knew I had chosen well. “And?”
“And?” I repeated.
He rolled his eyes. “Do you really think one bag of chips is enough? I could eat like five of these myself!” he exaggerated.
“Right,” I smirked, before walking down the rest of the aisle, Keith grabbing a few bags of chips on the way (Cheetos and Fritos). I finally spotted a kind that caught my eye, and pointed them out to Keith.
He grabbed the bag and threw it into the cart. “Cheddar and Sour Cream. Great choice, partner.”
After Keith was positive we got enough chips, we went and got pop (Pepsi and Mountain Dew), before we headed to the candy aisle. I swore his eyes got as wide as saucers as he glanced at all of the choices. He took a few moments debating, before he promptly grabbed some Skittles, M&Ms, Twizzlers, Starburst, and Hershey’s bars (for s’mores).
Once Keith seemed content with our candy selection, we had to go get Twinkies and Beef sticks, which according to Keith were, “The most important snack…ever.”
After he got the supplies for his snack, he turned to Henry and I and announced, “K, we’re done.”
Both Henry and I gave Keith an exasperated look. “What?” asked Keith. “Why are you guys looking at me like that?”
“Keith,” started Henry, “what do you think we’re going to eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner? Candy and chips?”
“Why not?” he asked. “I’ll let you in on a little secret,” he started, lowering his voice. “Chips and candy, they’re actually better for you than something like a sandwich. Healthy food is way overrated.”
I giggled at that, and Keith smirked at me. “Is that so,” said Henry. I could hear the amusement in his voice.
“Absolutely,” said Keith.
“Well,” started Henry, grabbing the cart from Keith, “I think we should get some stuff…just in case our chips and candy diet doesn’t work out.”
Keith rolled his eyes, and grabbed my hand as we followed Henry to get the rest of our groceries.
We left the grocery store twenty minutes later, and while Henry was loading the groceries into the coolers in the bed of his truck, Keith and I got comfortable in the back. “You’re the best, you know that?” I said to him, kissing him on his cheek.
“So are you, partner,” he said, causing happiness to fill me. I felt like I was on cloud nine.
***
I was surprised to see how crowded the campgrounds were, considering that school wasn’t out for the summer yet. Even though it was crowded, we were still able to find the perfect spot. It was right next to the lake, near some trees, so we weren’t directly under the sun during the day.
I helped unload the food and other camping equipment while Keith set up our tent. Or I guess I should say tried to set up our tent. Even though he was having difficulty, he was adamant he could do it all by himself and didn’t want Henry or I to help him.
After I finished unloading everything, and helped Henry set up his own tent, we grabbed some chairs and proceeded to watch Keith fight with the tent.
By the time Keith had finally gotten the tent together (which looked like it might fall apart if a large gust of wind passed by), Henry had already made a fire and was preparing our dinner. We were having hot dogs and baked beans. I wasn’t sure if this was traditional camping food or something, so I kept my mouth shut, hoping to act like I knew exactly what we were doing.
But, when Keith handed me an uncooked hotdog, I couldn’t prevent myself from giving him a confused look. Did he expect me to eat a raw hotdog? “Um….” I choked out, feeling incredibly embarrassed at just sitting there holding a raw hotdog.
Keith smirked at me before saying, “You’ve never been camping! You told me you’ve camped before.”
“I have too!” I defended.
“Really?” he asked, while grabbing the hotdog from me and placing it on a metal skewer, before placing it in the fire. Now knowing what I was supposed to do, I grabbed the skewer from Keith quickly, before my hotdog caught on fire.
“Yes, I have been camping,” I said casually, hoping my voice didn’t betray me, even though I knew it did.
“Camping, really? Like what, in your backyard?” I felt a blush creep on my face; Keith noticed and suddenly said, “You have only camped in your backyard! That’s hilarious.”
“So what? It’s like the same thing,” I said, rolling my eyes.
“I’m sure it is,” said Keith as I watched him place his hotdog directly in the fire as he did mine. After a few minutes, it caught on fire and he lifted it out from the fire and let it burn for a while before blowing it out. “What?” he asked me as he placed it in a bun and began decorating it with mustard, ketchup, and relish. “It’s the fast way to cook a hotdog.”
“But it’s completely black. It doesn’t even look edible. Does it even taste good?”
“Yu, it’s amazin’.”
I rolled my eyes, if anyone liked burned hotdogs, it would be Keith. I watched my hotdog cook for a few moments before I looked at both Henry and Keith. “Well,” I started, “what does one do when they are really camping?” I asked. “Opposed to being in their backyard.”
Keith snorted, before taking a rather large bite of his hotdog. “First, there’s actual water…”
“And?” I asked, as I began decorating my hotdog.
“And,” said Keith, looking at me with a glint in his eyes, “you’ll find out...”
***
After dinner, we all three just sat around the fire and talked. It was nearing eleven at night, when I noticed Keith had fallen asleep in his chair. I stared at him for a few minutes, wondering how he could even fall sleep in the position he was in. He had tried to fit his entire body on the tiny-fold out chair, but he hadn’t been very successful. He didn’t look comfortable at all.
“Can he fall asleep anywhere?” I asked, turning to look at Henry.
“Yup,” he answered, a small smile gracing his face, “pretty much.”
Neither of us said anything after that, and I went back to watching Keith’s chest rise and fall. For some reason it was soothing, it let me know that he was still alive. Absentmindedly, I grabbed a stick that was on the ground and began tracing random designs on the dirt. The only noises were the crackling of the fire and Keith’s deep breathing.
Just as I was beginning to think it was time to go to bed and that I should wake up Keith, Henry spoke up. “Natalie?” he said, so softly that I barely heard him at first.
“Yeah?” I asked, halting my tracing in the dirt to look at him.
“Does Keith,” he started, but stopped himself as if trying to find the right words to tell me exactly what he wanted to say. “Has he ever talked to you about death? About him dying? About how he feels about it all?”
I shook my head. “No, he hasn’t.”
Henry sighed audibly before rubbing his face with the palm of his hand. “That’s what I thought.”
Curious to why he was asking me this, I said, “Why?”
“It’s just, Al—his counselor, well, he use to be…” He stopped to swallow thickly. “He said that Keith never really talked about it. He told me this, because he thinks Keith needs to talk about it, or should at least. I’ve tried to talk to Keith about it…but every time I have, he either gets mad, ignores me, or worse, just gets really upset. I’m not sure if it’s just ‘cause I’m not the person he wants to talk about it with, or maybe he doesn’t need to talk about it. I don’t know. But, the thing is Natalie…”
“Yeah?” I prompted at his hesitation.
“I think if he does want to talk about it, you’d be the one he’d want to talk to.”
“Really?” I asked, honestly shocked.
He gave me a small smile. “Yeah.”
Still recovering from the shock of his statement, I began tracing designs in the dirt again. After a few moments I whispered, “I’ll try and talk to him.”
“Really? You would do that?”
I lifted my gaze up to glance at him. “Absolutely,” I said.
“Thanks.”
***
“Wake up, pumpkin love,” I heard a soft voice whisper into my ear.
I snuggled further into my pillow, trying to block out Keith’s voice and go back to sleep. It was way too early. When Keith called for me again, I knew he wouldn’t leave me alone, until I said something. I cracked my eyes open, and mumbled, “Too early.”
He grinned at me. “Did you know that you are extremely cute in the morning?”
“Keith!” I said, trying to hit him. I was unsuccessful since I was still half asleep. “Stop it!”
He kissed me on the forehead. “Well, it’s true….” He scooted closer to me. “So cute, in fact, you remind me of a teddy bear.”
“A teddy bear? God, Keith!” I was able to hit him this time, even if it was just lightly.
“A very, very cute teddy bear….” he added, moving away from me before I could hit him.
“Shut up,” I mumbled, grabbing his arm and pulling him down so he fell next to me. I snuggled up to his warm body.
We stared into each other’s eyes, and Keith began running his fingers through my hair. “Dad’s cooking breakfast. Eggs and bacon,” he mentioned a few minutes later.
“Hmmm,” I muttered, not making any move to get up.
“C’mon, partner,” he said, trying to get me up, but I kept a strong grip on his arm. “Let’s go eat ‘cause we have a lot to do today.”
“Like what?” I asked. Feeling excitement fill me, I sat up and began searching for my flip-flops.
“Things,” he said, leaning towards me, and kissing me on the forehead, before exiting the tent.
After breakfast, we swam in the lake for a few hours, before Keith declared that he wanted to show me something. As he prepared lunch for us, I kept begging him to tell me where we were going.
“Partner,” spoke up Keith, after I had begged him at least a half a dozen times. “You can beg all you want…you can even make that cute puppy dog face, but I am not going to tell you.” I stuck my tongue at him, but he just smirked at me, before packing our lunch into his backpack.
The hike took us a solid hour, and just as I was about to ask Keith if we could rest for a minute, he stopped abruptly before turning around and gently covering my eyes with his hand. “Keith, wh—”
“Shhh….” he whispered. He was close enough to me that I felt his warm breath tickling my cheek. “Keep your eyes closed, all right?” When I nodded, he took his hand away from my eyes and grabbed my hand instead, pulling me forward. We walked a few feet when I heard it. The sound of water, which made me more anxious to see what secret place Keith was going to show me. “Open them,” he finally whispered.
I inwardly gasped at the sight. Right in front of us was a small lake with a waterfall. It was absolutely beautiful. “How’d you know about this place?” I asked, turning to look at him. “It’s beautiful.”
He shrugged. “It’s been here for years.”
“It’s amazing. I feel like I’m in a movie or something. I never knew something like this actually existed.”
Keith gave me a small smile before saying, “You wanna go in?”
I nodded eagerly, and we quickly took our clothes off, revealing our bathing suits. We both stood at the edge of the lake, and I grabbed Keith’s hand. “Ready?” I asked. He nodded and I counted to three before we jumped in.
The force of the jump caused us to let go of our hands, so I quickly resurfaced, expecting to see Keith, but I didn’t. He was nowhere to be seen. “Keith!” I called. I was just about to call for him again when I felt something grab my legs, and I only had time to let out a loud, high-pitched scream before I was pulled under the water.
This time when I surfaced, Keith was there, laughing. He was laughing so hard I was afraid that he wasn’t going to be able to catch his breath. “That,” he started, but had to stop to continue laughing, “was hilarious. You screamed so loud.”
I tried my best to glare at him. “Well, wouldn’t you scream if someone grabbed you and started pulling you under the water?”
He didn’t answer, only laughed which somehow seemed to echo around us all. He was making me a little mad, so I felt that I needed to get back at him. I wasn’t sure if my plan was going to exactly work, but I thought it was better than anything. “Ah! Fish!” I screamed, trying to look extra frantic.
Keith rolled his eyes. “There wasn’t a fish, partner.”
I glared at him. “Yes there was! It was huge!” He just rolled his eyes at me again, and so I sneakily rubbed my leg against his, and as soon as I did that, he screamed and started splashing frantically to get way.
“There is a huge fish in here,” was all he said, still trying to swim away, but at the sound of my laughing he stopped, glanced at me for a few seconds, before understanding crossed his features. “You tricked me!”
I giggled. “You pulled me under the water!”
“So?! That was different!”
“No it wasn’t!” I said.
“Was too!”
“Was not!” I screamed, my voice echoing just as his laugh had. I splashed the water, hard, causing Keith to get momentarily distracted. I took it as my moment of escape.
The problem was, I was laughing too hard, and was unable to swim very fast, and Keith recovered and caught up to me quickly. “You’re in trouble!” Keith said as he wrapped his arms around me, before dunking me under the water.
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I'm currently posting it on fanfiction.net, but if you guys want me to start posting it here, I can def. do that as well.
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