Chapter 98 - His Betrayal

Lily

It is early in the morning and we are in the process of loading the RV and vehicles with supplies for the long weekend. Our parents will be staying in RV’s on the camp sites we reserved and we will all be setting up tents. We wanted it set up that way so when our parents call it a night we move to one of the other sites if we want to hang out around the fire. I loaded my stuff into Joey’s SUV because I will be riding with them to the campsite. I helped load up the rest of the supplies and then rode with Joey to pick up Josie and make sure they had everything loaded that they needed. Her parents had a smaller RV for them and her younger brother while the rest of us had tents to sleep in. As far as we knew we had both of our families and about 8 of our close friends coming for a 4 day camping trip, Jeremy was included in that as well as Drew and Izzy. I was surprised that Josie and my brother invited them at first, but my brother told me that he met Drew and he is a good guy and he doesn’t mind him being around.

When we pulled up to the house we could see them loading up their RV with supplies. My brother and I jumped out to help them finish loading the supplies they were bringing. Josie threw her stuff in the back of Joey’s vehicle and we called our parents letting them know we were all heading out. We were trying to get there first to set up before the rest of our friends got there. We got on the road heading towards the Buffalo Creek Campsites where we had 4 sites near each other reserved. I was sitting in the back with my eyes closed listening to music through my earbuds when suddenly they were pulled out of my ears. “I have been wanting to talk to you, and now will be the perfect time since we are on our way and there will be no interruptions or distractions.” I sigh and turn off my music and look at my friend, “Alright, what did you want to talk about.” I had a feeling that she wanted to talk about Jeremy, I hadn’t told her yet that I was already planning on finally talking to him during this trip.

“I just wanted to let you know I had a conversation with Drew recently, we just wanted to help you out seeing where Jeremy was in this whole mess with you two. I really think that you need to tell him how you really feel and I think you will be happy with how things will turn out. Drew had a good conversation with him, he said Jeremy has been really torn up about your distance.” Knowing that they cared that much to pull in Drew to help me out was touching, I am hoping that this trip goes well and hearing how the conversation with Drew went is giving me more hope. I know I worked myself into this predicament, I need to stop overthinking things because all it is doing is causing me more pain than necessary. “Thank you for all your help with this guys, I actually already have been in touch with Jeremy and we are going to hash things out while we are on this trip. I finally messaged him to see if he planned on coming so we could talk, he told me he planned on coming unless I didn’t want him here. That made me feel horrible, but I assured him I did want him there so I could talk to him about why I was distancing myself.”

“We are glad that you are having this discussion with him Lily, you both need to get on the same page. I will be there for you if you need me, but as long as you're honest with him then I think you will be fine.” Josie was the best, we are always there for each other in a time of need and this was her showing me she was trying to support me. We spent the rest of the drive talking about things we were looking forward to doing, especially when it was just us when our parents went to bed. We were planning a night hike with all of us and doing some horseback riding sometime during the trip. When we got to the campsites our parents were already hooking up the RV’s on their sites. We went ahead and started setting up our tents on the third site, once we had all of our stuff in the tents then we went over to our parents' sites to help out.

Three hours later everyone had arrived and were setting up their tents and then we were all sitting around the camp eating snacks, visiting and relaxing after all the work was done setting up. You could see everyone enjoying the chance to decompress and enjoy the sun and fresh air. Joey and Josie were sitting together talking and relaxing off to the side, I smiled at how far they have come and I am hoping after this trip I will be saying the same. I walked over to the coolers to get some water, “Lily can we go somewhere and talk now.” I spun around to see Jeremy standing behind me with his hands in his pockets. Gulping, I nod and motion towards the path indicating for us to take a walk. We walked for a bit in silence, I was gathering my thoughts on what I wanted to say.

“Lily, I have been wanting to talk to you for a while, can you please tell me what I did to upset you? I obviously did something for you to distance yourself from me.” He had a broken look that was tearing my heart out because I was a coward and hurt him in the process. I reached over and grabbed his hand and pulled him to a stop and to face me. “Jeremy, you didn’t do anything to cause my actions, I was a coward and I should have just talked to you when I first decided to. Each time I went to talk to you I would see you laughing and having fun with someone else and I would pull away.”

He looked confused by my words at first, “What do you mean, who did you see me with that you felt you couldn’t come talk to me. I thought we were in a place where we could talk to each other about anything.” I kept his hand in mine as we continued to walk on the path. I need to clarify this all for him but when you are nervous it’s like your mind goes blank. “Let me try to explain this better because I am horrible at this apparently, I’m sorry. About the time I pulled away I had tried to approach you at school but I saw laughing and seemed to be having a good time with another girl in the hallway. I am not sure who she was, I couldn’t get a good look at her but it scared me away. There were a few times I tried to do this but it was the same each time I would see you with someone and I finally lost my courage and I guess you could say I completely pulled away.” I was looking down as I was talking like the ground was more fascinating to me because I couldn’t look at him. Finally, I lifted my head and looked at him stunned, he was smirking.

“Were you jealous seeing me with other girls Lily?” He pulled me to a stop this time and I could tell my face was red from embarrassment. I slowly nodded and he lifted my chin so I was looking him in the eyes. “I wish I had known this, you were probably seeing me talk to people from my classes, I know I had a few group projects at the end of the year. Either way I can honestly tell you there was no one I was interested in seeing outside of school like that. Well, except for you and now that I know you feel the same way, I’m not going to let you slip away again. I am going to say this so there is no more confusion on feelings, I want us to be official, I want you to be my girlfriend.”

I don’t think my grin could have gotten any bigger hearing him say that. “Yes, I have been wanting that too. Are you still okay with this, aren’t you going away for school in the fall?” He pulled me into him for a deep kiss, and if he hadn’t been holding me up, my legs would have given out on me. When he pulled back we were both breathless, “I absolutely want this and right now my plans are to stay here and learn my dads business, he wants me to take over for him someday and if I need any classes I can take them on the side.” He rested his forehead on mine, “Let’s keep walking, I want it to be the two of us for a while before we head back to the campsite.” That sounded a great idea, now that all of this misunderstanding was behind us I wanted to enjoy just being with him as well. “When we get back home I want a redo of our day at the pool, my cranky a** missed out on a lot of fun with you that day.” Jeremy laughed at that comment and I knew he agreed with me.