Straight Laced Read Online Free PDF Page A

comforted me and I was too exhausted from the night before to keep my eyes open any longer.
    I was probably only out fifteen minutes before I opened my eyes and saw we were almost to the dock. I went to sit up when I noticed my arm was hanging off the back of the couch and I felt someone else’s fingers entangled with mine. My heart skipped a beat—how did this happen? Nate and I were holding hands! Nate had a baseball cap covering his face, so my guess was he was knocked out, too. I wasn’t sure if I should move or just leave my hand in his.
    Nate began to move so I pretended I was also just waking up. He took his other hand and lifted the hat off of his face. I softly wiggled my fingers and looked down at my hand then back up at Nate.
    “You guys awake back there?” Brent yelled from the driver’s seat. I yanked my hand away just as he turned around. “I’m glad you all got your napping in while I’m up here slaving away.”
    “You’re driving a boat. It can’t be that hard.” Nate got up and gathered his t-shirt and sunglasses before going to sit next to Brent while he pulled the boat up to the dock. I walked between them and up to the front of the boat where Tori was laying.
    “Were you sleeping that whole time?” I whispered.
    “Yeah. Why?” Nate walked up from behind me and jumped off the boat onto the dock to tie it up. “I’ll tell you later,” I whispered.
     
    ***
     
    After dinner Tori and I grabbed our things along with a change of clothes and walked to the campground bathrooms to shower up. I was never a big fan of public restrooms. Especially ones at campgrounds. They were usually dirty and didn’t have any toilet paper. I finally convinced myself it was better to use this one than not shower at all, especially after being near that gross lake water all day.
    “Nate and I held hands ,” I blurted before I even knew what I was doing.
    “Wha t? When? How did I not see this?” I couldn’t tell if Tori was shocked or traumatized because she missed out on such a “big moment” for Nate and I.
    “When we were riding on the back of the boat.”
    “Did he grab your hand or did you grab his?” Here she goes with all the questions.
    I shrugged. “I actually don’t know.”
    “What do you mean you don’t know?” Tori stopped in the middle of the road. “You were there, weren’t you?”
    “Yeah , but I was sleeping. I fell asleep after he laid down on the couch in front of me, and when I woke up, we were holding hands. So I have no idea how it happened and it’s killing me! I’m thinking it had to be him because I wouldn’t have grabbed his hand in my sleep, right? I mean my arm could have fallen down and been near his hand, but we were full on holding hands, fingers entangled together and all.”
    “Yeah , that makes sense.” We walked the rest of the way up the hill to the bathrooms. “I asked Brent about his girlfriend situation.” I followed Tori as she walked back towards the showers.
    “And?” I couldn’t mask the anxiousness in my voice.
    “Apparently that girl that came to the party with him is his on-again off-again girlfriend.” My stomach dropped at the word girlfriend. Well, that was disappointing. I had a little sense of hope that this might eventually become something. “They’ve been together for like four years or something. I guess she’s crazy, though, so he’s been trying to permanently break it off for the last week or so.”
    “Well , that sounds messy.” I sat down on a wooden bench while I waited for a shower to open up.
    “Yeah , but the weird thing is that you guys just met for the first time last weekend, right? Why all of a sudden does he want to finally cut this girl off for good? I think he might really be into you.” She joined me on the bench.
    “He hardly knows me , Tori.”
    “Yeah, well, guys tend to think with the wrong head. If you want him to get to know you , then make him get to know you. If not, then at least sleep with him.