Straight Laced Read Online Free PDF Page B

to open my eyes and take in the scenery around me. I’m glad I did, it actually felt…peaceful. There was no place I’d rather be right now. The hills really are a gorgeous place. The green pine trees whizzed by us, and between them I noticed the small figures of boats in the lake behind them. I realized that I had been smiling this whole time. Tori was right. This is fun.
    A few minutes later I could see the beach in the distance. I was a little bummed that our ride was about to end. We slowed and turned into the parking lot. I saw the group of people from school sitting on the tailgates of their trucks drinking and talking. Brent parked next to one of the trucks and Tori got off the bike. Nate pulled up next to him and shut the bike off. Looked like this was going to conclude our ride. I put one foot on the ground and flung my other leg over the bike as I unbuckled my helmet and pulled it off.
    “Tha nks for the ride.” I handed the helmet to him and he climbed off.
    “No problem.” He smiled at me and I felt my heart flutter and my cheeks begin to burn. “What did you think?” he asked.
    “It was fun.” I couldn’t just come out and tell him, ‘oh you know, it was one of the top ten best things I’ve ever done in my life.’ I’d sound like a psycho.
    “It was fun? That’s it?” He patted the top of his gas tank, where my hands had been. “This bike is one of the best bi kes you can get, you know. And ‘it was fun’ is all I get?” he joked.
    “I told you that bike wouldn’t impress the chicks!” Brent chimed in. Tori and I both started laughing.
    “ All right, fine! It was amazing! Does that make you feel any better?” I tried to sound sarcastic, even though it was the truth.
    “Yes! That’s what I wanted to hear!” He smiled at me again and suddenly I had the urge to walk up and pull him into a kiss. I was about ten seconds away from doing so when Tori broke my train of thought.
    “You guys think you can pick us up later and take us back to the campsite?”
    “We know some guys down there,” Brent pointed to the end of the parking lot. “We’ll probably hang out here for a bit. I’ll let you know if we leave.”
    “Al l right, sounds good.” Nate and I exchanged one last smile before Tori and I walked over to join our friends.
     
    ***
     
    We settled in on our towels on the beach. I pulled off my cover up and laid back down on my towel.
    “So, that was fun , right? Not to mention you got to wrap your arms around Nate. How was it? Could you feel those rock hard abs through his shirt?”
    “Yes , it was fun. And I didn’t go feeling around his abs, I was a little busy freaking out.”
    “About the ride or about being that close to him? And both being awake this time.” She joked.
    “Shut up!” I laughed and took a sip of my drink. I could feel the alcohol starting to kick in and I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. I didn’t want to do anything stupid to Nate or with Nate. But they didn’t call it ‘liquid courage’ for the hell of it. I looked up and noticed him and Brent were now sitting on the tailgate of a truck next to the beach. Nate was staring right at me, he didn’t even look away when I noticed, he just smiled. That smile is seriously going to get the best of me.
    Tori and I got in the water and decided to play chicken. We both climbed on the shoulders of some of the guys we were hanging out with. I pushed her off and she pushed me off and we were both laughing so hard my stomach was aching. I walked back up to my towel and grabbed another drink out of the cooler. I glanced over and noticed Nate was still watching me. This time, he didn’t smile, he just looked away.
    T he girls we were with kept asking me about Nate and telling Tori how hot her brother was. They weren’t girls we knew very well, we just knew of them since we all went to the same school. It didn’t take long before two of the girls had enough drinks in them to go up and talk