A Pair Of Pears (Completed)

Rivers and tents

Willow pulls up outside Jackson’s house. His mum gets out of the van and heads inside. I stay sat in the van. 
‘Everything will be alright in the end Charlie, and if it’s not alright, it’s not the end.’  Willow sighs. I open the door and jump down from Willows van, carting my rucksack and a tin full of Lemon and Dandelion biscuits for us all to share. I walk through Jackson’s garden and across the field behind it and climb over the metal gate. I start walking down the tree tunnel, it feels like forever since I was last here with Jackson. It has only been a week, but so much has happened in that time. As I reach the end of the tree tunnel I can hear Jackson, Lily and Dylan, they are talking and laughing. 
‘Maybe we can make farts together?’ I hear Jackson pipe up.
‘Ewe Jackson that’s really gross!’ Lily calls out. 
‘Not farts, like those sorts of farts silly!’ Jackson begins. ‘Farts as in Fantastic Arts.’
‘F-A-R-T-S.’ he sounds out. 
‘Has anyone ever told you how strange you are mate?’ I hear Dylan ask. 
‘All the time Dills, all the time.’ 
I enter the clearing and the Three of them are sat making what looks like dreamcatchers.  
‘I’m no good at these!’ Jackson says holding his up, He stands up and hangs it off a branch on a nearby tree. ‘Oh hey! Charlie!’ Jackson calls.  
Everyone looks around towards me, Jackson runs up and pulls me into a hug, wrapping his arms around me tightly. 
‘Alright Charlie?’ says Lily smiling, slightly awkwardly in my direction. 
I smile and nod in return. 
‘J mate, should we get these tents up now; in case it rains?’ Says Dylan, in a way that suggests Lily and I should be left alone. The guys start putting up the tents and I sit down awkwardly next to Lily. 
‘Nothing is going to change, is it?’ she asks quietly, leaning her head onto my shoulder. ‘Nothing is going to change.’ I answer, staring into the distance. ‘Although.’ I pause. Lily looks up at me, with a worrying look in her eyes. ‘At least we’ll be sorted if one of us needs a kidney.’ I say jokingly. Lily laughs, and I notice her wipe a tear away from her eye.  We make a campfire, and all sit around it, huddled under blankets because it’s so cold. Although the weather isn’t great, we are still having a great evening. That’s until Dylan decides to pull a bottle of alcohol out of his bag. 
‘Let’s get smashed!’ Dylan waves the bottle in the air. 
‘Let’s not!’ says Jackson, angrily snatching the bottle off Dylan and getting up, chucking it into the river. 
‘Oi! What’s your problem Jack!’ Dylan Shouts. ‘That cost me money, you know!’
‘You know what the problem is!’ Lily shouts back at Dylan. I’ve never seen Lily look so angry before. 
‘Oh, right, yeah. HER MUM!’  Dylan points his finger and me and I feel my cheeks burn. The last thing I want is to be the centre of an argument, on what’s supposed to be a nice evening with friends.
‘No one can drink; in case we offend little Charliekins.’Dylan spits. ‘Her mum can’t handle her drink, so now we have to tip-toe around her. I used to be part of this group you know until she came along.’
Dylan’s words hit me like a knife to the chest. I can’t help but feel like I’ve now become a burden to my friends because of my mother’s actions and the effect they are having on me. I notice the anger rising in Jackson’s face, he runs over to Dylan and pushes him to the ground. Jackson jumps on top of him, thrashing his arms around and smacking Dylan in the face. Lily runs over trying to pull Jackson off. 
‘Leave him, Jackson, let’s not have this tonight.’
I run into the nearest tent, knowing that all of this is my fault. I lay down on the floor of the tent and pull up a blanket up over my head. There’s a lot of noise outside, I’m sure I hear Lily shout something about blood. I pull my iPod out of the pocket on my jeans and push the earphones deep into my ears. I used to do this all the time when my parents were ripping into each other, I put on The Cure and the sound of One Hundred Years thumps against my ear drums. I fall asleep, no idea how long for. The battery is dead on my iPod when I wake, I knew I should have charged it before I left. I pull the blanket off and crawl out of the tent. Jackson is sat in front of the fire, strumming his anger out on his guitar. 
‘Where’s Lily?’ I ask.
‘Taken Dylan up to the house.’ He answers shamefully without looking up from his guitar. ‘Looks like I broke his nose, there goes our plan to start a band together.’ 
‘Sorry if I’m a burden.’ I say quietly. 
‘You’re not a burden’ Jackson looks up from his guitar, he stares straight into my eyes. ‘Why would you think that? Ignore what Dylan said, he’s upset because his boyfriend broke up with him this morning, but he didn’t have to behave like that. We just wanted you to have a nice evening, without any trouble, or drinking.’ The light from the fire is shining on Jackson's cheek, I can see a streak of mud down it from where he had been fighting on the ground with Dylan. Jackson moves closer to me.
‘Charlie, you’re awesome, we all think you’re great.’ He leans in closer towards me. ‘I think you’re great.’ He leans in even closer, this time for a kiss. I feel lightheaded and dizzy like we are both being airlifted off the ground. We are both brought back down with a crash. 
“Ugh! I haven’t just witnessed the first kiss, have I?”  Lily says, appearing beside us. ‘Next time get a tent! Speaking of tents, after all this drama I’m calling it a night.’ Lily crawls into her tent and pulls the zip down, 
Jackson Laughs. ‘Think I might call it a night too.’ He yawns. ‘Are you going in with Lily? Or did you want to ‘get a tent’ with me?’ He asks cheekily. 

I get a tent with him.