Stuck With You: A Sweet Romantic Comedy

Part 24

Bianca

I sat bolt upright and reached out to shake Timo awake, but he wasn't there. It was only then that I realized the tent flap was open, and Timo was gone.

The screaming had stopped, and I could see the beam of one flashlight and then two beams of light in the direction of Liberty and Adam's tent. Then I heard Adam start to laugh uncontrollably.

"What in the world is happening out there," I yelled through the open tent flap.

Timo and Adam were standing outside the other tent, and Liberty was sticking her head out the flap, whisper yelling at Adam, who was still laughing.

"You're an unthinking, insolent cur!"

Liberty has a tendency to become antiquarian when she's angry.

Adam kept right on laughing. I could have told him that it was a bad idea. Liberty is a gentle, tolerant soul, but she hates being laughed at.

"Would thou wert clean enough to spit upon!" Liberty whisper-yelled.

Whenever Liberty started throwing in lines containing the word "thou" it meant she'd exceeded her boiling point. It also generally indicated she'd decided to employ a Shakespeare reference. Some people drop f bombs when they're angry. Liberty transformed into Lady McBeth on a bender.

"I am now sailed into the north of my lady's opinion, where I will hang like an icicle on a Dutchman's beard." Adam refused to be out-Shakespeared.

"What are they talking about?" Timo asked me.

"Liberty's mad at Adam, and Adam thinks it's funny."

"Why is she mad?"

"Good question," I said. "Forsooth, why doth the lady vociferate?" I said to anyone willing to answer. I wasn't entirely sure "vociferate" was a real word, and I doubted it was Shakespeare, but I try to read the room, or in this case, the patch of pine needles.

All I got from Liberty was a loud, distinctly unladylike snort.

"Liberty thought I was a bear," said Adam.

"Why did Liberty think you were a bear?"

"I have no idea. I went to the restroom, and when I got back to the tent, for some reason, Liberty mistook me for a bear and started screaming like a banshee."

"There's no more faith in thee than in a stewed prune," said Liberty.

"What's she saying?" Timo whispered in my ear. He'd come to stand right behind me without me noticing. That might have been because I was trying to decide if I should dart forward and snatch the heavy-duty flashlight Liberty was shining in Adam's face before she decided to dispense with her war of words and lob the metal cylinder at his head.

"I think Liberty's calling Adam a liar," I told Timo.

"A weasel hath not such a deal of spleen as you are toss'd with," Adam retorted.

"What does that mean?" Timo said in my ear.

"I believe Adam is accusing Liberty of being a poor sport."

"You have weird friends," said Timo. He had his arms wrapped around my waist now, and without thinking, I leaned back into him.

I couldn't argue with Timo's assessment of the weirdness of my friends, but I still didn't like to see them fight when they'd just recently made up with each other. Still, the weird Shakespearean insults were a distinct improvement one icy politeness. At least they were both behaving like themselves. I had hopes the squall would blow over by morning.

"What happened?" I demanded, trying to ignore the fact that Timo was practically nuzzling my neck. "Why did Liberty think there was a bear?"

"Adam pretended to be a bear," said Liberty. "He snuffled and grunted and ran his fingers up and down the tent."

"Is that all?" I said. "I'm going back to bed now that I have about twenty gallons of adrenaline coursing through my veins."

I scrambled back into our tent, Timo at my heels, and zipped us back in.

"You're really not going to let me back in the tent?" I heard Adam say to Liberty.

This was followed by the sound of the tent zipper closing and Liberty's muffled voice saying, "I scorn you, scurvy companion!"

"You're really going to make me sleep in the car?"

This was followed by a period of silence and then the faint scuff of Adam's feet walking to the car.

A minute later, he was back outside the tent.

"The car is locked," he said.

Nothing but silence in return.

"Can I please have the keys?"

Liberty still did not reply.

"Are you really not speaking to me?"

"You are not worth another word, else I'd call you knave," Liberty said as I heard the sound of the zipper on the flap. I was pretty sure she wasn't the one undoing the zipper.

"I'll find the keys myself," I heard Adam say.

Then there was a bit of muffled scuffling, then just the sound of the wind.

"You don't think one of them killed the other, do you?" Timo whispered in my ear. "Do you think we should check on them?"

"I do not," I whispered back, my ear still to the tent flap as if I could somehow hear better with my head pressed against the nylon. "I just want to eavesdrop."

Timo pulled me away from the wall of the tent. Then he reached out a hand to brush my cheek. Then he pulled away just a little. I think he was trying to read the expression on my face, but even though there was moonlight filtering down through the roof of the tent, I don't think he could see what I have no doubt was clearly written across my face.

I was the one who finally closed the space between us.

I raised my head too quickly so that our teeth knocked together like I was twelve and hadn't quite gotten the hang of where my body existed in space.

Timo started laughing quietly and rolled away.

"Sorry," I said, rubbing my upper lip and trying to tamp down the biggest bout of kiss-related mortification I'd experienced since I was fourteen and forgot to take my retainer out before I snuck out through my bedroom window to meet my eighth-grade crush Reggie Mortimer in our backyard treehouse.

"Don't be sorry," said Timo. "Let's try again."

He reached out and cradled the back of my head with both hands then closed the space between us so slowly that I wasn't sure he was even moving until my eyes fluttered shut a second before he made contact.

His lips were soft and almost reverent. Both thumbs brushed my cheeks. I tried to deepen the kiss, but he wouldn't let me.

Instead, he pulled away just enough that we weren't kissing anymore but our foreheads still touched.

After a few long seconds, he dropped his hands from my head and distanced himself from me.

"Where are you going?" I asked as he reached for the zipper on the tent flap.

"To get some fresh air and do a little solitary star gazing."

End of Episode