Tales from the Garden of Eden (COMPLETED)

Chapter 3

“Ho-ly crap Eden do you know what this means?” Lacey is excited, and obviously a little perturbed I don’t share her puppy-like enthusiasm.

“That I’m gonna be stuck in the cold, desolate Alaskan wilderness with fourteen plus strangers learning about who knows what?” She stares at me with a blank look.

“No idiot, you get to spend three weeks with minimal adult supervision with at least six other boys your age.”

I roll my eyes, no wonder she cheated on Brian. “Lace, you know I’m not like that, and besides with the current situation I’m in I’m not really in the mood to whore myself out to random guys that I’m never gonna see again.”

“But that’s exactly it! You’re never gonna see them again and they’ll get your mind off of Jason!”

“Listen, if I’m still sad about him while I’m in Alaska, and need to hook up with someone instead of just, you know, ignoring my thoughts I am one sorry ass person.” I deadpan, trying to convey annoyance as best I can.

She backs off, and holds her hands up. “OK, OK. Just I mean think about it you are a teenage girl.”

“That doesn’t immediately make me a slut, Lace.” In response she makes a noise of indignation and stays silent. “It’s time for my lunch, I better get going.”

“Bye,” she says, her quasi-hurt feelings forgotten.

I laugh at this on the way to lunch. I have never been someone who could so easily dismiss the lighthearted jabs between friends, everything was always either a personal attack or someone who was too stupid to know what they’re talking about. Lacey, on the other side, never really cared. Whether she assumed that they were jokes or she had such a strong level of self confidence that she just didn’t care at all, she was the one who never got into fights.

I sit down next to Skylar and a few of our other friends, but stay silent. They have no trouble finding things to talk about on their own, and I’m much happier mediating the conversation. I take my lunch out of my backpack and place it in front of me. The usual turkey, cheese, and lettuce sandwich always seems to be a disappointment, even though I’m the one who makes it. I guess I don’t really have the energy to actually make something new in the morning.

“So, Eden, are you like super excited?” Skylar asks me, a huge smile on her face and her painted nails reaching out to me.

“Umm, well I like wanna go really badly but I wasn’t expecting to get it so it hasn’t like sunken in you know?” She seems pleased with the answer, so I take a bite of the sandwich and pull out my water.

“But hey you’re gonna be with Jack Harvey, Eden. He’s like as smart as you and completely hot. It’s basically a match made in heaven.” The girl next to me, Sophie, says.

I don’t roll my eyes, but if I had a list of my greatest desires at this moment that would be number one. I keep everything, even a sigh, in and turn to look at her. “Yeah but I don’t know I’d rather look at some snow covered mountains instead of his face…I mean it’s not even that good looking. At the party on Friday I saw he had acne scars.” In truth that didn’t bother me, I like to believe I’m not that superficial. It just means that he’s not perfect and that brings him down to my level, which makes it a whole lot easier to converse with him.

“Yeah but those can be removed, Eden. Trust me y’all two are gonna come back from Alaska and be inseparable. I wouldn’t be surprised if you’re not so innocent when you get back either.” Skylar winks at me, it has been a long-standing joke about my still firm views on staying a virgin until after high school.

“Oh my God Skylar. It’s just two weeks and the girls and guys are gonna be separated when we sleep and stuff. Plus the fact that I have no wish for Jack to get in my pants, now or ever.”

     “Well that’s comforting, I was supremely worried about you jumping me. But personally I don’t think that with those tight pants we’d both fit. I mean my butt is very large.” I blush when he first talks from directly behind me, and it gets worse as he goes on.

     Everyone at my table is laughing, I would have too if this hadn’t just happened to me. I turn, face still red, to see Jack and one of his friends. The latter roaring with laughter just as much as my friends, Jack just standing there with an annoying little smirk on his face.

     “In my defense I wasn’t talking about how much I wanted you to get in my pants, I feel like that would be much worse.” I attempt to regain a little dignity.

     Jack laughs a little, “Yeah I suppose that would be a lot worse wouldn’t it? But I must say I wouldn’t have had a comeback to if you had.”

That made me blush even more, and my friends continued to laugh gleefully around me. I regain some sarcasm and say, “Well isn’t it great to know that I can render you speechless? Maybe now I’ll have some silence during the trip.” I smile at him, and he smiles back.

“Well don’t forget that I am probably going to be the funniest person up there, so you may want to let me talk to drown out those other boys who want to get into your pants.” He winks and walks away, forever an image of cool.

Skylar smacks my arm. “See, even he knows that the guys are going to want to get some.”

I hear Sophie snort. “That’s just because he wants all of that to himself and he’s preparing to fight for it.”

I make a noise of indignation and wheel around to stare at her. “I think all of you are overestimating their interest. We’re going to be in Alaska on a school-based trip. I refuse to believe that the only thing anyone is going to do is hook up.”

“Eden, we are in high school. The only thing anyone does is hook up.” Skylar’s eyes have no hint of humor in them, and sadly I know she is just stating fact, although it was a slight exaggeration.
     I roll my eyes and start nibbling on my sandwich, nothing really seems to be very appealing to my stomach right now, probably from the fact that I was still mortified about the prospect of their assumptions being correct. But I shouldn’t be worried, I mean there are going to be plenty of southern bombshells, with blonder hair and brighter eyes. I’m not wallowing in self-pity, I really know it. I’ve never been the type of girl that relied on a boy’s compliments to feel whole inside, probably because I never really had any boys complimenting me in the first place.

     The day finished without anything else exciting, although the rest of the day was filled with questions of what I had put on the test, I figure they were trying to see what they had answered wrong. In all honesty I had no idea what I put for most of them, I was just going through and picked which one seemed to be the one that made me seem the least crazy. I was under the impression it was meant to find the crazies. I suddenly realize Lacey hadn’t said anything about that, I would have assumed one little joke at least.

     My phone buzzes, and I look down to see my mother’s name brighten the screen. I see the beginning of the message, and I gather that she’s gushing over my trip, now that I know about it. I open it and see that she goes on to list some websites that I should look at for clothes. I snort to myself, every text she sends me seems to end up being an essay. I tell her I’ll be home soon, I just need to stop by work.

     That was true, but I also wanted to return the watch, an extra three hundred dollars in my pocket would be an added bonus, I might buy myself a pair of new boots or something just as a treat.