Janoskians smut

Our Lake-Beau

Spring season in your hometown, where the fresh air smells like the ingredients of your childhood and the reborn grass doesn't get much greener. You've missed the old place, having spent too long in your new life to revisit as often as you once swore you would. Seeing the sights again, you wish you would've prioritized your annual returns, noticing now how much has changed in the short three years you've been gone.

Your parents had let you know that they'd be moving from the house in which you grew up to one half of a more modern duplex, but the fact that you'd never get the chance to stay in your old bedroom again didn't quite register until you drove past the street you all used to live on. While that stung your nostalgic heart, it hurt a little more to find that some of the quaint, rustic buildings that filled the inner city with close-community charm had been demolished to create a blank canvas for chain restaurants and other corporate projects. The small town that raised you is steadily losing what makes it so small, growing like you have while you've been away.

The only parts of it that remain untouched are the barren country roads that didn't have much to start with. The person you were in high school would scoff at the thought of ever being grateful for the dirt paths filled with bumps and potholes, but as you steer your car down one now, passing the meadow scenery you used to take for granted on the weekends, you're reminded of the endless trips a young group of friends took this way many years ago.

"You all suck," you mutter grumpily, sliding into the middle seat in the back bench of Beau's car.

It normally takes two vehicles to get you and all your friends out to the lake, and with an even eight people it's been easy to split the group in half to fit four bodies comfortably into both cars, but since somebody just had to invite the "cute girl from maths class" this time, you somehow got stuck riding with the boys. You wouldn't mind so much if you got to sit shotgun, next to Beau, but you lost to Daniel in an intense match of rock, paper, scissors, and thus ended up smushed between the broad shoulders of Luke and Jai.

"Everyone buckled up?" Daniel asks mischievously, knowing damn well there isn't a seatbelt installed where you're sitting.

"Ha-ha."

Beau looks at you sympathetically through the reflection of the rear view mirror. At least there's that. Your spot on the bench is more like a hump, placing you right in the driver's sight if he ever needs to check for what's behind him.

"I'll try not to crash," Beau offers, as if that wasn't to be expected.

You smile anyway, like you do at almost anything Beau says, but abruptly stop yourself before anyone else notices. If the rest of the boys find out about your crush on Beau, they'd never be able to keep it a secret and would no doubt use it to embarrass you to death. Sometimes you you wonder how Luke and his girlfriend, in the other car, ever got past the stage of their friends teasing them for liking each other.

It's probably easier when the feelings are mutual.

The same old meadows eventually come into view, indicating about another five minutes left of the journey until you all reach the lake. While the four boys chat about a football game that aired last night, you gaze through the windshield ahead since it's pretty much the only direction you can look. In the distance you can make out the famous ruins of a castle that was once considered spectacular, crumbling walls and untrimmed hedges resting on top of a wide hill. You'll get a better look at it in a few minutes, when you and your friends are sat around the lake across from it, but from here, with however many miles manipulating your eyes, the castle almost doesn't look so-

"Ow!" You rub the top of your head that's just made harsh contact with the car's ceiling. Luke, Jai, and Daniel get a good laugh, having simple standards when it comes to comedy. Surprise bump in the dirt road forcing someone to hit their head on the roof?-hysterical.