A Night at the Lake

A barely-contained exhilaration seared through me as I opened the car door to the chirps of the birds and the soft buzz of the dragonflies. The crystallized surface of the lake shimmered under the glare of the sun, nearly blinding my eyes after a first glance. With a smile, I stepped out onto the warm, emerald green grass.
I was very familiar with the beauty of the lake, with the towering pine trees and the clear waters, but somehow this summer morning in particular brought with it a new, fresh excitement. It was almost like I was looking around for the first time, especially to one place in particular.
A shoulder brushed mine, shaking me out of my temporary daze. With a small sigh, I walked over to the trunk and pulled out my purple suitcase from the pile of luggage. Mandy was right behind me, whipping out her designer sunglasses with as much bravura as she could manage while dragging a gigantic suitcase that probably weighed more than she did. She shot me a grimace, one of her signature, bizarre facial expressions, and I laughed.
The small house before us, with small windows and an aging exterior, was where my grandmother lived. Her real name was Bridget, but we liked to call her Birdie because she had a voice that could make the birds sing. When I was young, I would always wake to the sound of her voice as she was cleaning or cooking, singing a beautiful hymn. She used to watch Wendy, Carrie and I in the mornings before school so my mother and father could go to work. However, this angelic voice sharply contrasted with her gruff demeanor and down-to-earth attitude, which only got worse as the years flew by. She moved to this lake house when I was around the age of nine, right after my grandfather had passed away.
We struggled up the steps one at a time, even Dad nearly crumbling under the weight of Mandy’s belongings after he helped her. Lilly effortlessly bounded past both of us, toting a small duffel bag that was barely half the size of mine. Knowing her, she will probably be begging to borrow something she forgot to bring from one of us later. Birdie opened the screen door with a clang and hobbled over to our side with her cane.
We exchanged tight-lipped smiles. “Gwynn! So good to see you!” she said quickly, then without a second glance moved on to hug the twins. She's had a small grudge against me ever since I played that marshmallow prank on her last April. It is probably safe to say I’m not her favorite grandchild.
Dad ventured a look at Birdie’s leg with a frown. “So it’s gotten worse?” he asked. Birdie raised her dress slightly to reveal dark purple splotches all over her calf. I winced slightly. “You may need to go to the doctor,” Dad suggested, although we all knew it was useless.
“I’m done with those doctors,” she snapped, dropping the hem of her dress and hobbling back over to the door. “I’m not going to another doctor for as long as I live. They ain’t good for nothin’.” She always switched into her bad-grammar mode when she wanted to let us know her word was final.
I turned away and entered the house, my suitcase rolling on the thick carpet. Immediately I headed for the upstairs, where the guest bedrooms were. For such a small house, there was a ton of bedrooms, with at least four on the top floor. Birdie didn’t really like to share her room with anyone else, so I guess that was the reason.
I settled into the bedroom that had a slightly larger window than the rest; decorated with pink plush teddy bears and hideous neon green giraffes that always struck a chord with me whenever I came to visit. I actually liked the clash of color; to me it actually gave off a more welcoming vibe than the other stuffy rooms.
There was a giant crash as Mandy failed to carefully maneuver her suitcase right next to mine. We both laughed as the bulging suitcase burst open and several articles of clothing spilled onto the floor. “You really don’t need this many clothes,” I said, bending to pick up the clothes and putting it in a drawer.
“You know me.” She shrugged, grabbing a handful of swimsuits and stuffing it in the drawer as well. “I like to be prepared.” I grinned in response. When I had invited Mandy, I had no idea this was going to be such an ordeal. On the two hour trip here, she did not stop chattering for two seconds about how excited she was, how she hoped she didn’t forget her tanning lotion (though it’s always cloudy and slightly chilly at the lake), and other stuff like that. Wendy and Carrie probably hated me for bringing her, but I genuinely enjoyed having her around. However, I was sure my attitude was going to change as the day went on. As pretty and exciting Mandy was, she bordered on being annoying at times.
Lilly and Mandy both had long, blond hair and green eyes, but the similarities ended there. She was Wendy and Carrie’s friend, but it seemed like all the three did was argue. I didn’t know what Lilly would do without the twins though; they always got her out of all the terrible situations Lilly has stumbled into. Mom always called them the Three Musketeers because they stuck together like glue.
“Why did you pick this room?” Mandy asked, “It’s ugly.”
“I like it,” I jumped on the light pink bed, burying my face in the soft pillows. When I lifted my head, I could see the twinkling of the afternoon sun and the fluffy clouds mixed with the towering trees. But that wasn’t all.
Quickly I shoved my face back into the pillows in the hope that Mandy wouldn’t notice, but her face already became alert. She raced over to my side, fighting to see out of the window. I tried to shove her away, rising to my feet. “Let me see!” she squealed, pushing me back onto the bed. Before I could react, she was already at the corner of the window, staring into the horizon.
She shot me a wink. “So that’s why.” A blush as pink as the teddy bears appeared on my cheeks. "Who are they?”
“Wait, you see people?” I asked.
“Yeah, isn’t that what you were looking at?”
I jumped up, surprised. Wordlessly I traveled over to her side, and later gasped. They were actually there.
They must have appeared when I was fighting Mandy, because I didn’t see them until now. All of them were lounging on the front deck, apparently talking about something. A strange anticipation gripped at my chest as I tried to make out the individual faces.
“Do you like one of them?” she laughed, “Oh, I know you do, Gwynn, it’s written all over your face.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I replied adamantly, still searching in the group.
One of the many turned to look out at the lake. He had light blond hair, with a smattering of freckles, and I could just barely see the chocolate brown eyes. His name, as I was very well aware of, was Adam. For a few seconds, I was afraid Mandy could hear the thumping in my chest.
I could remember the very first day I met him. I was around eleven years old at the time, visiting Birdie for the first time since my grandfather died. It was peaceful and quiet at the lake; the slight cold sweeping through the fallen leaves and caressing my cheek. I liked to play in the leaves, jumping into big piles then throwing the rest into the water. However, my most favorite time-waster was to take a big ring, use a string to tie it to the dock, and float on the lake for hours at a time. If I wasn’t careful, I would lose track of time and fall asleep, causing Mom to wake me up at night and tell me to get my lazy butt to the house.
This one, chilly morning I was floating on the water without a life jacket. I had forgotten to put one on because I was in such a hurry to start reading the last Harry Potter book. For some reason, I could only read when I was relaxing on the water, hearing the soft chirps of the birds. Like always, the day began well. I read about ten pages of the book, then placed it on the deck and began to take a nap. In the distance, I could vaguely hear Birdie calling me for breakfast, but I ignored her. It was such a peaceful day, and I couldn’t summon the will to drag myself up to the house.
Well, it was a peaceful day until I was suddenly flipped into the lake, the icy water shocking my skin and startling me out of sleep. I started to panic. I was never a good swimmer, and it felt like this was going to be the end. Flapping my arms like crazy didn’t do any good towards getting me to the surface. The only thought in my mind after a few seconds was that I should have gone to get Birdie’s delicious biscuits for the last time before dying like this. My stomach was growling like crazy.
Suddenly, when I had just about given up, a hand grabbed mine and pulled really hard. Another hand grabbed my side, pulling me to the surface. When my body broke the surface, a joy entered me that was unlike any other feeling I had experienced in my life. I was alive. I was going to eat Birdie’s biscuits.
After reason caught up with my inward euphoria, I finally cast a glance at my rescuer. At that moment, I wouldn’t have been surprised if Jesus Christ was right there next to me. Instead, a little boy around my age, with dark brown eyes and blond hair, was helping me out of the water and onto the dock. Other slightly younger boys were standing around me, wide-eyed and some red-faced. The shortest one was laughing, and I suddenly had the strange urge to slap him.
It took a few seconds for me to realize what had just happened, but when I did, I bet they could all see steam coming out of my ears.
My rescuer, dripping wet, took a step back. “We’re sorry. We really are. It was a joke,” he said quickly. “We didn’t know you couldn’t swim.” He was the only one that seemed genuinely sorry.
I didn’t say anything, which seemed to scare them. “We didn’t notice that you didn’t have a life jacket on either,” a boy with dark brown hair, a tanned complexion, and brown eyes said. I just stared at them until they were all looking ashamedly at their feet. At least they didn’t get my Harry Potter book wet, or I would have killed them.
“Where did y’all come from?” I finally asked. The little posse of boys seemed to have appeared out of thin air. I had never seen them before.
“We live in that house.” My rescuer pointed to the one right next to Birdie’s house. It made Birdie’s house look like Eeyore’s shack from Winnie the Pooh. “We see you every day on the float, and we wanted to say hi.”
“What a great way to say hi.” I tried to make my words as sarcastic as possible.
“This is Aaron, Carson, and Jared,” the blond boy introduced the others, “and I’m Adam. We really are sorry about all this. Could you possibly forgive us?”
“I guess,” I shrugged, trying to act nonchalant. Even if they were little demons, they were still pretty cute. There was silence for a few seconds while we tried to figure out what to say next.
“Could you introduce us to your sisters?” Jared, the one who was annoyingly unrepentant earlier, asked eagerly. If looks would kill, both mine and Adam’s would have burnt him to a crisp.
“Why don’t you guys start walking back,” Adam suggested, “I’ll join you in a minute.” Carson winked at him before leading the rest of the boys away from the dock. Adam shook his head once they were out of earshot. “Those are my stupid cousins,” he said apologetically, “Jared is an idiot.”
“I’m used to that sort of thing,” I replied candidly. Already, at the age of eleven, I had plenty of guys ask me for an introduction to my attractive twin sisters.
“That really wasn’t the plan. I promise it wasn't,” he laughed, “we just wanted to talk to the pretty floater girl who sits on the water all day. Then those guys had to mess it up.”
His incredibly laid-back attitude, as well as the shock that came from his unexpected compliment, made me laugh as well. Gradually, as we talked for a little longer, I found myself forgetting that just a while ago he and his buddies dumped me into the lake. Instead, I was confronted with the thought that this cute, entertaining boy was talking to me. Not Wendy, not Carrie, but me.
Later that day, Adam returned to his house, but not without offering me his old jacket that he had left on the dock while he dived in to save me. While I was talking to him I had forgotten about the cold, but after it was over chill bumps were all over my body. And not just from the wind either. I almost felt like our meeting was a dream, and in minutes I would wake up on the float without a single boy in sight. Frequently throughout that day I would pinch myself, just to make sure it was all real.
And even though the boys apologized and I knew that with a life jacket I would be perfectly safe, from then on I had a fear of the water. I could sit in a boat, I could drive a jet ski, but I was deathly afraid of falling in the lake. Instead, I liked to read a book on the porch or go exploring in the forest.
As the years flew by, I would talk to Adam occasionally when we were both outside and his cousins weren't bothering him. He would tell me all about his life; his struggles in certain high school classes, the pressures of being a high school quarterback, and his long-term girlfriend named Belinda. This last year he spoke a lot about her–both negative things that made me inwardly happy and positive things that I mostly responded to by a quick nod of the head. From what I could tell, they were deeply in love, and I tried to act indifferent about it. Adam and I were just friends, and that was all we would ever be.
But that didn’t stop me from peering out of the window at times like these, trying to catch a glimpse of his face.
I could almost see the light bulb go off in Mandy’s head. That was never a good sign. “Who are they?” she repeated her question slyly.
“Just the neighbors,” I answered with as little emotion as possible. Mandy immediately left me to go to Wendy, Carrie, and Lilly’s room. The twins were styling their dark brown hair into ponytails while Lilly was laying face down on the bed.
“Hey, could you guys tell me who those boys are over there?” She asked, and I glared at her furiously.
“Are you talking about the Avery boys?” Wendy asked excitedly, immediately stopping what she was doing and racing over towards my room. A stampede followed as all of the girls followed Wendy. Sullenly I traveled behind them, knowing instantly where this was going.
“I’ve had the biggest crush on Jared for years!” Wendy exclaimed loudly.
“No, I’ve had the biggest crush on Jared for years,” Carrie snapped back. They glared at each other for a minute, and then Lilly stepped in between them.
“I like that one.” She shyly pointed to a guy with blue eyes and blond hair. I had to admit, he was pretty cute. He had the same hair as Adam.
“His name is Aaron,” I said, then feeling ashamed, looked away. It felt like we were spying on them.
Suddenly, all of the girls jumped back. “They saw us! They saw us!” Carrie and Wendy squealed in unison. I was already out of the way, but when I turned back to cautiously look I could make out Adam’s face looking directly at us. I jumped even farther back, a blush blossoming on my cheeks. Mandy laughed at my expression.
“Let’s go outside,” Mandy smiled smugly, “I think they have noticed us now.”
“There is no way I’m going out there. I don’t have any makeup on.” Right then I looked like dying rat.
“Well, we are going to put some on you!” Mandy immediately got into her full-focus mode. I didn’t know which was worse; going outside without the makeup or having Mandy try and smother my face with foundation.
“No, no, no, I’ll do it.” I pushed her away, walking over to the bathroom. Mandy followed me, intent on making me suffer. She kept snatching away the eyeliner or mascara and tried to put it on me herself. Eventually I just gave up and went downstairs. I looked around, but Wendy, Carrie, and Lilly were nowhere in sight.
“Where are my sisters?” I called to Mandy, searching through the living room and the kitchen. Birdie was cleaning the dishes, and I went to help her dry them. The window in front of the sink was rough and scratched, and I could barely see out of it.
Ten seconds later, I froze. The twins and Lilly were already out there, talking to the guys! I could tell even from here that my sisters were flirting with Jared, even though he was my age and they were two years older. Jared was fawning over them both, probably in mental heaven by now. It wasn’t every day that a sixteen-year-old guy got to flirt with two pretty eighteen-year olds.
Mandy suddenly appeared, tugging on my arm. When I turned to look at her, I saw that she was wearing makeup as well, and that she had quickly styled her hair. “Let’s join them!” she excitedly said. Anticipation seared through me as I followed her.
We opened the door and immediately the group, standing by the lake, turned to look. My heart began to beat erratically when Adam raised his hand in greeting to both of us.
“Hey!” He smiled, and before I knew it Mandy had tugged me all the way over to the group. I mustered up a smile in return, while inwardly thinking about my appearance. Why didn’t I put on more makeup? Why didn’t I make my hair look less like a wasp’s nest? I didn’t care quite as much before, but now it was really bothering me. However, Adam didn’t seem to notice or care. “Looks like you’ve gotten even prettier since last year!” Adam complimented me, ruffling my hair like I was a little kid.
A guy with bright red hair and dark green eyes held out his hand to me. “I’m Mark,” he introduced himself, “a friend of Adam’s.” His hand was warm when I shook it. I could tell Mandy was impressed by him; she was making doe eyes already.
We talked for a while, making more introductions and asking about each others’ activities and hobbies. Adam was unusually quiet when we talked about school—there was no jibber jabber about his girlfriend and other stuff like that. Mark and Mandy were hitting it off, already flirting within minutes of their meeting.
Soon Jared, as always, began to cook up a plan. “We are going to Sunset Cliffs tonight for a campfire. Do y’all want to come?” he asked, looking pointedly at my sisters. They immediately squealed in unison.
“I don’t know.” I decided to act as the voice of reason within the group. “Birdie doesn’t like for us to go to Sunset Cliffs. She says it’s dangerous.”
“Oh, this is no big deal,” Jared replied, “we won’t be on the cliffs. We will be in the forest next to the cliffs. We do it all the time and nothing bad has ever happened.” Adam and the rest of the boys were nodding their heads as well.
Words could not describe the desire I had to spend time near Adam at the campfire. However, I had no clue how I would convince Birdie to let us go. She had the strangest animosity towards those cliffs, forbidding us from ever going near that place. Even the slightest mention of that name made Birdie freeze.
I expressed my concerns to the group, but Jared quickly brushed it off. He was obviously very eager to spend some quality time with my sisters. “Here’s what we can do,” he said, “we could sneak away at eleven o’clock tonight. Then our parents won’t know anything about it.”
My first reaction to that plan was of sheer incredulity. There is no way I could ever get past Birdie. She had eyes in the back of her head.
Then I remembered that Birdie always snored like crazy at night and she probably couldn’t hear anything besides a freight train when she was asleep. However, there was still Mom and Dad to consider.
“Come on, Gwynn,” Wendy urged, shaking my arm, “it will be fun. Don’t spoil the fun.”
Adam was just looking at me with a small smile. “If she doesn’t want to do it she doesn’t have to. Maybe its not a great idea anyway.” I could tell that last part was only said to make me feel a bit better.
It was those words that immediately made up my mind. I had to go to that campfire.
“I guess it will be fine,” I mumbled, to the cheers of my sisters. I found it amusing that they were so happy over my consent, even though they would have went with them anyway. I tried to tell myself I was just going so they wouldn’t get into trouble. The attempted self-delusion didn’t last for very long.
“Meet us at the edge of the forest,” Jared instructed, “them we will all walk together to the cliffs.”
We all agreed, then Mandy, the twins, Lilly, and I headed to our rooms. I needed to take a long nap, because I felt like I wouldn’t be getting a ton of sleep tonight.
“Gwynn! Wake up!”
I groaned turning and slowing opening my eyes. Everything before me was blurry and distorted.
Mandy was shaking me like a rag doll, bright-eyed and ready to go. I sighed, blindly stumbling to my feet. As my eyesight came back into focus, I caught a glance of myself in the mirror. Wow, I looked bad.
“Hurry, there’s no time to waste!” she urged, “It is almost time to meet them!” I shoved her away and began to do my hair. I am going to look presentable this time around.
However, I only got so far with that plan before Mandy pulled me over to the door. We were careful to not disturb anyone, trying to step lightly. “Why didn’t you wake me up earlier?” I hissed.
“You looked so adorable, I couldn’t bear to wake you up until now,” she teased, slowly opening the front door. “And I didn’t want you to stress about it. You are really cute when your hair is flying in all different directions, even if you don’t think so.”
My hand flew to my head, trying to smooth the parts that were sticking up. At the very edge of the forest, I could see the group already there and waiting on us once again. Wendy and Carrie were laughing.
“Nice hair,” Carrie winked at me. I blushed, scrambling for a hair tie in my pocket. As we began walking, I tried to braid it, then gave up and put it in a low bun.
After a little bit of walking, we reached a small clearing. From this point we could see the outline of the rocky cliffs in the distance, but it was far enough away to give me relief. There was a small fire burning in the middle of the clearing, Mark and Adam tending to it carefully. “We have s’mores, guys!” Adam held up a bag of marshmallows and graham crackers.
We all settled around the campfire, each of us holding a long wooden stick. Lilly sat with Aaron, Wendy and Carrie both pounced on Jared and Mandy was basically sitting on Mark within minutes. I just sat away from these pairs, awkwardly twirling the stick in my hands.
“Hey.” Adam sat down next to me, holding a big bag. “Want a marshmallow?” Wordlessly I took one, offering a smile as thanks. “So how has your year been?” he asked, leaning back and staring at me with his big brown eyes.
“It’s been pretty boring. Nothing much has happened so far.”
“Any boyfriends?” he inquired slyly. Every year he asked me that same question.
“No.” I began to hold my marshmallow over the fire. “What about you?”
“No, not anymore,” he replied. Shocked, I let the marshmallow dip towards the fire, and the golden flames began to wrap around it. On instinct, I shook the marshmallow furiously, causing it to drop into the fire altogether.
Adam was laughing when I turned to look at him with the biggest puppy dog face I could. “Could I grab another one?” I asked, and he laughed even harder.
“I couldn’t refuse you,” he grinned, handing me a gigantic marshmallow. I started to wonder if he was up to something. He was staring at me in a strange way, and it scared me.
Mandy and Mark soon got up and headed into the forest, holding hands. I stared openmouthed after them. I always knew Mandy was fast to fall in love. At school, she would meet a guy one week and date them the next, jumping like a rabbit between boys. But this? This was just ridiculous.
They didn’t reappear, even after my watch clicked past the twelve, then the one. At first, I didn’t care. I was chatting with Adam, who was actually paying me more attention than he usually did. Our collective voices got louder and louder, reverberating throughout the entire forest. The white moon smiled at me along with the twinkling stars. To me, the night was just getting brighter in every way. I had never had so much fun in my life.
CRACK!
We all heard it, every single one of us. All at once the brightness around me dimmed, dashed by that one sound. Someone was here. Someone was in the forest was looking for us, and stepped on a branch. Alarm filled my heart.
It was then that the fact that Mandy and Mark were still gone hit me. “Mandy?” I called softly, staring into the trees, “Mark? Is that you?”
No response.
“Whose there?” Adam called, his voice echoing through the forest. Once again, there was absolutely nothing. It was then that the fear built in my heart.
A sudden, forceful wind swept through the area, swirling the leaves around us. In a single instant, the fire was blown out, immediately turned into a bunch of ashes. “This isn’t funny,” Jared said, holding both Wendy and Carrie’s hands. My sisters were about to cry, burying their heads into Jared’s shoulder. Lilly and Aaron were frozen.
“Seriously,” I said loudly, “please come out.” It was hard to act brave in front of Adam, who was looking at me with such an expression.
The wind picked up, throwing the leaves into our faces and almost knocking me over. “Adam,” I said softly, stepping towards him.
CRACK!
We all jumped. “Mom? Dad? Birdie?!” Wendy cried, tears falling from her face. Adam had a resolute expression on his face.
“We can’t wait for Mandy and Mark,” he said, “maybe we can meet up with them later.”
“We have to!” I begged, all of my inner emotions at that moment pouring out of me at once. Raising my hand to my face, I realized that I was crying.
There was complete and total silence for a minute. Every second felt like a millennia.
CRACK!
This sound was so close that all of us were even more startled. As the wind began to get progressively worse, Adam grabbed my hand with a sudden ferocity.
“Run!” he yelled, racing with me in tow away from the loud noise. The others, not following us, scattered in different directions. When we finally stopped, it was just us, the trees, and the cliffs about five hundred feet away. We were totally alone.
It was then that I noticed that he was still holding my hand. I leaned back, as if to escape his grasp, but he only tightened his hold. My heart began to beat ferociously in my chest. “Gwynn,” he said my name, breathing heavily. I waited for him to say something else, but he didn’t.
“They left us! Why didn’t you tell them to follow us?” I asked breathlessly.
“I didn’t think about them,” Adam replied, frustrated. He seemed to be waging a war within himself. “I was only thinking about you.”
My heart stopped completely.
“I really like you,” he rushed his words, almost to where I couldn’t understand him. I was in total shock. There was no way Adam was confessing to me.
But the strangest thing about it all was that he was.
Now he seemed to be scrambling to choke out the words. “It’s okay if you don’t like me,” he said, “I know you might still be mad about when we dumped you into the lake. I know it’s pathetic, but I couldn’t help myself. I’m sorry about all this. I just really wanted to tell you.”
I stared at him for a minute, still in open-mouthed disbelief. Then, as I gradually got ahold of myself, I gave him the best smile I could muster under the circumstances. “You don’t know how happy you just made me feel,” I whispered, staring into his eyes.
“This is all my fault,” he said sadly, staring at the ground. He didn’t seem to have heard me over the wind. “If I had agreed with you, we wouldn’t be here right now. I was just so eager… I really wanted to talk to you.”
“Me too,” I said loudly, so he could hear me. “I like you too.”
“W-what?” A look of pure incredulity came over him, “You like me t-too? W-what?” It seemed like he hadn’t even considered that possibility. Laughing through my tears, I raced forward and gave him a hug. This was the happiest feeling in the whole world. Adam liked me.
As we gave each other stupidly happy smiles, a piercing scream echoed through the forest. “Lilly?” I called, recognizing her voice. The fear returned completely, overwhelming the both of us in seconds. Adam broke away from me, staring in the direction of the scream.
“I have to go help her!” he said urgently, turning back to look at my face. “Stay right here, and don’t move.”
“Please don’t go,” I begged, trying to grab his hand, but he had already disappeared. “Don’t go,” I repeated sadly, almost as a whisper to myself. I was totally alone.
I felt myself grow dizzier. Adam told me not to move, but I started shifting away towards the edge of the forest. All I wanted to do was to escape the trees and the darkness.
The wind picked up, blurring my vision along with my tears. All I could see was the darkness, the terrible darkness.
“Adam!” I called once more, but there was nothing in response. Everyone was gone.
Before I knew it I was out of the forest, standing near the rocky edges of the cliff. I could see the dark waters far below me, the light from the moon reflected mutedly. I stood over the waters, fright searing through my veins. Rational thought was pointless. I was so lost, so far away from reason.
However, the ultimate shock was yet to come. I could feel it.
Ultimate despair was the last emotion I experienced before a pair of hands pushed me forward. My feet left the ground, then it was over.

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Tag der Veröffentlichung: 31.10.2012

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