Chapter Sixteen
“What time is it?” Kevin asked.
“About 11:30 p.m.” Mackenzie answered. “Why?”
“I was just wondering if Nick should have been back yet. I’d better go see if he got in alright.”
“Okay, I’ll wait here.” Mackenzie smiled. Kevin opened the door and walked next door. He knocked. When there was no answer, he tried the doorknob. It turned. I guess Nick forgot to lock his door. Typical! Kevin thought as he opened the door quietly. What he saw inside made him choke. “Nick! What the fuck?”
Nick and Drew were on the bed, under the covers, but their clothes were strewn about the room. Their first reaction was to blush. Then Drew caught on the appropriateness of Kevin’s comment. She began to giggle. Both Kevin and Nick looked at her as if she’d gone insane. Drew propped herself up on one elbow and whispered in Nick’s ear. He laughed aloud.
“You got it exactly right, Kev.” he said. At first, Kevin didn’t catch on, but when he did, his face turned bright red. That made Drew and Nick laugh harder. Kevin tried to get them to stop laughing by being serious and getting mad, but it just compounded the problem.
“How could you be so stupid as to bring her back to your hotel room, Nick?” Kevin glowered at them once they had stopped laughing. As Nick was about to answer, Mackenzie poked her head around the door.
“Is everything alright? I could hear Kevin yelling from next door,” she asked innocently. Then she spotted Nick in bed with Drew. “Oh!”
“Next door?” Drew asked.
“Kevin!” Nick exclaimed.
Kevin shrugged sheepishly. “That’s different.”
“Oh, really?” Drew was unconvinced.
“Would somebody please tell me what’s going on?” Mackenzie had been looking back and forth between them in confusion. Kevin proceeded to explain how he had found Drew and Nick together in bed. He conveniently omitted the part where he sounded hypocritical, but Drew jumped in and filled it in. Mackenzie laughed and blushed.
“I want you two to get dressed, now. Then Drew is going to go back to her hotel.” Kevin said.
“I’ll take her back.” Nick offered.
“Oh, no you won’t!” Kevin answered forcefully. “We’ll wait until Brian gets back, and he’ll drive her back.”
Tanna and Brian walked back from the meadow, talking about this, and that. When they got back to her house, they decided that she didn’t want to go inside just then.
“Besides, Nick and Kevin are probably still out with Mackenzie and Drew. They won’t be expecting me or wanting me around for a while.” Brian commented.
Tanna laughed. “No doubt. Well, where do you want to go?”
“I dunno. What is there to do around here?”
“Not bloody much. Drew and I either go the meadow, or the swings whenever she’s here.”
“Hmm. Seeing as how we’ve already seen the meadow, let’s go to the swings.” Brian suggested. Tanna agreed, and they started toward the park. They arrived and sat on the swings. Tanna began to rock gently back and forth. Brian stood up and walked behind her. Puzzled, she looked over her shoulder at him. He smiled and gave her a small push. Each following push was harder until Tanna was quite high. She laughed aloud.
“Okay, that’s high enough!” she called down. Brian stopped pushing and sat down on another swing. Soon he was swinging as high as Tanna was.
“When you were little,” Tanna began when she noticed that she and Brian were swinging in unison, “Did you and your friends ever play that swinging game, or was it just a Canadian thing?”
“Which game do you mean?” Brian asked.
“You know, the one where if two people were swinging in unison, they were going steady? And it was always hilarious when two guys or two girls were caught at it.” she explained.
“Oh, yeah. I remember something like that. Except I think we called it double dating, or some such thing.” Brian agreed. “Why did you ask?”
“Um, just remembering.” Brian shot her a disbelieving look. “No, really! Every time I come to this place, I have really freaky de-ja-vues from when I went to school here.”
“Ah, I see. Are they happy memories?”
“Most of them are.” Tanna went on to give an example, and the two of them swapped stories from when they were younger.
Kevin and Mackenzie left Nick’s hotel room to go back to Kevin’s. Kevin was still fuming.
“I can’t believe he brought her back to his room!” He muttered under his breath. “How could he be that stupid?”
“Um, I only caught part of that, but didn’t we already have that discussion?” Mackenzie asked.
“Yeah.”
“And didn’t we come to the general conclusion that you were being only slightly hypocritical?”
“Uh, yeah.” Kevin looked uncomfortable. “But with me it’s different.”
“I heard that the first time, and I still disagree. Okay, so it’s a little different.” Kevin looked pleased, but Mackenzie held up her hand. “Nick’s 18 and you’re 26, so you should know better.”
Kevin closed the door and turned to Mackenzie. “Are you saying that you don’t want to be here?”
“Oh, no. That is not what I am saying.” Mackenzie insisted. After a few moments, she asked, “So am I going back with Brian and Drew?”
“No. You’re not going anywhere.” Kevin forcefully replied.
“Really!?” Mackenzie raised her eyebrows suggestively and smiled. “Okay.”
“So what now?” Drew asked Nick after Mackenzie and Kevin had left.
“Well, I suggest that we get dressed, but there’s no real hurry.” Nick said as he pulled her to him again.
“Why are you so sure we don’t have to rush?”
“Well, think about it.” Nick said as he kissed her neck. “Brian’s out with Tanna. He’s going to think that no one is back here and he doesn’t like spending a lot of time alone, so he’ll stay longer with her.”
“Oh, okay. That makes sense.” Drew agreed as she moved her hand down his arm.
It was a few minutes before they actually got out of the bed to put on their clothes. They got dressed slowly, watching each other.
“You know, it’s like a reverse strip show.” Nick commented.
“Yeah, that’s it.” Drew retorted. “It’s right up there with reverse Strip Poker!” she rolled her eyes.
“Oh, shut up.” Nick threw a pillow at her. She ducked and it bounced harmlessly off the door. Drew picked it up, walked over to where Nick was, and started beating on him playfully. In defense, Nick began to tickle her. He knew that no matter what, he could always win by tickling her. Sure enough, she shrieked and dropped the pillow.
“No fair!” she protested. As soon as Nick stopped, she backed away quickly. Nick laughed. “Don’t laugh at me! You know I hate it when you tickle me. It’s totally unfair play.”
“Oh, well.” Nick shrugged and Drew shot him a dirty look as they resumed dressing.
“We’d better be getting back.” Brian said reluctantly and jumped off his swing.
“Okay.” Tanna waited until her swing had slowed nearly to a stop before getting off. Brian laughed at her cautiousness.
“Don’t you laugh at me, Brian Thomas Littrell!” Tanna warned. The comment just made him laugh harder. She shoved him gently.
“Whoa!” Brian’s arms flailed as he was put off balance. To keep himself from falling, he grabbed on to Tanna’s arm. Unfortunately, her balance wasn’t any better than his was. They both fell; Brian on the sand, and Tanna partly on the damp grass on partly on the curb.
“Bloody hell!” Tanna cursed. “Now my butt’s wet! Thanks!”
“You’re quite welcome.” Brian answered wryly. “But did it occur to you that this is your fault?”
“What!?”
“If you hadn’t pushed me…”
“If you hadn’t grabbed my arm…” They continued to bicker as they got up and brushed each other off. Finally, they conceded that they were equally to blame, and headed back to Tanna’s house.
When they got there, Tanna walked with Brian to his car.
“Thanks for dinner and the walk.” Brian said.
“No prob. It was fun. Thank you for coming.” Tanna replied.
“Well, I’d better go and see what havoc has been wreaked in my absence.” Brian said with a wry smile. They hugged and Brian got into the rental car. Tanna waved as he drove off, then went into the house.
Brian knew something was up when he walked into the hotel room that he shared with Kevin and found Mackenzie and Kevin sitting on one side of the room, and Nick and Drew on the other.
“Okay, what happened?” He asked, leaned against the wall and crossed his arms.
“They…”
“He…” Both Drew and Kevin started at the same time. They glanced at each other and fell silent. Mackenzie spoke up, and told Brian the story. When she came to the part where Kevin reprimanded Nick for bringing Drew to the hotel, Brian was hard pressed to keep a straight face. Mackenzie got to the point where Kevin volunteered Brian’s chauffeur services, and he chuckled.
“Alright. I’ll drive the girls home.” He agreed. “Let’s go.”
The first part of the drive was silent, except for the occasional chuckle from Brian.
Finally, Drew couldn’t stand the silence any more. “So where did you and Tanna go? You were gone for a while.”
“We had dinner with her family, then…”
“You ate dinner with her mother? My god! And you’re still sane?” Drew interrupted. “It’s a miracle!”
“What’s wrong with Tanna’s mom?” Mackenzie asked from the back seat.
“Well, she’s somewhat odd, I guess.” Brian admitted.
“To quote Tanna, her mother is a ‘psycho bitch’.” Drew explained.
“She actually says that!? That’s not nice.” Brian was surprised.
“She says it fondly, though. And it’s not at all an exaggeration.” Drew said. “She actually gets grounded for not walking the dog!”
“Ohhkay.” Mackenzie seemed confused. “That’s just overreacting a little, don’t you think?”
“Yeah, well…that’s Tanna’s mom!” Drew shrugged, and turned to Brian. “Sorry, I interrupted you. Finish what you were saying.”
“Then we went to the meadow, talked about Charles, and then went to the swings.” Brian finished.
“Ah, the infamous Charles. She didn’t get violent while talking about that asshole, did she?”
“Nah, just slightly depressed.”
“I see… Anyway,” Mackenzie said. “What time is your flight tomorrow?” she asked Brian.
“I think that it’s one-ish. I’m not sure. Whenever it is, we’ll pick you up about 11 or 11:30 in the morning.” Brian answered as he pulled up to the Fantasyland Hotel.
“Okay, does Shannon know?” Mackenzie asked.
“Yeah, I’ll see you then.” Brian waved and pulled away.