Chapter 4

I was beyond excited to have a fresh new start at college. Away from all the prying judgmental eyes, and the horrid memories. I desperately needed this new place for the sake of my sanity. I just wanted to be able to stop out running the memories that haunted me at each corner.

Well, it would've been a fresh start if that dumb ass, Gray, hadn't shown up last night. Honestly, I don't even know what he was thinking. Did he truly believe me to be that idiotic, and to not have my gang there with me? If so, then he has no clue who it is he's really up against and he stands absolutely no chance. I actually feel a small sliver of pity for the man. If he knows what’s good for him, he will forget about all that happened and walk away. I don’t want to have to act, but I absolutely would if push came to shove.

The only bad thing was that I completely spaced the fact that my fail of an older brother and his best friend came here. I was doing so well just writing them off to the back of my mind, but the moment I made eye contact all the good memories assaulted me.

The millions of trips they made driving me to the mall to hang out with my friends. The many movie nights we had in the living room. Our annual vacation we took every year with our family to Colorado. Those held the best memories: especially the last camping trip.

(Flashback)

Every body had been asleep for an hour or so, and I was waiting for the sound of my tent zipper being unzipped. It seemed like an eternity had passed before I finally heard it.

"Pst.. Kota, are you still up?" Jesse whispered.

I was tempted to pretend to be asleep, but curiosity always got the best of me. Plus, I just didn’t have it in me to ignore him. "Of course I am. You told me to wait for you, so I've been patiently waiting for over an hour now!" I harshly whispered back.

"Okay then, impatient much? Come on, I have some where I want to take you." He held his hand out for me to take, and I followed him out into the forest.

"Close your eyes."

"Why? What are you going to do?" I asked wearily. I had learned throughout my years not to trust him. He wouldn’t do anything to purposely injure or hurt me, but the dude could play some wicked tricks.

"Don't you trust me?" He asked with a grin.

I gave him a flat look before responding. "Are you being serious right now? I honestly can't tell. You know, what with you throwing water on me last week, putting salt in my tea the other day, or how about last month when you.." I probably could have gone on all all night, but Jesse had put an abrupt stop to that by smashing his lips against mine.

As usual my body ignited, and I eagerly responded. His kisses had a way of igniting my soul. They made me feel alive and my body hummed with passion, but all to soon though, he pulled away.

"I get it. You don't trust me as far as you can throw me, but you also know that I would never let anything bad happen to you. Ever. So how about you give me a little bit of credit and close those pretty brown eyes of yours." I hesitated for only a moment before I realized that I had never seen him this serious before, so I gave in and closed my eyes.

He pressed one hand to the small of my back and the other held my hand, guiding me to wherever it was we were going. I wish I could say that it was smooth sailing and super romantic, but I remained tense and kept on tripping over every little thing. At one point I seriously tripped over a chunk of grass and would have ate it, had Jesse not grabbed me at the last moment.

A little while later he finally stopped me and told me to open my eyes.

I opened my eyes to the most beautiful sight I had ever seen. We were standing a few feet away from a cliff. The cliff over looked miles and miles of forest with a huge lake in the middle. The full moon was reflecting in the middle of the lake, and you could make out the faint outlines of animals gently sipping water from it.

"It's gorgeous." I whispered afraid to somehow disrupt the peaceful night.

"You sure are." I looked over at him and saw that he was looking directly at me.

I couldn't help the small laugh that slipped out a moment later.

"Hey! Why are you laughing? That was supposed to be romantic," he huffed. Actually huffed, and that had me laughing even harder.

It took me quite a few moments to stop the laughter and finally sober up enough to answer. "It was romantic, but it was also extremely cheesy and overused. I'm actually a bit shocked that you used it on me." I chuckle a bit again, but manage to contain the explosion of laughter threatening to escape again.

"You think that's funny?" He asked while stalking toward me with a look that I did not like.

"Do not even think about it Jesse. I mean it," I said while backing away.

"Think about what Kota?” He said and lunged for me. “This?!”

He quickly brought me to the ground and held my wrists above my head while he started tickling my rib cage.

"P-p-plea-se. S-s-s-to-o-p." I tried to say between giggles. I absolutely hated being tickled. It made me laugh so hard that ninety percent of the time I ended up snorting which was embarrassing on epic proportions. When he finally had me laughing so hard that I was snorting like a pig he stopped, but didn't move off me.

"I love that sound," he said, his minty breath fanning across my face.

"My snorting? You know I have always questioned your sanity, but this just confirms what I suspected all these years. You are insane in the membrane. That was one hundred percent pure embarrassment right there."

"No it's not. I love it because I know it only makes an appearance when you're laughing hard enough you lose control. Knowing that I'm the one that is making you that happy and free... Well it just makes me happy. Your happiness means everything to me." He was trailing his fingers down my neck and slowly making its way down my body.