FicWad

Chapter 43: Campin’

During her stay in California, Gia had bought a whole lot of stuff. Clothes, shoes, bags, accessories, movies, all kinds of junk. She had spent all the money her dad put on her bank account. Luckily Gerard added more when she just hinted that she was out of money.

On her possibly hundredth shopping spree that summer, Lucas had tagged along. He had gotten enough of hanging out at the malls after Gia had insisted on shopping for a week straight. But now, after doing what he wanted (spending time at the beach and swimming), he agreed to go with her again.

They sat down on one of the benches inside the mall and ate the ice creams they had bought. It was a hot day outside, and because the mall had big windows, the sun shone right on them.

“You’re so lucky your dad’s got money”, Lucas sighed and put down the shopping bags he was forced to carry. Being the gentleman he was, he carried some of Gia’s stuff, as he hadn’t bought anything at all.

“Shut up”, Gia said, rolling her eyes.

“No I’m serious. You wouldn’t have bought all this shit if your dad didn’t pay for it.”

“I didn’t buy that much stuff.”

“You know what? I don’t know what it is but something’s happened to you”, Lucas said.

“What do you mean?” she asked curiously.

“I mean… In Jersey you were so shy and polite. Now you’re spending your dad’s money like it’s nothing and – god forbid, you’re rude to me.”

“I’ve always been rude to you”, she reminded, but his words made her think. It was true. Back home, she didn’t want others to spend money on her. “But you’re right. I guess it’s because this doesn’t seem real. I’ve never felt this free. Don’t get me wrong, I love my dad, but… I kind of enjoy not having him around to tell me what to do and how to dress and who to talk to.”

“Yeah, I’d want to get away too.”

Gia looked at him with a raised eyebrow. “I thought you liked my dad.”

“Wrong. I like Gerard Way. I hate your dad. Two completely different people.”

“I don’t understand your logic. But hey, let’s do something you think is fun for a change.”

“You wanna have sex?”

Gia smiled. “How would you know it’s fun? You’ve never had sex.”

“Oh, touché!” Lucas laughed, now looking considerably happier. “Well done. But let’s not talk about sex anymore. I swear your dad’s wiretapped you and he’s lurking here somewhere with a shotgun.”

“Sure he is. And I’m sure the tour is just a cover up as well.”

“Of course. So what was it that you wanted to do?”

“We could go to the music store, you like those right?”

“Yes! Let’s go!”

Gia’s musical tastes were pretty much nonexistent. Lucas had tried to make Gia become a music fan ever since they started to hang out, and before Lucas, that task belonged to Gerard, Mikey, Ray, Frank and Bob. The problem was that despite her dad’s profession and obvious passion for music, Gia completely lacked the will to play or listen to music. To her, it was useless. The way she heard music was completely technical. When she listened to music, she heard the separate notes, and not the melody.

Lucas gave Gia back most of the shopping bags, but kept a few for himself. If he carried all of them, it would be a lot harder to browse the CD’s and try the instruments. While Lucas ran around the store, collecting the stuff he wanted, Gia looked around awkwardly. She wandered to the pop section and indifferently started to browse through the CD shelves.

“You again. We have to stop meeting like this.”

The voice startled her and she almost dropped the bags she was holding on her other hand. But when Gia saw the speaker, her cheeks flushed crimson.

“Well, I think meeting like this is better than you throwing things at me”, she answered with a nervous smile. She might have become more brave and all, but when it came to strange boys, especially cute ones, she was still a nervous wreck. And this particular boy was really cute. He was the one who had thrown a beach ball at her on her first day at the beach, and she had also saw him in that surf store Lucas dragged her to.

“True.” The boy extended his hand for Gia to shake. “The name’s Benjamin.”

Shyly, she took his hand and instantly felt shivers. “Gia.”

“Nice to meet you, Gia. So, hey, would there be any chance of us seeing again? On purpose maybe?”

For a moment, Gia could only open and close her mouth without saying a word. Then she realized how stupid she must look, and managed to stutter out: “Uh… I don’t know if I should…”

Benjamin looked somewhere past her before answering. “Does it have something to do with that guy that’s staring at me like I ate his lunch?”

Gia glanced where he was looking and saw that Lucas really was staring at Benjamin with a very weird look on his face. “Well, no. He’s just a friend.”

“Then what is it?”

She shrugged. “I live in New Jersey so it might not be smart.”

“That’s fair. Well, if I gave you my number, you could call me if you change your mind. Before you go back home, that is.”

“Um… Okay”, she said, and took the paper when he handed it to her after writing his number on it.

“So, I gotta go, but call me.”

Gia nodded and watched him leave. After she was sure he was far away, she let out the breath she had been holding in and sighed. Benjamin. Just thinking about him made her feel weird. She had butterflies in her stomach.

“So cute…” she sighed.

“What?”

Gia screamed in surprise and turned to face Lucas. He still looked weird. Not really angry, but Gia knew his facial expressions well enough to know that he wasn’t far from it. His eyes were narrowed, his mouth tightened to a line, and his nostrils slightly flared. All were subtle, but Gia still caught all the signs.

“Nothing”, she answered quietly.

“You do realize he’s an asshole, right?”

“Uh… Right. Why don’t we go look at some CD’s, okay?”

He was hesitant to do as she asked, especially since he wanted to lecture her about the dangers of talking to strange men. But then he remembered what she had told him just less than twenty minutes ago. She didn’t want to be told what to do. Lucas knew that she got enough of that from her dad, so he didn’t want to start nagging too.

“What do you want for your birthday?” Lucas asked, just to change the topic.

“You don’t have to get me anything.”

“If you don’t tell me what you want, I’ll get you something you don’t like.”

“I repeat, don’t get me anything.”

“Fine. I’ll get you some music then. You can go wait outside, you can’t see which ones I choose!”
Gia shook her head, but obeyed anyway. She didn’t want him to get her anything. She didn’t want any presents. She was just glad that for the summer, she was in Cali, away from her family, so they couldn’t get her anything either. Especially her dad, since he was already nearly bankrupt due to her small visits to the mall.

____________________

Finally came the day of Gia, Lucas and Jersey’s beach-sleepover. The beach was in a secluded place and vacant. Lucas’ mom, Evie, drove them there after he begged her to do so. She even agreed to pick them up the next day. Lucky for them, she was so happy to have her son living with her again that she was easily persuaded.

Gia on the other hand was surprised that her grandmother allowed her to go spend the night somewhere else. Of course, Gia had to make up a small white lie and tell her that she was spending the night at a girl friend’s house. She never would’ve gotten the permission if her grandma knew she was spending the night with a boy, alone in a tent on a beach. Well, two boys, if we include Jersey.

“You kids keep each other safe then, okay”, Lucas’ mom said to them before they got out of the car.

“Whatever mom”, Lucas groaned.

“Call me if there’s anything wrong, okay.”

“Yeah, okay.”

“Lucas, did you remember to check the battery in your phone?”

“Yeah, bye mom.”

Gia couldn’t help but smile at the conversation. It made her wonder how Gerard would’ve acted if he was on Evie’s place. Of course that situation was completely absurd, as Gerard never would’ve allowed her to go anywhere to spend the night with a boy.

After a few more worried comments from Evie, they finally got out of the car.

“I’ll be here at eight! Be ready!” Evie said before Lucas closed the car door.

“She worries too much”, Lucas complained after his mom drove off.

“I thought you were happy to live with her”, Gia said. They picked up their bags and with Jersey running around wildly, they started to walk towards the beach.

“Yeah I am, but dad would’ve just told me not to burn the tent”, he grinned.

Gia shrugged. “Well, that’s better than how my dad would’ve reacted.”

“True”, he laughed. “Your dad would’ve threatened to kill us both. For someone who doesn’t believe in violence, he sure wants to beat me up a lot.”

“He does like you though”, she argued. They both knew that was as from the truth as possible, so Lucas just rolled his eyes.

Now they had a problem. Neither of them knew how to set up the tent. It came with instructions, but they text was in a strange language, so that was pretty much useless. The things that came out of the bag were just shiny fabric and metal sticks and rope.

“Um… Wanna just sleep without the tent?” Lucas suggested when he examined the sticks and tried to attach them to each other – unsuccessfully.

“What if it rains? We can’t sleep in the rain.” Gia asked, sitting down on the sand next to him.

Jersey was using up the extra energy he had built up and was running around the beach, getting sand all over himself.

“You don’t sleep in the rain, you make love in the rain”, Lucas said, wiggling his eyebrows up and down and smiling all creepy and weird.

“Lucas!” she shrieked, punching his arm. “That was so inappropriate!”

He didn’t lose the smile, but he answered with: “Yeah I know, I’m sorry. Okay, I have a plan! You build this tent and I go find some sticks to make a fire. Okay?”

“Oh, sure, leave me here to deal with the hardest job…” she mumbled, but didn’t protest when Lucas and Jersey walked off.

It turned out that when she followed the instruction paper, setting up the tent wasn’t so difficult. Of course it was in a different language, but the pictures helped a bit. The outcome looked slightly different from the picture on the paper, but it didn’t matter if the tent was a little bit crooked and lumpy and low. Gia just decided not to think about it. She figured that it had an artistic touch. Gerard would be so proud.

“Nice”, Lucas said grinning when he returned with an armful of sticks. Jersey was jumping around him, begging for him to throw one to catch.

“Shut up”, Gia rolled her eyes. “Let’s see you do it if you’re so good.”

“Oh please. I could build a tent with my eyes closed and hands tied.”

“If your hands were tied, how would you build it?”

“I’d use my teeth.” He flashed her a bright smile before dropping the sticks on the ground and then sitting down next to them.

Gia raised an eyebrow, but sat down as well. Jersey finally got his wish when she threw him a stick.

“That throw was so lousy. You throw like a girl”, Lucas commented.

“I am a girl.”

“Yeah, sure”, he scoffed, and as a response, Gia threw some sand at him. But even though he just clearly insulted her and her boyish figure and her lack of chest, she couldn’t wipe the smile off of her face.

“What are you grinning about?” Lucas asked.

Gia shrugged. “Nothing. I’m gonna miss you. Who is going to insult me and keep me humble when you’re not there?”

“I can send you an email full of all sorts of insulting things every day, if you want”, he assured, suddenly looking very serious. “But please, let’s not talk about this, okay? I don’t want to spend our last weeks together thinking about how things are going to be after they’re over.”

“You’re right”, she nodded.

“Hey, your birthday present!” he suddenly announced and started to dig through his backpack.

“It’s not my birthday yet”, Gia said, but couldn’t help getting interested.

“I know but it’s soon, right? And I know it’s bad luck to open presents early but I didn’t want to wait.”

He pulled out a small present from his bag and handed it to her. “I wrapped it myself!”

“I can see that”, she laughed. The wrapping paper was crumbled and there were pieces of tape in random places. The string was tied at least four times around the present. It took her a good while to open it, and while she did, Lucas removed his shirt so he was only in his swimming trunks.

The present was, as she knew it would be, a pile of CD’s.

“I thought you might like them”, Lucas said. “Well at least I like them. Wanna listen? I brought my portable CD player.”

“Maybe later”, Gia answered and pushed the CD into her bag. “Thank you though.”

“Well, do you want to go swimming then?”

They ended up splashing in the water for a good hour. They didn’t go very far into the water, just so that it reached their waists, but still they managed to get soaked. And Jersey absolutely adored the water.

When it started to get dark, they got out of the water and got dressed.

“Where did my shirt go?” Lucas asked when they got back to the tent.

“I don’t know. Does it matter? Just put on an extra one.”

“I didn’t bring an extra shirt.” Then Lucas spotted Jersey running around with something in his teeth. “HEY! JERSEY! GET IN HERE!” he shouted and ran after the dog.

Gia laughed like crazy when Lucas tripped over sand, trying to catch the dog that had stolen his shirt. Jersey took it as a game and growled while running from him. Finally Lucas grabbed a hold of the shirt, but Jersey wouldn’t let go, thinking it was a playful pulling contest. As a result, the shirt ripped in half.

When Lucas came back to Gia and the tent, he said: “It’s okay. I’m not cold anyway.”

Jersey just wagged his tail and brought his new treasure to Gia. “Good boy”, she said to the dog and petted him. Then she looked back at Lucas. “You can borrow my clothes if you want.”

“As if I’d wear your frilly dresses”, the boy scoffed. “I’d rather freeze to death and die.”

“Whatever”, she shrugged. “But you should know that your mom packed you an extra shirt. She reminded you about it before she left, but you weren’t listening.”

“She did?” After rummaging through his backpack, he pulled out a shirt. “Awesome! This is why I like living with mom. Dad and Tina would never pack me anything.”

“Not true. Tina once packed you a lunch box for school, remember?”

Lucas groaned. “Ugh, I still remember the way Danny laughed at me. So humiliating.” While talking, he was making a fire. It didn’t take him long to make the fire big enough so they could cook on it.

And after eating at least ten s’mores each, the night was already pitch dark. The conversation had died down from laughter to silence. But the silence between them wasn’t an awkward one. It was very comfortable. Jersey was lying next to them on the sand, gnawing on a piece of wet wood he’d found. They had laid their towels on the sand around the fire and lay on top of them, on opposite sides.

Gia’s eyes were directed towards the dying fire that provided very little light anymore. Lucas on the other hand was lying on his back, staring at the sky and the stars that dotted it.

“I see a guitar”, Lucas said suddenly, breaking the silence.

“What?”

“Right over there. Next to the moon.” He pointed at the sky, but no matter how much he tried to make Gia see it, she couldn’t see.

“It’s hopeless, I never see those. Same with clouds.”

“Okay, you have to see that one, it looks just like a train! And there’s the Big Dipper!”

Gia sighed. She followed his directions again, tried hard to see some sort of figure formed of the starts, but when she looked at the sky, all she saw was tiny dots of light. She knew that they were held together by gravity. She knew they were billions of years old. She knew what their structure was. But that was it.

“All I see is stars”, she said quietly. “Nothing but massive, luminous balls of plasma.”

“I have no idea what you just said”, Lucas said grinning, but when he looked over at her and saw the serious expression on her face, he frowned. “Uh… Are you cold?”

Gia shrugged. Because he didn’t get a proper answer, Lucas got up from the sand. He picked up the empty coke bottle and went to fill it with water, which he then used to put out the fire.

“Come on, let’s go to sleep”, he said and offered Gia a hand to help her up.

The tent was small, originally meant for only two people. But due to Gia’s incredible building skills, it was even more crammed. When they settled down and pulled the duvet over themselves, Jersey made the tiny space even smaller by jumping on them. The dog forced them to make him some space and then it lay down on Gia’s other side, so that she was in the middle.

It was surprisingly comfortable. She would’ve thought that being that close would make her feel uneasy, but she’d gotten used to Lucas by now. Even though his arm was carelessly sprawled around her stomach, it still didn’t feel weird.

It was completely dark. Gia could only hear the sound of waves crashing, and Jersey and Lucas breathing. They lay absolutely still for a while.

“Gia? Are you still awake?” Lucas whispered after a while.

“No”, she answered. She had already closed her eyes and refused to open them. Lucas however insisted on talking.

“I wanted to ask you something.” When he didn’t get an answer, he continued: “It’s about that guy. The beach ball guy.”

That got Gia open her eyes. She had been lying with her back facing him, but now she turned to lay on her back so she’d see his face. “What about him?”

“That’s what I wanted to ask you.”

“His name is Benjamin”, she said quietly after a small pause. “I think he’s kinda cute. I guess he wanted to go out. Gave me his number, even.”

“Are you going to call him?”

Gia shrugged even though she knew he couldn’t see it. “I don’t know. Probably not. It wouldn’t matter much, would it?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, he lives here. Far away from Belleville. I see no point in starting something that can’t possibly have a future.”

“Yeah”, Lucas answered, sounding thoughtful. “You’re right. He’s here. You’re all the way there. It’s… stupid to even try. Really stupid.”

Gia yawned and turned again so that she was facing Jersey, and her back was against Lucas. She closed her eyes, and sleep overtook her almost immediately. It had been a long day, and spending so much time outside made her sleepy.

Lucas on the other hand stayed awake for hours, listening to Jersey growl and bark in his sleep, and Gia breathe peacefully. His eyes had gotten used to the dark and he could see her features, but only barely. In the dark, his thoughts began to wander.

Lucas and Gia had only known each other for a little over half a year, but during that short time, they’d become best friends. Sure, the beginning had been rough, and sure, they’d fought, but in the end it was all worth it.

They were so different, but somehow it worked. Gia perhaps managed to calm him down a bit, and Lucas brought out the fun-loving, careless side of Gia every now and then.

But that’s the way the story goes. Lucas made a choice. And for now, this is the place he wanted to be. Even if it meant being away from his best friend.

After all, that’s all they could ever be. Friends.