Heart Of Marley (11 page)

When we arrived at our school all those years ago, Brianna and I had become friends almost instantly. A few years ago, when her mother re-married, she grew somewhat distant and aloof, probably because of all the drama at home. She was no longer the outgoing, carefree girl that she once was. That was around the same time she began dating Mason. Rumors circulated about what caused a change in her, but I was the last one to ever listen to a rumor, having heard quite a few good ones about myself.

Regardless, I had always remained close with her. She was probably the only girl in school that I would have considered telling what happened to me.

I felt a nudge on my head and my eyes flung open. “Oh, I’m sorry,” I said to Doug. “I must have fallen asleep.” I yawned, my eyes heavy with exhaustion.

“It’s okay.”

“Yeah, Marley. That’s the way to win a guy. Drool all over him while you snore.”

I picked up a shell from the beach and chucked it across the fire at Cam. “I was
not
snoring.” I turned to Doug. “Was I?”

“Nah, you weren’t. And even if you were, I’m sure it would be the most adorable sound in the world.”

“She snores, Doug. And it is
not
adorable. It’s loud. I can feel the wall shake between our bedrooms.”

“Stop exaggerating, Cameron Michael.” I leaned my head back on Doug’s shoulder, reveling in his comforting warmth.

“Do you want to go lie down?” he asked softly.

“I probably should. I’m a little tired.”

He nodded and helped me stand up, growing nervous when he saw the two tents. “Ummm, why don’t you and Brianna each take a tent and Cam and I will sleep out here.” He turned to Cam. “Does that work for you?”

“That’s what I was planning,” he responded.

I shook my head. “Well, that doesn’t work for
me
,” I said, facing Doug, his hand enclosed in mine. “I can’t ask you to sleep outside. Not when there’s plenty of room in there…with me.”

“Marley, I don’t mind. I know you want to take things slow…”

“And we are. But you can still sleep in the same tent as me.”

“Are you sure?”

I nodded. “I’ve never been so sure about anything before in my life.”

He glanced at Cam, almost as if asking permission if it was okay for him to share a tent with me.

Grabbing his chin, I forced him to look at me again. “You don’t need my brother’s permission to sleep with me… I mean, sleep in the same tent as me…”

“She’s right, Doug,” Cam’s voice broke through the tension. “Don’t worry about me. But if you hurt her…”

“I know, I know.” Doug’s eyes remained glued to mine as he answered my brother. “You don’t have to ever worry about me hurting her. I’d never be able to live with myself if I did.”

I grinned and pulled him into the tent with me.

“Ummm… I can’t sleep in this skirt,” I said to him. “Are you going to be weirded out if I sleep in my underwear? Don’t worry. I’m wearing boy shorts so it’s like I’m sleeping in my gym shorts.”

“Are you going to be okay with that? I really don’t mind sleeping outside, Marley.”

“Doug…” I said in warning as I slowly untied my linen skirt and let it pool at my feet before stepping out of it, wearing just a tank top and my underwear. I pulled the legs down a bit to make sure it covered the secret I had kept from everyone. “You’re not sleeping outside.”

His chest began to rise and fall in an increasingly arrhythmic pattern. “Damn, Marley Jane,” he said quietly. “I really like your legs.”

I giggled and allowed him to pull me into his body. “You still owe me,” I murmured against his neck.

“Owe you what?” he whispered.

“A kiss. You said you would get me later. Now’s your chance. I’ve been waiting all day for you to get me, Doug.”

He groaned and I felt his body grow rigid against me. I also felt something else become hard. His lips brushed mine and I could taste chocolate and Doug as he slipped his tongue into my mouth. Deepening the kiss, I ran my hands through his dark, messy hair as he pulled me closer to him, shivers running through me at the sensation of his strong hand placed on my lower back.

“Doug,” I exhaled, pulling out of the kiss. “We should probably sleep. I’m not ready to…”

“Marley, I have no desire to sleep with you. I mean, not that I don’t want to, but…” He sighed and, even in the darkened tent, I could see his face turning red. “Dammit. Do you have any idea how tongue-tied I get around you?”

I giggled. “I have an idea.”

“What I meant to say is that I’m one of the good guys and I have no intention of rushing you into anything.”

I placed a kiss on his cheek. “Thank you.” I crouched on the ground and unzipped one of the sleeping bags. “How about we snuggle, though? Can we do that? I’ve always wanted to spoon with someone.”

He unzipped the other sleeping bag and flattened it, placing it on the ground. “Of course.”

I lay down and he covered both of our bodies, wrapping his arms around me. For the first time I could remember, I fell asleep surrounded by the comfort of a guy’s caring embrace.

A
FTER
WATCHING
M
ARLEY
DISAPPEAR
into the tent with Doug, I turned to Brianna.

“Cameron,” she said sweetly, sensing my unease. “You’re also not going to be sleeping outside.” She winked and grabbed my hand, pulling me into the tent with her.

“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t hoping you’d say that.”

She beamed as she wrapped her arms around me, crushing her lips against mine, her kiss sudden and unexpected. There was something about kissing Brianna that was so pure and perfect. I knew that it was a high school romance and probably wouldn’t survive our first year of college, but at that moment, as I felt her body against mine, I didn’t want to wake up to another day where I couldn’t look into her smiling eyes or feel her soft lips against mine.

She pulled away, panting. “Sorry.”

“What are you apologizing for?”

“I had been wanting to do that all day. It’s been pure torture.”

“You’re telling me.” I lowered myself to the ground and slipped into one of the sleeping bags. Brianna followed suit. We lay there, a breath away from each other, our eyes locked. “I promise I don’t snore. At least I don’t think I do.” I grinned and inched toward her, my adrenaline spiking when she closed the distance between us even more. The only thing separating us was the down of the sleeping bags.

“It’s okay if you do. I don’t mind,” she said. “I want to get to know all your little quirks. I already know some of them.”

“Oh yeah?” I asked, brushing one of her brown tendrils behind her ear. She closed her eyes momentarily and basked from the contact.

“That’s one of them,” she said, her voice contemplative. “I remember when you first arrived here. You and Marley were new and interesting. I noticed how you always took care of her. One day, when we were all standing outside after school, waiting for our parents to pick us up, a piece of Marley’s hair fell out of her ponytail and you pushed it behind her ear. It was sweet. That was the first time that I saw you do it. I think you had only been here for a month or so. I like how you take care of her. How you don’t try to be someone you’re not just so that guys at school won’t make fun of you. I think it shows that you’re comfortable in your own skin. I wish I could be more like that.”

“Well, I guess I had to grow up pretty fast after my dad died all those years ago.”

“It shows,” she responded. “You don’t act like the typical seventeen-year-old. Hell, I know some twenty-seven-year-olds who act less mature than you do.”

We shared an intense look and I sensed that there was something going on with her. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but I had an awful premonition that she was trying to hide something…maybe even from herself. Or maybe I was just so accustomed to Marley hiding everything that I had begun to expect it from everyone else, too.

“So,” I said, lightening the mood. “What are some of my other quirks that you noticed?”

She wrinkled her nose as if she was deep in thought and I wished I had a camera so I could snap her photo. She looked absolutely beautiful, the playful expression on her face reminiscent of the Brianna I knew in middle school.

“The way you sneeze,” she admitted.

“What do you mean?”

“I can always tell when you’re about to. And I’m not just talking about the usual, opening your mouth and waiting for it. You close your eyes and rub your nose in the most adorable way, like there’s a genie in there that you’re trying to release.”

“My nose is like a magic lamp?” I asked, laughing.

“Well, yeah. And it’s the cutest thing ever.”

I planted a kiss on her forehead. “I’ll try to sneeze more often then, especially if you like it.”

“I do,” she admitted. “I like everything about you.” Her voice grew quiet and pensive as she toyed with the button on my shirt, avoiding my eyes.

“Bri…” I cupped her chin and tilted her head so she was gazing into my eyes. “I like everything about you, too.”

She smiled in response.

I gently caressed her graceful face, savoring the feel of her creamy skin on my hand. Lowering my head to hers, I hovered over her lips, readjusting both of our bodies so she was lying on her back.

I pressed my lips against hers, coaxing her mouth open as my hand found its way into her sleeping bag, roaming her stomach. I heard an unzipping sound and broke away from the kiss to see Brianna opening both of our sleeping bags. She grabbed my head and forced my mouth back to hers as she wrapped one of her long legs around my waist.

“Cam…” she exhaled.

“Are you two making out in there?!” I heard Marley shout from the other tent.

I groaned. “Ignore her, please,” I said softly, crushing my lips back to Brianna’s.

“You totally are!” Marley giggled. “I can hear your sloppy kisses all the way over here, Cameron Michael. Girls don’t like it wet. They like it soft.”

“I’ve got it under control, Marley Jane!” I shouted back before returning my attention to Brianna. “Now, where were we?”

“Right here,” she responded, pulling my body flush with hers.

“Oh, Bri,” I moaned, my hands grazing her frame. I moved from her lips to her neck, tracing my tongue against her collarbone. My fingers poised on the button of her shirt, I peered at her, silently asking permission. She nodded and I nervously began to unbutton it, my heart racing the entire time.

I lowered my head back to her body as she kept her legs wrapped around me, her hands clawing into my back as she gently thrust against me. I made my way down her stomach, her body throbbing against mine. I began planting kisses on the arm she had wrapped around me, stopping abruptly.

“Bri, what is this?” I asked urgently upon noticing a dark bruise on her bicep.

Her eyes grew wide in shock. “It’s nothing, Cam,” she responded quickly.

My eyes went to her other arm and I saw another bruise in the same spot.

“You can tell me, Brianna.”

“I
did
tell you, Cameron,” she hissed, lowering her sleeves and buttoning her shirt, her fingers trembling. She zipped up her sleeping bag and turned her body so she was facing away from me. “It’s nothing.” Her body continued to shake as she tried to muffle her sobs.

Lying back on the ground, I ran my hand up and down the side of her body, thankful when she didn’t push me away.

“I’m sorry, Bri…”

“Me, too.”

I comforted her the way that I used to comfort Marley all those years ago, wondering what happened to her to have resulted in two dark bruises on her arms. Her breathing finally equalized and I knew she had fallen asleep. I kissed the top of her head and wrapped my arm around her, drifting off to sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~

I
HAD
NO
IDEA
how long I had been asleep before a loud scream woke me. I bolted up in my sleeping bag, scanning the tent.

Brianna rolled over. “What was that?” she asked drowsily.

“Cam!” I heard Doug shout.

“Fuck. Marley!” I ran out of my tent and into the other one to see my sister screaming and crying. “What happened?” I asked him, wrapping my arms around her quivering frame as she sobbed into my chest.

“Nothing! I was asleep and then she started flailing and shouting something about leaving her alone and to get my hands off her! I wasn’t even touching her!”

“Can you just give us a minute?” I looked at him, trying to assure him with my expression that I believed him.

“Okay.” He dejectedly turned away before glancing over his shoulder at me. “I’d never hurt her or touch her if she didn’t want me to.”

“I know you wouldn’t.”

He shook his head and left the tent.

“I’m sorry, Cam,” Marley said through her tears. “I didn’t mean to tear you away from getting laid. Gross, by the way.”

I chuckled at her sense of humor even when reliving the nightmare of her past. “Marley, I wasn’t getting laid. And you don’t need to apologize to me. I’ll always be here for you. You know that. To the moon and back.”