Pitching a Tent Ch. 05

I woke up hours later, feeling disoriented in the dark tent. I felt around for my phone. The screen was so bright I had to squint. According to the clock, it was almost 9 PM. My mind buzzed with the dazed feeling that you get from sleeping the day away and waking up after dark. I unzipped the tent flap and crawled out. The air was surprisingly cool after the heat of the day. My parents, Amy, and Nora all sat around a crackling fire, which flung sparks up into the sky. Nora, I noticed, was dressed for bed, wearing baggy sweatpants and a hoodie from her school. She was sitting on a log with Amy and resting her head on Amy's shoulder.

Everyone turned to look at me as I walked over. "Well, look who's back from the dead!" My dad laughed. I grunted in response. After grabbing a bottle of water from the cooler, I fell into one of the empty camp chairs. I was trying not to look at Nora too much and I felt like she was doing the same. God, it was so hard keeping up the charade. All I wanted to do was pull her into my lap.

"If you're hungry, there are plenty of hot dogs in the cooler. I'm sure you can handle making your own," my mom said, without looking up from the book she was reading.

I nodded and took a big swig of water.

"You slept all afternoon. You must be starving, Bud," my dad said.

"Yeah," I grunted, "I just need to work up the energy."

"Oh fine, I'll make you one," Amy said, before grabbing a hot dog from the cooler. She skewered it and thrust it into the flames. I watched the flames dance around it, hypnotized. As much as we bickered, I could tell that Amy liked treating me like her baby brother when she could. I glanced over at Nora and found her staring back at me. I tried to put as much meaning as I could into my expression.

I hoped my eyes were telling her what I wanted to say: "This sucks. I miss you."

I couldn't tell if she understood. She looked back at the campfire. I did the same.

My mom placed a bookmark to hold her spot and closed her book. "Well, Grant, you slept through the big news." I raised my eyebrows. "Amy has to leave first thing in the morning. She has an interview for an assistant photographer job."

"Hey, that's great!" I said to Amy. She put the hot dog in a bun and squeezed out a line of mustard on it, before handing it to me.

"It's a start," Amy said, trying to be modest.

"You're gonna do great, Sweetie," my Dad beamed at her.

"I hope you don't mind, Grant, but Nora is gonna have to drive you back home. Amy's taking your dad's car and the SUV is gonna be filled up with all our gear," my mom said.

"Nope, that's fine." I said, trying to sound as nonchalant as possible. That meant a whole afternoon alone with Nora. My mind was already racing. We could find a quiet place to pull off. I don't know how well I hid my excitement, because my mom had a strange expression. Not unlike a smirk. I glanced over at Nora, but her eyes were closed and she was resting on Amy's shoulder again.

I started placing new logs and sticks in the fire, bringing it back to life. I threw in everything I could find. That's how I passed the last night of the camping trip. Trying my best to ignore Nora and distracting myself with the fire. My parents went to bed first, but not before extracting a promise from me not to stay up too late. We would have to start packing everything up first thing in the morning. I wanted to get it done as fast as possible so Nora and I could squeeze as much out of the day as we could. After a while, Amy and Nora decided to go to bed too. They went to the camp bathrooms first. I didn't watch as they left. I just kept thinking about all the things I wanted to do with Nora the next day.

Amy came back first and then a few minutes later Nora followed. I had watched Amy crawl into their tent and zip it shut, so when Nora walked by me I reached out for her wrist and pulled her into my lap. She squealed with surprise, her eyes wide. She looked around to make sure we were alone and then glared at me.

"Grant! What are you doing?" she hissed at me.

"I missed you," I whispered in her ear.

Nora softened a little in my arms. "We'll get caught," she protested. She looked back over her shoulder to make sure we were alone.

"You better keep quiet then," I told her.

I pulled her into a deep kiss. She melted into it, needing my lips just as badly as I needed hers. I slid my hand into her sweatpants. Her breath caught. I leaned in close to her ear and told her to spread her legs for me. Nora nodded and obeyed. I rubbed her clit. She was already so wet. I slid a couple fingers inside her pussy. Her head rolled back and she moaned in my ear.

I took my hand out of her pants and sucked the pussy juice off of my fingers in front of her. "I can't wait for tomorrow. Now, go to bed before we get caught."

Reluctantly, Nora climbed off my lap. I gave her tight, little ass a spank as she walked away. She turned back to look at me. Fuck, I thought, tomorrow is gonna be the best day ever.

I have never worked as hard as I did the next morning to get all the camping gear packed away in my parent's SUV. In hindsight, I have no doubt that my parents noticed how desperate I was to leave. They also weren't stupid and may have even connected the dots that there was something between me and Nora, or at least that I wanted there to be. Not that I was thinking about that at the time. I was just focused on getting a day alone with Nora. I hadn't given much thought to what would happen after the trip was over. Sneaking around with Nora would become a lot more difficult. Amy and Nora shared an apartment in a nearby city. It was going to be nearly impossible to keep our relationship under wraps for long. That morning, however, I couldn't see anything beyond the perfect afternoon I was planning to have.

It felt like it took forever, but it was only the early afternoon when we had everything loaded up. I hopped into the passenger seat of Nora's car. My heart was slamming in my chest. I could barely contain my excitement, but I was trying to hide it from my parents to the best of my ability. I glanced over at Nora. She looked calm. I was impressed with her acting abilities. If I hadn't known better, I would have thought she really was just giving her best friend's brother a ride home as a favor.

After a few minutes on the road, I turned to Nora. I put my hand on her thigh. "We're finally alone," I said.

Nora glanced down at my hand and then looked back at the road. "It seems like we are."

"Wanna find a quiet place to park?" I continued.

Nora opened her mouth to say something and then seemed to change her mind. She checked the rearview mirror. My parents weren't driving behind us. They probably hadn't left right after we did. Nora nodded like she made a decision and whipped the car into a gas station parking lot.

"I had something a bit more private in mind," I laughed.

Nora pulled into a parking spot and hopped out. "You drive," she said.

I was a little confused, but I hopped out of my seat and ran around the car to swap seats with her.

Once I was behind the wheel, I asked her what she had in mind. "Drive, dummy," she said with a smirk.

"But where?" I asked.

"Keep heading home. I'll keep an eye out for a spot."

I shrugged and pulled out of the parking lot. Nora recognized the song on the radio and cranked the volume. I drove down the road, scanning for a spot to stop where we could avoid notice. The area around the campground had long, winding roads with high speed limits. It was mostly trees and meadows. There weren't all that many people around to catch us. I thought our best shot would be to find a quiet parking lot or dirt road with no traffic.

Nora was singing along with the song. I glanced over at her, struck by how gorgeous she looked with the summer sun shining on her. Nora's hair glowed in the morning light. She looked over and caught me staring. "What?" she asked.

I blushed, "Just...admiring."

"Oh yeah? Do you think I'm pretty or something?"

Nora laughed and I joined in. "I guess you could say that."

"I was just going to say that you look even hotter when you drive," Nora told me. "I love your arms." She grabbed my bicep and gave it a playful squeeze. I looked over at her. Her expression shifted. She reached behind her head and pulled her hair into a ponytail. She unclipped her seatbelt.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Keep us on the road, Grant." Nora leaned over into my seat. She unzipped my shorts. Almost as soon as I had figured out what she was doing my cock started to stiffen. Nora pulled my cock out and gave it a few quick strokes. "Do you mind?" She asked, with her tongue already dancing around the head of my cock.

I couldn't think straight. I shook my head. "No," I breathed. Nora took me in her mouth, bobbing up and down. I gripped the steering wheel, trying my best to keep some brain cells devoted to driving her car. Having Nora's mouth wrapped around my cock was not making it easy. All I could think about were the slurping sounds she was making.

Nora pulled off of my cock for a second. "Find us a quiet spot, Grant. I need you inside me."

"Yeah, ok, yes," I stuttered incoherently. She went back to my cock, teasing me with long, slow licks up my shaft. She gave the head a kiss and then slid her lips over the tip. By that point, I had a white-knuckle grip on the wheel. I felt like I was going to come at any moment, but she was expertly holding back just enough to keep me from going over the edge.

Mercifully, I found a promising spot just a few miles down the road. It was a trailhead parking lot off the road with plenty of tree cover. "I think I found a spot," I told Nora.

She sat up and looked. I pulled my cock back into my shorts, just in case there was someone already there. I pulled onto the dirt road, indicated by the sign. It really did look perfect. It was a small parking lot barely visible from the road. Most importantly, it was empty. I pulled up to the trees at one end of the lot and put the car in park. My heart was crashing in my chest again as I looked over at Nora. She was looking at me like she wanted to devour me. I was more than willing.

"Wanna take this to the back seat?" I asked, suddenly nervous. I had no idea why. We had been hooking up for days. Somehow it felt different after the camping trip, out in the real world. I was really doing this. I was fucking Nora. I still couldn't believe how this week had turned out.

Nora climbed out of her seat and got in the back. I followed.

"Pull your pants down," she instructed and I hastily obeyed.

My cock was still hard and throbbing. Nora took her own shorts off and climbed into my lap. She kissed me deeply, while grinding on my dick. It was too much. I felt like I was going to come before she even got my cock inside her. Nora reached down and guided the tip of my cock into her pussy. She was absolutely soaking wet and I slid right in. If I thought I was near the edge before, that almost sent me over it.

"Go slow," I gasped. "I'm so close."

"Oh, why, Baby?" she teased.

"You're so fucking hot."

"Too hot for you to handle?"

"Yes," I groaned.

She was slowly sliding her hips back and forth. Again, she was walking me right up to the line of an orgasm and holding me back from it. I felt like I was going to come inside her. I wanted to fill her up so badly.

She didn't pick up the pace, but she started to slide up and down the entire length of my dick. I was unable to form words. She leaned into my neck, giving me light kisses and these playful nibbles. As she rode my cock, her breath came out in gasps. She was moaning in my ear. I had all I could do to hold back my orgasm. If we hadn't had sex so much over the last few days, I wouldn't have stood a chance. As it was, I barely stayed in control.

Nora was quickly approaching her own orgasm. I knew it was close because she didn't seem like she was as in control over her own movement. Her hip thrusts were getting harder and faster. I couldn't handle it. I had my hands on her hips and squeezed.

"Oh fuck, Nora. I'm going to come." I groaned.

"Ok, Grant I'm coming." She leaned back, her mouth open.

The wave of pleasure slammed into me. I shot my whole load inside her. As I filled her up, I pulled Nora down into a kiss. Our lips locked. Nora's hips thrusts slowed as she rode the orgasm until It was over. She collapsed onto my chest. We were both panting.

After a minute, Nora looked at me and said, "Wanna get some food?"

I laughed, long and loud. It was the last thing I expected her to say, but I agreed. "Hell yes."

We gathered ourselves and frantically put our pants back on in the cramped back seat. I was so thankful we had this parking lot all to ourselves for a few minutes. Nora got in the driver's seat this time and pulled us out onto the main road again.

It was still the middle of nowhere and so it took a while before we found a restaurant. Eventually, we passed a roadside diner and pulled in. We were both starving and we weren't feeling very picky. I grabbed us a booth and started scanning the menu while Nora went to the restroom.

She joined me a few minutes later and I immediately sensed that her mood had shifted.

"Everything ok?" I asked.

"Hmm? Uh, yeah," She looked distracted.

The server came over right then. I ordered a burger and fries. Nora ordered a grilled cheese and tomato soup. After the server left our table, Nora took her phone out. She looked upset.

I was in a tough spot. Even though we had been having sex, I didn't feel like I knew her well enough to ask her to tell me what was wrong.

I pulled my own phone out to give her a little space. Eventually our food showed up. We ate mostly in silence. I felt terrible, like maybe I had done something wrong though I couldn't guess what I might have done. Everything had been great just moments earlier.

"Nora, are you sure there's nothing wrong?"

She looked up at me. Her mouth opened like she was going to say something and then it snapped shut.

"Whatever it is, you can tell me," I assured her.

She sighed and started pushing the soup around her bowl. "Grant, I've had a really good time this week. I like you a lot."

My stomach dropped. "Oh my god."

Nora looked up at me. She was trying not to cry. "No, Grant, really." She reached out for my hands and held them across the table. "All I want is to spend more time with you."

"That's what I want too."

"Grant, I can't do this to Amy. Last night she thanked me for watching out for you. She said she was glad you had two big sisters."

"Jesus," I said, hanging my head. I couldn't believe how quickly this had unraveled.

"I'm so sorry, Grant," Nora said, her voice cracking, "I feel like shit for doing this behind Amy's back. I don't want to hurt her."

I took a deep breath. "Neither do I. What if we told her?"

She shook her head. "She'd fucking hate me and maybe never talk to me again. I know it." Tears welled up in Nora's eyes. It was very possible she was right. I couldn't tell her to ruin her relationship with her childhood best friend, not to mention my relationship with my sister.

I looked Nora in the eye. "This has been the best week of my life."

A sob escaped Nora's lips and she got up and ran out of the diner. I saw her get in her car and bury her face in the steering wheel. I'm a fucking idiot, I thought. I felt awful for making Nora cry. I grabbed my wallet and threw down enough cash to cover the bill and tip and followed her out.

When I got in the car, Nora was sniffling and trying wipe away her tears. My chest felt like it was caving in.

Eyes forward, I asked her, "Would you like me to drive?"

She took a deep breath and gathered herself, "No, I got it."

The rest of the drive home was painfully quiet, except for the radio. I stared out the window, feeling guilty and sick to my stomach. When we pulled into my driveway over an hour later, we were silent for a moment. I don't know why I did it, because it just made it hurt more, but I leaned over and kissed her cheek. I whispered, "Thanks, Nora."

She responded with a tight-lipped nod, not trusting herself to speak.

I got out of the car without another word and went inside. My parents weren't home yet and I was grateful for that. I walked to my room and fell into my bed and didn't get up until the next morning.

As awful as that day was, Nora and I kept talking from time to time. It never veered into romantic or sexual territory. We were closer than we had been before the camping trip, but remained only friends. For the next two years, that's all we were. I thought it was going to stay that way forever.