Ski Trip 2

I couldn’t sleep at all that night. Knowing that I would see Seth tomorrow for the first time since last Summer scared me. We had a thing for like a week, and then he had to go back home to Columbus. He lived far away, but he was my brother’s best friend. He used to live here when I was like 9, my brother was 10. Then, when I turned 13, he moved. He, like my brother was a year older than me, so when we dated this past summer, I had been 16, him 17. He was now 18 like my brother, and ready to graduate. Halfway through senior year, both of them. I was going to miss them both when they went off to college in the Fall, but right now, I was worried about Seth. What if he had completely forgotten last Summer? Just threw it away like trash?! Ugh. At one point, my heart stopped arguing with my head and I fell asleep.
"Hey, sleepy! C’mon! Dopey’s lonely without you!" my brother yelled up the stairs. I could hear Parvati giggling downstairs. She was already here?! What time was it? I looked at my clock. Whew, only noon. I still had about 3 hours.
I stumbled out of my bed and headed to my bathroom to take a shower. I came out and quickly got dressed in comfortable clothes. Five hours in a car was not the time to audition for beauty queen. I got sweatpants and socks on, with a long sleeve t-shirt that Trent had bought me yesterday per my request at American Eagle.
"C’mon! Which suitcase do you want? I gotta get packed, too!"
"Shut up! I’m coming!" I stumbled down the stairs to see Seth standing there with Parvati and Trent. My eyes widened and I attempted to say something.
"W-wh-what are you doing here? It’s only noon." I crossed my arms over my chest and stood next to Trent.
"He came over early like Parvati, cause they actually got up on time, unlike you."
"Oh. Well, I guess I won‘t take long then." I grabbed my suitcase and ran upstairs, Parvati following me. I shut my door behind her and collapsed onto my bed.
"What are you doing?! I thought you two went out!" she whispered, packing things that she knew I would take with me.
"God, I don’t know. It’s so fucking screwed up, Parfait. We did, this past Summer, but then he went back home, and I’m so afraid to find out where we stand." I admitted.
"Oh." she looked at me for a moment, and started to pack faster.
"Wait. You know something I don’t. C’mon, spill." she stopped and looked at me with sympathy.
"I’m so sorry, Sam. He has a girlfriend." she came over to my bed, reaching her hand out, but I moved away.
"Oh. Well, that’s cool I guess. It’s not like I didn’t date anybody since then." And though that was true, I still had an achy feeling in the pit of my stomach. I really liked Seth, and I still do. I guess he just thought that it was a summer fling. Parvati looked like she wanted to say something, then shook her head. "Hey, what’s Danny doing? I’m surprised he’s not over here early, too."
"He’s still packing. When I talked to him when you were taking a shower he said like 20 minutes." It was 12:30 right now. If we ate here and got everything and everybody loaded as soon as Danny got here than we would be on time! I was such a control-freak, as you might have guessed. I plan everything down to the last detail. That’s why I loved it when I got the car. I was in control of where I was going and what time I would get there.
"Cool. Awesome. Well, I’ll just finish up here, I’m almost done." she took the hint and left. I finished packing all the while, thinking about this Winter Break. Instead of trying to get Seth back together with me, I would just find someone else! There was bound to be some hot guys on the mountain, and hot guys were just what the doctor ordered.
I finished up what I was doing, and bounced downstairs and hugged Seth real tight.
"Hey! How have you been?" I handed Trent my suitcase and he set it aside.
"Good, you?" he rubbed his hand up and down my arm and I smiled at him.
"That’s great. I‘m good." I stepped back and Parvati smiled at me, signaling that she was proud of the way that I was handling this. "You can go get packed now." I told Trent, and he took the suitcase that I didn’t take, and headed upstairs.
"I’m going to go and call Danny. See what he’s up to." Parvati left and Seth looked at his feet.
"Look, Sam, about this past Summer…" he started, but I stopped him.
"Don’t worry about it. I know you have a girlfriend. Parvati told me and I’m totally cool with it." I said.
"Oh. Okay, then. Cool." I smiled and him and he headed off to the bathroom. I sat on the couch and waited.
Parvati came back in before Seth.
"You’ve changed your attitude some since your room. Did you decide what you’re going to do about this?" she whispered, joining me on the couch.
"Yeah. I’m going to find a hot guy and forget about him. Why should I try to get back together with him when he has somebody?" I smiled, proud of myself.
"Awesome." She said just as Seth came back in. He squeezed between me and the arm of the couch.
"Whatcha talking about?" he smiled, and the doorbell rang.
"Nothing." I said, quickly.
"Oh, that’s Danny!" Parvati squealed, jumping up to answer the door.
He stepped in and set his suitcase down by the front door. "Hey, babe." he picked up Parvati and she squealed as they shared a kiss in my entryway.
He set her down and introduced him to Seth. We exchanged hellos, and Seth went with him to load his stuff in the trunk, along with mine.
"Where’s everybody?" Trent asked, dragging his suitcase behind him.
"Danny got here, so they went to load my and Danny’s suitcase in the car." I explained.
"Awesome. Let me go load mine in. Why don’t you girls start making lunch?" Parvati gave me a look that we both knew all too well. She hated it, as well as myself, when any guy told us to get to work in the kitchen. This was not the 60’s!
After exchanging eye-rolling glances, we made 5 turkey and cheese sandwiches. I fixed drinks, making sure that Seth got his favorite soda, Sunkist. They came in from loading our suitcases, and dug right in.
"Mmm. Nice job, ladies. Turkey and cheese, my favorite." Danny said, leaning over to kiss Parvati on the cheek.
"Thanks." I resumed eating and could feel Seth and Trent’s gaze on me.
"What?" I asked, looking up at both of them.
"Nothing." Trent said, looking back down at his plate.
I then glared at Seth, daring him to tell me why he insisted on staring at me, but then he looked away.
"Is everything loaded?" Parvati asked.
"Yeah. After we eat, we can head out, I guess. That should make you happy, Sam." Trent joked.
"Shut up." I said, and the entire table laughed. They knew me all too well.
At exactly 2:22, we pulled out of the driveway, all of us sitting in the places that I recommended yesterday. Danny and Parvati immediately started talking like they had not seen each other in forever, and Seth just gazed out of the window, every once in a while, glancing at his phone. I decided to engage in conversation with him.
"Seth, what’s wrong?" Trent looked back at him, but didn’t chime in with anything.
"Nothing. Just tired." Then I remembered. He had to get up early this morning to drive over here.
"Right, sorry." I turned back around and stuck my iPod ear buds into my ears and put it on shuffle.
I must have dozed off for a while because I woke up to see a hotel in front of me. The sun was gone, and the air coming in through my window was chilly. I looked back to see Danny and Parvati snuggled up, sleeping. Seth was staring at me.
"Hey. Trent and I thought you were passed out. You slept for like 5 hours. Did you not get any sleep last night?" No, ‘cause I was thinking about you. But I didn’t say that. Instead I nodded my head and watched the sliding glass doors, waiting for Trent to come out.
By the time he came out, Parvati and Danny were awake, and Danny was talking with Seth. Parvati looked beat, leaning her head against the window.
"Okay, guys. Two rooms. One for us and one for the girls. They are bringing us a cot for the extra person. I volunteer to sleep on it tonight." he said. We all mumbled our agreements and quickly got unloaded and settled into our respectable beds.