too cute for words

As I’m sure you can imagine, the three youths for the rest of the night were not “happy campers”. tom hardly reacted at all. He just sat there, watching his oldest friend, now rotting in the fires of hell most likely. Half an hour later the two girls were sitting on tear stained grass. Jo dee hadn’t even looked up at Tim’s body. She just screamed and cried into Leanne’s shoulder. When she did look up, the remaining embers in the fire cast a glow on Tim’s charred remains. Jo dee screamed again and ran to a neighboring fire pit. Tom and Leanne tried to block out the sounds of jo dee vomiting. “I’ll go make sure she’s okay”. Leanne disappeared into the darkness, only to return ten minutes later with jo dee looking worse than ever.

Tom watched as Leanne carefully helped jo dee down onto the ground. The sleeping surface couldn’t have been very comfortable, but jo dee fell right asleep. Leanne and tom watched her sleep for a moment, feeling bad for her. Tears streaked through the dirt on her face, vomit on her chin, he face was swollen and red. Leanne turned to the table, took off one of the two blankets, folded it in half, and placed it on jo dee. Jo Dee’s body seemed to relax and uncurl a bit in reaction to the warm blanket. Leanne stared a few more moments in pity down at jo dee. Surely her dreams were plagued with horrible images from the days events.

The sky was littered with diamonds that were the stars. Despite the pain in his back from laying on the hard wood of the table top, tom found himself being drawn into a fitful sleep. There was a creak from below, but tom was too worn out to care. It was probably jo dee rolling over or something. Something warm brushed toms fingers. Tom propped himself up on his elbows and looked around. Leanne was sitting on the bench. “tom?”. “yeah?” asked tom groggily, blinking a few times. “you okay?” Leanne asked quietly. “its probably best that Tim isn’t here with us” replied tom. Leanne nodded. “I’m so sorry. Because of me your best friend is gone. If you just hadn’t-”. “it’s worth all that’s lost,” said tom “goodnight”. Leanne squeezed toms hand, and went to go to sleep. Tom waited till he could hear Leanne’s breathing deepen, then closed his eyes and drifted off into sleep with a smile on his face.

Some how, some way, fifteen hours after tom closed his eyes, he was on his way back home. Jo dee was sprawled out on the couch, snoring. Leanne was curled up on the seat of the mini booth in the R.V, her head resting against the wall. The open window above blew the tips of her hair about. Tom was laying on the upper bed in the back of the R.V, looking into a shoebox. Tom carefully tucked the box under one arm and climbed down off the bed. As he walked by jo dee she stirred a bit, but only itched her ear and went back to sleeping like a baby. Tom stopped and sat down opposite of Leanne. Leanne didn’t stir. Tom waited for a moment, listening to her breathing, then tapped her shoulder. Leanne blinked a few times, then sat up and looked at tom. “Oh, hi tom” she said, smiling sweetly. “I have a surprise for you, a small gift”. “oh you didn’t have-” began Leanne. Tom opened the box, and out waddled a tiny pastel gray duckling. Leanne gasped, her eyes lit up. Tom smiled as he watched Leanne scoop the duckling into her hand and run two fingers along its body. The duckling made a content sound as it settled down into Leannes’ hand. “thanks” breathed Leanne, letting her free hand rest on the edge of the table. Tom smiled at her and laid his hand on top of hers.