Varian gazed into the murky lake. His reflection stared back at him. It was a blurry mass that faded in and out. The green-blue haze that fell upon the forest had traveled to the lake. His heart stuttered when he thought he saw something moving in the dark water. Footsteps came up behind him. He startled when two arms wrapped tightly around his neck.

“Boo!”

Kacey laughed as Varian jumped. His heart was pounding, a stabbing in his chest that made him breathless. He frowned and pushed Kacey back.  

Still laughing, Kacey flopped to the ground beside Varian. The gravel road that lead up to the lake was only wide enough for them to sit shoulder to shoulder. The tall grass on either side of the path made the space feel even smaller.  

Varian wouldn’t say he was claustrophobic. He just didn’t like feeling like he was trapped.  

Kacey waved his hand in front of Varian’s face.  

“What are you looking at?” If it wasn’t for the smile on Kacey’s face, Varian would have thought he was making fun of him.

But Varian knew Kacey’s humor. Him and Padriac were always dancing on the lines of being funny and being down-right mean. Hazel didn’t like it when they took things too far. She didn’t like hanging out with his friends period.  

Varian shrugged.

He couldn’t convey what he was feeling in words. He just felt empty. Like there was nothing there to begin with.

A silence fell over the two. It was strange only because Kacey was usually loud. Not as loud as Padriac. But louder than Varian certainly.  

The water lapped against the the large rocks placed around the lake. Varian watched the tiny waves, content to just stay there.  

It had been Mary’s idea to come out here. Camping. He’d never been camping. He didn’t think he’d even spent more than ten minutes in a forest and an even shorter amount of time by a lake.  

He shivered as a gust of cold wind blew into him. Goosebumps ran up his arms. He was glad he’d decided to wear a jacket. Summers were never actually warm here and he wasn’t going to start hoping for some sunshine. At this point, he figured it was never going to happen.

The gravel crunched as another set of feet joined them. Varian looked up. It was Hazel.  

She was the prettiest girl Varian had ever laid eyes on. From her long brown hair, her dark brown eyes, and her sun-kissed skin, there wasn’t a single imperfection. She was wearing a thick jacket, a red flannel shirt, and jeans.  

Though she smiled more than Varian, she wasn’t smiling now. Her lips were twisted in a grimace, one that made her look as if she’d bitten into a sour apple.  

“Hey,” she said. Her eyes told him she wanted to say more. They flickered to where Kacey was sitting and then back onto him.

He got the message. Loud and clear.

He stood up, dusting off his pants. He’d been sitting there for a while. Mary and Padriac were out gathering wood for the pit. They were all waiting for them to get back so they could start dinner.

Before that, though, they’d put up the tents. One for the girls and one for the boys. They hadn’t intentionally done it like that, but they all seemed to agree that it would be weird if Mary ended up sharing with Kacey and Padriac. They were friends, but they weren’t close enough for that.

Varian hadn’t helped much. He knew that if he tried to do anything he’d just end up breaking something.  

Hazel and him hadn’t been alone since the day before. He couldn’t think of anything that would warrant her to be upset.

As he walked away from the spot he’d been sitting at for almost an hour, he glanced behind him.  

Kacey was watching them leave. No longer smiling.

***

Hazel slipped her pointer fingers into the belt loops of Varian’s jeans. She pulled him toward her until they were flush together. His weight pushed her back against the trunk of the large tree they were standing under. He grabbed her waist to steady himself.

He furrowed his brows. “Are you upset?”

She wouldn’t look at him. She kept twisting her fingers around the belt loops. She was pulling on them so much he became worried she was going to pull them right off.  

“I just thought…I thought we would spend time together this weekend.” Her voice was small. It wasn’t like her at all.

Varian tilted his head to the side. His eyes slid past the tree and into the vibrant green forest. The shadows stretched far and wide. They crept closer as nightfall started to come upon them. It was only six, but as they came closer to the winter months, the days became short.  

“We are spending time together.”

She shook her head. “It’s not the same. Not when they’re here.”

“What do you want me to do, Hazel? I thought you wanted to do this. You and Mary were the ones that came up with the idea.”

She rolled her eyes. She gave a hard tug on his pants. “You really think I agreed to do this willingly? Or without Mary throwing a fit over it?”

He stumbled forward. He caught himself by grabbing onto the base of the tree. The bark bit into his palm. The pain anchored him as he thought about what Hazel was saying. And also because of how close they were becoming. It had been a while since they were this close.  

Her frown slowly disappeared. A smirk replaced it, one that said that she knew exactly what he was thinking and exactly how her body was affecting his.

She bit her bottom lip.

“Well…I guess we’re alone now.” She was shameless. She didn’t even look around them.

Varian nervously licked his lips. “Oh?”

This was a game that he was familiar with. The teasing always ended up with them in bed. Not that he was saying that was a bad thing. It was just that he didn’t know how he felt about doing it in the middle of the forest when his friends were so close by.

Her smile widened into a sharp grin. Her hands moved from the waist of his jeans to his chest. Through the thin fabric of his t-shirt, he could feel how cold her fingers were. They were like ice, even when she wasn’t touching him directly.  

She grabbed onto his shirt and swung him around so that his back was to the tree.  

She slid down to her knees.

Varian’s eyes widened. He grabbed onto her shoulder. “Hang on, Haz. We can’t—“

She grabbed onto his hips and yanked his crotch toward her. “Sorry. I can’t quite hear you from down here.”

She worked open his zipper and before he could utter another word, she pulled his already hard dick out.  

The frigid air wasn’t enough to kill the buzz that was thrumming through his body. He was on fire, sweating under the heat of her eyes, and knowing that what they were about to do was wrong on so many levels.

But it was the forbidden idea that turned him on even more.  

Hazel mouthed at the tip of his length. Her cherry lips slid over the crown. She took him down in one go.

Varian’s mouth parted. He panted as her cold hands slid over his naked ass and pulled his hips forward even more so that he was pushing at the back of her throat.

His hands moved to the back of her head, fingers threading through her hair. She moaned. He rocked his hips and began to thrust into her hot mouth.

He didn’t want to her hurt, but it was so hard to resist the temptation to just fuck her throat. She was willing. They’d talked about this more than once, yet, there was always a thin line that kept him from giving in to that dark need.

As he lost himself in the pleasure, flying higher and higher toward that release, a shiver went up his spine that had to do with something else besides Hazel’s adamant sucking.

It felt more like eyes watching him.  

But he soon forgot about as he came and Hazel swallowed the evidence of their depravity.