Reunion Campout

Amanda and Chloe were best friends. They were as close as two friends could be, more like sisters than just friends. Both were only children and grew up next door to each other in a typical sleepy suburban town and were 25 now. Their father’s Bill and Pete were typical suburban dads, with jobs in the city and weekends spent with the family and keeping up with projects around the house. Chloe’s parents were long divorced but had joint custody while she was growing up and had a cordial relationship, and she did not blame either parent for the divorce.

Amanda’s parents had only recently divorced, and the breakup was also mutual and cordial. Her parents just had very different attitudes about life and different interests from each other. Where Amanda’s mother loved the latest fashions and make up and was a social butterfly who attended many parties with her many friends, Amanda’s father Bill was more introverted and enjoyed outdoor and sporting activities such as camping, hiking, fishing, hunting, skiing and running. Amanda took after her father more and both were thin and athletic. Bill and Chloe’s father had become best friends over the years and spent a lot of time together watching sports, having a joint family barbeque and talking about current items in the news.

Chloe had similar interests and personality to Bill and Amanda, while Chloe’s parents were more like Amanda’s parents, who would never dream of going tent camping and hiking for a weekend. Amanda and Chloe were very similar looking, both about 5’-6” with pin straight blonde hair that was mid-back length and they often wore their hair in a ponytail. They would look at home at a 1960’s rock concert. Both were natural beauties who rarely wore make-up. Chloe was also thin like Amanda and all three of them ate only non-processed food but were not vegetarians. You could probably describe the three of them as almost being ‘granola chomping tree huggers.’

Growing up the three of them liked to go on at least one tent camping trip in the summer, often at a beautiful campground in the mountains, which only allowed tents, not the huge luxury RV’s that many amateur campers preferred. When Amanda and Chloe turned 18, the campouts stopped because both girls went off to a local college, which they both attended. They had recently rented an apartment together and even worked in the same company. They were so similar looking that when first meeting them many people thought they were actually sisters.

Amanda’s father was kind of depressed because of the recent divorce and Amanda had an idea to cheer him up. She went to the small house he recently bought to see him. “Dad, I know you’ve been lonely and kind of bummed out about the divorce. Why don’t you, Chloe and I go camping like at we used to our favorite campground?”

“Would you girls really want to hang around an old guy like me?” Bill had actually married Amanda’s mother when she accidentally got pregnant when they were teenagers and was only 43.

“Dad, I spoke to Chloe and she is excited about the idea of having a re-union campout, just the three of us. We are also a little bored this summer. Chloe just broke up with her boyfriend and I actually started dating a graduate student who is working at the campground this summer and can get us into the section of the campground they use for overflow campers at peak times, so we will have the area all to ourselves, along with the trails near that section.”

“Amanda, it all sounds like a lot of fun and we have 4th of July weekend coming up, with great weather predicted, so it would be great to re-live old times when you two were younger.”

The next weekend they packed up Bill’s SUV with their gear and headed up to the campground. As Chloe sat in the front seat and as he was driving, Bill couldn’t help but notice how good she looked in her shorts and low cut summer top. He had started looking at her a slightly different way after his recent divorce, as she had grown up to be a beautiful, smart funny woman, but he always quickly put such ideas out of his mind, since she was Amanda’s best friend and roommate and Chloe’s father was also his best friend.

They had all taken Friday off work and got an early start. July 4th was on a Monday this year, so they knew they had a nice long weekend to get back together again as a trio. When they got to the campground Amanda’s new boyfriend greeted them and showed them to their secluded campsite in the overflow section of the campground. The site had water, electric, a fire pit and a large picnic table, and the bathrooms for the section were very close to their camp site. It was almost like they had their own private campground.

“Boy Amanda, your new boyfriend is quite a hunk,” Chloe smiled at her. “Are you going to be spending any time with him this weekend?”

“Well, I might sneak away every now and then for a little mountain loving,” she grinned.

Amanda’s father grimaced and said, “Amanda that is a little too much information for me. This weekend is about when the two of you were younger, not now when you have men falling over themselves to date either one of you.”

Chloe looked at him shyly and replied, “Uncle Bill I wish that were the case. Men seem to want the girls who wear a different expensive outfit every day and who wear a lot of make-up and just want to go to parties and on vacations to exotic places and tropical islands.”

“Chloe, they don’t know what they are missing. You just have to find the right guy with similar interests. By the way, you don’t have to call me Uncle Bill now that you are older. Just call me Bill from now on.”

“Okay, Uncle Bill. Uh, I mean Bill.”

They quickly set up their tents next to each other. Bill had a one-person tent and Amanda and Chloe had a two-person tent. The girls zipped their sleeping bags together so they could have room to talk late into the night, which they often did. The weather forecast had changed, and it was going to be colder than they thought that night and they had not brought heaters for the tents.

After they set up, they had a leisurely healthy dinner, with turkey burgers and vegetables. After dinner, they made a nice campfire and started talking about their campouts from years ago, especially when Amanda and Chloe were teenagers and would get into mischief during the camping weekends. Once it got dark, Bill went to the SUV and got a bottle of bourbon and brought it over.

“Well girls, the last time we were here we never drank, since you both were not legal age. Let’s have a toast to our re-union campout. I think we will have a lot of fun.” They all had a few drinks too many, and Amanda was never good at holding her liquor, so she started slurring and getting sleepy.

“Guys I don’t feel too good. Dad, can I sleep in your tent tonight? I am afraid I am going to get sick and don’t want to possible puke on Chloe. We are best friends but there are just things you don’t want to share, like vomit. You two can sleep together in our sleeping bag.”

“Amanda I am okay with sleeping in your tent with Chloe, but she has to promise to keep her hands off this recently divorced guy.”

Chloe looked at Bill and punched him lightly in the arm. “Oh, Uncle Bill, I mean Bill, don’t be silly. I am young enough to be your daughter.”

“Chloe, I was only kidding.”

“I know you were.” But she looked at him in a new way, like he looked at her during the car ride, but she also quickly got any thoughts like that out of her mind.

Amanda staggered over to her tent and stumbled into it and they could hear her quickly starting to snore lightly. Bill and Chloe got into the tent and turned away from each other while they changed into warm pajamas. As they got into the sleeping bag, they knew it was going to be a little cold that night.

They talked more about their recent lives and laughed and smiled at how the three of them were so close. She then laughed and said, “Bill can you tell me a bedtime story like you used to on our camping trips when we were little?” she drunkenly giggled.

Bill thought this was a little weird, but he indulged her and told her the story of red riding hood and the big bad wolf, as they faced each other. She fell asleep with a smile on her face and he faced away from her and also fell asleep. An hour later there was thunder off in the distance that woke them up, but no rain. Chloe was always afraid of thunderstorms though, and after they woke up from the thunder, Chloe said, “Bill I know it sounds weird, but can you sleep facing me and hold me a little until the thunder stops? I’m scared of the storm and it is really getting cold in here and we can share some body warmth, like you taught us how to survive in the cold.”

“So, Chloe, you want me to spoon with you?”

“Well I guess you would call it that, but it is totally innocent, although we should not tell Amanda about it. She might get the wrong idea.”

“She probably wouldn’t, but let’s not take that chance and not tell her. She is drunk anyway and would not care what we did in our tent.” He realized what he just said, but he had never noticed her looking at him with anything but admiration for someone who was like a second father to her, so she probably did not take his comment that way.

They snuggled in the cold and in his sleep, he eventually forgot where he was and who he was with.