15.

"Ryder," Cam whined lowly in my ear, "Ryder, he's glaring at me."

I looked up from my plate of eggs and over Cam's shoulder—he was, again sitting his ass on my lap, apparently too good to sit on the ground like everyone else—to see that Chord was indeed glaring at him. His gaze drifted up to me when he caught my staring and he quickly looked away.

I shoved a forkful of food in my mouth, chewing slowly and swallowing before giving my reply. "Maybe he has something to say to you."

"I doubt that." He muttered, then, "When we're done eating, can we go shower?"

"Yeah. Of course."

"This again? Really?" I complained loudly at being shoved back into the outskirts of the clearing, up against a tree. I whined pitifully. There were probably ants and spiders in this tree. The rough bark of it somehow managed to cut through the fabric my shirt and I grunted softly at the feeling of it biting into my skin.

I looked up and into Ashton's ice blue gaze—and for once, I didn't shy away. "Well, yeah." The smile he gave me almost made me lose all my composure. He had a hand pressed against my chest to hold me still. "Since I didn't get to last night because someone else was sleeping with you instead." I didn't stop him when he leaned down and pressed his lips to mine, just kind of went with it.

I probably shouldn't have just 'went with it' as that had landed me in the position I was in now. Lying in bed—well really, my sleeping bag—that night with a shirtless Ashton straddling my waist.

"We're fucking." He repeated for the third time.

And me, "No. We're not." At that, he punched me in the arm. Hard. "Ow, you fucking bastard!" I shouted, clutching my arm as I tried to sit up, but couldn't because Ashton was still sitting on me. "That's a surefire way not to get in my pants."

Ashton frowned down at me, his fingers toying with the drawstring on my shorts. "Oh, come on. We've been dancing around this for over a month."

"So? You punched me. Get off." I let go of my injured limb to shove at his chest, but again, it didn't really do anything.

"Ryder."

My gaze snapped up snapped up to meet his, and for the first time that day, I shrank back away from him at the intensity I found there, but still found myself whispering, "What?"

"We're fucking."

I snapped out of my trance at that. "No. We're not."

I squeaked loudly when he hooked his fingers in the waistband of my shorts and underwear and pulled. "Hey!" I hissed, grabbing the waistband of them myself and struggling to hold them in place. I glared up at Ashton, would've kicked him if he hadn't been sitting on me. "I said no!"

He slapped my hands away. "Ryder, I already told you."

I whined loudly when he ripped the clothes from my hips, consequently revealing myself to whoever cared to look. I groaned when he lightly trailed the tips of his fingers up my member, my watery eyes rolling upward toward the ceiling. "Is this rape?" I whispered, my voice barely audible to even my own ears—but Ashton somehow still managed to hear it.

He looked at me like I was crazy. "It's only rape if you don't want it and it's obvious that you do."

I couldn't really deny it at this point, not with all the noises I was making under the steady attentions of his hand. "Fuuuuck, Ash." I moaned, my hips arching into his hand, seeking more friction. My hands were pressed up against my face, blocking the tears from Ashton's keen gaze. I mean, I wasn't really crying, but it was kind of hard to make the waterworks stop after they had started.

How long had it been since I'd been in this situation—this close to a guy? A while. And Ashton just probably only wanted sex from me, which I was perfectly willing and ready to give. I couldn't bring myself to care about anything else, not when it felt this—

"Are you crying?"

"Unghh, Shut up."

Surprisingly, he did, and it wasn't long before he was sitting between my legs, which were wrapped around his waist, lubing up his fingers. Me? I was still "crying". Fuck, this was gonna hurt. And it was gonna hurt bad, too. Ashton was probably gonna think I was lying about not being a virgin.

I startled violently at the feeling of one of his fingers probing at my entrance. "Ryder, baby, calm down." Ashton said softly, pressing a surprisingly gentle kiss to the corner of my mouth. "You're okay."

I nodded my assent and he pushed one finger inside me. My body almost immediately tensed and I struggled to relax so that my body wouldn't push him back out. "Fuck." I hissed, squeezing my eyes shut tightly, a few more tears escaping. "Ash."

Ashton leaned down and pressed his lips to mine again. "Are you okay?"

I squirmed at the feeling of him adding another finger. "No. It hurts."

"It does?"

"Mmm. Yeah." I whispered.

"Did you lie about—"

"No." I grumbled, feeling my cheeks heat up. "It's just been a while…"

"You want me to stop?"

I shook my head slightly and reached up to wrap my arms around his neck and pull him closer. "Just go slow, please."

"Oh, fuck." I moaned as he pulled his fingers out, only to have his cock pressing in a few moments later. Ashton grunted softly, his eyes fluttering shut as he bottomed out inside me. I raised a hand to stifle a cry as he started to move—without even asking if it was okay.

He grabbed my hand and pinned it to my side. "Don't do that. I wanna hear you." I looked up at him, but not into his eyes. That'd be awkward—though it couldn't get more awkward than this.

"But Cam—holy shit!" I practically melted when he slammed into my prostate and was reduced to nothing but wanton moans. It didn't take him long to push me over the edge after that, and Ashton followed shortly after I did.

I was half asleep a few minutes later when the flap to our tent was zipped open. I wasn't really surprised when I realized it was Cam, but was too sated to get up and see what he wanted. But apparently, I didn't have to. Ashton, who was still lying on top of me, glanced back to see who it was and grunted, "Get the fuck out."

Cam ignored him and just kind of hovered in the doorway. When I actually bothered to look closer at him I realized that he was crying. "Shit, Cam, what's wrong?" I shoved Ash off me, pulling my boxers back on beneath the cover of my blanket and going over to see what he needed.

"Chord said.. Ch-Chord said—"

"Just tell us what the fuck he said already."

I shot Ashton a look and then turned back to Cam. "What'd he say, Cam?"

"H-He said he didn't want me." Cam started crying harder and resisted when I tried to pull him to me.

"What else did he say?" I knew that couldn't be it. Cam didn't, well really, it wasn't likely for him to cry over being rejected. And Chord could be really spiteful when he wanted.

Cam shook his head, and I sighed shortly, grabbing my shirt from the floor of the tent and pulling it on. "Stay here." I said to Cam, then ducked through the flap of our tent. I kind of regretted not stopping to put on my shoes and my ass was ridiculously sore with all this moving around, but I couldn't bring myself to care.

"Ryder, don't even." Chord didn't even turn to look at me when I entered his tent. It was like he'd been expecting me or something, which he probably had been.

"What the fuck did you say to him?"

Chord sat up so fast it startled me back a couple of steps. "Don't bring your ass in here cursing at me! You're the one that told him to tell me all that shit. You go fucking deal with it."

I stood there for a moment, stunned. Chord had never really shouted at me before. "So what if I did? You still don't have the right to make him fucking cry!"

Chord glared at me for a few seconds before his expression, and his gaze, softened considerably. He absently scratched the back of his head. "I made him cry?" I nodded. "Fuck, where is he?" He asked as he stood up.

"He's in me and Ashton's tent but," I stopped him before he could leave. "Really, what did you say?"

Chord blushed lightly, mumbling under his breath as he pushed passed me, "It's not what I said, more what I did."

"How the fuck did those two…" Johnny mumbled under his breath.

"I don't even…" I couldn't really explain it—seeing as I didn't know a fucking thing.

Standing in the middle of the clearing was Chord and Cam. Chord had his arms wrapped firmly around Cam's waist and they had been kissing for a few moments, but Cam had pulled away when he realized he had an audience.

"That's weird." Matt whispered, leaning into my side. I was kind of surprised he was hovering around me instead of his… boyfriend?

Ashton was still in our tent, so I generally assumed that he had just fallen asleep. "So…" I said slowly, "How'd you two—"

"It's a long story," Chord interrupted, and added with a smirk, "One we're not willing to share."

"Oh, fuck you." Johnny said with a roll of his eyes and a wide yawn, grabbing onto Matt's arm and tugging him toward their tent. "We're going to bed. Goodnight."

"Bye the way, Johnny," Chord called out and the boy in question slowed to a stop and turned around to look at him. "Keep your hands off my little brother."

Johnny gave Chord one of those Really? looks and promptly reached down to grab Matt's crotch. Matt's face burst into flames as he shoved the other boy's hand away. "Johnny, what the fuck is the matter with you?"

"Nothing," The curly haired blonde shrugged. "Just proving a point."

I didn't know what his point was, but I guessed it was that Chord wasn't going to do anything. And if that was it, Johnny had been right. Chord didn't do anything. He just kind of glared at him as he walked away.

I raised my hand to cover my mouth and stifle a yawn (those things really were contagious), then waved it in Chord and Cam's direction absently. "Goodni—"

"Wait, Ry!" I turned just in time to be ambushed by Cam. He wrapped his arm around me tightly and surprised me by pressed a fleeting kiss to my lips. "I love you." He said, pulling away.

I blinked slowly. "Uh, love you too."

Cam nodded and shoved me in the direction of my tent. "All right, just checking. You can go to bed now."

When I got back to the tent Ashton was, in fact, asleep. He had apparently zipped both of the sleeping bags back together sometime after I'd left. I hesitated a moment before crawling in beside him. I'd originally thought that sleeping beside Ashton wouldn't be awkward, considering all that stuff we'd gotten into earlier, but as always, I was wrong.

Even through the awkwardness, though, I somehow managed to still fall asleep.

When I woke up in the middle of the night, I had to pee. Not only that, but it was ridiculously dark and sometime during the few hours or so I had been asleep Ashton had taken it upon himself to wrap his body around mine.

I slipped out from beneath him, with some difficulty, and grabbed blindly for the flashlight and my phone. I clicked on the little flashlight and shined it around until I found my shoes. I wasn't going around without them this time.

I froze when I heard Ashton stir, then, "What're you doing?"

For some reason, I felt my cheeks heat up at the sleep roughened sound of his voice and was glad for the darkness so that he wouldn't be able to see it. "I'm going to the bathroom." I said simply.

I heard him sit up and quickly shined the light in his direction. He brought a hand up to shield his eyes from the light, squinting at me. "I'm going with you."

No way. "I'm perfectly capable—"

"I'm not letting you walk out into the fucking woods by yourself at night, Ryder." He interrupted, and I guess he had a point. But still.

I waited quietly as he slipped on his clothes and then we headed out of the tent and down the narrow path that led to the bathrooms.

"I can't pee with you standing there watching me." I muttered and Ash rolled his eyes and turned around. I started at the tiled wall above the urinal for a moment before adding, "And listening." He made a small sound of annoyance and then stepped just outside the door.

I did my thing and when I stepped outside Ashton shoved me up against the wall. "Why are you always pushing me into things?" I said, exasperated.

He ignored me. Or that, at least. "Why're you acting like that?"

"Like what?"

"Like I didn't just fuck you a few hours ago."

I tried to move away from him, but he held me in place. "I don't really… know."

He narrowed his eyes at me and I think the lack of light was playing tricks on my mind, because he actually looked kind of hurt. "Is that your way of saying you don't want to be with me?"

"Well, no…"

"Is there a problem here, gentlemen?"

Ashton didn't appear even remotely bothered by the sudden appearance of the security guard and didn't take his gaze off me as he said, "Yeah. We're fine."

The security guard shined his ridiculously bright light on me. I whine softly, at the feeling of it burning my eyes. "Are you all right, young man?" I nodded. "All right then." The guy said, his voice grainy with old age. "You boys should probably be getting back to your reserve. It's not as safe out here as they say it is."

Ashton gave me a cryptic look, then turned to give the guy a kind smile. "Thank you." He grabbed onto the hem of my shirt and pulled as he started walking, forcing me to trail behind him. "Goodnight, sir."

"Mhmm."

We settled back down in our tent, sitting on opposite sides of the sleeping bag. I was the one that started the inevitable conversation. "Okay, so… Do you want a relationship with me?"

He stared at me for a moment before replying with, "Do you want a relationship with me?"

"Don't fucking do that."

Ashton smile a little as he said, "Fine. I guess I'd like to see where this," He gestured between us, "Goes. But only if you do it too."

I don't know why the hell I started tearing up. It wasn't like he'd asked me to marry him. Just if I wanted to be his boyfriend. But really, to be honest, I'd thought he only wanted me for sex. This was ten times better.

"Are you crying? Again?"

I shook my head. "I wanna… I-I wanna—"

"You what?" Ashton was starting to look annoyed, like he thought I was going to reject him or something.

I don't know what possessed me to do it, but in one jerky movement, I lurched over the stretch of space between us and crawled into his lap. "I want to see where this goes too."

Ashton's arms came up around me, a soft smile teasing the corners of his mouth as he said, "Then why are you crying?"

I leaned up and pressed my lips to his, hard, and when I pulled away, breathless, I replied, "Because I'm happy."