The Truth Comes Out

“Vicky!”

Ashley screamed her best friend’s name as she opened the door to see the blonde staring back at her, still dressed in the yoga pants and top from yesterday’s hike, now accessorised with a crutch. Ignoring the obvious instability of her friend, Ashley leapt forward, wrapping her arms around the taller blonde and hugging her tight. Victoria smiled into Ashley’s shoulder and wrapped her free arm around her friend’s waist, resting her hand on the small of her back.

After a moment of squeezing the life out of her best friend, Ashley broke the embrace and held Victoria at arm’s length, only then noticing that Victoria was not alone. Another blonde stood next to her, dressed in the Ranger’s garb, flat hat and all. Ashley didn’t know her but inside the cabin, Kurt perked up like a meerkat when he recognised her as Jennifer White. He hadn’t seen her in a year, since he volunteered with the Rangers and declared his feelings up at the caves.

“It’s nice to know I was missed,” Victoria beamed.

“I’m just so glad you’re okay, and I’m so happy that you found her,” Ashley said, turning her attention to the Ranger, and then searching over their shoulders but only finding an empty truck. “I thought you said Dustin was with you too.”

Victoria bit her lip and allowed Jennifer to answer, “I left him with another Ranger up at the station to prepare for a scientist coming to examine the caves later. But I wanted to make sure Victoria got back home safe myself.”

“She’s been in good hands if you’ve been looking after her,” Kurt stated, his eyes catching Jennifer’s gaze for a moment. They shared a look, a knowing, an experience that Chloe could sense just watching the pair lock eyes.

And then Jennifer turned away, looking to Victoria as she said, “Well, now that you’re here, I should get going. Just don’t go hiking in the woods alone again. That goes for all of you.”

She looked to Ashley but refrained from glancing back into the cabin where Kurt might catch her eye again. Victoria said her goodbyes, and Ashley thanked her again, as Victoria hobbled in through the door.

“Kurt, help me carry her to the bedroom,” Ashley requested, supporting Victoria as she used the crutch to hop in through the door.

Kurt immediately rushed to Victoria’s bad side, ducking under her arm and using his strong, broad shoulders to take the weight off the girl, walking in step with her as he guided her towards the bedroom she shared with Heather. Ashley walked along side them, taking the crutch as Kurt took over it’s purpose. In fact, Kurt was so effective, Ashley didn’t need to help at all, simply following alongside the pair as they moved from the front door to the bedroom.

Behind them, in the living room, Gavin closed the main door, just as Jennifer’s jeep moved off from the gravel yard. He frowned, hoping that he would have been the one to greet Victoria at the door, and wishing he could have been the one to help carry her. He supposed it was for the best, Kurt was physically stronger than him, but he had just so wanted to make a good impression upon Victoria’s return.

“Do you think I should go talk to her now?” Gavin asked Chloe, returning to her side as they stared down the hallway, watching Ashley, Kurt and Victoria disappear into the bedroom. “Ashley and Kurt would understand if I needed to speak with her for a few minutes…right?”

“Sure, maybe…but…” Chloe replied, pausing as she felt Gavin might not like what she had to say. “It may be a lot of information for her to process right away though. Maybe you should let her settle back in before you lay something this big on her.”

Gavin frowned. On the one hand, he could understand Chloe’s objection. It was a very serious conversation that he needed to have with Victoria, and not one to be undertaken lightly. But, just that morning, Zack had chastised him for not telling him about Lisa, about the threesome with Victoria and Ashley…even though Zack was pissed at Ashley he still appreciated that she had told him about what she’d done right away. Yet, it was trying to avoid being like Zack that had gotten him in this mess in the first place. If he hadn’t wanted to avoid the mess that Zack had created with Ashley and Chloe, he never would have left Victoria in the woods yesterday. He was to blame for trying to be someone else, someone he wasn’t.

“Maybe you’re right,” he admitted, taking a seat on the sofa. “I’ll let her be for now and talk to her in a little bit.”

Meanwhile, down the hall, Kurt helped Victoria over to the bed, releasing his steady grip on her as she plopped back on to the bed. Lying back against the pillow, Ashley took Victoria’s leg and eased it up onto the bed too, allowing her to lie lengthways along the bed, the other leg dangling off the side.

“Shit, I’m so happy you’re back, Vicky,” Ashley said, taking a seat at the end of the bed near Victoria’s foot. “We were all so worried for you.”

“Some of us even went out looking for you,” Kurt continued, stepping back. “But you were really lucky that the Rangers found you.”

“Never mind luck, it’s gotta feel like fate,” Ashley beamed, her face softening as she imagined the romance of the setting in her mind. “You lost and Dustin just so happening to be there to find you. It’s like a fairy tale.”

“Unfortunately, in this story, Prince Charming had spies watching the princess,” Victoria pursed her lips, not thrilled about having the relive the anger she felt at Dustin’s revelation last night. “He knew I was coming to the cabin for Spring Break. Kendra overheard you and Heather talking about it and told Dustin.”

“Kendra?” Kurt raised an eyebrow. “Who’s that?”

“She was a classmate of Hannah’s. Apparently, she used to be pretty nice and outgoing but she became really withdrawn after dating Dustin’s brother Shawn. Hannah said she was obsessed with him.” Ashley bit her lip pensively. “So, Dustin came back for you intentionally. I mean, that’s not so bad. It’s a bit intense, but it’s not like you found out he had a shrine to you with pictures and hair clippings and shit.”

“We also don’t know that he doesn’t have something like that back home in a closet somewhere,” Victoria noted, folding her arms across her breasts. “I dunno. Maybe I was a little hard on him, but I was just freaked out about it because he lied. I’m sure his intentions were good.”

“As a guy who has been called a perv many times…” Kurt began, making both the girls smile. “I agree that using information to just be in the same place at the same time as you is pretty tame. It’s not he tricked you into getting lost so he could find you.”

“Thank you for your expert testimony,” Victoria laughed. “Speaking of why I got lost, what happened to Gavin? I walked for a long time towards the caves, but he never caught up. Did he get lost too?”

“Apparently he got turned around and ended up at the waterfall,” Ashley began.

“That’s not entirely true,” Kurt grimaced and scratched his head. “Actually, it’s my fault.”

Victoria frowned and blinked, upset and bewildered by Kurt’s confession, Ashley looking equally confused by the change in the narrative. He sighed and continued, knowing that it was best to just get it out. “Gavin was having trouble deciding who between you and Chloe he wanted to date, and he came to me for advice.”

“Now that you mention it, I remember him saying something about that last night,” Ashley’s head pounded as snippets of memories and details slipped back into her mind amongst the haze of **** and lust. “Something about taking advantage of opportunities…”

“Right, to help him with his confidence. And me, knowing that the path splits between the caves and the waterfall, I told him to take you to the caves but if he decided he wanted Chloe, all he had to do was backtrack and come to the waterfall,” Kurt revealed, burying his face in his hands as he told her the whole, terrible plan. “But this was before Heather and Ashley went running off back to the cabin. You weren’t meant to go to the caves alone.”

“He went to the caves then…” Victoria surmised sorrowfully. “He picked Chloe.”

Ashley’s eyes narrowed at the older, blonde teen, remembering what she knew happened at the waterfall from the game of ‘Never Have I Ever’. “From what I understand, you didn’t come out of that too badly yourself.”

Kurt’s face went red, embarrassed and not realising that Ashley knew about the threesome. He coughed and looked away as he admitted, “Well, I’d be a hypocrite if I told Gavin to seize opportunities and didn’t do it myself. But I left them alone after that and they returned to the cabin together and they slept on the sofa naked together last night.”

“Heh, in fairness, that may not have been a couple thing. They might just have been exhausted,” Ashley clarified, explaining further as Victoria looked at her blankly. “So, last night while you were gone and some of the guys were out looking for you, Hannah, who had come around earlier in the day, suggested we drink some whiskey and play a game to take our minds off of whether or not you were coming back.”

“Hannah, **** and games,” Victoria counted off. “I already know this is going to end badly.”

“Well, we played ‘Never Have I Ever’, which became Strip ‘Never Have I Ever’ when the whiskey ran out and well…from there it just snowballed. And I’ll admit, Vicky, Gavin and I fucked, but there was nothing to it. Just **** and sex.”

“How did Chloe and Gavin end up on the sofa while you went to bed?” Kurt inquired, curious.

“I…don’t know. I remember passing out and I have some vague recollection of Hannah helping me into bed…so I guess at some point we left and maybe Gavin and Chloe kept going…but I just don’t know,” Ashley sighed and rubbed her forehead. “Too much whiskey.”

“So, either he’s with Chloe,” Victoria concluded. “Or he’s just fucking around.”

“You’re…not mad?” Ashley asked tentatively, remembering the outrage Victoria had directed towards Gavin and Chloe after finding them in bed together and noticing none of that same anger now.

Victoria shrugged. “It doesn’t even seem like he’s my boyfriend anymore, so why should I be? In fact, it kind of makes us even.”

Ashley tilted her head, trying to remember a time that her best friend had wronged her in such a way that it would make it okay for her to have drunken group sex with her best friend’s boyfriend. And, of course, she came up with nothing.

“The evening before I went missing. You remember that I was feeling…frustrated…and you suggested I go…take care of it?” Victoria reminded her, too embarrassed to say the actual words in front of Kurt. Following a nod from Ashley, she continued, “Well, I went to my bed, except I forgot I’d switched rooms and accidentally got into bed with Zack…”

Ashley’s eyes went wide. “You didn’t!”

Victoria nodded, biting her lip. “He was just there, and I was so…pent up…and he totally thought I was you the whole time. But there you have it. You’ve been with my so-called boyfriend and I’ve been with yours.”

“He’s my so-called boyfriend now too. The whole reason I came running back to the cabin yesterday was because I was trying to make up for some of my behaviour by letting him fuck Lisa. Except Lisa played me, and was intending on seducing him away from me, so I came back to stop it. But Zack was upset that I tried to have him cheat on me to even things up,” Ashley told her best friend. “It’s funny. I wanted him to fuck another girl to even up the score, but it turns out he already did.”

Kurt stood silently by, listening to the girls reveal what they’d gotten up to the past few days without anyone knowing, feeling like a fly on the wall. Usually he was smack bang in the middle of these kinds of scenarios, so it was interesting for him to be on the outside listening in for once. If he’d learned anything it was that these girls were up for nearly anything if they were drunk or horny. That, and he missed one hell of a party last night.

“Well, is that everything?” Victoria asked. “Or did I miss anything else?”