Author’s Note:
This is a rough draft. It has not been edited properly. I also tried using a dictation tool for some parts of this chapter, so that might lead to some weird formatting stuff I didn’t catch. Nothing is set in stone yet, and things may change as the draft develops. Thank you to anyone who reads and leaves feedback.
Read the rest, here:
Day Three:
To Augusta’s surprise, it’s Luana who seems to try to make things normal after Sam and Carey’s argument. Maybe it shouldn’t be surprising. Luana seems to have a thing for facades. Only, Augusta was really hoping Luana would be able to read the room, and let everyone do their separate things tonight. She was sort of hoping she’d be able to have her space. Even from Carey.
That’s not what happens.
“We should all play board games,” Luana says when everyone is finally in the same room again for dinner. “This evening, that’s what we should do.”
How can Augusta politely say that board game night with these three particular people is the absolute last thing she wants to do after the day she’s had? There’s got to be a way to say that without sounding rude, right?
Carey looks between Sam and Augusta. He doesn’t look so sure.
“Uh…” Carey begins to say.
“I would love that,” Sam replies quickly. His voice sounds sort of robotic as he says it. Augusta can’t tell whether or not he’s being sincere.
“You would?” Carey asks suspiciously. He also can’t tell, clearly.
Sam nods a little too eagerly. “Absolutely. Board games are a great way to get to know people, and you know what? Isn’t half the point of this vacation for us to get to know Augusta?”
Oh, God. Augusta sees what’s going on here. Sam really doesn’t want Carey to be upset with him. He’s overcompensating, trying to make it seem like he’s absolutely willing to be Augusta’s best friend for the foreseeable future, like that won’t be torture for him at all. That or he knows a secret about Carey and board games that would be liable to break Augusta and Carey up. But that seems less likely.
Augusta watches Carey process. Is he thinking the same thing she’s thinking? Is he taking it in earnest?
“I totally agree,” Luana says brightly. “Nothing acquaints people quicker than a game of Risk.”
“Okay, well that game is insane,” Sam says. “I was thinking, like, Pictionary.”
Carey exhales heavily and looks at Augusta. “What do you think?”
Well, she’s kind of in a bind now isn’t she? If she says yes, she has to pretend like she didn’t hear Sam and Carey’s argument earlier and that everything is fine. If she says no, then it looks like Sam has been doing his part trying to get to know her and she’s the frigid, unwelcoming person who isn’t trying in return. But she’s still sort of angry at Carey, generally, for discussing everything about her brother with Sam and for being so oblivious to Sam’s true feelings. Fuck.
“Fine, but if we’re playing Pictionary, then I want to be partners with Luana,” Augusta says.
“Uh, hey? Gus?” Carey looks offended.
“Maybe we’d all get to know each other better if we didn’t do everything as couples,” Augusta suggests, though this has absolutely nothing to do with her true motive.
Sam shakes his head with a smirk. “You just want to be partnered with the architect for the drawing game.”
Guilty as charged. If she’s going to put herself through the indignity of doing this this evening, she will at least use every possible competitive advantage to kick the asses of the two men she is currently frustrated with. Luana isn’t exactly her friend, as she’s tried to make clear, but she is her ally.
Carey’s jaw drops. “Such little faith in me!”
“Oh, come on. What do you have to draw ever? You read for a living!” Augusta challenges.
“So do you,” Carey laughs.
“Exactly,” Augusta says. “I need to find a teammate with different skills right now.”
Luana cuts into the discussion. “Do I get a say in this?”
Carey nods. “I guess that would be the polite thing to offer my guest. Who do you want to partner with for Pictionary, Luana?”
“I choose Augusta, too,” Luana says. “ I’ve seen Sam try to draw, and it’s not pretty.”
Sam doesn’t seem offended by this at all .He just looks at Carey.
“Not going to stick up for yourself?” Carey asks.
“Nope,” Sam says. “I’m fine with this arrangement.”
Augusta is sure that he is.
Aware that she’s more or less conceding to do something she doesn’t really want to do, Augusta takes a deep breath. She looks at Luana, who gives her an encouraging little smile. Again, Augusta is left to wonder why Luana is being so damn nice. Especially after Augusta has said twice now, and more recently not so kindly, that she doesn’t have to be.
“Alright,” Augusta says to the other woman, preferring her brand of mess to whatever Carey and Sam have going on. “Let’s kick some ass.”
▪️▪️▪️
They do kick ass, which can mostly be attributed to Luana. She does a genuinely impressive quick drawing of a sea turtle which, when paired against Carey’s absolutely horrendous attempt at drawing a teapot, is a pretty clear indicator of how the whole game is going to go. They trounce the guys.
With a glass of wine and a round of victory behind her, Augusta starts to feel a bit less sour about the whole thing earlier. Not like she’s happy that Carey and Sam were discussing her life without her, but just less bitter about things generally. She feels a bit distracted, in a way that spending time alone mulling it over probably wouldn’t have accomplished. Luana probably had the right idea suggesting they play games. Games are easy to focus on and don’t have to be overly personal. You can have fun and remain completely surface level.
That’s what Augusta needs right now. That’s what vacations should kind of be, right? It’s not like this is some deep meaningful road trip with heightened personal car conversations. This is beer on the dock by the lake, for the most part. It should not be as socially fraught as it has been.
So Pictionary is followed by a few rounds of Hearts, until Carey keeps winning, and it becomes clear he has some weird, superhuman affinity for the game. Augusta didn’t know that was possible; she thought it was mostly a game of luck and calling people on their bluffs. After that, they gravitate towards a drinking game, which Augusta feels is probably not the wisest choice. But it’s a new game that apparently Carey hasn’t tried, in which you pull a card with a prompt and either answer the prompt truthfully or drink. A literal recipe for disaster. Augusta is not sure why she agrees to this. They’re in their thirties, not nineteen, and everyone has secrets. This isn’t going to go well. But when nobody else brings that up, when nobody else raises the potential red flags, neither does Augusta.
Maybe there’s a sick little part of her that wants to see where this could go, that craves for all the facades to be over and done with. If this is all going to implode, why not tonight?
So they play. The first few questions are pretty tame, and it does a good job in terms of being an icebreaker of sorts. A get to know you sort of game. Augusta does learn things about Luana and Sam. She even learns things about Carey.
“What’s the worst advice you’ve ever given someone else?” Sam starts. He has to think about it for a moment. “Like professionally or personally?”
“I really hope you aren’t going around handing out bad professional advice as a nurse, Sam,” Luana says.
“Uh. Not usually,” Sam confesses.
“That’s a little sketchy,” Luana warns him.
“Is this about the poison ivy thing?” Carey asks. “Because I don’t think that was intentionally bad advice.”
“Do people intentionally give bad advice?” Augusta asks.
“Well now I want to know what the poison ivy thing is,” Luana says.
Sam groans a little.
“It was on a camping trip with my ex,” Carey says. “She and I both came in contact with poison ivy. We both reacted pretty badly, especially her. I asked Sam if I should go see a doctor, and he said no, the home remedies are enough. Turns out, she really needed a doctor.”
“Well, you failed to mention where she had come in contact with poison ivy, Carey,” Sam says.
“Oh God,” Luana winces.
“I have so many questions and I don’t think I actually want answers to any of them,” Augusta says.
“Probably for the best,” Carey nods. “But see? Sam, it’s not totally your fault.”
Luana goes next.
“When was the last time you got dumped?” she reads. “Never. I am always the dumper.”
Carey looks at Sam. “Watch out.”
Luana laughs. “I’m not a repeat offender! There was just one serious relationship before Sam, where I sort of dumped the guy twice.”
Fred, Augusta remembers. Probably not his actual name, but isn’t that what Luana said the night that they met? She’d been dressed as Daphne and she had to dump her Fred. Augusta didn’t know they broke up twice though. Did Luana go back to him after her brief hook up with Augusta? did the whole thing scare her so badly she ran right back into the closet? That’s a mean thought. But not an altogether unlikely one.
Augusta draws the next card. “Have you ever been fired from a job? No, I haven’t. But after a summer job in high school working at a kids’ summer camp made me cry, it was highly suggested to me that I did not return.”
“What’s the worst date you’ve ever been on?” Carey reads when it’s his turn. “I took a girl to see the movie Cats, because she was a big fan of musical theater. I will never get those hours of my life back.”
And on and on and on it goes.
Have you ever been caught checking someone out? Sam answers no. Augusta thinks that that’s probably a lie. She’s definitely caught him checking Carey out, whether or not he knows it.
What is your biggest pet peeve about the person to your left? For luana, that’s Sam. She says that he cracks his joints when he’s stressed and it freaks her out.
“Not just his knuckles,” Luana explains. “His back and his neck too.”
What’s the drunkest you’ve ever been? Augusta tells the group that her and a few friends got really hammered the night their masters’ coursework was finished. This is the truth, but it isn’t particularly exciting. She doesn’t actually have a lot of really exciting drunken stories. The main thought would be the one with Luana, but she’s obviously not going to tell that.
Have you ever had a one night stand?
“Uh…” Carey frowns. “What counts as a one night stand?”
“So, that’s a yes,” Luana laughs.
“Sounds like it,” Augusta smirks, raising an eyebrow.
She’s not going to pass any judgement about what happened in his sex life before he met her. As long as he is transparent about testing and all of those safety precautions, it’s really none of her concern.
Sam does not seem to have the same feeling.
“Well, hang on,” he says. “Wait a second. What do you mean by that?”
“What do you mean, what does he mean by that?” Luana asks. “Isn’t it obvious? He’s had some pretty casual hookups.”
Sam’s cheeks go pink.
“Okay,” Carey looks uncomfortable. “It’s not a big deal. I don’t even know if they all count as one night stands? Like what is the definition of a one night stand? Does it have to last the entire night? Or is it just sex that happens one time? Several times in one occurrence?”
“Wow,” Augusta mutters.
“I don’t even understand why you’re asking,” Sam says. “Sure, you date maybe more than I do, but that doesn’t mean you’re sleeping around, does it?”
He’s probably doing the interrogation that Augusta should be doing, if social conventions are anything to go by. Since he isn’t Augusta, he’s risking coming across as prudish and potentially slut-shaming. Not a great look there, Sam.
“I think it’s pretty normal to have a brief sexual encounter here and there,” Augusta says, trying to defend her boyfriend, even though she knows this isn’t what she needs to be defending him against.
“Right,” Luana says. “I agree. Sometimes people just need to experiment. Get something out of their system, you know?”
Augusta flashes her a look. Is that right?
“Yeah,” Carey nods. “It’s really no big deal, Sam. Just a few times in university and one more recently.”
“One recently?” Sam asks. “Who recently? how recently?”
Augusta’s stomach twists. She knows exactly who Carey is talking about. Because, while they haven’t discussed their previous sexual encounters in a lot of detail, they have talked to each other a lot about discovering their sexualities, and how that had been different for him than it had been for her. She’d always had a feeling about it, where it kind of slapped him in the face after a hook up with a guy in a bar. That’s who Carey is talking about. That’s what he wasn’t sure constituted as a one night stand or not.
“Sam…” Carey looks uncertain.
He wanted to tell Sam, eventually. That’s what he said the other day. He wanted to tell Sam after this week. He shouldn’t be pressured into doing it now because of some silly drinking game.
“If he doesn’t want to say who, he doesn’t have to,” Augusta says suddenly.
It’s the right thing to say. She believes it’s the right thing to say. But it also serves her, doesn’t it? Because a huge part of her is terrified of what will happen if Sam learns that Carey is bisexual. She’s terrified of what will happen to her relationship if Sam thinks Carey is an option.
Sam looks alarmed at Augusta’s words. “Wait, what? Oh my god, Carey, please tell me you didn’t sleep with my little sister.”
“What?” Carey demands. “Jesus, Sam. No, no, I did not sleep with your sister.”
“Then why are you being weird about it?” Sam asks. “And why didn’t you tell me? You always tell me stuff.”
“You want to hear about every sexual encounter I ever have?” Carey asks, skeptical.
“Well, no, but it feels weird that you tell your current girlfriend and not your best friend about your past hookups,” Sam says.
“So, all of this is weird actually,” Luana says, then takes a sip of her wine.
“I just don’t understand why you want to know,” Carey says.
“You tell me literally everything else,” Sam says. “ Like if you have a dentist appointment, I hear about it.”
Carey does give really effective play-by-plays of his days. Some evenings, Augusta feels like she remembers what happened to him throughout the day better than what happened to her. He’s a chatter, that one. It’s something Augusta actually really likes about him. Like she never has to be confused about what he’s thinking. Or, at least, that’s what she thought before this week. Now she finds herself constantly confused about what he’s thinking, but mostly when it comes to Sam. She never knows what he’s thinking about Sam. And that feels sort of dangerous. Especially right now.
“Oh my god,” Carey groans. “I didn’t tell you, because it was a guy.”
Apart from the soft music playing from speakers – some easy rock playlist of Carey’s – the room goes completely quiet. It goes completely still. Like everyone is frozen by this admission. Augusta feels like they all had a script for how this night was supposed to go, and Carey has decided to go off book. Now, no one knows where the scene is headed. No one knows their lines in this scenario.
Eventually, Sam surpasses his shock just enough to speak. But not enough to speak well.
“A-a guy?” He responds.
“Yep,” Carey confirms.
“Like a man?” Sam follows up. Just to be sure words still have the same meaning as they did two minutes ago, Augusta is sure.
“Yes,” Carey says, eyes narrowed. “A man, Sam.”
“You’re saying that you had sex with a man,” Sam continues, because clearly he has to be very, very sure.
“Sort of,” Carey replies.
“Sort of? Well, what does that mean?” Sam asks. “Is having sex with men something you like to do?”
“Jesus, Sam,” Luana whispers.
“Uh, you know, the actual event doesn’t really matter,” Carey says, cheeks very red. “But, yes? Actually, I think… Well, no, I am. Bisexual. I am bisexual.”
There’s another long pause. Then Sam simply responds with the flattest “oh” Augusta has ever heard.
This could not be going worse for Sam and Carey. Augusta recognizes that this technically means it’s going well for her. If Sam can’t process how this makes him feel enough to give Carey any sort of positive response, he likely isn’t going to inspire any declaration of feelings from Carey. A small part of Augusta feels a sense of relief. But an even larger part feels rattled with guilt. How is it that she’s benefiting from something going so disastrously? How can she be the benefactor of Carey having his heart broken by his best friend, simply because neither of them understands where the other person is coming from? It’s not that Sam really wants him to feel unsupported right now. Carey’s admission is just kind of shaking Sam’s entire worldview, Augusta suspects. Like he’s just now realized he missed an opportunity he never knew he had.
“I didn’t know until recently,” Carey says. “It’s not like I lied to you or I was hiding it from you or something.”
“Okay,” Sam replies. Augusta can see how lost he is behind his eyes.
“Well, thank you for telling us, Carey,” Luana says brightly, her pageant-quality smile looking a little forced. It’s really great that you figured that out about yourself, and that you and Augusta have that in common.”
Carey gives Luana a bit of a confused look at that last statement. Like he’s trying to piece together when Augusta would have told her. Augusta has to hold back a sigh. For someone with a secret, Luana is actually terribly bad at lying.
“Thanks,” Carey says finally, but he’s not really paying attention to Luana. He’s looking at Sam. Waiting for Sam to say something. There’s so much hurt in his eyes.
“Well,” Sam says eventually, voice tight. “I guess I should draw the next card.”
Oh god. What is wrong with him?
“You know what?” Carey replies. “I’m actually feeling kind of done playing games tonight. Starting to get pretty tired.”
Sam’s face goes slack.
Carey looks at Augusta. “Are you okay if I go to bed?”
She nods quickly. “Yeah, why don’t I come with you?”
He could probably use someone to talk to.
For someone who is so clearly in love with Carey, Sam is a very confused man! Great read❤️