The Cabin in the Woods

“Oh God, no,” Dana said, “it’s awesome! It looks really natural, and it’s great with your skin. I just didn’t think you were ever gonna-”

“Impulse,” Jules said. “I woke up this morning and thought, I want to have more fun. Who is it that has more fun?” Still posing, she ruffled up her hair and pouted. “Marilyn, dahling.”

“Manson?”

“Monroe! Imbecile.”

“Curt’s gonna lose it,” Dana laughed.

“He’ll have more fun too,” Jules said. “And so will you… ” She snatched the sketch pad from Dana and stared at it, scowling at the image. “…while we are burning this picture.”

Dana grabbed the pad back, her good humor slipping just a little. She understood that Jules was being protective of her, and angry at the man who’d hurt her. But really, it was only Dana who knew everything that had gone on.

“I’m not ready to,” she said. “And seriously, this isn’t all his fault.”

“What’s not his fault?” Jules asked. Her posing and pouting was over now, and she stalked Dana’s room like a cat looking for a mouse. “Being thirty-eight and married, fucking his student, or breaking up with her by email?”

“I knew what I was getting into,” Dana said, looking at the picture and silently acknowledging how much crap that was. She hadn’t known at all. In retrospect she’d come to understand it all, but that was what learning by mistakes was all about.

“Right,” Jules said. “Dana Polk, homewrecker. Puh-leeze.” She moved to the dresser, and started rifling shamelessly through Dana’s open drawers. Dana loved Jules as a best friend, but sometimes she was so damn… close.

“You know what I-” she began.

“You know what you’re getting into this weekend?” Jules asked, her mood brightening again. She was holding up Dana’s little wine-colored bikini. “This. And if Holden’s as cute as Curt says he is, possibly out of it as well.”

“That’s the last thing-” Dana said, then she saw the truth behind Jules’s smile. “If you guys treat this like a set-up, I’m gonna have no fun at all.”

“I’m not pushing,” Jules said, doing exactly the opposite. She crossed to Dana’s bed, flipped up her suitcase’s lid and ran her hands over the surface of the stuff she’d already packed. “Hmm. But we are packing the bikini. Which means…” She pulled the textbooks out and dropped them on the bed, one, two, three. “…we definitely won’t have room for these.”

“Oh, come on, what if I’m bored?”

Jules gasped and looked at her, and Dana closed her eyes, realizing just how lame that sounded.

“These’ll help?” Jules said. “Soviet Economic Structures? Aftermath of the Cultural…?” She tossed one of the books theatrically across the bed, not even blinking when it bounced onto the floor.

If that cover is broken, the library will charge me, Dana thought.

“No!” Jules cried, grasping the remaining two books to her chest. “We have a lake! And a keg! We are girls on the verge of going wild- Just look at my hair, woman!”

Dana looked, and nodded, and she had to admit to herself, Yeah, this has the feel of being an epic weekend.

“It is great,” she said, and she was about to add more when a voice called from the doorway-

“Think fast!”

Curt had only been listening for a few seconds- well, maybe thirty… okay, perhaps a minute-and while the idea of snooping for longer on his girlfriend and her hot friend had its attractions, he couldn’t bring himself to do it. He thought of himself as a decent guy, and decent guys didn’t do things like that.

Besides, there was the risk he’d hear something he didn’t want to. And he’d been timing himself.

So swinging around the corner into the room and throwing the football had seemed a suitable way to overcome his slight embarrassment. Perhaps he should have thought to check on whether both girls were dressed.

One of them let out a surprised yelp, though he didn’t know which one. As the ball sailed between them and directly through the open window, he had an instant to register two facts about the view: one, his girlfriend’s hair had changed color; and two, Dana was only wearing a shirt and panties.

It took him only a heartbeat to confirm that he liked both things.

“Well, faster than that,” he said, grinning.

“Curt!” Jules snapped, but he was already darting into the room. He shoved them toward the window, and all three of them looked out to see what had become of the ball.

It was a nice street, with close-built three-story town houses, mostly given over to student accommodations, and a variety of vehicles parked along the curbside. Some students had new cars bought for them when they came to college, others had to buy their own- gleam sat next to rust, but both seemed very much at home here. The whole place exuded a good vibe, and that’s why Curt liked it so much.