“Do you have the food?”

He riffled through the cooler before responding, “We have the hamburger patties, the toppings, the fruit, the veggies, the milk, and the eggs.”

“What about the dry foods?”

He pulled out the plastic grocery bag next to the cooler, then nodded.

“All three boxes of cereal?  The trail mix?  The pancake mix?”

“Yes,” he said tiredly.  “We have everything.  Can we please go now?”

She sat down on the lawn and looked up at him.  There were dark circles under her eyes, and her hair was coming out of her ponytail on the sides, like she’d been nervously running her hands through it.

He sat down beside her.

“What’s the matter?  You’re normally obsessive, but this is a record for you.”

She looked up at her best friend.  If she had any art talent, she could draw him from memory and manage to catch every little detail.  She searched for the little scar on his brow that he’d gotten from a swing incident when they were six.  It always comforted her to find something that she expected to be there.

“I just...I just want to be prepared,” she began slowly.  “I’ve never done this before, and if something happens---”

“Nothing is going to happen,” he insisted.  “What we’re doing is hardly considered camping.  There’s a general store at the campsite incase we forget or run out of something.  There’s a ranger station just half a mile from our spot, and we’ll even have cell service.”

She sighed.  Logically she knew he was right, but she still couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling she’d been experiencing all week.

“Hey,” he said. 

She looked back up at him.  He saw the telltale wrinkle on her forehead.

“I know you don’t believe me now, but I promise that everything will be okay.”

Instead of responding, she wrapped her arms around his neck.

“Normally I hate it when you’re right, but this time I wouldn’t mind.”

He laughed, a full hearty laugh that shook her as she held on to his torso. 

He leaned back, and she released her grip.

“Are you ready to go?” he asked. 

“As ready as I’ll ever be.”

He smiled, and she couldn’t help but smile back at him. 

They got in his beat up Suburban station wagon; it was so full of supplies that they couldn’t even see out the rearview window.

The whole way there, he seemed to be overflowing with joy and excitement at the idea of sharing this experience with her.

She never really became comfortable with the whole concept of camping, but seeing him so obviously pleased distracted her from her fears.

She really believed that love was a broad term.  There was romantic love, familial love, and platonic love.  Within these categories there was as spectrum; at one extreme there was indifference, and at the other was a love so strong that the other person’s happiness is so important to you that you would be willing to cut yourself out of their life completely if it made them happy.

He mattered to her that much.  So, despite the fact that the entire concept of camping made her deeply uncomfortable, the look on his face as he talked about all the things he had to show her and teach her was enough to make it all worthwhile.

She wasn’t prepared, but it was okay so long as he was smiling.