We took an excursion, three of us, friends, three friends.  Just friends.  We went to Utah to admire the landscape and to drive.  Drive drive drive.  We drove through Barstow but we didn't have a suitcase full of drugs.  We left California for Utah because California got a little cramped and Utah still has a lot of open space.  California has a lot of open space too, but it takes longer to drive to Utah, so we went there.

    We had a lot of open space and a lot of time to talk.  We made a solid trio, but our situation was one of those awkward one-girl-two-guys situations.  Not like that, though.  I already said we were just friends.  But with guys and girls, just friends is never really just friends, is it?  So the guys still feel the need to impress the girl and fight for her attention.  I mean this was the situation I was in.  

    So I lay there on one side, the other guy lay on the other side of the girl.  We camped in a small tent so we all kind of cuddled out of necessity, plus it was cold and we were trying to get the whole body heat thing working.  But the cuddling gets a little awkward because I'm not particularly interested in cuddling this other guy, just in cuddling this girl who is just my friend.  We can be close friends like this, trust me.  But in this situation it's like I get the front of her and he gets the back.  I can do a little leg hook, but he's got his arm around her waist.  I have this thing going on where our forearms are touching but we're not holding hands because that's more of a couple thing, and we have three here.

    One night we slept in a bed because we were on the way home and it wasn't really a camping sort of town that we found ourselves in.  So we were on this king sized mattress, all of us, just to save money of course.  I'm laying there on my back, and she's facing me, and we have the forearm-touching thing going on again.  The other guy is there on the back again.  I'm thinking, should I do something here?  Like something a little more intimate.  You know, to make sure we stay really good friends.  Like I could turn toward her and put my hand on her neck under her thick wavy brown hair and kind of massage, sending the message "it was a long trip, I hope you are relaxing alright."  Apparently this other guy had the same idea and I think he started rubber her back right there with me in the bed and everything.  And she's kind of groaning I think.  I can't really tell because I'm a little drunk and it's not clear what's going on.  But the rubbing noise goes on for quite a while, I think, so I think it's real.  We're definitely all just friends.

    But I'm thinking, this guy's a little sneak, with the whole rubbing maneuver.  He's really taking advantage of this friendship.  What am I supposed to do, also rub her?  Wouldn't that be weird?  Two guys fondling this broad?  Would she feel weird or good?  If she would feel good I guess I could just go ahead and join in on the rubbing, but maybe she'd be freaked out.  Maybe the best idea is to just hang out on the side here with the forearms touching and not trying too much else.  This could be more advantageous in the morning and future in general, like I'm not the weird guy joining some other guy in rubbing the heck out of her.  But damn, I had a long trip too, lots of nature, so some human contact would really soothe the soul.

    You know, maybe I'll make her a little necklace.  Yeah, she would like that.  She's an environmentalist so she loves rocks and we admired a couple interesting ones during the trip.  I could wrap some wire around one of these rocks and hook it to a chain and give it to her before I go to Europe or for Christmas or something.  Nothing too outrageous, though, because we're just friends.