Lake Emerald Chronicles: The First Summer: A Reverse Harem Romance

by Melissa Adams

  Friends and frenemies

  I wake up with the sun beating on my face and the light insinuating itself under my closed lids: it takes me a moment to shake the sleep off and I look at my phone noticing is ten to eight, so I better get in the shower and get ready to go meet Logan.

  I decide to go for practical but cute and choose a short pair of navy shorts and a red fitted t-shirt with a black and white butterfly etched on the front. I wear a pair of red converse and leave my auburn hair down; I apply just a bit of mascara and a red tinted lipgloss and I ask Hazel:

  ‘How do I look?’

  She smiles still a bit sleepy and reassures me:

  ‘Positively kissable, go and get him!’

  And then collapses face down on her pillow.

  I literally bounce out of my cabin and walk down the paved path to cabin number eight.

  It’s 8.30 and I knock on the door but get no response. After knocking one more time, I try the door: after all Logan did say to come in if he didn’t wake up.

  I enter a cabin that looks exactly like mine and I notice straight away that one of the bedrooms door is open and the room is empty, so Logan can only be behind the closed door.

  I knock and again get no response so I try the door handle.

  The door opens to a dim lit room and one of the two beds is empty, while the other one is definitely occupied and even in the dim light, I can recognise Logan’s blonde hair.

  I open the curtains a short way: there’s nothing worse than being woken up abruptly, I should know since it’s my dad’s style to turn all the lights on and yell super loud to wake the heck up.

  That normally puts me in the worst possible mood, so I try to give Logan a softer wake up.

  ‘Logan?...’

  I whisper to no avail.

  ‘Hey sleepyhead, it’s past eight thirty!’

  Nothing at all, so I open the curtains a little more and all I receive in response is a low, deep moan from the body wrapped under the blankets on the queen sized bed.

  I go closer and put my hand on his shoulder to shake him gently: at first he doesn’t move but when I call his name again a hand grabs my wrist and drags me down on the bed.

  I gasp in surprise when I make contact with the mattress and a strong, muscly arm wraps around my waist and I get dragged closer to him.

  He smells like cotton candy and cinnamon and he comes even closer nuzzling my neck and taking a soft nibble out of my neck using his lips but no teeth: that sends a shiver down my spine and makes my heart beat a lot faster in my throat.

  ‘Logan?’

  I barely whisper with his lips still on my neck; he must hear me because he moves closer and the hand on my waist moves under my t-shirt, making contact with my skin and the waistband of my shorts. He lazily runs his finger right on top of my waistband, on my naked skin and inhales my neck taking another nibble and this time grazing me very softly with his teeth.

  I am not even going to try to make sense of the electric jolt that this contact sends all over me but I instinctively push myself closer to him and he groans.

  ‘Morning beautiful...’

  And he flips me on top of him so that I am straddling his waist and our noses are touching: I feel his hard length against my inner thigh and a rush of heat invades my whole body while my heart beats even faster, so fast that I think it’s going to burst.

  I have never been this close to a boy in this way and while it’s exciting, it’s also a bit confusing because while I know that boys wake up kind of excited, I had never experienced it in person and I don’t know if I should say something or just lie there on top of him as if the situation was completely normal.

  ‘I... you asked me to come wake you up...’

  I whisper and one of his hands leaves my waistband and cups my cheek while his thumb traces my bottom lip and his eyes open so blue and deep in the dark room.

  ‘You are so beautiful and soft and I don’t think I really want to get up... My day can’t really get any better than this...’

  I don’t say anything, lost in those beautiful blue eyes and feeling his hard body underneath me.

  I know he will kiss me and I couldn’t want this more: his thumb moves back to my jaw and his face tilts a bit to the side while I feel his warm breath on my lips.

  The front door opens and light floods the room startling us and making us jump apart from each other: in fact I jump so fast that I roll off the bed and land on my ass on the hardwood floor with a loud thud.

  ‘What the hell is going on in here?’

  Hold on a second, I know that voice... I straighten myself up and my eyes confirm what I already knew: that Joel is standing in the door frame glaring at us.

  ‘Get out of here, Clary! You should know better that cabins aren’t coed, come on!’

  While I should feel deadly embarrassed, I am surprised to feel absolutely furious: he should be the one to talk when he has been seen sneaking in girls’ cabin for the last two summers, guests and other councelors alike.

  I am about to voice my outrage when he grabs my elbow and drags me out of the cabin.

  ‘Let go! We were just about to go to breakfast!’

  I protest yanking my arm out of his grasp and not even stopping to acknowledge the fact that until yesterday, I didn’t think that Joel even knew my name and now he is actually touching me.

  ‘That looked like a hell of a breakfast to me...’

  He glares and I can’t believe the hypocrisy on the guy.

  ‘Look, I know you are doing your job but seriously nothing happened. I will wait for him out here and we’ll go to breakfast...’

  He seems to think about it for a minute and then he sits on the front porch’s lowest step and pats the dark wood next to him for me to sit down. Last year I would have paid to sit down next to him but right now I am so embarrassed that I would rather put miles between us but I automatically do as told and the step isn’t large enough to sit without our outer thighs touching: I know a minute ago I was literally on top of Logan but I blush at the contact thinking that this is the closest I have ever been to Joel.

  ‘So, Clary, do you plan on doing any sports this summer?’

  He asks thankfully changing the subject.

  ‘I don’t know, I always go to the spin class and yoga and aerobics and I love to swim, I think that’s enough...’

  ‘You should take tennis lessons this year...’

  ‘How comes?’

  ‘We have an excellent instructor, you already know him...’

  I ask who he’s talking about and he explains:

  ‘Xander. His dad is internationally ranked in the top 50 and he’s played Wimbledon and so on many times. Xander’s really good even though he doesn’t want to play professionally.’

  Ha! Tennis has never really interested me, I am way too klutzy for a sport like that but it’s good to know where Xander will be most of the time, so I can definitely avoid him. I don’t say that to Joel, I don’t want to upset him since he seems to be friends with señor dip-shit but I make a vague comment on checking it out at some point.

  ‘Sorry for making you wait, Clary, you must be starving!’

  Logan shuts the cabin door and walks towards us with his hair still a bit wet from the shower and he offers his hand to help me stand up. Joel looks up at him and the two boys stare at each other silently for a few moments before Joel stands up and brushing his shorts clean from some nonexistent dust he drawls:

  ‘Enjoy your breakfast, Clary. See you later.’

  And walks away. Now, I think between yesterday and today, he must have said more words to me than in the last two years but I have no time to dwell on it because Logan takes my hand and we start walking towards the restaurant.

  ‘Did he keep scolding you about finding us together in there?’

  Logan asks.

  ‘No, he was saying something about tennis lessons...’

  ‘Are you going to try it? I have a lesson today at 10. I’ve never played but I
thought it would be fun...’

  I tell him that I promised Hazel and Brie to go to the beach with them and he asks if he can join after the lesson and we agree that I will keep him a beach bed next to us.

  The breakfast is served buffet style like every meal at camp and I choose avocado on toast and scrambled eggs while Logan takes a bagel with egg and cheese and a bowl of lucky charms: that’s a habit he hasn’t lost, I remember him always eating lucky charms in the morning.

  We eat quietly, he throws me the occasional look and I completely lose my appetite thinking about his hands on my skin, his lips on my neck, that blue gaze, our breaths mingling and him being so hard underneath me... My less than chaste thoughts make me blush and he must somehow know what I am thinking about because he grabs my hand under the table and whispers in my ear:

  ‘I think you should come and wake me up every morning or I can come wake you if I am up before you... Let’s have a nice, relaxing day and what about having some fun at the arcade tonight?’

  He offers and I agree, my hand still in his when he places a quick kiss on my cheek and finally getting up from the table, we leave the restaurant and he heads towards the tennis court while I go change into my bathing suit.

  I choose a baby blue bikini that will probably look much better on me once I get a tan but it’s so pretty with its little bow in the middle of the top part and one at each hip.

  I am still half naked, trying to hook the top closed when Brie and Hazel storm into the room, both ready for the beach.

  ‘Hey!’

  I squeal trying to cover my chest and having the only effect of making Brie laugh.

  ‘Come on, biotch, it’s not like Hazel and I don’t have boobs, right? Sure, yours this year are definitely on a different level but still...’

  Hazel and I both smile at her unapologetic cheekiness and we all grab our beach bags and head out to the lake.

  The beach is white and beautiful, dotted with cabanas and beach beds and huge white umbrellas. It spans around more than half the perimeter of the lake and there’s a few lifeguard towers mounted at regular intervals.

  We pick a cabana not far from the snack bar and the first lifeguard post, set our towels on three of the five beds and place our bags on the other two, so that one will be definitely reserved for Logan.

  Brie is wearing a dark red bikini which looks amazing against her olive skin and Hazel is wearing a blue and white striped one piece.

  ‘So, was there some kissing going on in cabin number 8 as a reward for the wake up service?’

  I blush and shake my head no.

  ‘Seriously? What’s wrong with you? Logan is practically drooling all over you, it shouldn’t be so hard...’

  ‘Well, you should talk after interrupting last night!’ - I scold her - ‘and anyway, things were definitely moving in the right direction if Joel hadn’t decided to burst in and enforce the camp rules...’

  I tell them all the details and at the end I observe:

  ‘I was lying on top of him and he was... he felt hard...’

  I know we have a no secrets policy but I feel a little embarrassed to rely this particular event.

  ‘You mean he had morning wood?’

  I blush so violently that I must look as red as Brie’s bikini.

  ‘Yes. But of course don’t express yourself so politely just on my behalf...’

  I try to save myself with sarcasm.

  ‘Hahaha, don’t be so delicate with me, I wasn’t the one straddling his hard cock!’

  ‘Brie!’

  I yell.

  ‘Lower your fucking voice! Do you want the whole beach to hear?’

  She doesn’t look sorry, not even one bit.

  ‘If Joel has told Lucy how she found you, by now everybody knows and you have to thank the lack of wi-fi that it’s not on Twitter...’

  The idea is so embarrassing that I don’t even want to think about it.

  ‘But going back to his... Excited state... Does it sound better than hard cock?’

  ‘Seriously, Brie! Will you stop saying cock?’

  She almost topples her sun bed over laughing.

  ‘You just said cock too!’

  When she finally calms down, she muses:

  ‘That said, I don’t think that was just morning wood, I think all that nibbling and touching must have made him hard...’

  The idea of having that effect on Logan is exciting and a bit scary all at the same time: but I have to admit that having him so close to me and touching me is making me feel in a way I have never felt before.

  Hazel complains that Rob won’t even look at her and she needs to do something to get on his radar and Brie keeps talking about Matt arriving tomorrow and finally finding out if he wants her or Ella.

  I am glad to focus on something different than Logan and my lack of a real kiss yet and to listen to my friends debating about boys, which is really what we do best and what makes our summers at camp so special.

  I close my eyes enjoying the sun on my legs (the cabana is wonderful and I positioned my bed so that the sun won’t touch my face giving me freckles) and almost doze off when I see a shadow blocking the sunlight and open my eyes: it’s a new lifeguard, a skinny black haired, brown eyed guy wearing Speedo’s... Ew.

  His hair is short on the sides and curls up on top of his head, he wears a hoop earring on his left ear and flip flops.

  ‘Morning girls, my name is Justin and I am one of the new lifeguards this year. I’m Rob’s cousin.’

  We introduce ourselves and he sits on the edge of Brie’s bed.

  They start talking about where they are from and they discover that while Brie is a New Yorker (upper east side of course), he has grown up in Philly where he works as a waiter during the winter and commutes to New York where he’s trying to make it as a model.

  I don’t know what it is about him but I take an instant dislike to the way he carries himself and talks: he comes across as very arrogant and his eyes have got a hardness in them.

  Brie doesn’t seem to notice anything or be put off by the fact that he’s wearing a red Speedo’s -Ew again- and is actually openly flirting with him.

  She’s batting her eyelashes and giving him casual touches, on his shoulder, his hand.

  He invites her to go out for a swim and she accepts.

  I would like to say something but I know better than to comment on her choice of guys, especially after the Matt’s debacle last summer.

  But I can’t keep my mouth shut with Hazel as soon as Brie is out of earshot:

  ‘Is she for real? Not only the guy is absolutely fugly but he’s so crass...’

  Hazel doesn’t disagree with me but remains non committal and reminds me that telling Brie not to do something is like an open invitation to do the very thing.

  She’s right but this guy really doesn’t sit well with me: it’s a gut feeling.

  ‘What about Matt?’

  I say and she sighs shaking her head.

  ‘Look, Clary, I will tell you something but you must promise not to say anything to Brie...’

  I don’t know how right it is to have secrets from one of the girls but Hazel has been unusually quiet since Brie has arrived and I want to make sure there’s nothing wrong between them, so I agree.

  ‘Swear...’

  She pleads.

  I roll my eyes and recite:

  ‘I swear: cross on my heart and hope to die stick a needle in my eye... Now spill!’

  She doesn’t look me in the eye when she says that she doesn’t think that Matt is such a good guy anyway.

  ‘Well of course, he was making out with Ella behind Brie’s back when they were officially dating...’

  ‘It’s not just that, Clary. Look, I hope you won’t be mad at me over this but you aren’t the only one he’s kissed. He was my first kiss too.’

  I almost choke on the Diet Coke I am drinking, it actually comes out of my nostrils.

  ‘What? When?’

  ‘At the
beginning of the summer, last year. Just before Brie got to know him and called dibs on him. I bumped into him one night and he walked me to my cabin and before I even realised what was happening, he kissed me. It was just a peck, like with you and I thought I liked him for a whole day until he caught Brie’s eye and you know how she gets when she likes a boy, so I didn’t say anything. But I think he’s a bit of a player and Brie is probably going to be disappointed because if what Ella is saying is true, they have been hanging out on and off all winter... So maybe a different love interest is not a bad thing. And he’s Rob’s cousin, maybe Brie can get us to hang out...’

  I pick up my copy of Anna Karenina and decide to read while Hazel listens to her iPod.

  In reality, I keep reading the same sentence over and over again thinking about our different situations here at Camp.

  ‘And then you get pissed off when I call you Tessa! Look at that book! Russian literature nonetheless!’

  I pretend the most annoying guy on earth isn’t just making himself comfortable at the foot of my bed and keep my eyes on my book.

  ‘Oh, come on Tessa! Don’t be such a nerd! Just be a bit friendly, won’t you?’

  I close the book abruptly and drop it on the floor:

  ‘For the last time, my name is Clarissa! If you want me to talk to you, you have to address me properly...’

  He laughs, throwing his head back as if I had just said the most hilarious joke ever.

  He’s wearing red swimming shorts and no t-shirt and I notice straight away his hard chest, his six pack and the definition in his arms.

  He’s slender but there’s no doubt he works out.

  Xander isn’t ugly by any means, he has light brown hair almost shaved on the side of his head and longer on top where he styled it with gel, vibrant green-turquoise eyes and high cheekbones and the whitest, straightest teeth I have ever seen. He’s tanned and definitely over 6 feet tall.

  I would probably find him attractive if he didn’t have the most annoying personality on this planet.

  ‘Ok, ok. Sorry, Clary but I really think Tessa suits you so much better...’

  ‘What do you want, Xander?’

  ‘Joel told me that you were interested in a tennis lesson?’