by Marta Brown
“There’s no need,” Emily says, casting her eyes at the ground, sounding resigned.
I furrow my brow, surprised she doesn’t sound more elated since she’s getting exactly what she wanted. What she’s worked so hard for.
Walter cocks his head to the side like he didn’t hear her correctly. “I’m sorry?”
“There’s no need,” she repeats, looking up with tear filled eyes. “They’re coming tomorrow for visitor’s day.”
My eyes go wide. In a matter of minutes, Emily’s plan to get kicked out of camp has stripped me of my job as counselor, my job shadow with Doc, and now, most likely my reputation with Coach when he finds out about this tomorrow.
Staring at Emily, I silently plead for her to look at me—to look at me and explain why she would do this—but her eyes stay fixed on Walter as a single tear pools over and runs down her cheek.
“Very well.” Walter’s lips press into a thin hard line, looking spent. “I’ll speak with them after the visitor’s day luncheon tomorrow. Now both of you—back to your respective cabins immediately.”
“Sir—” I start, prepared to except my punishment and apologize for letting him down, but I get cut off again, this time by the long deep sigh of frustration he blows out.
“Just go, Tyler. You too, Emily.”
I nod as the disappointment in myself, and my fury at Emily grows. “I truly am sorry, sir,” I choke out.
Walter slumps his shoulders. “Yeah, me too, kid. Me, too.” He turns around and stalks off into the dark shadows beyond the lights of the field and disappears.
“Tyler,” Emily says softly, reaching for my hand.
How can she whisper my name like that after what she’s done?
I pull away from her touch, and stalk off in the direction of my cabin—unsure I can speak I’m so angry.
Emily runs after me, grabs my arm and stops me at the edge of the field just beyond the light. “Tyler, stop. Please. I’m sorry.”
Spinning around, I yank my arm out of her grip and glare at her. What does it matter what she has to say for herself at this point? She got want she wanted. She doesn’t need to keep playing me.
“You’re sorry? Really, Emily? For what?” I fume. “For causing me to lose my summer job? Or for the hours of job shadowing, and the letter of recommendation I needed for my med school applications I’ll no longer receive from Doc?”
I rake my hand through my hair, and let my words tumble out without thought. “Or are you sorry that ruining my summer job and school wasn’t enough? Well, don’t worry, because I’m pretty sure once Coach finds out why you’ve been kicked out of camp, you’ll have ruined my spot on the team and any chance I had to go to the minors after this season.
“So, forgive me if I don’t want to hear your apologies, Emily,” I spit out through a clenched jaw, my anger tightening the muscles in my neck and shoulders, too. “I’m just sorry it took you so long to achieve your goal.”
Emily staggers back a step, her eyes wide, and full of tears. “My…my goal?”
“Yeah—I know all about your little plan to use me to get kicked out of camp, Emily. I saw the letter. So, congratulations—you did it. I guess I’m the idiot for thinking what we had was real.” I laugh with an edge so sharp I could cut myself against it.
“The letter?” She gasps, understanding registering on her face. “Tyler, no. You have it all wrong.” Emily drops her head into her hands before crumpling to the ground crying. “Please let me explain. I didn’t…mean for this…to happen,” she manages to say between sobs, causing my heart to hurt, despite my anger at her. “What we have is real…it is.”
“It was, Emily. Was.”
Chapter 25
Emily
Tears run down my face as Tyler disappears down the dark tree lined trail towards his cabin. His final words slamming into my chest, leaving me hunched over and out of breath.
“Was,” I choke out into the quiet night. “Was.” Past tense.
What have I done? My chest tightens at the only answer I can come up with.
I’ve ruined everything.
The sudden sound of twigs snapping along the path startles me off the ground and out of my head.
Tyler?
Relieved he’s come back so I can explain, I quickly wipe the tears from my face and spin around, but instead of Tyler, it’s Jenny who emerges from the trail.
“Emily,” Jenny says, her voice cutting through the silent night as a small beam of light from her flashlight pools on the ground by my feet. “I’ve been looking for you everywhere. Where have you been? ”
“I—”
She holds up her hand to stop me from answering. “Never mind. I don’t want to know. But trust me, I won’t hesitate to call you out if we get caught being out past curfew.”
“Don’t worry,” I sniffle. “I couldn’t get in any more trouble tonight if I tried.”
“What do you mean by that?” Jenny flicks the light up to my face, her pinched lips softening at the sight of me. “Whoa. Are you okay?”
I shake my head as a fresh batch of tears streak down my face. “I’m the complete opposite of okay—I’ve ruined everything, and he’s never going to forgive me—I mean, how could he?” I babble incoherently, knowing she probably doesn’t care if I’m okay or not. She’s just asking to be polite, but I don’t care. I need to talk to someone. “I don’t know what to do, but I have to fix this.”
Placing her hand on her hip, Jenny takes a deep breath, and by the look on her face, whatever she’s about to say pains her. “Sometimes in the heat of the moment things seem like a bigger deal than they really are, Emily. I’m sure whatever happened, you and Todd will work it out. He’s been into you, for like, ever.”
“Todd?” I laugh, but there’s no humor behind it. “Why would you think that?”
Jenny stares down at her feet. “Well…I guess I just assumed. I saw that postcard from your friend Kat asking about him…and I don’t know…” She shrugs. “You’re always sneaking off towards his cabin and stuff…so I just figured.”
First the letter—and now the postcard. No wonder no one writes hand written letters anymore. No passwords.
“Well, you figured wrong.” I blow out a shuttering breath. “It’s Tyler I screwed up with. And now it’s over,” I admit since we’ll be the talk of camp tomorrow after we’re both kicked out anyway. What’s the point in hiding now?
Jenny’s hand falls from her hip, and her jaw drops open. “You and Tyler? Not Todd?”
“Definitely not Todd.” I swipe my face dry with the back of my hand. “Although, I will admit I flirted with him to make Tyler jealous at first.”
“Are you serious?” Jenny’s eyes light up as a smile spreads across her face. “I’ve been flirting with Tyler all session to make Todd jealous.”
This time I laugh. Remembering all the times this summer I’ve wanted to pull Jenny’s hair out for hanging all over Tyler, when she was probably thinking the very same thing about me and Todd.
“So, how long have you guys been together?” she asks, giving me the sense she actually cares. Nothing fake about it.
I shrug, unsure how to answer.
Since his party? Since our kiss after the campfire? Or maybe since today, when we finally told each other how we felt. “I don’t know, a while, I guess.”
“I’m really happy for you,” Jenny says, giving me a hug. “And I’m sure whatever happened will work itself out. Camp fights tend to blow over pretty fast.” She releases me and steps back with a smile. “See? Just like us. ”
I roll my eyes. “Yeah, now that we know we’re not after the same guy.”
“That definitely helps,” she says, tossing her hair over her shoulder, her smile genuine. Linking my arm in hers, she starts to guide us down the trail to our cabin like two old friends. “Btw, I think you and Tyler make a cute couple.”
My heart pinches. Make? Or Made?
“You and Todd would too,” I offer quietly, trying to
hold back another wave of tears thinking about me and Tyler in the past tense.
“Although…”Jenny flicks off her flashlight when we reach the first cabin along the trail, I assume to keep us incognito. “I’m not sure anyone could dethrone Lucy and Dave for cutest couple, but we could always try.”
I stop us so quickly Jenny’s head whips back. “That’s it!” I shout before tossing my arms around her neck. So much for being stealth.
“Can I borrow that?” I ask, letting her go and eyeing the flashlight.
Jenny’s forehead wrinkles as she hands it over. “Yeah, but why?”
I smile at the plan forming in my mind. “I was wrong—I might just get into a little more trouble before the night is over.”
…
Considering all the practice I’ve had this summer sneaking out, I’m not surprised my heart is steady and my palms are dry. What does surprise me is how hard I’m trying to not get caught. It wouldn’t change a thing if I did, but if I don’t—it might just change everything.
With my back pressed firm against the wall, I continue to scan the dark empty field as I tiptoe in the shadows to the last door of the building. I hold my breath; wrap my hand around the handle, and push.
Locked.
“Damn it.”
They’re all locked.
Letting out my breath, and some hope in the process, I rack my brain for a new idea.
The sound of nothing but crickets chirping in the distance only helps to remind me how flipping far away camp is from everything. However, it still doesn’t stop me from calculating exactly how long it would take to walk the fifteen or so miles into town.
Before deciding to hoof it through the woods in the middle of the night to find a phone in town, I survey the building one last time for any other ways in. I smile when my eyes stop on a small window with a crack running down the middle of it on the second story. Todd.
I stifle a laugh remembering Andy’s bet during the egg toss. He said you couldn’t break a window with a raw egg. Apparently Todd could—and did.
This time, my calm, cool, and collected heart picks up speed since my simple plan to sneak in has now developed into a full blown plan to break and enter. My three strikes at camp will be insignificant compared to the real trouble I’ll get in if I get caught.
I shake my head. I have no other option. I have to fix this for Tyler.
Snatching the largest rock from the ground I can find, I stuff it in my pocket, climb onto the waist high brick ledge, and scan the wall of river rocks covering the building’s side in search of a finger hold.
“I can do this,” I whisper as I dig my fingers into the first deep grove I can find. It’s no different than the rock wall at the college I’ve climbed a million times while Dad ran practice or worked late.
Well—except it’s pitch-black out and I have no harness—but otherwise it’s totally the same thing. Right? My now sweaty palms disagree.
Here goes nothing.
Keeping my eyes on the window, I suck in a deep breath, sweaty palms be damned, and start to work my way up the wall.
The rocks are smooth and shallow, and I manage to climb the ten or so feet without incident until I’m perched outside the window with my fingers digging into its metal frame.
See? Easy.
Now for the hard part.
Holding on to the frame with one hand, I reach back to grab the rock from my pocket, prepared to smash it into the already cracked window, when my hurt ankle buckles under my weight and sends my foot slipping from the tiny grey rock it’s balancing on.
Frantically scrambling to find a new footing so I don’t plummet to the ground, I clamp down on the metal frame of the window so hard it cuts into my hand, while my other hand, searching for anything to grab hold of in a panic brushes against the window and slips it open.
Despite the fact that I’d have way worse than just a sprained ankle if I’d fallen, and my heart is beating so hard it feels like it might explode, I can’t stop the smile that breaks across my face. Looks like my breaking and entering is just plain old entering again.
Yes.
This time, keeping all of my weight on my good foot I dig the edge of my tennis shoe into a thin grove between two rocks, flatten my palm against the window, and slide it all the way open.
I hoist myself into the darkened exam room and pull in a few ragged breaths as my eyes adjust to the dark before I tiptoe to the door and open it just a crack.
The hallway is dark except for the bright red exit sign hanging above the door at the other end of the long corridor. I stop and listen, making sure the coast is clear before slinking down the hall to the first open office door I find. Doc’s.
Steadying my shaking hands, I pick up the receiver and punch in a number I know as well as my own. My foot taps nervously against the tightly woven brown carpet. Please pick up. Please pick up. Please pick up.
A mixture of muffled background chatter and loud music blares through the phone. “Hello?”
I breathe a sigh of relief. “Kat, I need your help.”
Chapter 26
Tyler
“All right guys, make sure your bunks are made up before you leave, and all personal items of questionable taste are put away, please.” I give Todd a pointed stare before eying the spread of Sports Illustrated bikini model magazine pages taped to the wall above his bed.
“What’s the big deal?” he huffs. “I have these plastered all over my room at home, too.”
“Uh…maybe you should just listen to Tyler, man. I mean, not all the moms are so…cool,” Andy says, fidgeting with the button down shirt he’s tucked into his pleated Dockers, giving me the distinct impression camp is the one place Andy can let his neatly gelled red hair down. So to speak.
“Yeah, yeah, fine. I’ll take’em down,” Todd says, stripping his wall and tucking the pictures under his pillow.
I flinch. “You might want to do a better job of hiding those unless you don’t care who stumbles on them.”
“Yeah?” Todd laughs. “So I probably shouldn’t keep these under there either, right?” He swings a pair of lacy yellow panties around his finger before pulling out a pair of red ones from Andy’s top drawer.
“Dude,” Andy shouts, snatching the underwear from Todd and stuffing them under his mattress, his face and neck an even brighter shade of red than the balled up piece of lingerie.
I roll my eyes. “Seriously, guys? I cannot believe you took those,” I say, but it’s a total lie. I can believe it—and they better not be Emily’s or it won’t just be my eyes that roll—heads will too.
I try and shake off the unexpected moment of protectiveness over Emily since I’m still furious at her for using me, but I can’t. Despite everything, I still care about her. More than I’d like to admit considering how hard she played me.
“Dude, it’s cool. Jenny and Sara will never know.” Todd tucks the underwear in his top drawer before turning back to me. “And speaking of panties…whose were you getting into last night?”
“I’m sorry?” I choke out, loosening my tie to keep it from strangling me. As if Walter wasn’t bad enough. Did Todd see us, too?
Todd wags his eyebrows, laughing. “Oh, come on—you rolled in way after curfew last night. So? Who was the lucky lady?”
I breathe a sigh of relief. He only saw me come in after curfew. “Trust me, no one got lucky last night.”
The exact opposite actually, and I’m afraid it’s only going to get worse from here.
I glance at my watch. Shit. It’s time.
…
Heading down the trail with the guys, I run my hands nervously over the fitted dress shirt and dark wash jeans I’m wearing, hoping Coach doesn’t take a bat to my knees when he finds out why Emily and I have been kicked out of camp.
I scan the field, overflowing with visitors, and find Emily without even trying. Regardless of everything that has happened in the last twenty-four hours, I can’t take my eyes off of her as the sun picks
up the natural auburn highlights in her hair; the red tips all but gone, washed away from afternoons in the lake and maybe even an unexpected shower or two.
Smiling at the memory of us hiding in that tiny shower together, and the way I felt in that moment with her, it all clicks. That was the day I decided to screw the rules and let myself fall for this girl.
The day I decided. For me.
Not because it was right or wrong, or because it would make my parents proud, or my team happy, or honor my brother, or further my plans for med school—no—I decided to do what I wanted.
And what I wanted was to meet Emily out on the field last night, in spite of the rules, because I’m falling in love with her. And that’s on me.
Shoving my hands in my pocket, ashamed of the way I blamed her for us getting in trouble last night, Emily suddenly turns and catches me staring.
I drop my eyes, unsure I’m ready to see how much damage I’ve caused when she calls my name. I pull in a deep breath and look up to find Emily waving me over, a soft smile on her face.
My heart pounds as I make my way across the field. When I finally reach her, I’m careful not to stand too close—knowing Coach could be anywhere—but wishing we were alone so I could tell her how I feel and how sorry I am for last night.
I kick at the dirt as I lock eyes with her, her smile easing my nerves. “Hi.”
“Hi,” she says back, her eyes bright even though I’m sure she slept as little as I did.
“All right, you two, enough with the pleasantries. Why don’t you just kiss and makeup already?”
I whip my head around, recognizing the refreshingly blunt sound of Emily’s friend from the party. The one Pete couldn’t stop talking about after the girls took off that night—that is—after Coach bailed him out of the drunk tank.
“Kat, right?” I reach out my hand to shake hers.
“You can do better than that…considering,” she laughs, before throwing her arms around my neck and nearly choking me.
Considering what?