“Not really.” I say.
“It’s a yes or no question, but let me guess: ‘it’s complicated’,” he says, using air quotes on his last two words.
“Fine, no. I don’t have a boyfriend,” I say.
He smiles at me, and I notice just how handsome he might be under his arrogant demeanor. “Since we established that and you don’t want a beer, let me make you a drink.”
Non-subtle guy Denny, begins to go through the cabinets looking for what I assume must be alcohol to mix, but I stop him before he can flaunt his bartending skills. “No thanks, really, I’m fine. I don’t like drinking.”
Denny stops rummaging through the cabinets with a nod and pours me some coke into a cup. I watch to make sure he doesn’t slip anything in it, everyone always tells you never to drink a drink from a stranger at a party. He places the cup in front of me and then sits down on the bar stool at my side.
“Thanks,” I say, wrapping my hands around the cup. “So, how do you know… I’ll be honest, I forget the name of the person who lives here.”
He laughs and takes another sip of his drink. “Mindy, she’s friends with my little brother who is also here. I just tagged along to make sure he doesn’t get in trouble.”
“Frat brother?” I ask.
“Real brother,” he says. “Who do you know?”
“Janine, she’s friends with Mindy. I’m just in town for the weekend.”
“Ah,” Denny says. “Where are you in town from?”
I can be anyone I want to be with this guy. I’m never going to see him again.
“The Maryville area,” I say.
“Do you go to college down there?”
“Yep,” I say, not having to lie completely at all. It’s not my fault how he fills in the blanks.
We talk for about forty minutes, about college, the things we do in our spare time, my job, and so much more. Denny is really loquacious, I have to look up the term when he uses it to describe his chemistry professor. My mind does get taken off my parents’ separation for a little bit, but as I loosen up a little, I notice his body turning into mine and slowly getting closer. When his knee bumps against mine, I get up from my stool and back away.
“We should go hang out with everyone else,” I say.
“Do we have to? They’re all so much younger,” Denny whines.
“I’m only here for the weekend, you can stay inside if you want but I’m going to hang out with Janine.”
He pouts but goes outside with me anyway. I walk over to Janine who’s talking to one of the guys in the frat.
“Hey friend, how are you? This is Jason!” she says. Clearly, she’s already tipsy. Jason has his hand on her thigh, right below the hem of her dress.
“Hey, you sound like you’re having fun,” I say to Janine, faking a smile.
“I am!” She leans in to whisper into my ear, but it’s pretty obvious that Jason can hear her because she’s not whispering at all. “Jason’s so cute! Isn’t he? He’s on the baseball team at school.”
“That’s cool,” I say, glancing over at Jason who is pretending like he doesn’t hear her as he drinks his beer.
“I saw you talking to Dennnny,” she blathers on, saying his name over the span of ten painful seconds. “You should so hook up with him. I bet that would make Sammy boy jealous.”
“I’m not trying to make him jealous, and I don’t want to hook up with anyone,” I reply, getting annoyed with this new version of Janine. How has everyone I loved changed so much over a few weeks?
She leans over and tries to whisper to Jason. “She’s a virgin.”
“I can hear you, Janine,” I say, furious.
“It’s okay!” she says, patting my leg. “I’m sure one of your suitors will be happy to help out. How many are there now? Denny makes three?”
“Janine, shut up,” I demand. “You’re being an ass.”
She turns to Jason. “Don’t you have a name for those in college? Girls who talk to guys but don’t do anything? Tease?”
“What the actual hell, Janine?” I stand up and start to storm off before any of these people can stop me.
I pull my phone out of my pocket and dial the only person I feel would be able to calm me down. He picks up on the third dial and as soon as he says hello, I start to sob.
“Penelope, are you okay? Penelope?”
“I’m here, sorry. I shouldn’t have called. You’re working,” I say through my tears.
“Give me a second, don’t hang up.” I hear Sampson’s campers talking in the background and then the next minute it’s quiet. “Are you still there?”
“I’m here,” I say, breathing in a deep, shaky breath.
“What’s wrong?” he asks.
“Everything. I shouldn’t have come home.”
“Just talk to me,” he says. “Are you in a safe place?”
My house is way further than the walk from the middle of town to this neighborhood. “I don’t have my car and I’m at some girl's house that’s at least ten miles from home.”
“Can you call your mom or dad?” he asks, trying to be helpful.
“They’re the reason I’m even out here,” I sob.
“Call your parents, tell them where you are and that you need to be picked up. Then call me back and I’ll talk to you until they get there.”
“Sampson,” I whisper. “I’m a bit shook up, it’s silly.”
“It’ll be okay.”
And somehow that’s all I needed to hear. It. Will. Be. Okay.
My mom is relieved when I call and she swears she’s not mad and says she’ll be there in a few minutes. I breathe in deeply to calm my nerves and call Sampson back. He picks up immediately.
“She’s on her way,” I tell him.
“Good, now what’s going on?” he asks, sounding just as relieved as my mom did.
“My friend brought me to this party and she was being awful, not herself, and this guy was being weird to me… oh, and my parents are thinking about filing for divorce.”
Sampson is quiet, and I feel dumb for dumping all of this on him. This is the stuff you dump on a boyfriend or your best friend or family, not a guy who you just met a month ago.
“Let’s handle one topic at a time, okay?” he says. “The guy, he didn’t touch you inappropriately, did he?”
“I think he wanted to, but I didn’t let him. I walked away before he could. He was drinking…”
“Drinking isn’t an excuse. If he tries to approach you, stay on the line and get away from him. Now, what happened with your friend?”
“She was also drinking,” I say, explaining the entire thing to him. “She’s not normally like that. I thought she’d be there for me, but instead she’s trying to impress some college guy and her new friends.”
I can tell he’s biting his tongue on what he wants to say, but he keeps his words calm. “And your parents?”
“It’s a big mess, I just want to come home,” I say, shaking my head in defeat.
“Your mom will be there soon to take you home.”
“No, I want to come home as in to camp. I regret coming back here, but where else was I supposed to go for two off days?” I ask.
“You know if you ever need a place to go, you’re welcome at my house whether I’m there or not. My mom is always there to talk to, and she likes having you around,” he says. “She hasn’t stopped talking about you.”
“I know,” I say. “I just feel so stupid right now.”
“Don’t feel stupid, none of this is your fault.”
Headlights illuminate the end of the street. “I think my mom’s here.”
“Stay on the line until you know for sure,” he tells me.
The car comes to a stop and I see my mom sitting in the passenger seat, my dad driving. My mom looks like she just rolled out of bed, her hair up in curlers and her reading glasses on.
“It’s both my parents,” I say. “They’re going to kill me.”
“It’ll be okay
,” he says. “Promise me if you need anything, you’ll call or text. I don’t care if it’s three in the morning or any other time.”
“Thanks for talking to me, Sampson.”
“No problem, text me when you get home.”
“Sampson,” I start to say but I stop.
“Yeah?”
I muster up some courage, as much as I have left in myself. “You’re an amazing person. You deserve so much more…”
I hang up the phone before he can say anything else and then walk over to the car to see just how much trouble I’m in.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you,” my mom says as she rubs my back. “I thought we’d work this out with you gone all summer and when you came home, everything would be back to normal. You would have never known.”
“I just don’t understand,” I say. “I’ve never seen you and dad have a fight or disagreement.”
We’ve been lying in my bed for a good hour now, my back to my mom's chest. It’s three in the morning, and we’re both exhausted. When my parents picked me up, they weren’t upset, they were just relieved. They told me they were glad I called them and that they understood why I was upset.
“Sometimes people grow apart,” she whispers.
“After two decades?” I ask, voice rising.
“I know, it sounds crazy. We sound crazy.”
I hate to even think of the next question I ask. “You guys… neither of you cheated, did you?”
“Oh, sweetie, no. I don’t think I could have sat in a car with your dad for more than five minutes if that were the case.”
“Then why? Was it me?”
She turns me to look at her. “Don’t ever blame this on you. It’s not your fault at all.”
“But I shouldn’t have come home…” I protest, turning back around and burying my face in my pillow.
“Honey, you can come home whenever you want, don’t let us stop you.”
“What happens now?” I ask her, feeling more helpless than I ever have.
She hugs me tightly and presses a kiss to the back of my head. “That’s for me and your dad to worry about.”
I slowly give in to sleep as my mom plays with my hair, hoping that when I awake, this will all have been a horrible nightmare. That I’ll wake up in my bunk at camp.
So my two days off weren’t what I had hoped for. My best friend isn’t the same person I left a month ago, and my parents aren’t together but they’re working on it. I texted Sampson an update the next morning, but after that I shut my phone off. When I turned it back on Sunday morning, there were no missed calls or texts from Janine. No apology for her behavior. Nothing from Sampson came in either.
There was a text from Kelsey though, which shouldn’t be possible because campers aren’t supposed to have their cell phones on unless it’s an emergency.
Viv is a nutcase, reads her text. Come back soon. P.S. How can Lain get hotter and hotter every day?
She ends her text with the two thumbs up emojis and a winky face.
Be back this afternoon, I send back.
I head downstairs to get something to eat before I leave, and I can smell bacon before I even reach the stairs. When I walk into the kitchen, my mom is pouring orange juice into three glasses and my dad’s making bacon and scrambled eggs.
“Morning, baby,” says my dad. “How’d you sleep?”
“Okay,” I say. “What time did you get here?”
Mom’s in her pajamas and house coat, but my dad is in jeans and a t-shirt, also wearing his shoes which tells me that he doesn’t feel at home here in the moment. It makes me sad, but they both seem to at least be happy on the outside. I guess that’s progress.
“About half an hour ago,” he explains. “Thought I would surprise you with a Sunday breakfast like we used to have.”
“Isn’t that nice?” my mom says with a smile, handing me a glass. “I’m pleasantly surprised too. Oh, you’re laundry is completely washed, dried, and folded. I tossed a rain jacket and umbrella in there too, you forgot it the first time.”
I smile, thinking about getting caught in the rain with Kenny a couple days ago. It seems like years since that happened.
“Thanks, momma,” I say. “I have to head out after breakfast. I planned on being back to camp right before dinner.”
Dad finishes breakfast and we all sit down at the kitchen table as a family, a family who may or may not be disheveled, but we’re still a family. Hopefully my parents do exactly what they planned on this summer and use their time as empty nesters to reconnect and remember why they fell in love in the first place.
I’m relieved to be back at camp four hours later. Part of me would be happy if I didn’t have to return to my home town again this summer. If anything, the weekend showed me there’s not much left for me there anyway. Just my parents. Even though camp hasn’t been like it used to be, I’m still happy to drive under the arch with ‘Camp Arthur’ carved into it.
According to the schedule, everyone should be finishing up lunch and heading to their afternoon activities. I take the long way around the mess hall so I can go drop my clothes off at my cabin and head down to the archery field where I’m supposed to help supervise with Kenny.
As I trek back across camp, it’s mostly quiet. Everyone’s already at their activity stations. I pass under the giant ropes course and enter the wooded trail that leads to the archery range. I can hear the instructor demonstrating how to hold the bow and going over the mandatory safety talk. I quietly join the group and realize Kenny isn’t here, it’s Sampson instead.
My cheeks flame up. I haven’t talked to him since early Saturday morning. I know I shouldn’t feel this awkward. He nods in my direction and gives me a little smile, just to show that he’s glad I’m back or maybe that he feels sorry for me. Who knows?
Once the instruction is finished, the campers line up for their turn to shoot and Sampson takes a seat next to me.
“How are you?” he asks.
I shrug my shoulders. “Feeling better now that I’m back here.”
“Has your friend tried to contact you yet?”
“Not a single text,” I say, shaking my head. “Part of me just wants to forget any of it happened, but the other part of me wants her to realize how poorly she behaved that night.”
“I’m sure she’ll come around,” he says, bumping his shoulder against mine. “How about your parents?”
“Honestly, I don’t want to think about it anymore. That’s their problem, not mine.”
“Gotcha,” he says. “I hope you don’t mind, but I told my mom about your situation at home. If you need to talk to anyone, she’s there to talk. Don’t keep everything to yourself, it’ll drive you crazy.”
“Thanks,” I say. “And thank you for being there for me Friday. I didn’t know who else to talk to and I panicked. I shouldn’t have bothered you.”
“No, it’s fine,” he says and then goes to a whisper. “If you ever need anything, don’t worry, you can always call me. That’s what friends do, they help each other.”
“Miss Penelope! You’re back!” squeals Daisy, running over to me after her turn at archery. “I missed you so much! Don’t ever leave again.”
“Aww, but what if my parents miss me?” I ask her.
“Me and Sampson will miss you more.”
I look over at Sampson with a smile, still holding onto Daisy. “Is that true, would you miss me more?”
“Of course we would,” he says, playfully pinching Daisy’s cheek. “You’re our BFF.”
“No, she’s my BFF, Sampson,” Daisy protests. “Get your own.”
Sampson and I both burst into a fit of laughter.
“How about you go take some of your stress out and shoot some hay bales with an arrow?” Sampson suggests.
“That sounds like a fantastic idea,” I say.
Every morning the directors of Camp Arthur give each cabin a schedule of activities for the day along with the names of two to four counselors who are in
charge of those events. I look over the list my cabin received trying to figure out what everyone is doing today, and it looks like I have a day hike to Abrams Falls in the Smoky Mountains… it’s a tough hike in the middle of summer when the sun is beating down.
Viv and I start writing down who wants to go and do which activity. She’s been assigned to rock climbing for the day. I convince most of the younger girls that they don’t want to do the hike. Even though it’s for the ten and older age group, there’s no way a ten-year-old would enjoy the five-hour hike in the heat.
“You should come hiking,” I suggest to Kelsey, who is holding up two crop tops, debating between which one she’ll wear. Both look to be the same shade of powder puff blue, and neither of them are made for hiking.
“No, no, no. I can’t hike,” she tells me as she starts searching through her luggage for shoes to match.
That’s when I know I need to convince her with something she enjoys. “Will you hike if Lain comes?”
She stops going through her clothes and turns to look my direction. I’m sure she’s trying to figure out if I’m serious or not. “You play dirty, but yes, if he goes I will,” she says with a devious smile. “It’s that or fish and we both know I’m not baiting a hook. I literally just painted my nails.”
Thankfully, Lain has his hiking attire on too and is surprised that Kelsey wants to go with us. It wasn’t surprising that Kelsey didn’t have any hiking shoes, so I let her borrow a pair of my gym shoes, which she also didn’t have a pair of. She must have lost her camp packing list or shredded it, avoiding the recommended camp gear in favor of items that show off her figure.
Instead of sitting with our cabin at breakfast, we mingle in with some of the people going on the hike, including Sampson. I fight the urge to sit right next to him, so I pull Kelsey to the other side of the table so Sampson and I are close to talk, but not close enough to make me look desperate.
He smiles at me and I watch as he interacts with the younger kids. It’s definitely not the same as how he acted with me the first day, but he’s more like a brotherly figure, and he seems great with kids. I stop myself from thinking about how good of a dad he’ll be one day. Those are crazy thoughts only girls in relationships can have - girls who have been with their significant other for years.
The Last July: A New Adult Romance Page 10