The Last July: A New Adult Romance

by Breanna Mounce

  “Well,” she says. “This is it, my last time leaving camp as a camper.”

  “I hope that means you’ll come back next year.”

  “We’ll see,” she says.

  I grasp my hands together and bribe her the only way that I know will work. “Think about all the guy counselors you’ll finally have a chance to flirt with…”

  She narrows her eyes at me. “You, my dear, play dirty… and that’s why I keep you around!”

  “Get out of here,” I say, hugging her one more time. “Before your parents have to drag you out of here.”

  She waves goodbye, and I watch as she heads out of the welcome center with her parents, and then I continue to finish cleaning up. I tie off the bag and take it outside around back to the recycle bin and run into Kenny on the way.

  “Hey!” he says, a bit more cheery than usual.

  “Hey yourself, all your campers gone?”

  He nods. “Yup, just sent off the last few, yours?”

  “Same, Kelsey just left.”

  Kenny takes the bag out of my hand and tosses it up into the large recycling bin and motions for me to walk with him. “Now that everyone’s gone, we need to talk.”

  “Uh oh,” I say. “That doesn’t sound good at all.”

  When I look at Kenny, he’s blushing. “No, it’s nothing, I just need a huge favor, and I think you can help me.”

  I look at him skeptically, stopping in my steps. “Okay… what is it?”

  He shoves his hands in his pockets. “You and Sampson are friends right?”

  “I mean, yeah. So are you.”

  “But he actually likes you…” Kenny says.

  I squint my eyes at him and cross my arms over my chest. “Would you just spit it out? What do you need?”

  “I need you to convince Sampson to let me have the cabin to myself for the rest of the week!” The words quickly tumble out of his mouth and I’m still wondering what he means.

  “I guess I can,” I say. “May I ask why?”

  “You know Winnie?” When I stare at him like he’s an idiot he continues. “Well, of course you do, she helped you with your campers. Well, Winnie and I kind of… like each other and she’s been sending me these signals…”

  “Signals?” I ask.

  “Yeah, signals,” he says. “I mean, Jesus, I’m sounding like a scum bag aren’t I? Look, she told me if I could arrange to have the cabin to myself, she’d stay at camp for the final days instead of heading home. I like her.”

  “You’re planning on shacking up?” I ask. “And you want me to ask Sampson to allow that? Where’s he supposed to stay?”

  “I don’t know,” Kenny says, voice squeaking. “His parents own the camp, he can stay at their place. He could even just set up a tent, I just need him out of our cabin.”

  “I don’t know, Kenny,” I say shaking my head. “This seems kind of shitty to do to Sampson. Kicking him out of his cabin.”

  “I’ve got it!” Kenny says, a smile branching out across his face. “Invite him to stay with you or go to his parents! Haven’t you two wanted some alone time too? I heard his parents are going out on an overnight date, Mr. Garreth’s wife got him some tickets to the Knoxville Symphony, so they’re just getting a hotel and coming back early tomorrow morning.

  “Doesn’t the sound of staying in a house with him instead of a mildew smelling cabin sound a lot better? Think of the nice clean shower you won’t have to wear sandals in.”

  I shake my head and turn from him, but he’s right. “Fine,” I say with no plan at all. “I’ll do your dirty work. You owe me though.”

  Kenny pulls me in a tight hug and bounces up and down. I keep my hands to my side, weirded out by his strange version of saying ‘thank you’. “You’re the best,” he says as he pulls away from me.

  “I know, remember that.”

  Kenny nods and turns around, practically sprinting for his cabin, most likely to clean it up a little. The boys’ cabins tend to be pig sties. I turn around, heading for my own cabin to get a head start on clean up. I decide to just go ahead and text Sampson a warning to avoid his cabin at all cost.

  “Hey, Kenny needs the cabin to himself tonight. I would get what you need for the next twenty-four hours and go,” I text.

  He sends back a response right away. “Not you and Kenny, right?”

  I send back a winky face with a teasingly message. “Why?”

  My phones shows that he’s typing, but then stops and starts again only to stop once more before settling on responding with a sad face emoji.

  Now I feel guilty. I won’t play with his emotions like Viv did.

  “You have nothing to worry about,” I type. “Him and Winnie will be using your cabin to hang out.”

  “Don’t scare me like that,” he sends back quickly. “I thought the whole plan on keeping our distance until school was just to make me feel better.”

  “Not at all,” I send back, and then in another text, “Want to help me clean the art building tomorrow? I signed up but no one else is willing.”

  “Sure, I’ll be there. After breakfast?”

  “Sounds good.”

  “Penelope,” says a familiar female voice walking behind me as I’m heading up from my cabin to the mess hall. I finished cleaning up my cabin so now I’m starving. I could use a dozen of the chicken nuggets and a plate of tater tots right now.

  I turn to see Molly following behind me. “Hey, how are you?” I ask.

  “I’m good,” she says, coming up and wrapping an arm around my shoulder. “Haven’t seen you in a while. How’ve you been?”

  We walk up the hill, her arm still around my shoulder. “I’ve been doing better, thanks for asking.”

  “Good, I’m so glad to hear that.”

  “What brings you to these parts?” I ask, realizing I’ve never seen her walking around camp.

  “I thought I’d go for a little hike. Where are you headed?”

  “Dining hall, I’m starving. Been cleaning like a crazy person since the campers left earlier.”

  “Would you be interested in a homemade meal?” she asks.

  “Possibly, you sure I wouldn’t be intruding?”

  “Of course you wouldn’t be,” she says and checks her watch. “Why don’t you get a snack and then head over at 3, dinner will be ready then, we’re eating early because we have a show in the city to catch. I’ll even make brownies.”

  “You know how to bribe a girl, don’t you?” I ask with a smile.

  “What can I say? I enjoy having you around. I’ll see you then?”

  “Sure thing,” I say as I head up the concrete stairs to the mess hall. “See you then.”

  Mrs. Garreth waves bye and heads down toward the bridge which leads to the rest of camp. Inside the cafeteria, all the tables are already pushed to one side of the hall, with all the benches on top of them. The dining staff is already getting the room cleaned. There’s a few counselors in the meeting room eating some dinner, laughing, and talking. I surprise myself by grabbing an apple and heading in to join them. This is how it should have been all summer. I shouldn’t have been so worried about joining my fellow counselors. After all, there’s nothing to worry about at Camp Arthur, it’s my happy place.

  I climb the stairs to the Garreth’s house, my heart hammering out of my chest. I feel silly showing up empty handed, like I should be bringing them a bottle of wine or something. I shouldn’t be this nervous. I’ve had dinner with them before, I’ve had ice cream with Mrs. Garreth, and I’ve watched crappy daytime TV with her. What’s changed?

  Opening the screen door I ring the doorbell and hear Sampson’s deep voice coming from inside.

  “You expecting someone, mom?” he says, his voice coming closer to the door.

  When he opens it, his jaw drops but he quickly smiles. “Hey you, kicked out of your cabin, too?”

  I grin at him. “Nope, your mom invited me for dinner.” I look him up and down. He’s wearing a Maryville t-shirt and
grey sweatpants, clearly settled in for the night. “You going to invite me in?”

  He moves to let me slide in the doorway and closes it behind me. I turn in time to see him looking me over. I’m glad I decided to put on a red and white sun dress that Winnie gave me from her recent shopping spree. She said it didn’t fit her and it was on sale for only ten dollars, so there was no sense in taking it back. It would have cost more money in gas to drive back to the mall.

  “You look nice,” Sampson manages to say as I slide my white Keds off and drop my backpack next to them. “Hot date tonight?”

  I smile. “Just a nice family dinner.”

  “Well, I feel way underdressed,” he says, shoving his hands in his pockets.

  “Is that Penelope?” Mrs. Garreth asks, coming around the corner. “Well look at you, that’s a pretty dress.”

  “Laundry day,” I lie. “Nothing else to wear.”

  “Sampson,” Molly says. “Why don’t you grab Penelope a drink, dinner will be ready in about ten minutes.”

  “What would you like?” he asks, leading me to the kitchen.

  “Water’s fine, thanks,” I say.

  Sampson grabs me a glass from the cabinet and then grabs the water pitcher from the fridge to fill the glass. He hands it to me and our fingers touch for a brief second. The fun electric flow I get every time he’s near me returns.

  “Want to go sit outside with me? I think the porch swing is calling your name,” he says.

  I turn to look at Molly. “Do you need any help, Mrs. Garreth?”

  “No, dear,” she says waving us away, not even looking up from the veggies she’s cutting. “Go enjoy this nice weather. I’ll be just fine.”

  Sampson grabs my hand gently, and I follow him out the front door, barefoot with my glass of water in my other hand. The front porch swing reminds me of the swing from The Notebook on Noah’s porch, and I smile at the romantic gesture.

  I sit down next to Sampson with the smile still on my face.

  “Whatcha smilin’ about?” he asks, swinging us back and forth with his legs. My feet don’t even reach the ground.

  “Nothing,” I say, taking a sip of my water. “Just thinking.”

  “I hope you’re thinking about changing your mind on the whole ‘serendipity’ thing. Not sure how I’m supposed to go who knows how long without talking to you.”

  “Nope, sorry. Though, you’re close to breaking me,” I say.

  “How’s that?”

  I nod toward where he’s still holding my hand, his thumb rubbing lightly over one of my knuckles. “What can I say? I’m a sucker for the little things in life.”

  He slowly brings our hands up to his mouth and places a kiss on the back of mine, lingering for a few heartbeats. “How about now?”

  I take in a shaky breath. “Sampson Garreth, you’ll be the death of me.”

  “Come here,” he says, releasing my hand and motioning for me to move closer.

  I’m not sure what I was expecting, maybe for him to pull me in for a kiss or tell me something else in the hopes to get me to change my mind, but he just wraps his arm around my shoulder and holds me as he continues to swing us back and forth.

  “Sampson?” I whisper.

  “Yeah?”

  “You know, I’m pretty sure I’ve had a crush on you all summer. Now it’s your turn to have a crush on me.”

  I kiss him lightly on the cheek where his beard is getting stubbly just as we hear his mom yell out the open window that dinner is ready.

  He smiles. “Let’s go in before I try to convince you to be my girlfriend already.”

  “Thanks for dinner,” I tell Mrs. Garreth as I walk out with them to their car. “And thanks for the leftovers.”

  Mr. and Mrs. Garreth are dressed up nicely for their date night. I feel bad for almost making them late. Mr. Garreth opens her car door and glances nervously at his watch again.

  “Oh, make sure you and Sampson finish those brownies,” she yells from the car.

  Sampson had disappeared right after dinner, but I hear him bounding down the stairs now, a peach in his hand and gym shoes on his feet. “Mom, you’re going to give her diabetes.” He shouts. “First you let her lick the brownie batter from the bowl, and now another brownie? You don’t even offer me extra.”

  “That’s because I like her more,” she says with a smile as he jogs over to the car to give her a quick kiss on the cheek.

  Mr. Garreth closes her door and waves at us as he climbs behind the wheel and starts the car. Backing up in the yard and heading for the camp entrance.

  “Ready to go? I’ll walk you back to your cabin.” Sampson says, taking a bite out of his fruit, some juice dribbling down his chin before he wipes it away with the back of his hand.

  “You don’t have to do that,” I say.

  “Would you just let me be chivalrous?”

  “Okay, fine!” I laugh and feign defeat. “To the cabin, Jeeves!”

  “You’ve already won my mother over, you know that right?” He says as he closes the door behind him and I follow him across the field, taking the shortcut to the cabins.

  “Maybe she’ll adopt me,” I tease, trotting a bit ahead of him and dancing, my dress swooshing in the breeze. “I’d love freshly baked sweets every week.”

  “Don’t even joke about that,” he says. “She’d probably sign adoption papers if you handed them to her right now.”

  “Eh, I’m almost eighteen anyway, it’s not worth the legal trouble. Don’t worry.”

  We’re both quiet for a little bit, and I fall back in step with him.

  “Has anyone told you how cute you look in that dress today?” he asks.

  “Well,” I say, holding my hand up and counting the people. “Your mom, Kenny, Dora, some guy from the cooking crew…”

  “Really?” he asks, and I know he is trying to be cute.

  “No, just your mom. I was teasing.”

  He breathes what I think sounds like a sigh of relief. “Good, I was starting to worry I was going to need to have a talk with some of the guys here. Trying to swoop in and steal you, who do they think they are?”

  “I already told you the other day, I’m not interested in dating anyone else. You just have to court me.”

  “Does walking you back to your cabin count?” he asks as we stop right in front of the door.

  I smile and nod. “Look at how well you’re already doing. I don’t need elaborate things, just actions. It’s the little things that matter.”

  “I can do that,” he says, leaning in to give me a hug. “I’ll see you tomorrow. Be safe. Lock your door.”

  “Yes, sir,” I say and head down the walkway into my empty cabin. It’s tempting to invite him in, I do have extra sheets he could use. Having another sleepover wouldn’t be awful. Part of me is nervous about being alone with Winnie gone tonight, but I’ll have to get used to being alone once school starts. Who knows what my roommate will be doing at night?

  Before I close the door, I watch as Sampson turns back to head toward his parents’ house, waving one last night as I turn around and lock myself in for the evening.

  It’s so quiet, I can hear my heart pattering away in my chest.

  “I brought you those brownies,” Sampson says as he joins me in the art building the following day. “And some fruit in hopes that it’ll even out with the sweets. For every brownie, you have to eat a piece of fruit.”

  “I hate fruit! Well, most fruit, not apples,” I whine, but go over to pop a grape in my mouth.

  “See, not so bad,” he says. “It’s not going to kill you.”

  “You don’t know that,” I shoot back. “I could be allergic.”

  “So, that means you’ve never tried some fruits, so you don’t know if you hate them or like them.”

  I squint my eyes at him. “It’s a texture thing.”

  “Fair enough, it’s here if you want it,” he says. “What would you like me to help you with?”

  “We need to
make sure everything is in the correct containers and put away, then we’ll wipe tables off, sweep, and mop.”

  “Sounds good,” he says, following me over to the storage cabinet and pulling all the containers out.

  We’re both quiet for about an hour, separating ribbon, beads, coloring books, crayons, and markers and other various supplies for crafts. Sampson has his phone out with some indie rock band called Southern Rebirth playing, sitting it on a plastic cup to use as a speaker.

  I hum along to the songs, even though I don’t know all the words, as I start putting the items back in their correct boxes, and Sampson begins wiping the tables off with disinfectant wipes. Once I have all the containers put away, I grab a broom to sweep, looking up at the handprints again.

  “Where’s yours?” he asks.

  “Hmm,” I say, searching. Some of the campers started overlapping handprints this summer so when I find mine, it’s covered up. “Ah, here. Looks like it’s been outranked.”

  “Let’s fix that,” he says, going to the closet and looking for something. He comes back with a gallon of the yellow paint and a pallet.

  I follow him to the counter and he pours some paint onto the plastic reusable pallet. I watch as he puts the cap back on the paint and lets it go all over the tray.

  “Pick a spot,” he says, following me to the wall with the paint. I place my hand in it and then find the clearest spot on the wall to leave my fresh handprint.

  Once I’m done, I take the supplies from Sampson. “Your turn,” I say with a smile.

  He does the same as me and places his hand right next to mine. “There we go. Perfect.”

  “Not just yet,” I tell him. Before I can stop myself, I turn to Sampson and stand on my tippy toes to kiss him on the lips. I place my paint covered hand on his cheek and then slip away. “Now it’s perfect.”

  I look up at him and admire my handiwork, pun intended.

  “You think you’re so cute, don’t you?” he says, taking his yellow finger and marking it on my nose.

  I shake my head. “I’m pretty sure you’re the one who thinks that I’m cute.”

  “Point taken,” he says, letting me slide away to go wash my hands.