by Anna Katmore
“C’mon, man. You’re still into her, more so than you want to let on. You definitely weren’t just random classmates.”
My answer takes a while to come. “No, we weren’t.”
“So, when was it, and for how long?”
“Officially, never.” I pause. “Unofficially…three and a half weeks.”
“Wow. Must have been a pretty intense three and a half weeks.”
While he finds this quite amusing, I keep a straight face. “You never forget your first real love.” Especially not when she sits in front of you in four different classes for three years straight.
“So the girl you warned me away from our first night here—”
“Is the girl she became after our last summer camp together.”
His eyes grow wide with surprise. “Camp?”
“Uh-huh.”
“This camp?”
“Yep.”
“Ohh… Tough memories then, huh?” He chuckles.
A tiny smirk tugs at the edges of my mouth. “You have no idea.”
“So what caused the change with her?”
I kick off my shoes, lean across to his bed, and steal a handful of his Skittles. “If I had to take a guess, I’d say it was new friends. But the truth is, I don’t know. She did a three-sixty overnight and never thought it worth the trouble to tell me what made her change her mind about us. She also ended it in a very…special way.”
Compassion leaking through his scrunched face, Greyson sits up. He sets the Skittles bag aside on his nightstand, and a colorful selection rolls randomly across the top. The covers bulge where his knees are as he crosses his legs and rests his forearms on them. “Talk it out with her now. You’re both here alone, no old friends, no running away for either of you. Maybe the girl’s got something to tell you.”
“I considered that.”
“But you aren’t now.”
Pressing my lips together, I shrug one shoulder. “We’ll see.” And that’s the most he’ll get out of me tonight. “Anyway, what’s the deal with you and Julie?” I demand, steering the chat away from my troubles.
Instantly, his face turns stop-sign red. “Uh, nothing,” he fires back immediately.
“Yeah, right. And nothing keeps the two of you away from dinner every so often,” I mock him, glad to thoroughly close the topic of Chloe and me.
“We were just putting game stuff away the other day. And overseeing the kids by the lake.” He rakes a hand through his hair, then pulls his T-shirt off over his head and sinks into his pillow. A flick without a warning and his night lamp goes out. “Good night.”
Cracking up, I discard my clothes in the dark then slip under my comforter. “Night, Grey.”
A deep breath expands my lungs. One arm angled behind my head, the other hand flat on my stomach, I stare at the wood frame of the bunk bed above me. In spite of my roomie’s intention to help me find some peace tonight by making me spill the beans, I know that all I’ll do for the next couple of hours is replay in my mind that sensual moment by the tree with Chloe. Over and over again.
Chapter 13
Chloe
I wait by the door of the dining hall and spy on Justin as he sinks into his chair at our table in the far back. It’s almost routine now that we’re always the first of the counselors to get here.
When he picks up his coffee mug and buries his face in it, I sneak over and quietly sit down. His breakfast tray remains empty this morning. Just coffee, and if previous mornings are any indications, it’s thick as pudding and black as a raven’s wing.
“Morning,” I murmur, sliding him a glance while I spoon sugar into my own cup. Lips compressed in a tight line, he lifts only his brows in greeting. Aha. So while I tossed and turned the entire last night in my bed and finally came to the decision that it would be best to just act as if nothing whatsoever had happened between us, he obviously decided to practice silence.
It would be fine with me, if only the silence wasn’t so oppressing. “Where’s Greyson?” That’s my pathetic attempt at conversation.
The noise of his gulp is so comical it could be from Tom & Jerry. Elbows braced on the table, he still holds the cup in front of his lips and stares inside. “Don’t know. He was already gone when I woke up.”
“Julie said she wanted to run a lap around the lake before breakfast.” A quiet chuckle escapes me. “Can’t be linked to Greyson’s absence, right?”
Justin lifts his gaze to me, the corners of his mouth suddenly twitching. Then he shrugs, puts his mug down, and rises from his chair. My eyes fixed on his back, I sit rigid as he leaves the dining hall. Whaaat? Did I say something wrong again?
I take a sip of my hot coffee then break a blueberry muffin in half. Julie joins me a minute later, slightly out of breath. “How was the run?” I mumble around a bite.
“Good.” She’s chosen her usual bowl of cornflakes, snags the jar of milk from the table, and pours it over her cereal.
“You didn’t by chance meet Greyson out there, did you?”
Like a whiplash, her head snaps to me. “No.”
Halting in the middle of chewing, I stare at her face. Seconds later, I’m struggling to keep the food inside my mouth as I start laughing really hard. “Oh my God. You two are so obvious.”
“We’re not!” Her face starts glowing as if she wants to rule the traffic in the hall. “I mean, there’s nothing going on.”
“Sure there isn’t.” Stifling my amusement and returning my attention to the blueberry muffin, I don’t notice Greyson coming in until he lowers into a chair opposite Julie.
“Hey, guys. Where’s Justin?” he asks in a conversational tone. “Can’t be still asleep, right?”
“You missed him. Four wasn’t in a great talking mood this morning.” Looking up, I cast Greyson a smirk then frown. Something’s different about him. It takes a second for it to sink in. “Your skin looks so much better,” I blurt out the first thing that comes to mind. “Giving up smoking really paid off, huh? How’re you handling the detox, anyway? Has it become easier?”
He cuts a quick glance to my roomie, then he smiles at me. “Yes, a lot.”
Yeah. The guy has obviously found his stress release. And her name is Julie Reed. Now isn’t that nice? While Greyson butters his toast, I stand up, lean forward, and whisper in Julie’s ear, “Your secret affair becomes him.”
Choking on her cornflakes, Julie sprays milk all over the table. “What?” The spoon lands noisily in her bowl, splashing more milk in a wide radius. “It’s not—”
“Enjoy breakfast,” I interrupt her stammering, snicker, and pat her shoulder. “See you guys later.”
*
The quiet morning begs to be spent sunbathing. I put on my white bikini, throw a dress on over it, and amble down to the lake with my towel clutched under my arm. A bunch of kids are fooling around on the nearby playground or in the water. They dunk each other and swing on a rope into the lake. Close by, a few other kids play soccer. I can hear them yelling at each other and laughing. Today they’re playing without their referee, because Greyson lies sprawled on the grass, elbows propped on the ground to brace himself, while he watches the kids in the water. He’s on life-guard duty.
My turn to keep an eye on the kids is after lunch. Frankly, lake duty is the best kind of work here, because supervising a handful of youngsters taking a swim in the pond doesn’t require a lot of effort. And I’m tanning nicely at the same time.
Spreading the soft, white terry cloth over the slats of the dock, I settle down at the edge and let my feet dangle above the water. The sun reflects on the surface like a million crystals. It hurts my eyes, so I grab the sunglasses keeping my hair out of my face and put them on.
Two and Four stroll down the path to the lake together a few minutes later, Julie dressed in a bikini top and blue Bermuda shorts, Justin wearing his knee-length, neon-green swim trunks. While the Owl flies over to the sandy volleyball court and joins a few girls there, Justin lowers himself in t
he shade next to Greyson and leans against a tree. His gaze sweeps around the lake, stopping short when it lands on me.
“Chloe!” Julie’s voice drifts over. “Wanna come play volleyball with us?”
Turning in her direction, I shake my head.
“Guys?” she shouts to Three and Four next, making a pleading face.
Greyson dips his head back and sounds truly regretful as he yells back, “Sorry, I’m on lake-watch here.”
After a glance at his watch, Justin smacks him on the arm and murmurs something. I can’t hear what they’re saying, but seconds later Greyson scrambles to his feet and delightfully joins Julie and the kids by the volleyball court, so I assume Justin took mercy on him and is covering his shift.
Gripping the edge of the dock and swinging my feet above the water, I watch the staccato flight of a dragonfly, its long body landing on the surface every few seconds. A slight breeze ruffles the leaves of the trees around the lake. Everything smells of summer and foliage. The temperature is so high already, it feels like a fan is placed in front of a bonfire, blowing the warm air directly at me.
When the dragonfly disappears beneath the dock, I look up, bored already. Across the lake, Justin is still leaning against the tree. His stoic face is turned my way, but with sunglasses now shading his eyes, it’s impossible to tell where exactly he’s looking. He might be dutifully watching the kids in the water after all.
My focus drops to my wiggling toes, but moments later the feeling of being watched slithers like Jell-O down my spine. I slide another glance at him. He hasn’t moved an inch. Still looking at me? Heck, I need to know. Deliberating, I bite my lip then do a quick test: I stick my tongue out at him.
A tiny dimple appears in his left cheek as he cracks a smile. There! I knew he was watching me! Suppressing an answering grin, I recline on the warm boards of the dock and look up into the sky. My mini dress rides up, exposing most of my bare thighs and maybe a glimpse of my bikini bottoms underneath. I would adjust it, if the heat wasn’t rendering me slack and motionless.
When a soft vibration of the dock strokes my spine, I overstretch my neck tilting my head back to see whose footsteps are causing the massage. Justin stops above me and smirks down as he shoves his sunglasses up on top of his head.
“You’re not going to drop a bucket of water on me, are you?” I whine. A shower of temperature shock is the last thing I want right now.
Rolling his eyes, he steps around me and lowers by my side. His hands are empty as he grips the edge and, from what I can see, he didn’t take a dip in the lake before he came over, either. If he’s not going to dowse me, what does he want here? After the silence he wrapped himself in this morning, I have no idea how things stand between us. And from the testing, sheepish look he sends me over his shoulder, obviously neither does he.
The longer he stares at me, the more I get the feeling he expects me to say something. “The kids are in the water,” is the first thing that comes to my mind.
“What?”
“You should keep an eye on them, not me.”
“Rrright.” He turns his head away, the muscles in his shoulders and arms bulging as he grips the edge harder. Beneath his right shoulder blade, a thin scar twitches from the tension. It’s from an accident Justin had when he was six and rode his BMX bike downhill for the first time in his life. A few years ago, he told me about that day. Isn’t it funny that we were sitting in this exact place back then? I loved how his skin twitched with a shiver whenever I traced the scar with the tip of my finger. My hand is itching to reach out for it now. And my throat is drying out.
Closing my eyes, I draw in a few deep breaths, then I sit up, pulling my shades off and fumbling with them in my lap. The first glance I sneak at his face might’ve gone unnoticed, but I know he caught the second one when his jaw tightens and his lips compress. Twelve hours ago those lips brushed against mine. I still recall their softness and his gentleness when he tended to my wound.
As if I’m thinking all this out loud, Justin’s focus moves to the patch on my inner thigh. His flaming look an inevitable reminder of the two of us alone in the sickroom, my skin starts to prickle with waves of heat rushing through me. I press my thighs together. When he lifts his gaze again, I swallow. Last night looms above us like a darn water balloon. One word and it’s going to pop.
Instead of saying anything, Justin nudges my foot with his toes, causing my leg to swing back and forth under the dock. I let it dangle for a moment. Then I nudge him back.
As he sucks in his cheek, biting his lip, I know he’s trying to hide a smile. Somewhat relieved that we managed to talk it out without actually talking about it, I bump against his shoulder, too. “You’re weird,” I tease him, just for good measure.
“Says the girl who gets fits of laughter out of the blue.”
“That wasn’t out of the blue.”
“Oh good, I hope you did have a reason.” He bumps against my shoulder in return. “Also for spitting chicken nuggets at me.”
Snickering, I lower my glance and put my shades back on my nose. “One day, I might tell you.”
“One day…” He sniffs and scratches his brow. “Given that we meet again outside camp.”
I haven’t thought about that yet. But since he brought it up now—I think I will miss him…somehow…when all this is over and I’m six thousand miles away from here. Too much has happened during the past few days to rightfully deny it. “Guess it’s kinda inevitable that we will.”
“It is?”
“Well…” I shrug. “Yeah. We grew up in the same town. Our families still live there. There’s summer vacations, breaks, Christmas.”
“Right. Christmas.” He chuckles. “And there’ll always be Ryan’s parties, when he’s home.”
That’s true. If my high school soccer team captain is known for one thing, it’s the epic parties he used to throw. And I don’t think he’ll ever stop. “Just don’t count on me too soon,” I mock Justin, and when he furrows his brow in confusion, I explain, “London. I’ll be gone for a year after camp, remember?”
His expression freezes for a second. It makes me wonder if he indeed forgot about it. Then he pulls his sunglasses out of his hair and covers his eyes with them. Gazing out onto the lake, he mumbles, “Of course.”
His sudden change of mood irritates the hell out of me on this sunny day, so I playfully shove his leg with mine again. A tiny smile tugs on the edges of his mouth, even though he refuses to look at me. Knowing that I’m on the right track at least, I nudge him once more, and this time he catches my ankle between his feet.
“Anybody ever tell you that you’re a pain in the neck?” he taunts me.
“Anybody ever tell you that you’re bossy and arrogant?” I counter with the same tease in my voice and a bright grin on my face, which makes him laugh.
After a deep inhale, he lets go of my leg and tilts his head toward me, looking all serious again, yet also soft and friendly. “I think we should try it anyway.”
I frown. “Try what?”
“Being friends.”
His suggestion catches me off guard. Tolerating him at camp because we’re stuck here is one thing. But he and I—friends? Expelling a long breath, I consider the idea. Yesterday wasn’t so bad, being out in the woods with him. He gave me a piggyback ride. And took care of my injury. He hasn’t been pushy today either. Perhaps friendship is what we’re heading toward anyway. With that thought, an odd feeling of comfort grows in my stomach. I give him a tiny nod. “Okay, let’s do it. As long as you don’t force me into any more lessons with the kids.”
“Won’t. Promise.” One side of his mouth tilts up into a smirk. “As long as you don’t spit food at me again.”
I start laughing. “Deal.”
*
My turn to keep an eye on the lake begins right after lunch. I find a place in the shade to settle down, because today it won’t take longer than fifteen minutes to get burnt to a crisp in the sun. But I pick the spot
under the tree opposite the dock for another reason. Justin’s practicing with Kristina is supposed to start in ten minutes, and from here I have a perfect view of the basketball court.
Since we officially moved into the friend zone today, I considered warning him about Kristina’s true intentions earlier while we sat together in the dining hall. But then I thought, why the heck should I do that? I wouldn’t want to miss watching this for a million dollars.
Leaning against the tree, I wait for them to roll in and get started. A quarter of an hour later, it’s obvious Kristina has indeed never played basketball in her life. She misses the basket by miles, and her dribbling is horrendous. To her credit, she does know how to flirt with her coach. She smiles a lot, plays with her hair at the right times, and when she talks to him, she always tilts her head in that cute, smitten way. Not even Justin can ignore her interest any longer. The poor guy looks torn between being flattered and seriously uncomfortable. Oh my God, it’s too funny!
Not wanting to miss any of the fun on the court, I hurriedly sweep the lake with a glance and make sure no kids are in trouble. That’s when I spot Addison hiding behind a tree nearby. Obviously, she’s spying on the sports area, too. Jeez, don’t tell me she’s the next girl into Justin! If he finds out, he’ll strut around, all cocky, for the rest of the summer.
But the longer I watch Addison, the more I get the feeling she’s not interested in Justin at all. Her focus seems to be on the guys playing soccer. It’s hard to make out who her target is as they bulldoze from one end of the field to the other, constantly fighting for the ball.
A little later, some of the guys start whining about the heat and suggest taking a dip, calling it quits for today. Addison ducks quickly back behind her tree. She lets the first small group pass without taking much notice, but when the next three guys walk by, she shyly follows them with her gaze. Bingo! One of these boys must be her heartthrob. I bet it’s the blond walking in the middle.
But hiding there in the bushes will get Goldilocks exactly nowhere. She should come to the lake where she can get involved with this Justin Bieber wannabe. Since with all my spying on her, I’ve completely missed when Justin and Kristina finished their basketball practice and because I have nothing better to do right now anyway, I decide to give Addison the little push she so obviously needs.