by J. K. Rock
“Why is he so obsessed?”
I shook my head. The better question was, what did Vijay intend to do with that video? All this time, I’d been on a payback mission. It’d never occurred to me that my ex might be on one, too.
Javier
“We’ve got to get that camera.”
The objective flashed into my brain with perfect clarity.
Setting Alex aside, I shook off the last of my hot-for-her haze and sprinted toward the exit.
“Wait.” She held me back, her fingers clutching my forearm. “Don’t go.”
“Are you kidding me?” I shook my head. “All the times you’ve gone tearing headfirst into trouble and now you want me to wait? You realize that bastard is going to post that video all over the Internet, right? That your parents will see it? This is not the way for them to find out about us.”
“I’m already going to boarding school, so what’s the worst they can do? Plus, it’s not like I haven’t been humiliated on the Internet before.” Alex put herself between me and the door. “It’s my fault you almost got ejected from camp before, and I’m not going to let that happen again.”
“That wasn’t your fault.” I unhooked her fingers from my arm. Gentle, but firm. “Alex, I’m not going to lose it, okay? I know that now after my trip with Bam-Bam. Besides, it’s time someone confronted that kid and found out what’s wrong with his lame ass.” He held up his hands. “I’ll use words, not fists.”
I was going to control myself if it killed me.
“Then I’m going with you.” She took off like an arrow from a bow, making a straight shot for the door.
“Seriously?” I caught her, tugging her back. “Go home, Alex. I’m ending this tonight.”
She shook her head fast, her face white.
“No.”
“Yes. I get distracted when you’re around because I worry about you and want to protect you and…hell. I can’t think straight. This time? Please. Let me do this my way.”
She hesitated only a moment. Then she nodded, the movement jerky.
“Okay.”
Whoa. Hadn’t seen her agree that quickly before. I was already running by the time she shouted, “Good luck!”
Yeah. I’d freaking need it.
I took off into the dark, wondering where the creep would go with the video. Gollum? One of the other counselors? Or would he try to embarrass Alex by showing it off to his friends before using his 4G to post it?
Banking on the last option, I ran through the woods, ignoring the paths in case any counselors were out. When I arrived at the boys’ cabins, the lights were on in Wander Inn.
Score.
Leaping up the steps onto the porch, I pounded on the door frame. The door was open, with only a screen between me and the Wander Inn guys. Three of them were scattered around the floor.
“Vijay?” I shouted, willing myself to stay calm. Focused.
“Not here, dude.” Julian slid off his bunk and padded across the cabin floor. “He took off for the movie when we tried talking to him about—uh—what’s up?” Julian quickly changed the subject.
“The punk snapped a picture or video of Alex and me at the arts and crafts building after the skit.” I levered open the screen door and looked around, half-convinced they were hiding him somewhere. “He’s been harassing Alex all summer and even during the school year. It’s going to stop now.”
After weeks of worrying that BLISS Network would pop out of some bushes and catch us, it was ironic that Vijay had been the real threat.
I waited for Vijay to step out of the bathroom or otherwise show himself. The kid never backed down from a fight that was for damn sure. But his cabin mates were the only ones here.
“The rest of the cabin is at the movie night.” Rafe put down his cast notes from the play and looked up. They were a copy of the set tucked into my pocket.
“I need to find Vijay. Who’s going to help?” I wasn’t backing down on this. Besides, I was running out of time to stop this jerk from doing major damage to Alex’s life.
“Whoa.” Bam-Bam’s voice echoed through the room as he arrived suddenly on the front porch. “What’s going on here, Javier? I could hear you from two cabins down.”
The warning note in his tone was obvious.
“Vijay spied on Alex and me—” I didn’t say we’d been kissing. “And took pictures or video. I’m not sure which. But the kid is out of control and someone needs to talk to him.”
Bam-Bam muttered under his breath, and I was pretty sure it wasn’t anything good. “You kids stay here. Titanic has got another hour to go, I think, but I don’t want you guys roaming the camp alone.” His jaw flexed as he tucked his shirt in and changed from leather sandals to sneakers. “I’ll circle the campus and see if I can find him.”
“Will do, boss,” Julian agreed, holding open the door for the counselor.
Bam-Bam was half-out the door when he called back, “And no fighting, Javier.”
Umm…yeah. I sure as hell hoped not. But the longer it took Vijay to return to the cabin, the more amped I got. What was he doing all this time? Julian tried to show me some of his survival gear and asked about my hike with Bam-Bam. Rafe challenged me to chess, but I couldn’t sit still. I’d prowled the Wander Inn for at least fifteen minutes before the door opened.
Vijay stood alone, an iPhone still in one hand.
“What the hell are you doing here?” he snapped at me, his lip curling.
Did the kid have no idea how hard I worked not to throttle him? I took a deep breath. Then another.
“Where is the picture of Alex?” Julian asked, coming to stand by my side. “You’ve gotta leave her alone, man.”
I willed my fury into submission so I could speak reasonably. Normally.
“She doesn’t deserve the way you’re treating her.” I sounded as smooth as a social services caseworker. Steady as a freaking camp counselor. “Hand over the phone and let your friends delete the photo.”
Vijay shrugged. He tossed the phone to Garrett, who sat off to one side as if unwilling to get involved either way.
“Fine. But it’s a video and I already got it on YouTube in spite of the slow-as-shit cell service up here. There’s no deleting the thing now.”
No punch had ever hurt as much as that news. I couldn’t even catch my breath. Anger surged. I saw red. Damn, damn, damn, I wasn’t going to be able to hold it together…
“What the hell is the matter with you?”
Rafe, the chess player, got up in Vijay’s face. Nose-to-nose. Mano y mano.
“Chill,” Vijay laughed and tried to push Rafe back, but Rafe didn’t budge. “Seriously, man, get off me.”
“You don’t mess with people’s lives like that,” Rafe shouted. “All summer, you’ve been a jerk, and your friends have taken it. But you’re screwed in the head—”
“What’s going on?” Bam-Bam exploded into the cabin, inserting himself between Rafe and Vijay. “Two steps back, guys. Pronto.”
The tension was thick. Veins popped on the sides of Vijay’s forehead. Rafe’s cheeks were red, his eyes narrow. And me? I had my fists jammed in my pockets so I didn’t plant them in Vijay’s teeth.
“Vijay took video of me and Alex and posted it online.”
“I commented with a link on the Wholesome Home blog, too,” he bragged. “Right where Alex’s daddy can’t help but see.”
“You worthless sack of—”
My curses got lost in the obscenities shouted from virtually every guy in the room, except the dumbass smiling like he’d just won the freaking lottery. For once, I was hurt too much to be angry. I didn’t know how to stop the world of pain about to descend on Alex. Though I did know pummeling Vijay wouldn’t knock the stupidity out of him. And for the first time, I was pretty sure it wouldn’t make me feel better either.
“Hey,” Vijay shouted over everyone. “It’s time her parents knew what kind of girl—”
“Shut up!” Rafe shouted while my chest burned with a new hole in it.
“What is wrong with you?” Bam-Bam shook his head, disbelieving.
“I’ll tell you what’s wrong with him,” Rafe snarled. He dove under a bed and came out with a black drawstring pouch.
“No way,” Vijay sputtered. “That’s private.”
He dove for Rafe, but Rafe was already yanking open the bag. As Vijay reached for it, he knocked it out of Rafe’s hands. A vial and a needle rolled out, clattering across the floor.
“What is it?” Garrett put his feet up on the bed as if he didn’t want them contaminated.
“Steroids.” I’d seen enough juiced-up guys muscle their way through foster care. Had gotten my eyebrow scar because of one of them. If I hadn’t been so focused on Alex, I would have recognized the signs weeks ago.
“Give the man a prize,” Rafe murmured. “He got it in one guess.”
“That’s bullshit!” Vijay screamed, his face going purple as he scrambled to pick up the drug paraphernalia. “You have no right to touch my stuff.”
“Keep it down, son,” Bam-Bam urged. “You had no right to bring this to camp in the first place.”
“I had no right?” Vijay shouted, only marginally quieter. “I had no right? Who are you to tell me what rights I have?”
Bam-Bam scrubbed a hand over his short buzz cut. “I’m an adult, a veteran, and your counselor. Let’s start with that.”
“Yeah, start there. But bottom line, no one messes with you, and you know why?” Vijay sneered. “Because genetics made you six-foot-four. You won the chromosome lottery that guarantees no one will ever push you around or call you weak or trip you in the lunch line just for the hell of it.”
Vijay had lost it. Purple face. Veins bulging. Tears leaking out his eyes. I’m pretty sure he didn’t know about the tears. Or else he was beyond caring.
I swallowed hard. Pissed off as I was with Vijay, I didn’t like where this was headed.
“Maybe we should go to Mr. Woodrow’s office—” Bam-Bam offered.
“So he can send me home? Back to where I was the runt of the junior class? Back to getting bullied by guys bigger than me? For being a tech-geek? For being Muslim?”
The silence that followed felt louder than the shouting. My ears rang with it.
“The answer to being bullied isn’t to bully someone else,” Bam-Bam said quietly as he picked up Vijay’s iPhone.
“Tell it to my dad,” he spat back. “The ’roids were his idea.”
“That’s messed up,” Garrett muttered, shaking his head.
Bam-Bam’s eyebrows shot up. “Your father got these for you?”
“He sent them underneath a box of cookies from my mom. Along with the iPhone so I could update him on my summer workouts.”
Julian whistled low under his breath. The fight seemed to have gone out of Vijay, his face pale, his control wrecked.
“Seems like you should have been mad at your dad instead of Alex.” I don’t know why I said it. The kid was having a bad day and maybe I was a jerk for rubbing his nose in the ways he’d messed up. But Alex was going to be the one who paid for his choices and I was still pissed about that.
“I don’t know what I’m doing half the time.” Vijay shrugged, his eyes vacant. “I thought it would be good to come here and get away from everything back home, but it just followed me anyhow.”
“You think you can talk to Woodrow?” Bam-Bam talked to him with a patience I admired. He’d calmed a high-octane situation, and he’d never raised his voice. Never got angry.
Nodding, Vijay shuffled toward the door.
When Bam-Bam followed, I was right behind him. Stepping off the porch onto the soft carpet of pine needles, I turned toward the girls’ campus rather than toward the Warriors’ Warden.
“Not an option,” Bam-Bam barked at me over one shoulder. “Lights out is in ten minutes.”
“I’ve got to warn Alex—”
“Not tonight.” He turned to stare me down. “Back to your cabin, Javier. We’ll deal with the rest tomorrow.”
I wanted to argue. But hadn’t I just decided to control my defiance? My temper? Besides, Bam-Bam was one of the good guys. He’d looked out for me so far.
“Understood,” I agreed, dragging leaden feet back toward my cabin.
I just hoped Alex would, too.
Alex
“I think Bam-Bam might be hotter than Rob,” Jackie announced the next morning after we got back from the showers and were dressing for breakfast.
“Sacrilege!” shouted Piper, winging her pillow toward the window where Jackie stood, staring out at the common area at the center of the girls’ campus. “Rob didn’t get the nickname the Hottie for nothing. He is the hottest counselor here.”
Distracted by the muddle in my head, I wasn’t paying much attention to the half-hearted argument that broke out or the pairs of rolled socks girls lobbed like grenades at each other. Someone’s blue cotton bra hit me in the shoulder, a slingshot missile gone wide.
“Is Bam-Bam out there?” I asked suddenly, wondering what he’d be doing here so early.
“Yeah,” Jackie shouted, waggling her eyebrows at me. “And I’m starting to get what Emily sees in him. Hey, where are you going?”
I heard her shout to me, but I was already out the door. My hair was still wet, but I was dressed and I needed to know what went down with Vijay the night before.
“Excuse me?” I called, waving a hand to snag Emily and Bam-Bam’s attention. “Can I—”
“Just who we wanted to see!” Emily whipped around fast to look at me, her movement jerky. “Gollum—I mean, Mr. Woodrow—would like to see you. Would you mind running down there before breakfast?”
My eyes darted to Bam-Bam. Had he brought this news? But his stony face gave away nothing. My stomach knotted.
“They kicked out Javier, didn’t they?” I just knew it in my gut. My heartbeat skittered into high gear, and my face felt hot. “How could they—”
“Javier is heading down to see him now, too,” Bam-Bam offered. “Maybe you can catch him if you hurry.”
I was already running. Wet hair, no makeup, my sneakers colored with brown magic marker. I didn’t care about anything but setting Gollum straight. Whatever had happened last night was my fault. Vijay’s fault. Anyone’s fault but Javier’s, who was finally coming around to seeing a way we could be together after all.
“Alex.”
Javier’s sleep-scratchy voice warned me a few seconds before I would have collided with him. He stood on the path in front of the administration building, close to the director’s door.
“Javier.” I launched into his arms, not thinking. But he scuttled back a step and took my hands in his instead. “You’re still here.”
“I haven’t gone in to see him yet,” he explained. “By the time we found Vijay last night, there was a big blow-out in the Wander Inn—”
“You got in a fight?” I looked him over for evidence. If he had any bruises, I was going to pummel Vijay.
“No.” Javier tugged me closer to the edge of the trees as a couple of staff workers strode past us into the administration building. “Rafe got in his face more than I did. Vijay’s been on steroids. That’s why he’s so bulked-up and pissed off all the time.”
My jaw dropped. “Vijay is taking drugs?”
I don’t know why it felt so unbelievable. It made sense. But he’d always been a super smart kid. A tech-wiz who would get into engineering school or some hightech program where he’d make big-time bucks. He wasn’t supposed to mess around with steroids. Then again, maybe I was more of a Wholesome Home kid than I realized. Drugs just weren’t on my radar. “Vijay left with Bam-Bam to talk to Gollum last night, but I haven’t heard anything more since then.” Javier peered past my shoulder as the door to the camp director’s office opened with a squeak.
“I’d like to see you both, please,” Gollum called, looking more serious than I’d ever seen him.
My heart dropped.
Javier let go of my hands. We
turned to walk toward our doom, and out of one corner of his mouth, Javier spoke quietly.
“Vijay posted a video of us kissing online. He put it up on YouTube and added a link to the Wholesome Home blog in the comments section.”
“Oh my God.” I stopped in my tracks. My heart bottomed out and hit the ground. The news knocked the wind out of me, and I couldn’t breathe.
I looked from Javier to Gollum and back again.
“Come inside, Ms. Martineau. We have a lot to discuss.”
I’d imagined it was possible. Had acted like it didn’t matter if the video got posted so Javier wouldn’t chase down Vijay. But the reality. Holy crap. I was done. If not dead, I was at the very least disowned. Worse yet, Javier would lose his job for kissing a camper.
Javier walked back to me. In front of Gollum, he threaded his fingers through mine and drew me forward, past the director and into the small office lined with awards, photos, and flyers from camp events.
“Have a seat,” Gollum urged, clearing his throat and gesturing to two gray folding chairs.
I lowered myself to the cold metal chair, already shivering from the news and the feel of my wet hair on my back. When Javier released my fingers, it was like I was unmoored.
“I want to assure you that the person responsible for this is being sent home even as we speak.” Gollum stalked over to his computer monitor and turned it so we could see the screen.
The color video image was paused to show Javier’s hands on my waist. My face tipped up to his. Our mouths sealed together. And that wasn’t the worst of it. The worst was the fact that the image was embedded right in the comments section of my parents’ blog, with all the cute, happy images associated with Wholesome Home surrounding it. A spotted puppy. A small house with a white picket fence. The iconic photo of my parents’ faces pressed cheek-to-cheek and smiling.
Amid all that heartwarming bloggy goodness was dark and grainy video footage and a crude header that read “Not so Wholesome at Camp.”
When a tissue box appeared in front of my nose, I realized I was crying. Gollum, of all people, extended the offering. I clutched it to my chest. I’d need an industrial-sized container to get through this.