by Rock, J. K.
“So make it already, Drama Queen,” Hannah whispered, making Brittany giggle. I glared at her, knowing that, whatever the outcome, there’d be consequences. This wasn’t a moment for jokes.
“Point and,” Gollum drawled, “game go to…” All right. I had to give it to Hannah, he was enjoying the suspense. “The Wander Inn,” he intoned. “Now everyone get to dinner.”
Cheers erupted from the opposite side of the net. Bam-Bam crushed Emily in a bear hug. Rob drop-kicked his gym bag into the woods and stormed after it.
Alex kissed Vijay in a way that was more NC-17 than PG-13, while Breyanna wrapped her arms around a sweaty Seth. My eyes met his over her shoulder, his pained expression reflecting my feelings.
“Lauren,” Matt called to my left. I broke eye contact and looked his way. He was bright red, chest heaving. “Can I have some of that soda?”
“How about Gatorade?” I hurried over to the team cooler and poured some into a plastic cup. As a cheerleader, I’d always done this for him, an old habit that died hard. Funny. It hadn’t occurred to me to ask him to do the same at my volleyball game.
I met Seth’s eyes as I handed over the cup. He looked from the cup to me and frowned. After giving the clinging girl a squeeze, he backed away.
“What an ass,” Matt muttered when Seth led his team in a rousing rendition of “We Are the Champions” on their way to the showers. Since losers washed up last, some of Matt’s teammates had jumped in the lake. The Divas’ Den girls followed.
“You want to go in?” Matt nodded to the water.
I shook my head and looked down. “Sorry I wasn’t your lucky charm today.”
Matt lifted my face, eyes searching mine. “You being here was the lucky part.”
My heart somersaulted at his sweet words.
Sand kicked at my ankles as he raced for the splashing group and plunged in. Mouth open, I watched the raucous crowd. I always thought Matt saw me as an accessory to his glory- filled life, the adoring cheerleader girlfriend straight out of a movie cliché. I’d never known he thought of me as the star.
Chapter Seventeen
Six hours later, I was wedged between Hannah and Matt in the back of a pickup headed to the D&O, the only bar around that was so backwoods that IDs were optional…possibly even discouraged, since most of the customers lived off the grid.
Cameron had arranged for one of the groundskeepers to pick us up at the edge of camp, a much longer walk when wearing a black micromini dress and a pair of four-inch platform heels, both borrowed from Kayla. Hannah kept leaning around me, chatting up Matt. Little did she know that his thumb was surreptitiously stroking the side of my bare thigh, sending shivers of excitement that had little to do with the air flowing over the cab.
“Your skin is so soft.” His husky voice filled my ear.
“Stop it.”
“Excuse me?” Hannah recoiled, her lips pursed tight enough to spit nails.
I widened my eyes innocently. “Nothing.”
Hannah crossed her arms and flounced back. “Yeah, right,” she whispered.
I leaned over her toward Kayla, the wind whipping my hair in Hannah’s pouting face. “You look nice, Kayla.” And she did. In a white lace tank top and low-slung jeans, the tan she’d acquired from our marathon beach time today glowed to perfection.
“You too,” she shouted over the roaring engine. She turned toward Brittany, who was busy making out with Eli, then turned back. “How much longer?”
The truck swerved hard enough to make us tumble like bowling pins. I was a nauseous bundle of nerves at the thought of going to my first bar, and this roller-coaster drive was not helping.
“Looks like we’re here.” I spit hair out my mouth and accepted Matt’s hand up. I pulled up the dress’s plunging neckline, otherwise loving my sophisticated new look and the way it hugged my new curves.
Devon caught me around the waist, helped me off the flatbed, and whirled me around the gravel parking lot to a thumping country tune. A couple of plaid-shirted men leaning against the a truck whistled, their cowboy hats shadowing their faces.
“Girl, you are hotter than a shot of Tabasco sauce,” Devon laughed. “Ooooh weee.” He shook his hands like I’d burnt them, making me giggle with him. He might be a world-class flirt, but he was harmless. Not that Matt seemed to feel that way. The storm cloud hovering over his head had the other boy backing away fast.
“Guys! Come on.” Cameron held the door of a one-story building that could have fit in my grandparents’ pool house. A neon light in the single window glowed “Redneck Approved.” Looking around the parking lot, I realized it was packed with pick-ups. Any cars that dared show their grills were American.
I hitched up my top again and followed the group, wondering if the jukebox would stop the minute we entered—a bunch of privileged camp kids out for a lark amongst hardworking adults. But the honky-tonk tune kept blaring as we closed the door. Guess we all needed an escape. That much, at least, we had in common.
“Want to dance?” Matt asked low and fast in my ear.
“Matt. Please,” I protested, admiring the handsome picture he made in a brown suede cowboy hat that set off his eyes, a fitted plaid shirt, jeans, and scuffed cowboy boots.
He swung me in his strong arms.
“Well, you don’t have to beg.” He grinned, apparently thinking he’d outmaneuvered me. Over his shoulder, I caught Hannah’s poisonous stare and let him circle me around the peanut shell-covered floor a few times before I broke free. I couldn’t deny how good it felt to be in his arms again. But slipping back into a relationship with him was exactly what I didn’t need.
“What’s wrong?” His eyebrows rose, his hands reeling me back in. “I’m just being friendly. Isn’t that what you want? To be friends?”
I jerked back and frowned. “Matt. Knock it off. If you want to dance, ask Hannah.”
In the ladies room, I crowded beside Kayla and Brittany for an inch of mirror space as Hannah washed up in the sink.
“So what’s the deal? Are you and Matt together again?” Brittany rubbed her crimson lips together before turning to me.
“No. Just friends.” I gasped at the havoc the ride over had played on my hair. “Anyone have a brush?”
Kayla handed me a mini pink one. “That looked superfriendly to me.” She winked and snapped her bag shut when I handed back the brush.
“Seriously. I, I…” God. How to explain that I didn’t want the hottest guy in camp? They’d be as confused as my Munchies’ Manor friends had been about my rejecting Seth.
“Want space?” Hannah spoke up behind us.
I whirled around. “How did you know?”
She tightened the backing on one of her emerald-cut diamond earrings. “Like, when have we ever seen you without a guy, Lauren? It’s about time.” Her heels clicked away, and the door swished shut behind her.
Brittany, Kayla and I looked at each other, eyes wide. I hadn’t thought the girls knew I existed before this year, let alone that I’d been dating.
“She’s right,” Brittany spoke up. “Why do we need guys anyway?”
“Ummmm…to kiss,” Kayla put in.
Brittany shrugged. “Eli’s breath smells like Pringles. Not to mention his stupid little pranks. I say we all break up with our men, enjoy a summer of freedom.”
“Yeah, but Cameron totally saved our butts this morning by giving us his last can of Skunk-Off. Plus he got us the ride here.”
Brittany fluffed her hair in the mirror and turned. “I heard Matt paid Cameron for the can since he wouldn’t give it to you. Besides, didn’t we all pay the driver like five bucks?”
Kayla looked confused. “Yeah. But—”
“But nothing. Kayla. He’s cheap. If he’s this way about bug spray—”
“Skunk spray,” Kayla interrupted.
Brittany sighed. “Whatever. Imagine how he’ll be at your high school graduation. ‘Oh, here’s a pen, Kayla, so you can write me.’ Or at your wedding. ‘W
ho needs a band when we can do karaoke?’”
Kayla’s face grew more horrified by the second. A toilet flushed behind us and Rachel emerged. We made way for her at the mirror after she rinsed her hands.
“Brit’s right, Kayla. Cheap is cheap. I say we make a pact. Let’s make the rest of camp a no-boy summer.” She held up a freshly washed pinky.
I grinned and curled mine around hers. “I’m in.”
“So in. Buh-bye, Pringles breath.” Brittany’s finger wound around ours. We looked expectantly at Kayla. She shook her head, then extended her little finger.
“All right, but if I need a hug one of you is giving it to me.”
We all piled in for one anyway. Something light bubbled inside of me as their warm arms wrapped around me. I’d felt so alone at camp these past few weeks. In the most unlikely places, at the strangest moment, I finally felt accepted. Who would have guessed?
Kayla and Brittany decided not to ruin the night, and would break things off on the ride home. So the rest of our time flashed by in a blur of sweaty line dancing, root beer pong (the only version the owner would let us play), darts, and a burping contest which Brittany won with a one-minute blast that grossed out Eli enough to break up with her. He was still shaking his head at her hysterical laughing fit—not the reaction he’d expected.
Kayla and Cameron argued on the way home when he insisted on her paying her share of the soft drinks. I couldn’t help but notice Matt paid for all of Hannah’s sodas and spent most of his time with her, his eyes wandering to me enough to let me know he hoped I was watching. Which I was. Damn him.
Back at camp, we piled out and stumbled wearily down the path. Since we’d closed the bar, it was well past three in the morning. I couldn’t imagine the pain of hearing the opening notes of the camp wake-up call in just three and a half hours.
“Hey,” someone called from the woods to our right. I’d know that voice anywhere.
“Seth?” I wobbled over to the bushes, my tired ankles hardly able to keep me upright after my long night, the rest of the group behind me. The shoes I’d borrowed had turned into torture devices shortly after midnight.
“You’re drunk.” Seth stepped into the walkway, his face shadowed and tense.
“Are you kidding?” I went to push him, but my blistered foot gave out and I stumbled forward.
Matt reached to steady me, holding me against his pounding chest. Hannah tried to pull him away, but he shook her off.
“What the hell are you doing out here, Reines? And why are you bothering Lauren?” The Warriors circled behind Matt. Kayla gave a nervous squeak.
“I’ll talk to Lauren whenever I want to,” Seth snarled, clearly unimpressed with the muscle massing against him. “I’ve known her longer than you.”
Matt’s grip on my arms tightened. “She’s been my girlfriend for eight months.”
Brittany crept closer to hold my other hand.
“Not anymore,” Seth spit out, features sharpening.
“At least I wasn’t the dumbass that dumped her every summer.”
In a movement too fast to register, Kayla and Brittany pulled me away as Seth lunged. In seconds, fists flew. I stumbled back and barely kept my balance. My hand rose to my mouth. How could I stop it? It’d be like getting between a car and a metal crusher.
Matt took an upper cut to the jaw that sent him reeling back. But when Seth came at him again, Matt smashed his stomach with a punch hard enough to knock the wind out of Seth. By the time Eli and Cameron separated the two, Matt’s nose was bleeding.
“What are you doing?” I stormed, holding a tissue to Matt’s nose. “You’re acting like idiots.”
“Laur—” Matt pleaded, while Seth watched me with narrowed eyes as I cared for Matt.
Seth shook free of Cameron and walked over. “I only came out here because Piper was helping with the compost pile and heard from the kitchen staff that you guys got a ride out to the D&O.”
Matt shoved Eli away and strode up, eyebrows together. “Oh, so you just had to wait for her, did you? Thought you’d catch her alone?”
Seth sent him a withering look but didn’t make a move. “I waited because Gollum got wind of it from Emily, who heard Piper and Alex talking. He’s waiting at the end of the road to catch you. You’re all going to be kicked out of camp.” The way he looked at Matt, he didn’t look at all sorry about the idea of that becoming a reality.
“Hate those Munchies’ Manor girls. They are such fun suckers,” Hannah griped beside Matt, then looked at me. “No offense.”
“Hey,” I began, but Seth cut me off.
“Look, I know a back way in. Gollum will never know.”
Kayla smiled at me. “I totally see why you dated him.”
I gave her a half-hearted grin, wondering if she’d be next in line to fall for Seth. The boy had no lack of admirers.
“Remember the pinky swear,” Brittany hissed at her.
“Oops,” Kayla giggled. “I was kidding!”
“How do we know you aren’t leading us right to him?” Hannah accused. “Be honest.”
“Honestly?” Seth looked around the skeptical group, zoomed in on me, then dropped his eyes. “Because I don’t want Lauren to go.”
And with that he turned and disappeared into the woods. I stood in shock as something inside me thawed. The boy who casually waved me off at the end of each summer had finally owned up to needing me. Was Seth changing too? Opening up?
“The pinky,” Brittany breathed in my ear before following Kayla and the rest into the woods. Matt, Hannah and I brought up the rear.
“How would he even know this way?” Hannah yanked the hem of her fringed top from a scrub tree.
“His grandparents own this place. He could find his way blindfolded,” I said, trudging behind them.
If only he knew me that well. How could he think I’d drink or betray my friends? He might be ready to reveal more of himself, but that didn’t mean I’d like what I saw.
Chapter Eighteen
We owed Seth big-time for sneaking us back into camp.
The word around the bonfire the next night was that Gollum had been furious when he’d waited two hours in the dark trying to bust us. He gave us all a stern warning at dinnertime, but since he hadn’t caught us he could hardly punish anyone. Even Matt grudgingly admitted that what Seth had done for us was cool. Seth’s favor was almost enough to make me forgive him for thinking I’d been drinking and that I’d stolen Trinity’s diary.
Almost.
The whole experience had brought me closer to the Divas’ Den girls, which felt like a betrayal to my old friends, but I was so tired of being judged for things I didn’t do that it felt good to be part of a group again. I’d even scored a purple warm-up jacket that said Divas’ Den on the back. Kayla had given it to me, and although Hannah had grumbled about it, she hadn’t ripped it out of my hands.
Now, on Sunday afternoon, Kayla and I sat in front of ancient computer screens in the small lounge attached to the office. The communications lab was open only to senior campers and counselors, and even then we could only use it during our hour of “plugged in” time each week. I’d opted for the computer time instead of my cell phone this week so I could work on my latest wedding chore.
Siobhan and Alex were there too, but they paid no attention to us. I was pretty sure Siobhan was emailing some of her work home so she could stay on track with the rigorous study program her parents demanded of her. I used to come here with her sometimes. Now it looked like Alex was filling my shoes, although she seemed to be cyber-shopping more than she was helping with calc.
“What exactly are you looking for?” Kayla asked, looking over my shoulder at a webpage selling engraved silver boxes.
“Gifts for my sister’s bridal party.” I was supposed to have spent this summer working on the essay portion of the Aerospace Scholars application, not micromanaging bridal gifts. Of course, it probably would have helped if I’d told my mom and sister that instead
of mutely accepting the duties they’d delegated my way. Siobhan would have never ignored her studies for the sake of slave labor.
“Want me to ask my mom for ideas?” Kayla offered. “She reviews tons of products for the magazine where she works.”
“Really?” I was so tired of looking at knickknacks and keepsakes that I would even have accepted Gollum’s suggestions at this point. But Kayla’s fashion-editor mom might actually have some good hints. “That’d be great.”
“We were messaging each other a minute ago.” Kayla clicked open a dialogue box and started typing. “Let me just see if she’s still there.”
While I waited, I keyed in the address for the NASA Aerospace Scholars Program, to re-check the application date. I still had until September, but since Dad hadn’t bothered to get my letter of reference from the congressman, it didn’t look good. Maybe when I got home I could call the politician’s office and ask for a meeting on my own. I’d met him at some family corporate events before. It seemed like a long shot…and daunting. They must get hundreds of requests like that.
“She sent us a link,” Kayla announced, double-clicking on the text. “She said this jewelry designer is new and—oh! Look at this stuff.”
I peered over at her screen to see the thin gold-wire pieces shaped around tiny gemstones. The jewelry was fine and delicate, but the shapes were kind of organic and unusual. Plus, most of the necklaces came with multiple charms, so you could layer an initial over a horoscope sign or a soccer ball with a fairy-tale castle.
“Awesome,” I breathed, already seeing the possibilities.
“Look!” Kayla pointed. “There’s even a wedding dress. You could engrave the date on the back of the dress pendant for everyone, then personalize the rest of the charms to the other attendants.”
“That’s so cool. Maybe I can find out the zodiac signs or birthstones for everyone and do their first initials.” I was already typing a note to my mom to help me find out that information from all the bridesmaids.
A ping on Kayla’s computer announced another message.
“My mom says she’s friends with the designer.” Kayla scrolled down the note. “If we send her the shipping address and the information, she’ll make sure the jewelry gets there on time.”