Camp Boyfriend (17 page)

“It was just a joke! Ouch!”

Brittany, Kayla and I gaped as Bam-Bam hauled Eli into camp by the ear. The swimmers emerged, some bending at the waist, their breaths coming in hard, short gasps. Relief flooded me when first Matt, then Seth staggered onto the beach.

“Everyone out of the water. Eli’s fine.” Bam-Bam barked. “Head count in two minutes.”

We surged toward Eli but pulled back as Bam-Bam marched him to his lean-to. Rumors leapt, eventually reaching us. Apparently, Bam-Bam had caught Eli hanging out downstream. After cliff jumping, he’d swum underwater around a bend, resurfaced, then hid.

“I’ll kill him,” Brittany sputtered. For some weird reason, that made me laugh. But before I could apologize, Kayla joined in, followed by Brittany.

Her friend Rachel stumbled over and flopped on the sandy ground, chest heaving. “What’d I miss?”

Brittany shook her head. “Thanks, Rach. But it was just a prank.”

“Are you freaking kidding me? I’ll kill that kid.” Rachel’s frustration turned into surprise when we burst out laughing again.

“Join the club.” Kayla rolled her eyes and smiled in my direction. But some of my happiness melted away when I spied my Munchies’ Manor friends hugging each other in relief. I wished I could have shared this moment with them. They were as happy that Eli was safe as we were. So what was up with the invisible wall separating us? I’d crossed into the popular world in Texas and survived. Maybe my friends needed some of the same experience…minus the itching powder pranks. We’d never bothered getting to know the girls in Divas’ Den, assuming they were the enemy. Some were actually nice, like Kayla and Brittany and possibly even Rachel. All this time I thought they hadn’t given us a chance. But the truth was, we hadn’t give them one either.

I hugged Brittany and stepped back. “Will you be okay?”

Hannah strolled up, hair restored, and draped a possessive arm around Brittany.

“I think we can take it from here. Why don’t you go back where you belong?” I looked from Brittany to Kayla to Rachel, waiting for one of them to disagree. But their expressions were neutral and Kayla avoided my eyes. Did they agree with Hannah or were they too afraid to speak up? Either way, the queen bee had returned and I was dismissed from her royal court.

My flip-flops stirred up pine needles as I crossed toward my Munchies’ Manor gang. A few campers gathered wood for the fire while others laid out potato chip bags, rolls, hamburger patties and hot dog packages on the picnic tables. The counselors lit charcoal in grills raised on cemented pipes, the hickory scent making my stomach growl in anticipation.

Now that the Eli drama had passed, the counselors took a quick head count, then the Frisbee game resumed while sunbathers looked on. Hannah, outfitted in a white string bikini that would have never passed Gollum’s dress code, waved at Matt when he joined me.

“Hey, babe.” Matt ruffled my hair.

“Hey. That was really brave of you, looking for Eli like that.” I slid my hand in his, enjoying Hannah’s pout. For today, I wasn’t going to worry about conquering my inner bitchy side. At least not where Hannah was concerned. How could she have been worried about her hair during that scare with Eli?

“Were you worried?” Matt’s lazy smile turned my senses up to sizzle.

I nodded, eyes drifting over the cut torso revealed by his wet T-shirt. He was hotness personified. For a moment I fantasized about pulling him behind one of the lean-tos and stripping off that clinging shirt. Alex was planning a night with Vijay after a week of dating. And I was a big-time hold out, apparently, for remaining a virgin after months of dating.

Seth strode by, his sidelong amber glance grazing over me. Matt jerked us to a stop. He pulled me close and gave me a passionate kiss that left me breathless. But when I opened my eyes, it was Seth he was staring at, not me.

Seth pulled a towel over his head and stalked away. Obviously, he’d received the message loud and clear—“Lauren Carlson, property of Matt Butler.”

Annoyed at Matt’s possessive move, I strode away. I didn’t appreciate being branded like a Texas Longhorn. Maybe I should have paid more attention at that damn intervention my cabin mates had tried to give me.

“Yo, Butler!” one of his friends called behind us. “Help us with the volleyball net.”

I kept walking.

“See you later,” he called to my stiff back.

“Much later,” I muttered under my breath, wondering how he could seem so different when we were alone.

I jogged to catch up to my friends who headed toward the forest.

“Hey. Where are you going?”

Trinity turned. “I spotted sage and wanted to pick some so I could smudge everyone’s leantos. Want to come? Ouch!” she exclaimed when Jackie tucked a daisy chain in her dreadlocks. I remembered that smudging meant waving burning sage to get rid of bad energy. It sounded like we could all use some sage.

“Wouldn’t you rather tan with the Divas?” Siobhan put in, her safari hat obscuring her delicate face. There was no meanness in her tone. It was the matter-of-factness that killed me.

I linked arms with Alex. “I would if my friends were about to catch some rays instead of poison ivy. Come on, you guys. I was just comforting Brittany. Eli’s her boyfriend.”

Piper plucked a candy wrapper off the ground and stuffed it in her recycle bag. “We were worried about him too. But they don’t want us around. Remember the rash they gave us the last time you hung out with one of them?” I stumbled over an exposed root as we tramped through the brush, the thick canopy of oak, pine, and maple trees blotting out most of the sunshine. My forehead beaded with sweat in the humid air.

“One of them? You make them sound inhuman.”

Siobhan tipped up her hat. “Sometimes I wonder.”

“I am Hannah, the Demon Queen from Planet Hades,” Alex intoned.

“Some of them are cool. And Hannah’s the one who put the itching powder in the body perfume. The other girls didn’t know about it,” I insisted.

Alex snorted. “I believe that just like I believe you and Matt have only gone to first base.”

Technically, it was farther than that…but still, why wouldn’t they give these girls a chance? “We should hang out with them sometime.”

Jackie snorted. “Like that will ever happen.”

I dodged a fat toad hopping past. “What? Is there some kind of law against it?”

“Look. We didn’t make the rules, okay?” Siobhan slapped a mosquito on her shoulder.

“So why follow them?” Hadn’t my friends always prided themselves on their uniqueness, refusing to join cliques to fit in?

An uneasy silence descended as we trudged along, the path narrowing so we passed single-file. Bickering forgotten, we charged into a real-life Monet painting with navy, sun- dappled water swirling behind a field of rippling lavender sage, white Queen Anne’s lace, and yellow buttercup wildflowers.

“Try not to pull up the roots,” Trinity cautioned, ever worried about damaging the ecosystem. Without a knife, it was hard to cut through the stalks. Alex and I twirled the green branches until they came off in our hands while Siobhan and Piper bent them back and forth, making them break. Jackie glided from one plant to the next, snapping plants like they were toothpicks.

“Thanks guys. That’s enough,” Trinity called after fifteen minutes. I flopped on a boulder next to Siobhan and Piper and admired the sparkling water. Downstream, Trinity plucked petals from a daisy and threw them one at a time into the water.

“Hope she’s going to smudge our hut.” Alex tickled me behind the ear with a bouquet. “I want to get lucky tonight.”

“What?” Siobhan exclaimed. “Don’t you think you’re moving way too fast?”

“Yeah.” Piper lifted her head and frowned at Alex. “Your parents wouldn’t approve of your ‘unwholesome’ thoughts.”

Awesome. Help from unexpected allies. Maybe Alex would pay attention if more people stood up to question this rush to ditch her virginity.

Alex pouted. “I’m so sick of them writing about me and their perfect life. I want to do something spontaneous and not care if it’s wholesome or not. Besides, I’ve known Vijay for, like, ever.” She kicked off her Keds and dipped her toes into the rushing water.

“But not as BF/GF,” Trinity put in, joining us. She gathered our sage and tied it together with string from a fraying friendship bracelet.

Alex kicked a small spray of water at the group. “Hello. We’ve been dating for seven days. Camp time is different. That’s like a year in the real world. And what’s the big deal? It’s just sex.”

“Do you love him? Because you have to be in love to have sex,” Siobhan announced as though stating a mathematical fact. She dried her splattered glasses with her shirt.

Jackie laughed. “Please. That’s what I thought until I slept with Rick, my teammate. He said he loved me, then bragged to everyone about going all the way.”

I quickly shut my mouth and watched the rest of the group do the same. Jackie had never talked about her love life. Now we knew why.

Jackie stared down Alex like she was sizing up an opponent. “Have you even DTRed?”

“No.” For the first time, Alex’s confident expression wavered.

Trinity pursed her lips. “Sweetie. You have to define the relationship. Make sure he wants more than sex.”

“I’d have sex with Julian.” Piper kicked off her shoes and combed her toes through the grass. “But only if we were going out.”

Now it was Jackie’s turn to look surprised. The rest of us froze in shock. How many more secrets were about to be spilled? Clean-up on aisle twelve.

Unable to stop myself, I stood and held Alex by her thin shoulders. They felt so small. Fragile. “Relationships are more than just sex. They’re about sharing.”

Alex shifted out of my grip. “Have you shared with Matt how much you love Seth?”

I opened my mouth and closed it. What could I say? She had a point.

“So if Vijay and Alex’s one-week camp thing equals a year, then what would that make Seth and Lauren? Married and divorced?” asked Piper.

“Trinity never saw a breakup on their chart, remember?” demanded Jackie. Five pairs of questioning eyes met mine. I pulled the bottom string from a honeysuckle flower and tasted its sweet nectar, mind reeling. Did the stars see a future I couldn’t?

Technically, I didn’t believe in stuff like that. But a wishful heart isn’t subject to the rules of science.

“Yeah. What happened to that?” Siobhan’s hazel eyes assessed me from beneath her hat.

“The charts aren’t as reliable long-term,” Trinity said in a rush.

A bee buzzed lazily among us and then settled on the yellow bush. Lulled by the tinkling water, and drowsy under the sun’s warm rays, my protective walls tumbled. I was tired of my friends’ confusion over my Matt/Seth situation.

“Honestly, I planned to break up with Matt before camp. But then he told me his parents were getting divorced and I just couldn’t.” Relief warred with guilt at my confession.

Alex snapped her gum. “Seriously?”

“Heavy,” murmured Piper.

Trinity smiled at me as she plucked a honeysuckle flower. “You did the right thing karma-wise.”

Siobhan and Jackie looked unconvinced.

“You should have been honest with Matt.” Siobhan pulled off her hat and waved it in front of her flushed face. “You’re only leading him on if you still care about Seth.”

“If she cared about Seth, would she treat him this way?” Jackie drawled. “The boy is in pain. Julian said he stopped playing Dungeons and Dragons. And he’s a level thirty ranger. He’s got like a hundred and twenty-five hit points.”

Wow. The Wander Inn’s old-school D&D games were legendary and lasted for weeks on end. They’d spend every free minute huddled in a circle, rolling their twenty-sided dice, using their imaginations instead of electronics to wage war and win gold. If Seth wasn’t playing, he hurt more than I thought.

“He’s fine.” Trinity gathered her dreadlocks and secured them with a rubber band. “He hardly ever talks about her when we’ve hung out.”

Hardly? That meant they talked about me sometimes. The two of them. Alone. I knew they weren’t more than friends, but… My face started to burn from more than the sun. What happened between Seth and me was private.
How could he?

Alex sucked in a popped bubble before asking, “Who do you like more, Matt or Seth?”

I flopped back in the wild grass and threw an arm over my eyes. “I don’t know,” I groaned. The long blades scratched my shoulders and tickled me through the thin fabric of my tank top. I was still miffed at Matt’s caveman tactic, kissing me in front of Seth. It reminded me of the immature way he’d behaved with his friends that last day of school and his anger in the mess hall. Sometimes we seemed alike, and other times worlds apart.

Dad said things were complicated in the real world. But this was camp and my last chance to figure out my feelings. For Seth. For Matt. And maybe…about a whole lot more. What if—instead of worrying about what Seth deserved or Matt needed—I thought about myself for a while? I’d been spinning in circles for weeks without figuring anything out. Perhaps what
I
really needed was some space to get perspective.

“I could do another chart for you and Matt. Maybe you guys are a perfect match.” Trinity peeled back my arm, her hopeful grey eyes meeting mine.

“I think I’ve got to figure this out on my own.”

“Just don’t take too long.” Jackie pulled me up at the sound of the dinner bell. “This is Seth’s last year.”

Right. If I wanted to be with him, this was my last chance. For so long, I had seen myself in terms of who I dated. First it was as Seth’s camp girlfriend, and then as Matt’s cheerleader girlfriend. Maybe I needed to be on my own to see who I was and what I really wanted.

Until I resolved my confusion at camp this summer, I’d keep hurting both guys. It was time for a clean break from both of them. I trembled at the thought. But overriding my fear was a feeling of certainty that I’d stumbled on the right path. I’d never know who I was until I walked that road on my own.

When we reached the picnic area, I searched for Matt. He’d told me to catch him later. Little did he know I was about to let him go instead.