Camp Confidential 09 - Best (Boy)friend Ever (8 page)

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Authors: Melissa J Morgan

BOOK: Camp Confidential 09 - Best (Boy)friend Ever
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“Wait. I have to tell you something first,” Priya nearly shouted. “I—”
“Too bad. I started first,” Jordan interrupted. “Will you help me get Brynn to be my girlfriend?”
Priya stumbled, almost fell off the step and onto the one below it.
Wh-what?
Brynn? He liked
Brynn
? This wasn’t the conversation she’d prepared for. Priya felt as if the neurons in her brain were overheating and sending out garbled messages. Brynn? Had he said
Brynn
?
“Brynn?” she asked.
“Yeah.” Jordan’s eyebrows came together. “What? You don’t like her?”
This conversation was so out of control. “No. Yeah. Sure. I like her.”
“So, come on. Help me,” Jordan said.
“How?” Priya’s brain continued its meltdown.
“Talk to her for me. Tell her I like her. Tell her that I think she’s pretty,” Jordan answered in a rush.
Priya didn’t think she could. How could she tell Brynn anything? Priya now had a puddle of goo inside her skull instead of a brain.
Priya concentrated on pumping her legs and watching where she was going. That’s about all she could handle right now. That was all the goo could handle.
Amber called for another stop at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. She started talking about how there were three separate parts to the memorial—the wall, the statue of the three service men, and—
Jordan started whispering to Priya before she could hear the rest. “I changed my mind. Don’t tell Brynn that I like her or that I want her for a girlfriend, okay?” He rubbed his hands on his khakis and streaks of sweat came off on the tan cloth. “Just find out what she wants in a boyfriend, okay? That would really help, because I’ve never, you know, liked a girl before. And I don’t know what I’m doing, okay?”
What could Priya say? The guy was still her best friend. “Okay,” she whispered back.
chapter
FIVE
Brynn gave a double bounce on the big bed closest to the window. It was hard enough to make Alex, who was lounging on the bed, bounce, too. “This mattress is a billion times softer than the ones at camp,” Brynn declared. “It’s going to be like sleeping in heaven!”
“Sleeping in heaven—wouldn’t that mean you’re dead?” Valerie asked from the other double bed in the hotel room that she was sharing with Sarah. Priya and Sophie had gotten stuck with the rollaways. Sophie had volunteered. She probably figured as a CIT she should set a good example. Priya had lost a marathon game of rock, paper, scissors. She didn’t really care. Lots of times she and Sam—and sometimes Jordan—camped out in the backyard or just in the living room after watching scary movies. She was used to a sleeping bag with
no
mattress.
“Who cares?” Brynn gave another bounce as she answered Val. “Who cares if I’m dead when I’m this comfy-cozy?”
Priya looked at her. The girl Jordan liked. How had it even happened? He didn’t even know Brynn, really. Was it her red hair? Or her green eyes? Or was it the way she sang? Or the way she somehow
made
you look at her when she was onstage? How did it happen to Jordan? Did he just wake up one day and feel it? Or did it happen a little at a time?
Val stood up. “Well, Brynn, if you’re dead and all—” She backed up a step, moving toward the bathroom door. “Then you won’t care—” Another step. “If I take the first turn in the big—” Another step. “Non-mildewish—” Another step. “Lots of hot water—” Another step.
Brynn hurled herself off the bed and raced toward the bathroom. But it was too late. Val spun around, whipped open the bathroom door, and darted inside. “Non-shower bathtub!” she cried as she slammed the door shut behind her.
Priya laughed. She couldn’t help herself. Brynn grabbed a pillow off Valerie’s bed and threw it at the bathroom door. “That was very sneaky!” she complained.
“You can use some of the bubble bath I stashed in there, Val,” Sophie called as the sound of running water came from the bathroom. “Note I said
some
. Not all,” she teased. “You can all use some,” Sophie added. “It’s yummy. Coconut and mango.”
“I wonder who got the first bath in the other 4C room,” Alex said.
“Gaby probably pouted until she did,” Sarah answered.
“And the rest of them were probably happy to get rid of her for a while,” Priya added, trying to sound normal. Trying to
participate
. She didn’t want to have everyone asking her what was wrong. Not that anything was wrong. Except that if Jordan and Brynn became boyfriend and girlfriend, Priya would probably never see him again.
Brynn would be the one Jordan spent all his camp free time with. And back at home, he’d probably be IMing her every second. That’s what boy/girl pairs at her school seemed to do, anyway.
So that was it. Nothing big. Just the complete and total loss of her BBFF.
“Hey, let’s check out the view. I bet the mall looks cool at night,” Sophie said, probably because their CIT didn’t want them to spend any more time dissing Gaby.
Brynn leaned over and pulled open the curtains. “Awesome. All the monuments are lit up.”
“Is it just me, or does the Washington Monument change color?” Alex asked. “From light gray to dark gray, about a third of the way up.”
“It does,” Sophie answered. “Priya and I found out why on our Sites on Bikes tour this afternoon.” She looked over at Priya with a tell-them expression. The thing was, Priya couldn’t. Priya hadn’t heard what the tour guide, Amber, had said about the Washington Monument. Basically from the moment Jordan dropped his confession bomb, all she’d heard when Amber opened her mouth was, “Jordan likes Brynn, Jordan likes Brynn, Jordan likes Brynn.”
Priya realized Sophie was still looking at her. “Oh, uh, you tell them, Sophie. You tell stories better than me,” she said quickly.
“It’s not a big story or anything. But it’s sort of interesting,” Sophie said. “The quarry they were using to get granite for the Washington Monument ran out, and they couldn’t get an exact match. That’s why it’s two different colors of gray.”
“This coconut-mango stuff is amazing. It’s like I’m taking a bath in warm fruit punch. But in a good way,” Valerie called from the bathroom.
“Fine. Gloat. Go ahead,” Brynn called back.
“What did you three do while we were biking?” Sophie asked Alex, Sarah, and Brynn.
“We were in the group that observed part of a session of the Supreme Court,” Sarah answered. “How completely cool is that? Just standing in the room. It gave me shivers.” She smiled. “Oh, wait. I forgot.” She pointed at Brynn. “That one’s the drama queen.” She pointed at Priya. “That one’s the tomboy. I’m the—hmmm. At school, everyone would say I’m the bookish, quiet one, but at camp I’m the jock. Well, I’m one of the jocks.”
“So you’re a jook,” Alex offered.
“A bock,” Priya suggested, trying to think if there was any way to get this conversation around to boyfriends and what they should be like. She had to get a list out of Brynn. Somehow. And it’s not like Priya had a lot of experience with conversations like that. Those were heart-to-heart girlfriend-to-girlfriend convos. She just didn’t have those.
“Tell us more about the Supreme Court,” Sophie urged.
“Wait. First you gotta tell us more about the Sites on Bikes,” Brynn told her. She shot a sideways glance at Priya. “Was Jor-dan on the tour?”
“Why do you care?” Priya snapped, surprising herself. What was going on? Did Brynn already liiiike Jordan back?
Makes your life easier if she does
, Priya told herself.
Makes your life suck if she does
, she couldn’t stop herself from adding. There was definitely a little part of her—okay, maybe a not so little part—that was hoping Brynn would go “ewww, Jordan” when it finally came out that Jordan liked her. Because then Priya could have him back.
“Have you forgotten already?” Sarah asked. “Brynn’s our drama queen. She’s not happy unless there is some drama going on. She has no personal drama at the moment, so she’s glomming on to yours.”
“You’re like our own little soap,” Brynn told Priya. “We all saw the makeover. We all saw the staring.”
The staring. The staring at
Brynn
. Suddenly, Priya got it. She just happened to be sitting next to Brynn at the campfire and that time in the mess hall when Jordan had been goggling. Jordan had never been staring at her. He’d been staring at
Brynn
.
And the burping. He hadn’t wanted to burp at the campfire, because
Brynn
had said “gross” when she suggested it.
And the laughing. The laughing at that stupid “yummy in the tummy” thing Brynn had said. Priya should have known the truth right then. Right that second!
“Now we need the next episode.” Brynn turned to Sophie. “So was Jordan on the Sites on Bikes thingie, as if we don’t know? And was there more staring? Or more, you know,
more?
”
“He was there. And there was a little whispering between the two of them,” Sophie admitted. “But that’s all I’m saying.” She stood up and knocked on the bathroom door. “I’m giving you another five to soak, Valerie.”
“Whispering.” Brynn opened her eyes wide in an exaggerated way, and Priya felt her neck get hot. She’d done more blushing in the past week than she had in the rest of her whole entire life.
All right
, Priya told herself.
First thing I have to do is convince everyone that Jordan isn’t crushing on me. It’ll be easier to get the what-Brynn-wants-in-a-b.f. conversation going if I get that out of the way.
Priya hadn’t told Jordan that pretty much everyone in her bunk had assumed he was crushing on her. Who needed that humiliation?
“Okay. You got me,” she admitted to Brynn, her voice coming out louder than she’d planned. “Jordan and I were whispering. Do you want to know what we were whispering about?” She spread her arms out, including everyone in the question.
“I do!” Valerie scrambled out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around herself. “I even got out of the tub early to hear!”
No one called dibs for the next bath. Everyone looked at Priya. “I told Jordan that all of you goofs think he likes me. But he said he doesn’t. I mean, duh, he likes me. We’re best friends. But I was right all along. He doesn’t like me like that.” Priya sucked in a huge breath. “Which is good. ’Cause he’s not my type. Not what I’d want in a boyfriend at all. Uh, so what do you guys look for in a boyfriend?”
Uh, so what do you guys look for in a boyfriend?
Geez. Totally lame. Totally awkward.
But at least she’d gotten something out. She’d made a start.
Yeah, she’d made a start at helping her best friend not be her best friend anymore. And why? Because for right now, she still
was
Jordan’s best friend. So she had to do what he’d asked her to do.
“It’s not like I was looking, because I wasn’t. I was anti-looking,” Sarah said. “But it’s cool that David likes some of the same stuff I do. He’s not as serious about softball as I am. But he’ll play. And he’s funny. He cracks me up. I like that.”
Hey, it worked. She got an answer to the boyfriend question.
Score! My lose-a-friend plan is going great!
Priya looked over at Brynn.
“I definitely want a boy who likes what I like,” Brynn said. “It would be so fun to go to
The Elephant and the Grapefruit
at the Kennedy Center tomorrow with a boy. I mean, I know it’s a group thing. But it would be fun if there was a boy I was into. We could hold hands, and at intermission we could talk about what the play meant, and the performances and the costumes and the sets and everything.”
A boy who likes what she likes. Remember that
, Priya thought.
You’re Jordan’s friend. He wants this. Remember
that, she had to tell herself one second later.
“I’m still trying to wrap my noggin around Jordan saying he isn’t ga-ga for you,” Valerie told Priya. “Not that he would use the word ga-ga. But talk about liking the same things—you guys could be the same person. And Nat did say that Jordan was asking the other guys for girlfriend advice.”

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