Camp Boyfriend (7 page)

“A quarterback? Shut up!” Alex lightly punched me in the shoulder.

“Seriously.” I wished their surprised looks weren’t fading into…dismay?

Maybe they were just concerned. For me. I hoped that was all.

“Trippy.” Trinity resumed walking. We followed after her, our silence awkward.

I trailed behind the group, my anxiety over the Matt-Seth situation turning my feet into lead. If my friends reacted this way—their comments quickly fading into tense silence—what could I expect from Matt?

We caught up to Emily on the wooden steps of the dining hall. She whirled, light sparkling off her gold-spangled scrunchie. “Everyone take seconds. I don’t want anything left for that chauvinist pig. ‘Ladies’ my a—” she broke off and marched us inside.

Wow. Our counselor was the only female at camp immune to Rob the rock star’s charms. And from the interested look on his face, she was the first he’d flirted with in a while. I couldn’t wait to see how this played out, especially since someone else’s love life drama would distract me from my own.

The sound of scraping forks, pouring juice, and the dull roar of one hundred or so chattering campers filled the room, seeming all the louder now that an uncomfortable silence stretched between me and my friends. Long wooden tables lined up in three rows that ran the length of the high-ceilinged, exposed beam room. Fly strips dangled from the rafters, already full of black insects. An appetizing decorative touch.

We lined up and grabbed plates. On each one rested a wheat pancake with a raisin-patterned smiley face surrounded by sliced strawberry petals. A sunflower. It was a cute way to trick the little kids into eating healthy. I looked at Piper to share a grin over the breakfast, but she seemed suddenly deep in thought over which flavor syrup to pour on her pancake, ignoring me.

We sat shoulder to shoulder on worn wooden benches at a table topped with a “Munchies’ Manor” sign. Thankfully, having to sit with our cabins spared me from sitting with Seth or Matt’s cabin. My trembling hand grabbed a pitcher of OJ and poured for the uncharacteristically mute group. Juice splashed on my grey sweats.

I set down the last cup. “Okay. Is it just me, or did things get awkward after we saw Matt?” Eyes flitted around the table, the tension so thick you could cut it with a spork.

“It’s nothing.” Siobhan peered around the table as the rest of my friends lowered their heads and started cutting their pancakes.

“Seriously. Why is everyone acting weird?” I stabbed my pancake in its beady raisin eye and took a bite.

“It’s just that you’re different. The new look, the new boyfriend. Give us a little time to get used to everything, okay?” Piper picked up a strawberry slice and nibbled.

The rest of the group nodded, making my chest tighten. Alex and Siobhan had said they had my back. Did the rest of my friends? Since they’d been friends with Seth as long as me, I understood why they’d be protective. Prefer him even. But still.

“Look. My mother hijacked me into this make-over, and the Matt thing is too complicated to explain right now, but trust me, nothing’s changed that counts. I’m still me.”
And I still want to be with Seth
, I added silently.

Siobhan nodded and gave me a genuine smile. If anyone understood mother pressure, it was Siobhan. Her mom had force-fed her piano, dance, and art lessons since she could walk, and demanded perfection in all things. Siobhan’s implied acceptance of the situation unleashed a firing squad of questions from the others.

“So Matt is really a jock?”

“When did you meet?”

“How long have you been going out?”

“Is he good in bed?” Emily gulped Piper’s juice as she joined us, twirling a chair around and straddling it.

I nearly choked on a raisin. “Excuse me?”

Emily shrugged, her left clavicle bared through her sweatshirt’s one-shoulder cutout. “It’s on the D.L., girls. Fo’ shizzle. So what’s the sitch?”

Was she speaking Greek?

“There is none. I mean, we haven’t—that is—it’s private.” I sputtered. How had our counselor gotten this job? Clearly she’d left “wildly inappropriate” off her resume.

At that moment, a hush fell as the top of the camp food chain entered the hall and shoved their way to the front of the line. The Warriors. They must have finished their morning jog. I was glad when Matt hung back and waved a young girl ahead of him.

He might be a jock, but he wasn’t full of himself the way some star athletes could be. I looked to my friends to see if they’d noticed, but they were still staring at Emily with wide eyes.

“Yo, Butler. Over here!” hollered one of the guys from his cabin’s table.

Of course, that made my friends notice.

Matt gave the little girl in line an apologetic look and joined his new friends. So much for decency. I shot him a dirty look, which he missed when Eli Rogers, their cabin’s undersized comedian, squirted him with syrup. Matt blasted powdered sugar at Eli but hit another bunkmate instead. Eli straightened and laughed, pointing at the white coating on the other kid’s beefy shoulders. I held my breath, wondering if Matt was about to get hammered by the biggest guy at camp. Instead, the overgrown Warrior hooked an arm around Matt’s head and knuckle-rubbed his hair. His booming laugh shook the rafters.

Finally, Matt spotted me and waved. I waved back as he pointed me out to his bunkmates who, for the first time in the eight years I’d known them, smiled at me.

The screen door banged open. I held my breath, heart hammering as Seth’s cabin mates entered—without Seth. Nauseous, I stopped chewing and met my friends’ worried eyes. If I told on him, he might get in trouble, especially with Emily being all ears about everything.

“Where’s Seth?” Siobhan whispered.

“Garrett!” Alex called, always impatient for information. Garrett’s perfect features, wide-set hazel eyes and mussed brown hair attracted lots of attention as he wound his way over. He’d liked our cabin ever since he and his dad argued on Parent’s Weekend a couple years ago. Some of the Munchies had helped him back to camp after his father ditched him on the banks of the Nantahala River. The jerk. Age did not guarantee that adults acted like grown-ups.

“Hey.” He waved to a few other campers sitting nearby. “Looking good, Lauren. I like the new hair.” He fingered the highlighted ends, making me blush.

Which was weird, since this was Garrett. A bud since forever. But it was nice to be noticed, and Garrett was one of those guys who paid attention to what we wore and how we looked. I hoped his father had stopped being such a jerk to him.

“My mother gave me a make-over when we moved to Texas.” I smiled, glad he wasn’t acting distant toward me like the rest of Seth’s group.

“Well, she did a good job,” he laughed. “So what else have you been up to besides…cutting Seth loose?” His gaze turned assessing and I wondered how much he knew.

I flinched. “Seth and I broke up last summer.” My fingers crossed under the table. Officially it wasn’t a lie, since it had always been his idea to break up at the end of the summer each year. But it wasn’t the whole truth either.

Seth’s leaving to give me space was noble. But somehow that’d made things harder. If he’d been rude, I could have been mad at him. If he’d been willing to wait, I could have had hope. But the way we’d left it, that lakeside kiss intruding in my memories, everything felt in limbo. A purgatory of emotions. How would I resolve things with Matt
and
win Seth back? Garrett raised an eyebrow. “If you two are so casual, why did he leave this morning?”

“For good?” Jackie shot me an accusing look, and Trinity did her best to keep the disappointment off her face.

Garrett shrugged. “His stuff is still at the cabin, but he took off before we woke up and hasn’t come back.”

Emily’s chair scraped back. “Mr. Woodrow!” she shouted. “We’ve got a runaway named Seth.” An eerie silence descended on the room, hundreds of eyes fixed on me. I squirmed at Matt’s puzzled expression.

“Did he leave a note?” Emily asked Garrett.

“Yeah—just that he needed to clear his head and would be back in a couple of days.” Garrett shifted in his Keds, looking uncomfortable in the spotlight.

Alex raised an eyebrow, then slid a defensive arm around Garrett’s waist.

While Mr. Woodrow strode over, heads came together at nearby tables. Garrett’s news jumped from one group to the next, creeping closer and closer to Matt’s crew. I watched in horror as my camp nemesis, Hannah, sashayed toward him and whispered in his ear. Her manicured hands stroked his bunching shoulders as two pairs of eyes lifted to meet mine–Hannah’s gloating, and Matt’s hurt and confused.

My vision swam. I couldn’t reassure Matt that Seth and I were over when I still held out a hope I’d salvage things with Seth. Besides, with all the attention on us, I’d humiliate Matt more by going over to him now and increasing the drama.

“Who’s that guy you’re staring at?” Emily pointed the chewed end of a straw at Matt. “Are you cheating on Seth?”

“No. Matt’s my boyfriend. Seth is, is…”

“The other man,” Emily marveled, nodding.

Gollum’s whistle blew until the cafeteria fell silent. “Anyone with information about Seth Reines’s whereabouts, meet me outside immediately. And that includes you,” he pointed to Garrett, glowering, before he pointed at me. “You too, missy. On your feet. Let’s go.” He blew his whistle once more, marching us outside.

My bunkmates followed.

“Wow,” Emily chattered. “Guess who won the cabin drama jackpot?” She squeezed my upper arm. “I hope Seth wasn’t totally crushed. Do you think he’s okay?”

“Hope so.” I remembered all the times he’d won our camp’s
Survivor
-style challenges. Then again, a lot of wrong could happen when you hiked mountains alone. If anything happened to him, it would be my fault.

Bam-Bam, Seth’s counselor, appeared. He was kind of surly and intimidating, but Seth had always insisted he was a good guy. Right now, his jaw flexed as he glared at all of us. “Can I have a word, Mr. Woodrow?”

Since I’d started camp, I’d never seen the Iraq veteran smile. He’d been an explosives expert—the source of his nickname—and his background was something Gollum liked to flaunt to parents who were nervous about leaving their kids all summer. Despite the slouchy clothes and an inside-out fishing hat, Bam-Bam looked like he could fend off the Taliban if they came calling in the Carolina backwoods. He’d reported for duty at the first sound of a crisis.

Emily batted her eyelashes at Bruce. “Seth’s missing.”

“Would you know anything about that, Bam-Bam?” Gollum demanded. “Keeping track of your charges is part of your job.”

“He called his grandfather last night. Said he’d need a ride in the morning.” Bam-Bam spoke quietly, clearly trying to keep the conversation private even though, with a lot of interested bystanders, that was totally impossible. “He seemed upset and said he wanted time away. I’d hoped, after he slept on it, he’d change his mind, but he was gone before we got up.”

“Since when do kids have phone privileges on the first day of camp?” Gollum puffed himself up as he turned a dull shade of red.

“I thought we cut the kid some slack since his grandparents own the camp.” Bam-Bam met Gollum’s angry gaze with a calm, level one.

No doubt it was tough for Gollum to cut anyone slack. He looked deflated. For my part, I was glad Seth was with his grandfather. Safe. And maybe he was right…this time apart would help. He was wrong to think I’d care about anyone more than him. But I did need time to break things off gently with Matt. Apologize for not having the guts to do it sooner.

“Well, great! Problem solved.” Emily beamed at Bam-Bam, and then turned to us to stage-whisper, “So cute, right?”

A flock of glances flitted around our group. Jackie covered her mouth and Alex snapped her gum to cover her muffled giggle. Wow. Emily was immune to Rob and fell for Bam-Bam? Crazy. Gollum swung around to scowl at all of us. The whistle shrilled.

“Show’s over, kids. Nothing more to see here. First activity starts at 09:00. Let’s move out, people.” Gollum marched towards his office, forcing us to get going too.

“Awesome! Sign-ups,” Alex said, leading us back to the dining hall and Matt.

Matt. I was an idiot for not finding time to tell him about Seth. I lowered my gaze when we reentered the building, remembering the way Matt had looked at me when Hannah had clued him in about Seth.

Even though inner-tubing and ceramics were the last things on my mind, I followed the group to a large bulletin board full of sign-up sheets beside the entrance. Since there were five activities and a free period, we each chose one on behalf of the group. We’d done everything together after Piper had barely survived an archery class alone with Hannah’s posse. The Divas’ Den girls hadn’t liked us since Hannah and Alex had crushed on the same kid a few years ago. The cabin challenges had taken on a new fierceness that summer, and the competitive fire had only grown. Now, all the Munchies did activities together whenever possible. There was safety in numbers.

“I vote for swimming,” Alex said, and I was grateful that someone had moved the topic away from Seth. “I’ve got the sickest bikini. It’s white with these little yellow–”

“Daisies?” Jackie put in, pointing across the room to a member of Hannah’s gang who’d pulled up her T-shirt to show off the same bathing suit top to Rob.

“Crap. And she’s like totally a D cup.” Alex looked down at her chest and sighed. “Fine. Put us down for tubing.”

Jackie scrawled our names and turned to Trinity. “You want to pick an outdoor activity?”

Trinity toyed with a green bead at the end of one of her dreadlocks. “Did they add meditation this year?”

Jackie scanned the board. “Nope.”

Trinity sighed. “Let’s go with the low ropes course. That’s always fun.”

“I’ve got an essay on Macbeth to write.” Siobhan pinned back the bangs that were angled lower than the back of her bob. “So I could definitely use some fun. How about Frisbee for our athletic activity?”

Everyone liked that idea.

“And volleyball.” Jackie put her hands on her slim hips and pinned us all with a look. “Guys. We have to beat Divas’ Den in the tournament this year. We need the practice.”