Sun Kissed (Camp Boyfriend) (17 page)

“Nothing!” she hissed and then covered her face with her hands. “I was teasing him a little, but he was smiling and edging backwards like he was having fun teasing me, too. Then he fell—”

“Do not repeat that story to another soul.” Missy glared at her. “I mean it.”

“Seriously?” Bella’s already pale face went ten shades whiter.

I squeezed her arm tight. “Don’t worry about it. Andre’s fine and you didn’t do anything wrong.”

“But talk to a lawyer, just in case,” Missy added, draping an arm around Bella’s shoulders on her other side. “We’ll find you someone really good.”

“What is wrong with you?” I was tempted to pound my head against the nearest pine tree as I let go of Bella. “She doesn’t need a lawyer. Will you quit scaring her?”

Missy stepped away from Bella, who had started crying in earnest. To me, Missy whispered, “Think about it, Hannah. She’s not tough like us. She’s going to blubber like a baby about this all through school and people are going to know she was flirting with our lacrosse coach. An adult known for messing with underage girls on the brink of getting arrested. If Andre is hurt—or worse—questions are going to come up about what happened—”

“He’s
not
known for messing with underage girls, okay?” I looked over my shoulder, needing to help the guys get Julian and Andre back up to level ground. They seemed to have their pulley system ready. “I just made that up to scare you because I was being a bitch.” The truth was out.

Missy went still, her face unmoving as if she didn’t quite comprehend. But I could tell when my words sank in. Her mouth twisted into a tight frown.

“I guess it was easy for me to believe your mom dated a Fed. God knows she’s screwed guys from all walks of life since your dad left.” She hit me where it hurt and crossed a big-time line.

“Hey. Leave Mom out of it. I lied and I’m sorry.” I didn’t say that often. But for everything I’d been through with Missy…yeah, I felt bad about messing with her. I didn’t like who I’d become.

“Not yet.” Her lips stretched in a tight smile. “But you will be.”

She moved to comfort Bella. The Ponytails watched the drama from a respectable distance, but I glared at them to chase them farther away. I hurried over to the ledge of the gorge and peered down. The tennis player and one of the skateboarder guys were lying on their stomachs, arms extended over the side to steady ropes while the other  skateboarder anchored the pulley thing that lifted Andre to the surface.

Great for Andre. Not so good for Julian, who was
climbing
up the gorge behind him with nothing to catch him if he fell.

“What are you doing?” I barked at the boys on the ground. “Where’s Julian’s rope?”

“We didn’t have enough to harness him, too,” one of them told me, his knuckles white as he guided the nylon cord to keep Andre’s weight centered.

My forehead felt all hot as I watched Julian take some of Andre’s weight on his shoulder while he scaled up the icy cliff side. What did he think he was doing risking his neck to help Andre up? I felt like screaming at him. Andre deserved to stay down in the pit for trying to get a high school girl alone to flirt with her—even if the girl was into it. But my throat was too dry to shout.

“Can I help?” I asked the guys steering the ropes.

“Seriously?” one of them said while the other snorted.

“Yeah.” I didn’t know why my offer should be so amusing. “I wouldn’t have offered if I didn’t mean it.”

I lay down on my stomach between them, icy snow crunching under my nylon ski pants.

“Beats me why the girls crush on Andre,” another guy muttered.

“Me, too.” I would have said something more cutting, but I was too busy wondering if those spikes Julian had added to his boots could really keep him safe on the ice. “Can’t we haul Andre up first and then send the rope down for Julian?”

They gaped at me, their mouths working like fish on land. “The last thing we need is another body to drag back, right?” I tried to put it in terms they’d understand. “Wouldn’t it be better if he
doesn’t
break any legs?”

The boys returned to their work, their snow-crusted gloves slipping along the taut nylon cord.

“Julian said this was better,” one of the skateboarders explained.

“Who died and put him in charge?”

I heard Bella wail louder in the background.

“Ohmigod, is Andre dead?”

Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath.
Patience
.

“He’s not dead,” I reminded her, calling over my shoulder.

Suddenly, one of the boys beside me slid forward. His shoulders slipped out over the ledge. I scrambled backward to grab his ankles.

“Hold on!” I shouted. “Help me!” I called to the tennis girl.She was beside me in an instant, holding the skateboarder’s left boot while I held the right.

“It’s fine!” his friend shouted. “I’ve got it.” He shifted his arms and the ropes, his muscles flexing against his jacket sleeves. “We just need to keep the weight even between us.”

My nails broke inside my gloves from the awkward grip I had on this dude’s leg.

“If you go down, they’ll all fall,” I reminded him.

All of them, yes. But it was Julian I worried about. Julian, who’d been first to risk his neck to figure out a way to get Andre free.

“I know.” Skateboarder dude inched back. “You can let go.”

Soon, Andre’s helmet cleared ground level. Bella squealed and rushed to the ledge to kneel beside me. All of us gripped his jacket and his arms, hauling him up over the edge to safety.

“Watch the leg,” Andre warned, his face pale and sweaty from pain. “Thing hurts like a son of a—”

 “Nooo!” Bella cried again.

“He’s fine,” Missy soothed her. She scooched closer to Bella’s side as the two of them watched over the lacrosse coach.

The boys loosened the harness to help him breathe, but otherwise made no move to send Julian the rope.

“Isn’t anyone going to help Julian? He’s still down there,” I screeched.

“We’ve got to keep the pressure on Andre’s leg—looks like the bone’s come through.”

I turned away from the nasty sight and peered over the edge. Unbelievably, Julian was almost to the top on his own.

“I can’t believe you.” I crouched near the ledge and hovered over Julian’s head. His gray helmet was covered with snow, but his long-ish hair flared out the bottom in damp wings. His shoulders flexed under his coat, his fingers locked into crevices in the ice as he inched upward.

“You never knew I was so strong, right?” He stopped climbing long enough to look up at me.

Although I was tempted to yell at him for taking his eye off the wall, I was too scared he’d fall if I startled him.

“I never knew you had a death wish,” I said evenly. I lay on the ground like the skateboarders had before.

I wanted their help now, but they were busy trying to help Andre regain consciousness in case of a concussion.

Julian shook his head. “You voted me most expendable, Hannah. You of all people should approve of the decision to give someone else the rope.”

“Don’t you dare bring that up now,” I warned him, emotions clogging my throat and making my voice scratchy. “I was just having a moment when I said that.”

I held out my hand.

Julian stared at it for a long moment.  Something like shame crept over me.

“My God. Julian.” I shook my head. He was so close now, yet he was still in major danger. A fall now would break his leg, too. Or worse. “Do you honestly think I would let you fall? How many trust walks have we taken at Camp Juniper Point?”

Nearby, the other skiers gathered around Andre. But right here, it was just me and Julian, surrounded by snowfall that separated us from everything else. His arms had to be killing him.

“Since when do you take that seriously?” His brown eyes were so steady, while I was totally freaked.

“I
do
. But even if I didn’t, I would never let anything happen to the boy who got me on stage that night I played Josephine in
H.M.S. Pinafore
.” It was one of my oldest secrets—that geeky Julian had calmed my fears and talked me out of my stage fright during the rehearsals for a fifth-grade play.

Still he stared at me. Had I been
that
mean? So awful that I couldn’t be trusted to help him over the ledge?

I’d never know if he would have taken my hand because one of the skateboarders ran over just then.

“Yo, dude. Here ya go.” Planting his feet beside me, he extended a glove to Julian just like I had.

Except Julian clasped his without a second thought.

I shifted aside to give them room as the boy half-pulled, half-dragged Julian up and over the edge onto level ground. The skateboarder clapped Julian on the shoulder when he was all the way over.

“Good job, man,” he told him.

“Thanks, Brad,” Julian returned, rolling to his back to stare up at the falling snow.

Or, more likely, just to catch his breath.

I felt useless. Worse than last year’s accessory. I had absolutely no purpose here. I’d failed my partner. Failed Missy and Bella.

“I’m glad you’re not hurt,” I told Julian, wishing he’d accepted my help.

“Thanks for being here. There. I mean, at the top of the gorge.” He took shallow breaths, his chest rising and falling rapidly.

I scooched closer to him, sliding across the snow on my butt. It got dark early this time of year and I realized it was already getting tough to see.

“Yeah. Lot of help I was.” I leaned back against a tree, exhausted from worrying. I pulled out my phone and double-checked it to see if my ranting text to Mom had gone through, but of course it hadn’t. Still no cell signal.

“I was getting tired at the end,” he admitted, shifting to his side and propping his head. “I didn’t think I could go up another inch.”

“Really?” My heart started pounding all over again. “Why didn’t you say something? I could’ve gotten help—”

“It helped to hear you. To see you right there in front of me.” His mouth lifted on one side. A half smile. “I knew I’d be all right then.”

My heart kept flying along at super speed and I realized that it wasn’t worry I was feeling. It was a boy-girl kind of thing. For Julian.

I let that idea settle inside my head and it didn’t freak me out the same way it had back when we’d been on the chairlift.

“I can’t believe you got Andre out of there.” Julian had gone down into that narrow gap and gotten him. He’d organized the effort to lift him out and half-carried Andre’s weight on his shoulders as he climbed.

No wonder he was tired.

 “It took a long time though.” He looked back up at the sky again. “We have less than an hour before dark.” He got to his feet and then held out his hand to help me to mine.

Unlike him, I took it without thinking twice.

“What does that mean?” I asked as I stood, my breath puffing in clouds as I spoke. “What should we be doing?”

I hadn’t thought beyond getting Andre out of the gorge.

“We need to find somewhere that has cell coverage to get a message out. But first we’d better build a fire and set up a camp. Because if no one knows where we are and Andre is too hurt to ski, we’re going to be stuck out here tonight.”

Chapter Seven

Julian

Once we’d hauled Andre from the gorge, I repacked my rope and the crampons. I made quick work of putting on my skis since we didn’t have much daylight left.

“Does anyone know how to build a fire?” I didn’t have many matches with me, so I didn’t want some clueless kid wasting them all.

“Sure, man.” Brad pulled a lighter from his jacket pocket. “I might have some papers, too.” He snickered with his friend.

Whatever. He’d be better off donating his rolling papers to a good cause, right? I gave him the thumbs-up and kept my matches in my backpack.

“Good deal.” I pointed out an area clear of trees. “I’d build here and make sure it’s big enough to see from a distance. You might want to break into pairs to look for wood.”

“It’s gonna smoke,” Brad warned, already yanking down a dead branch still dangling off a tree. “The wood will be wet.”

“Smoke is fine. It’ll help search parties on foot to find us. But try to get some flames going to help them see us.”

Brad nodded. “What are you doing?”

“I’ve got to get a call out or a text message, but I haven’t had a signal for the last couple of hours.” I put my backpack on and wrapped my cape over it.

Say what you will about a cape; I’d be the only one warm tonight if we got stuck out here.

My eyes slid to Hannah. I could probably be talked into sharing it.

Blinking, I forced myself to snap out of it. Just because she remembered some random moment we shared in fifth grade didn’t mean the past was forgiven. But it had been cool to find out she hadn’t forgotten. That it was still important to her under all the Mean Girl crap she’d worn like armor since junior high.

“I’m going with you.” She stared at me with her inscrutable eyes, her red hair curling around her shoulders damply now that the snow fell so heavy.

“It’s safer for you here.” I didn’t need her slowing me down.

“Doesn’t matter. We’re partners. Buddy system, remember? No arguing.” She yanked her ski cap down farther beneath her helmet so it covered her ears more. “I’m going.”

“Don’t go all stubborn on me,” I warned. “This isn’t the same as talking your way out of a homework assignment. There are real dangers in these woods and they’re only getting worse as it gets dark.”

Her eyes narrowed. Her mouth flattened into a thin line. “Which is why I need to protect you.”

“From bears?” I couldn’t resist.

“Exactly. I think we can both agree I have bigger claws than you.” She dug her poles in the snow. “Now get moving before we lose more light.”

I said nothing. I just started skiing.

We trudged silently for a while, the snow too fresh for any kind of speed. But after a few minutes she sidled closer.

“Thanks for not arguing with me.”

“I did argue. You just refused to listen.”

She flipped long, damp strands of auburn behind one shoulder as she sighed. “I know you think I’m this super ` mean chick, but—”