Camp Confidential 09 - Best (Boy)friend Ever (15 page)

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Authors: Melissa J Morgan

BOOK: Camp Confidential 09 - Best (Boy)friend Ever
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“Priya!” Sarah, Alex, and Abby called together with their hands cupped around their mouths.
She blinked.
“Your turn,” Sarah told her.
“Oh.” She hadn’t thought of even one thing to say. Then she realized what the best part of the trip had been. “Okay, this might sound dumb, because it’s not about D.C., exactly. At least not about any of the places we went there. But that night I got my period, and everybody in the room gave me stuff—Midol and chocolate and everything. And Brynn sang that song to me . . . that was the best. I guess ’cause I never really did the girlfriend thing before. Not like that, you know.”
“Awww.” Grace reached over and gave her a half hug.
“It was a good song,” Brynn added with a little smile, but not her usual light-up-Broadway-all-the-way-from-camp one.
She didn’t seem mad at Priya for the dance thing. Brynn must’ve thought the whole thing was Jordan’s idea.
She must think he’s a total psycho. With a cruel cherry on top. Which is so unfair
, Priya thought, her eyes going over to Jordan, even though she really didn’t want to look at him. It hurt too much. In so many ways.
Yeah, like she expected, he was staring at Brynn. Like he was wishing her head was plastic so he could look inside and just
understand.
Sophie came by with a big pan of taco casserole and set it down in the middle of the table. Priya served herself a scoop. She picked up her fork, then looked over at Jordan again. He was still starting at Brynn.
Staring at Brynn. The way he had been at the campfire. The way he had been that other night at dinner. He liked Brynn so much.
He asked for my help as his best friend. And I betrayed him
, Priya thought. There wasn’t a worse thing she could have done. That was the lowest.
Priya dropped her fork and bolted to her feet. “I know I said it was going to be bad. But it’s not going to be that bad,” Grace joked.
“Oh, yes it is,” Priya muttered. “It’s going to be even worse.” She looked over at Becky. “I need to take Jordan and Brynn outside for a minute.”
“I’m sure it can wait until after—” Becky began.
“It can’t. It really, really can’t,” Priya interrupted.
Becky met her gaze for a long moment. “Okay, but come right back in.”
“Come on, Brynn,” Priya ordered.
“I’m eating,” Brynn protested.
Priya walked over, took Brynn by the arm, and led her over to Jordan’s table. “We need you outside.” She looked over at his counselor. “Becky said it would be okay. Just for a couple minutes.”
“What are you doing?” Jordan asked as Priya tugged him up from his chair.
“I need to tell you both something,” she answered as she led them out the door. “Even if neither of you ever forgive me.”
Priya released them outside the mess hall and forced herself to keep talking. “I lied to you yesterday,” she told Jordan. “I didn’t even see Brynn before I came out on deck. I didn’t hear her say anything. She didn’t say any of those mean things about you, Jordan.”
“What?” Brynn and Jordan cried at the same time.
“What did you tell him I said?” Brynn demanded.
“Why?” Jordan burst out.
Priya looked over at Brynn. “I basically said you made fun of him, and that you were only acting like you were having fun dancing with him.” She turned back to Jordan. “And I did it because . . .” She couldn’t tell him. At least not all of it. “I did it because I was jealous.”
“I can’t believe I’m hearing this.” Jordan stared at her like he’d never seen her before. Like she was something that disgusted him.
“You know how it is when someone, you know, liiiikes someone else. They want to spend all their time with them. It was already happening. You wanted to go to the play with Brynn instead of the museum with me, even though we’d been planning the museum trip since the beginning of summer.” Priya reached for Jordan’s arm. He jerked back before she could touch him. “I just didn’t want to lose my best friend.”
“Well, you did,” Jordan told her. He took Brynn by the hand. “Let’s go back in. There’s nothing else to say to her.”
And they left Priya standing there. Alone.
She couldn’t follow them back inside. She’d die if she had to be in the same room with Jordan and Brynn for even one more second.
Priya raced off into the darkness.
Priya knew she couldn’t sit in this stupid tree forever. All the counselors would have to look for her. Dr. Steve would have to call her parents. Everything would just be more of a disaster than it already was. Besides, she had to change her pad soon. Being a girl sucked sometimes.
She scrubbed her face with both hands, then slowly began to climb down, thinking about how fast she’d climbed up during that extreme challenge between her and Jordan. That wasn’t even a month ago. It felt like about a billion years. Except when it felt like yesterday.
The walk back to the bunk was too short to come up with anything that felt even close to the right thing to say. Maybe because there wasn’t anything. So all she said was “hi” when she stepped inside.
“Becky and Sophie are looking for you. I’ll go find them and tell them you’re back,” Alex volunteered.
“I’ll go with you,” Grace said.
“Thanks.” Priya walked over to her bunk and lay face down. No one said anything. The quiet felt like it actually had a weight, like it was pressing down on her, flattening out her lungs.
“So should we all throw pillows at her or what?” Valerie finally said. A couple girls laughed. Priya knew Brynn wasn’t one of them. Val stood up. “There’s still a little free time. I’m gonna go to the rec room and, I don’t know, play Sorry. Who wants to come?”
Less than a minute later the Bunk of Hideous Silence was empty except for Priya and Brynn. “Is it worth saying I’m sorry again?” Priya asked.
“Probably not,” Brynn said. She sighed. “Jordan and I talked for a while after dinner. You were right. He really is a terrific guy.”
Priya nodded. “I hope I didn’t completely mess things up between you guys.”
“I think we’re going to be friends,” Brynn answered. “But just friends.”
Priya stared at her. “Why?”
“You know that hot shiver thing Sarah said she got when David held her hand?” Brynn plucked at her bedspread. “I didn’t get that with Jordan.”
“Oh.” Priya thought for a minute. “Does he know?”
“Yeah, that’s one of the things we talked about.” Brynn picked up her pillow and tossed it lightly at Priya’s head. “Now you’ve got to do it, too.”
“What?” Priya cradled the pillow in her arms.
“Talk to Jordan.”
Priya snorted. “Didn’t I talk enough tonight? I doubt he ever wants to hear my voice again.”
“You’ve got to tell him the truth,” Brynn insisted.
“Wh-what?” Priya stared at her. Brynn raised her eyebrows. Priya nodded slowly. “Okay. I
like him
like him. But I didn’t know at first. I didn’t know until I was sitting in the bathroom with you telling you why you should give him another chance. And then it was too late. Well, it should have been too late. Then I turned into glitter-covered evil.”
“Hey, I’m the drama queen, remember?” Brynn asked.
“So, do you forgive me?” Priya found it hard to ask the question, because she was afraid to hear the answer.
“On one condition. Make that two,” Brynn said.
“Anything,” Priya promised.
“First, give me back my pillow.”
Priya smiled and tossed it to her. “That was easy.”
Brynn smiled back. “Second, tell Jordan how you feel.”
The smile slid off Priya’s face. That was going to be almost impossible.
chapter
ELEVEN
Priya stretched out on a beach towel by the lake and closed her eyes. She was allowed to skip swimming today if she wanted to, because of her period. At least it would be gone soon.
And maybe she could use the time to finally get some sleep. Last night, she couldn’t. Not even after she’d found Marc and apologized to him, too.
She kept thinking about what she’d promised Brynn. How was she possibly going to tell a boy who hated her that she liiiiked him? With all those
iiii
s?
She felt something wet on her forehead and brushed it away without bothering to open her eyes. Another wet drip. Then another. Had it started to rain? Priya cracked her eyelids—and saw Jordan standing over her in his bathing suit.
“Are you avoiding me now?” he demanded. “Because I’m the one who should be avoiding you. You’re the one who acted like a butt.”
“I’m not avoiding you,” Priya said.
“Right. Keep on lying. You’re getting good at it,” Jordan shot back, his eyes narrow.
“I’m not lying.” She was going to tell him the truth, the way Brynn wanted her to. But that didn’t include spewing the fact that she had her period. You just didn’t tell a boy you liiiiked that.
“You never skip swimming.”
“Well, today I did. Deal with it.” She locked eyes with him, willing Jordan to believe her. Finally, he turned around and started back toward the lake. “Wait!” Priya called.
“Why? Why should I?” But Jordan turned around and strode back over to her.
“I told you pretty much everything outside the mess hall, but I left something out,” Priya began.
“Unbelievable.” Jordan slapped his hands on his head. “What? Did you go to my house and pinch my dog?”
“No.” Priya pulled in a long, shuddering breath.
Here goes, the absolute end of our friendship. Like it isn’t pretty much dead already
, she thought. “Here’s the deal. I was jealous, when I found out you liked Brynn.”
Jordan rolled his eyes. “Yeah, you said that. Selfish much?”
“But it wasn’t because we wouldn’t be able to spend as much time together,” Priya admitted. “When I was telling Brynn all the reasons she should want to go to the dance with you, I realized I wanted to go with you myself.” She dug her fingers into the sand. They were shaking and she didn’t want Jordan to see.
Her knees were shaking too, she realized. She didn’t think she’d be able to stand up if she wanted to. “But I didn’t want to go with you as a friend,” she continued, speaking to the tiny grains spilling across her hands. “I wanted to go with you as my boyfriend.” She forced herself to look back up at Jordan, because since she was doing this, she should do it all the way.
He looked back at her, his face expressionless. Then he turned and walked away.
She thought it had hurt when she’d helped him prep to impress Brynn. But she hadn’t known what pain was.
“Bye, Jordan,” Priya whispered after him.
Priya caught up to Brynn on the way to the campfire that night. “I did it. I told him.”
“So what happened?”
“He stared at me like this.” Priya made her face a blank mask. “Then he walked away.”
“Boys. Not so great with the communication skills,” Brynn commented as they sat down on one of the dead logs around the fire.

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