Girl on the Run (11 page)

Completely calm, I slipped under the surface, then came up on the other side of the float. The sound of bubbles made my blood freeze.

Oh god! It's a huge eel looking for food!

I watched in horror as the bubbles grew larger. Surfacing just five feet in front of me was a mask and snorkel. The milk chocolate eyes were unmistakable.

K
irk pulled the mask off his face. Tendrils of black hair framed his expression of shock. “Hey,” he said.

This was not a dream. This was not a test. My brain sent a zillion messages to every part of me all at once. I screamed and splashed like I was in the middle of a piranha feeding frenzy.

“Pervert!” My fists flew through the water sending waves of lake towards him.

“Just Jesse!”

“Shut up! Close your eyes!”

“Stop,” he gurgled.

I screamed over the white water. “Turn around! Turn around!”

“You're going to wake everyone.”

An audience would not be good. I stopped punching the lake, and the water gradually calmed between us. He swam back a few feet.

“What are you doing out here?” I hissed.

“What am I doing? You're naked!”

“Shut up!”

“Shit!” he laughed.

“Turn around, jerk.”

He complied, and I stared at the back of his head wishing he were Lewis.

“Now what?” he asked, slightly turning towards me.

“Stop that,” I said.

“I'm too far away to see anything.”

I squinted. If I couldn't see his body, then he couldn't see mine. “Don't move,” I said. I dove down to check; nope, nothing but haze. I resurfaced and put a few more feet of water between us.

He faced me again. “Any ideas?” he asked.

“Oh god, just disappear.” I felt like crying.

“Okay.” He began to put his mask back on and pretended to dive under the water.

“NO!”

He smiled again, then said, “Make up your mind.”

I looked at the dock. My small pile of clothes was so far away. “This is the plan,” I said. “I'm going to swim back and get dressed while you go on the other side of the float.”

“That's not safe. You might get a cramp on your way back and drown. If I'm on the other side of the float I won't be able to see you.”

“That's stupid. You're out here by yourself.”

“Am I?”

Oh shit.

I scanned the water around us, waiting for someone else to surface. “Who else?” I asked.

“Just the eels.”

“You jerk!” I began to splash again.

“Keep it up if you want an audience waiting for you when you reach the dock.”

I began to shiver. “I have to get out.” My teeth chattered.

“Are you okay?”

I rolled my eyes. “I'm naked and freezing.”

He waved a hand toward the ladder. “Do you want to lie on the float and warm up?”

“Stop it!”

“We can work on our tans, and talk for a while. You know, this is the longest conversation we've had.”

I shot him a look. “I guess I figured out the secret to keeping your attention.”

“You always have my attention.”

I tried to ignore how that sent a thrill down to my toes. “Of course,” I huffed. “You wouldn't want to miss the next embarrassing mess.”

His chocolate eyes widened. “I can't wait to find out what happens next!”

“That's not what I mean.”

“All right,” he said. “We'll swim in together, this far away from each other.”

“You first,” I grumbled. “And no mask.”

He held the mask and snorkel in one hand and began to swim to the dock. I was right, definitely a swimmer. I followed at a safe distance. After a few strokes, he stopped and waited for me.

“What?” I said. “Keep going.”

“Maybe you should hold the mask, you know, to remove temptation.”

“Just keep swimming.”

“Are you sure? 'Cause I could get naked too, then we'd be even.”

I thought of the diary and eel episodes. “I think you owe me more than a peep show,” I challenged.

His voice sounded ridiculously smooth. “What did you have in mind?” he teased.

“I'm freezing, Kirk! Hurry up!”

He continued the front crawl, easily reaching the dock. I held back, taking in the scene of him dripping in his swimming trunks. Make that his clinging, very low rise swimming trunks. He shook his head and ran a hand through his hair a few times, making it shaggy and loose…and okay, I'll admit, sexy. He grinned back at me as if he could read my mind.

I motioned to the lawn. “You've had your fun,” I snapped. “Now go away. I'm getting hypothermia.”

“What if you trip, hit your head, and become unconscious…”

“Go!”

“Okay, okay.” He walked up the dock, not looking back.

After a quick scan at the cabin windows to make sure all the blinds were closed, I lifted my naked self out of the water and tugged on my bathrobe.

He was waiting for me at the end of the dock, a towel around his neck, still looking in the opposite direction. My soccer shirt and purple underwear were in a bundle in my hand.

We started to walk over the grass together. “I'm wondering,” he said, “do you go out for a swim every morning?”

I pulled my robe tighter. “That was my first and last.”

“Lucky me.”

“Shut up,” I grumbled. Just once I'd like to be the one who isn't being humiliated. I headed straight for my window. Baby wanted to go back to the corner now, please.

The weather turned
ugly. Heavy rain with thunder and lightning kept everyone inside for the next few days.

“Guess water safety is a no go again today!” Spencer gloated as he looked at the downpour from the front porch.

I stood beside him wearing my best scowl, but secretly I didn't care. My only motivation for the class was the fact that he seemed so against it, and therefore, I thought it proper punishment. But the constant rain was punishing all of us. We suffered through a day full of tennis lessons against the walls of the multipurpose room, and arts and crafts until I thought the guys would die from boredom. Finally, the next morning, the storm let up. We were slotted for soccer but the field was too muddy, so I made a decision.

“Let's go on a hike,” I announced at breakfast. “I'm desperate to get outside.”

The boys actually thought I'd come up with a good idea, especially Duff, who seemed to be taking extra care with his hair.

“It's still kind of raining out, you know,” I said. He ignored me then put a notepad and pencil in his pocket. He glanced at my wrist and raised his eyebrows.

“Jazzy's got a new bracelet,” I said. The homemade necklace was too long, but I found that after wrapping it around my wrist a few times, it made perfect bangles. “Diana made it for me,” I said. A smile played on his lips for a moment.

“Very pretty,” he signed.

I guessed he meant the girl, not the bracelet. I worried about the budding romance between his brother and Diana. But maybe guys dealt differently with stuff like that. Devin hadn't even acknowledged I still had a pulse, let alone took up space. I'd become invisible, and I'd be lying if I said it didn't sting a little. Maybe my kissing wasn't so great either.

The boys and I hadn't been out of the cabin for two minutes when the cupettes appeared.

“We're going on a hike,” Spencer said, leaning over the porch railing. “Do you want to come?”

“Excuse me,” I said. “I'm the counsellor.” I looked at the girls. “So, are you coming?”

We had to wait another ten minutes for them to get ready. I took a small amount of satisfaction that Lacey hadn't bothered to schedule anything for her girls and was my tagalong for a change. When we entered the path to the woods, she joined me at the back of the pack, letting the hormones pair up ahead of us.

“So, how is it with the boys?” she asked, making her usual lemon face when discussing my charges.

“Normal so far today.”

“Boys are so hard. I can't believe you didn't quit after the eel incident.”

“Yeah, well. I like sushi.”

“You're such a good sport, Jazzy. My girls think it's awful how they treat you and what they say about you.”

This was new. “Say about me?”

“Oh, never mind,” she said. “Boys are stupid.”

“What do they say?”

She waved her hand through the air. “Just the usual.”

“Lacey, this is really fun. Stop jerking around.”

“God, you're so vulgar.” She flicked back her ponytail.

I wanted to say that she would have peed her pants on her first day with these guys, let alone manage to win a prize for the cabin. But I didn't. Instead I kept my mouth shut, hoping she would do the same.

Lacey lowered her voice. “They talk about how you're so athletic, and you know, kind of macho.”

“So?” Where the hell is she going with this? I felt like I was being bullied.

She continued. “And how you hang out with Lewis a lot. They just wonder.”

I laughed. “Lewis and I are not a couple,” I said.

“No, of course not,” She leaned closer. “They think you're, well…sort of butch.”

I caught my foot on a tree root and almost tripped. “Butch?”

“Gay, Jazzy,” she whispered. “The boys think you're gay.”

I shouldn't have felt hurt, but I
was. I wondered if Kirk thought this too. “I'm not gay,” I said, with more conviction than intended.

She gave me a pitying look. “The first symptom is denial.”

“That's grief,” I snapped back. The familiar heaviness settled in my stomach, taking me out of the conversation.

Lacey, confident she had managed to make me feel like crap, spent the rest of the hike with one of her girls. I lagged behind, wishing we'd stayed indoors.

The stupid fog of depression clung to me for the rest of the day. I barely said more than two words through the ping-pong tournament (Cabin 4A came in last), and I kept missing my turn during the mini-mysteries card game. They finally kicked me out of the circle, banning me to the arts and crafts table. I stared at a pile of macaroni and glitter glue, fighting the tears as Chloe's voice echoed inside my head, asking for a belt.

I was failing so badly.

At supper that night, Scotty brought my attention back to something even more pathetic.

“Um, J.J.?” he said. “Kirk keeps looking over here.” He squirmed on the bench, watching my reaction.

Since the rain began, I had only seen Kirk at meal times. His tan lines were giving me sleepless nights. As much as I tried to fight it, I kept replaying that morning on the lake. But Kirk hadn't continued the flirtations.

What was I supposed to do? Sashay across the room, stare him down and say, “I'm ready for you to get even”

It felt weird to even look his way. So I didn't.

“J.J.,” Scotty prompted again.

I sneaked a peek at Kirk's table, only to see him talking to Tyler. “You guys need to tidy the cabin for inspection,” I ordered, barely making eye contact around the table. I then proceeded to poke at my meatloaf for the next fifteen minutes.

When the usual burping and grunting that accompanied all my meals with the boys had been replaced with silence, I looked up and realized I was all alone.

“Thanks, guys,” I muttered. I took my mauled but hardly eaten supper to the front of the room and waited in line to drop off the tray.

“Just Jesse.” Kirk had just dropped off his dirty dishes and was making his way back.

My posture responded on its own and so did my heart.
Thump. Thump. Thump.

Stupid pulse.

I wanted to show him I wasn't embarrassed, that I was completely in control. And if I felt like swimming naked, that was my choice. “So…” I said. “You saw me naked.”

“Oh,” he laughed. “I forgot all about that.” He looked down at my plate. “Are you sick?”

I gripped the tray, trying to remember how freeing it had been to go skinny dipping, how strong and confident I had felt. “I wanted to tell you that I'm ready for you to get even.” There. I said it.

“What?”

Oh shit.
Obviously he'd forgotten.

“Kirk.” Lacey appeared at his side. “Let's go.”

“Just a sec,” he said. Then he turned back to me. “What did you want again?” he asked.

I swallowed a stone the size of me head. “Um…it's not important,” I said.

Lacey leaned forward with wide eyes. “It's not something about the boys again, is it?” she asked.

I shook my head and forced a smile. “No,” I said. “It can wait. I have to check on my cabin, anyway.” Then I added, since I'm so clever, “They're supposed to be cleaning.”

“Okay,” Kirk said. “We'll talk later then.”

“Bye, Jazzy.”

I watched the two perfect, beautiful people walk away. When they reached the door, he put an arm around her shoulder. So that's his type, I thought. I felt more naked than ever.