Chapter 15 #3
“Hey, Winters!” I don’t turn toward the voice behind me, but Ryan edges into my sight anyway. He glances at me, surprise all over his face. “Hey, Lennon. Didn’t realize that was you.”
“Hi, Ryan.” My voice is wooden as he glances between me and Caleb with a questioning look. Everyone always seems surprised to see us together. It’s hard not to assume it’s because of me.
“There you are, man.” Jake’s voice joins the conversation.
I shift uncomfortably. If Jake and Ryan are up, that probably means other guys are too.
“Why the fuck are you all wet?” Jake asks Caleb, then glances at me.
Caleb ignores the question, turning and continuing toward the row of cabins. Jake looks between me and Ryan, shakes his head, and then follows after Caleb.
“See you later, Ryan.”
I spin and head in the direction of my cabin.
“Lennon! Wait.”
I sigh before stopping. “Ryan, this really isn’t a great time.” I gesture toward my sopping appearance.
“What, you forget a suit?”
“Not exactly.”
Ryan raises his eyebrows, then drops the subject. “Look, you have every reason to hate me. I was a stupid shit back in freshman year.”
“Freshman year? Don’t you mean freshman year, sophomore year, junior—”
“Yeah, yeah, I get it.” He smiles, then tilts his head. “People change, you know?”
“I don’t hate you, Ryan.”
“Great. Wanna go to prom with me?”
Damnit . Caleb was right. “I told you we were over. We’ve been over.”
“You just said you don’t hate me. So…there’s hope.”
He gives me a grin most girls would consider charming.
“No. If I hated you, then there would be hope.”
Twin lines appear between his eyes. “Uh, what?”
“Thank you for asking. But the answer is no. And it isn’t going to change, Ryan.”
“Because of Winters?”
“What? Your ego can’t handle I’m just not interested in dating you? There has to be another guy?”
“Nah, I just thought you were less of a cliché. The whole town is in love with Winters. And since you hate the whole town, I figured Winters would be on that same list.”
“Ryan, I’m sorry if—Actually, you know what? I’m not sorry, about anything. I’ve made it very clear I don’t want to date you. And since you fell in line with everyone else after my dad died, I’m not really interested in being friends with you, either. Leave me alone, and leave Caleb out of it.”
Ryan shakes his head. “You’re awfully defensive, Lennon. Just don’t say I didn’t warn you. I’m friendly with the baseball guys. Winters goes through a lot of girls. At least I’ve been upfront with you. He’ll break your heart and then walk away. Dude doesn’t care about anything but pitching.”
There was a recent time when I would have believed every word coming out of Ryan’s mouth. Nodded along and agreed. But now? I’m not so sure. “I liked you better when you were ignoring me,” I tell Ryan, then head in the direction of my cabin.
Thankfully, he doesn’t follow me. And I’m grateful to discover all my cabin mates are still asleep, meaning I can avoid answering any questions about where I was or why I’m drenched.
After showering and changing into dry clothes, I head to the main lodge where we ate dinner last night.
The broad spread of breakfast food—bacon, eggs, waffles, pancakes, quiche, omelets, and fruit parfait—is impressive.
I normally wolf down a banana and sometimes a granola bar before heading out to the barn for chores.
I take a random assortment of food and head toward my cabin’s table. Seconds after I’ve sat down, Mr. Tanner stands up to announce the day’s itinerary. The two options are canoeing or hiking. With this morning’s misadventure fresh in my mind, the choice is an easy one for me.
By the time I leave for the hike, I’ve realized more stares and whispers than usual are following me around. I don’t know if they’re related to Caleb or Ryan or something else. Since Cassie isn’t here, I have no insight into what exactly is being muttered under my fellow seniors’ breaths.
By the time we return to the campground, it’s dinnertime.
In what’s become a familiar ritual, I eat with my cabin mates.
Following dinner, there’s a movie screening.
It turns out to be the same spy thriller I saw in the theater with Caleb and his friends.
I wonder if the memory is as bittersweet for him as it is for me.
As soon as we return to the cabin from the approved evening activities, things switch to the unapproved. Clothes are tossed around, makeup artfully applied, perfume sprayed.
“Aren’t you coming tonight, Lennon?” Shannon asks.
“Right, sure,” I respond, hiding my surprise. I read last night’s offer as more of an obligation than a serious invitation.
I trail after the rest of the girls, still in my jeans and sweatshirt. Once we’re off the porch, half the group splits to the left and darts toward the woods.
“Where are we going?” I ask Shannon.
“Lee found a clearing in the woods. We’re supposed to meet everyone there.”
I relax a little. Lee Joseph is friends with Will, along with a handful of other people I don’t mind. As far as cliques go, it’s one I can handle socializing with.
There’s not a chaperone in sight, but we stick to the periphery of the campground as we head toward the woods just in case. Eventually we reach a point where we have to dart across the middle of the campground to reach the direction in which we apparently need to head.
We’re halfway across when I make the mistake of looking to my right. There are about a dozen figures huddled around the campfire, silhouetted by the dancing flames and starry sky.
I make direct eye contact with Madison. She smiles wickedly. I look away.
“Lennon! Don’t you want to play?” Shannon and the rest of the girls all stop, so I have no choice but to pause too.
If Madison is inviting me to participate in something, I have no doubt there’s a hidden agenda. But everyone around me is behaving like moths, inching closer and closer to the campfire. Leaving isn’t really an option.
“Play what?” I ask as I walk over to the group gathered around the flickering flames. The group, that I realize with a start, includes Caleb.
“Truth or Dare,” Madison responds. She tosses her hair, shooting me a challenging smirk.
“We can stay for a bit.” Shannon answers before I have a chance to decline, plopping down in an open spot.
The lull in the game turns out to be because of Jake’s current dare. He returns to the fire less than a minute after we’ve sat down, a jar of pickles in hand.
“Couldn’t have been easier, Adams.” Jake tosses the glass container to Colt. Jake challenges Poppy Tisdale to dance for a minute without music next. I stare in the general direction of the lake instead of watching, cringing from secondhand embarrassment.
Maybe the uncomfortable judgment is obvious on my face, but I’m pretty sure Poppy singling me out has more to do with impressing Madison. “Truth or dare, Lennon?” Poppy asks.
“Dare.”
Poppy smirks, then leans back on the bench. “I dare you to kiss Jake.”
Not a challenge I saw coming. A small gasp next to me comes from Shannon. She’s reacting to the fact I was just dared to kiss one of the most popular guys in school. I’m more concerned with his status as Caleb’s best friend.
I stand and take my time walking across the dead pine needles to where Jake is sitting. Right next to Caleb.
As I walk, I weigh my options. There are only two, really. One that will cause harm—irreparable harm—to my ambiguous, strained relationship with Caleb. That should make my choice easy, but I consider it could be easier—better—to take the option away.
I reach the opposite side of the campfire. Caleb is stone-faced and impassive. But as I near the spot where he’s sitting, a muscle jumps in his jaw.
A tiny, barely discernible, involuntary motion. And it decides for me.
I stop in front of Jake and lean forward. He’s wide-eyed, and I can tell he’s resisting the urge to look over at Caleb.
“Don’t move,” I whisper to him.
His Adam’s apple bobs as he hastily swallows. I lean forward.
And kiss him on the cheek.
Before I stand back up, I hear a quick exhale to my left, and that’s how I know I made the right decision. That Caleb wasn’t as indifferent as he seemed.
“You call that a kiss?” Poppy laughs, but I hear the edge of nervousness in her voice as she glances over at Madison.
“Next time you should specify where.” I smile at her sweetly. “I’m going to find Lee,” I tell my wide-eyed cabin mates, continuing toward the woods instead of sitting back down. They follow me, and it feels like a show of support I haven’t experienced in a long time. Maybe ever.
“That was crazy !” Shannon whispers to me as we walk away from the campfire. “I can’t believe you did that.”
Awe saturates her voice.
I don’t respond. I’m distracted by the eyes I can feel searing my back. If I turned back around, I know they’d be blue ones.
The clearing Lee discovered looks a lot like a stretch of forest that just has slightly fewer trees than the rest of the forest, but at least it’s filled with friendlier faces than the campfire was surrounded by.
I spot Will standing with Marcus and some of the other senior players on the basketball team. He gives me a small wave. I smile back before following Shannon toward a huddle I recognize as containing most of our usual lunch table, Julie, and…Andrew. He looks even more uncomfortable than I feel.
“What took so long? Did you guys get lost?” Eliza asks.
“Nope,” Shannon responds. “Lennon had to kiss Jake Barnes.”
“Wait, what?” Tina gasps, and everyone looks at me. I shoot Shannon a dirty look.
“It was one dare, and I didn’t even do it,” I explain. “Not really.”
“It was amazing,” Shannon interjects. “You guys should have seen Madison Hebert’s face.”