16. Lara
”Hey, y”all in there?”
Goosebumps flash up and down my arms at Dylan”s voice outside our tent.
Amanda grins and excitedly crawls to the entrance. ”Dylan!” She unzips the tent flap. ”You came to see us!”
”Amanda,” I whisper. ”Don”t be so loud. People are trying to sleep.”
”No one”s asleep.” Dylan peers into our tent. ”You girls sure you”re going to be safe in here? A lot of animals like to prowl around at night.”
”They do?” Amanda asks him with bug eyes.
”He”s teasing,” I tell her, then look at him. ”Don”t tell her stuff like that. She”ll get scared.”
”I”m not scared,” Amanda whispers loudly.
”Good. Because your sister”s right,” Dylan says, winking at me. ”I was only teasing. And Uncle Malcolm will be patrolling well after everyone has gone to bed.”
”And what”re you doing?” I ask him. ”Pre-patrol?”
Dylan chuckles. ”Just checking in. But I should go… Uncle doesn”t want the boys hanging around the girls” tents.”
”Why not?” Amanda asks.
Dylan smirks, and I look at him with a warning glare. ”It”s because they”ll give us cooties,” I say. ”Now, say goodnight to Dylan… because he”s leaving.”
”Goodnight, Dylan,” Amanda says. ”We”ll see you in the morning.”
”Bright and early,” he tells her. ”I think they”re going to have pancakes for breakfast.” His gaze moves over to me, taking in the tiny pair of pajama shorts and the little white crop top I like to sleep in when it”s hot.
His eyes linger, taking in my nipples poking through the thin material. Heat rises from my crotch and spreads to every part of my body.
I clear my throat. ”Goodnight, Dylan.”
He licks his lips. ”Sweet dreams.” He takes one more look at my tits, then zips the entrance to our tent. I let out a breath and lay back on my sleeping bag.
”I like Dylan,” Amanda says, lying on her side, looking at the top of the tent with a dreamy expression. ”He”s really cute.” She flips onto her stomach and props herself on her elbows. ”Don”t you think?”
”Sure… If he doesn”t open his mouth.”
Amanda giggles. ”I think you like him, too.”
”I think you”re dreaming,” I say, rising from my seat and reaching into my bag. ”All right, it”s time to brush your hair. Come and sit in front of me.”
Amanda sighs, then crawls to my sleeping bag. ”You don”t think there”s animals out, do you?”
”Yes, there are animals out here.” I pull the hairbrush from my bag and remove the messy braids from her hair.
Amanda looks toward the tent entrance. ”Like… what kind?”
”Rabbits, deer, bear, mountain lions, coyotes. Maybe a wolf.”
”A wolf?” She looks back at me. ”Wolves can”t get into our tent, can they?”
”I don”t know… I guess they could. They have pretty sharp teeth. So they might be able to chew their way through… and then they”d get ya!” I grab Amanda”s sides suddenly, and she lets out a squeal.
”Stop, Lara! Don”t do that.”
I laugh as she crawls to the corner of the tent and glares back at me.
”I was kidding. Can you come back over here, please? I”m not done with your hair.”
She folds her arms across her chest. ”There”s no wolves?”
”You heard what Dylan said… Mister Caldwell is going to be walking around the tents and making sure we”re safe. Come over here. I didn”t mean to scare you.”
”But you did.” Amanda crawls and sits in front of me. ”I don”t like those kinds of stories.”
”Okay. What kind of story would you like?” I brush her long, wavy locks, letting them cascade down her back.
”How about a horse story?” she suggests.
”Okay, let”s see… there was once a girl who loved horses. But her family had no money and couldn”t afford one. This made the girl very sad, and?—”
”It”s supposed to be about a horse. Not a girl,” Amanda tells me.
”Just wait. The horse is coming. This girl was sad her parents couldn”t afford lessons or a horse for her. There were stables by her house, and she”d pass by them every day on her walk from school. Sometimes, she”d watch the horses with their riders and?—”
”So it”s a story about a girl who wishes she could ride a horse?”
I let out an annoyed sigh. ”If you don”t want me to tell you a story, we could just go to bed.”
”No. I”m not ready. I just hope this story actually starts getting” good.”
”It will. All right… so she”s watching these horses, and the stable owner comes over to the fence. She starts to step back, thinking he”ll yell at her for being there. But he”s kind and asks if she”d like to meet the horses.”
”She goes with this strange man she doesn”t know?”
Ignoring my sister, I continue. ”She follows him to the stable, where she meets his daughter. She”s about the same age, and the owner tells his daughter to take her around so she can meet the horses.”
”That”s it?” Amanda asks. ”She”s just going to the stables to see a couple of horses?”
”But as the girl follows the owner”s daughter along the stalls, she notices something strange. One horse is bright pink… and the other is… green. Then there”s one with purple polka dots. And in the last stall?—”
”One with blue polka dots?” Amanda says in a bored tone.
”In the last stall, there”s a horse with wings. The girl can hardly believe it… It”s a white horse with long, feathery wings coming out of its sides. The owner”s daughter opens the stall door and leads the girl inside. And then she asks the girl if she”d like to go for a ride on the flying horse.”
”I wish Dylan were still here… his stories are way better than yours.”
I pinch my lips closed for a second. ”Well, thank you very much.”
”I don”t mean it like that. It”s just… he makes stories exciting and interesting, and?—”
I roll my eyes. ”All right, your hair”s done.” I stick the hairbrush back in my bag. ”Go get on your sleeping bag if you don”t want to hear my boring story.”
”Don”t get mad, Lara.” Amanda lies on her side. ”You have other good skills.”
I wish I could get mad at her.
I cover my mouth with my hand to muffle my laughter. My sister can be brutally honest. It”s the thing I love most about her. ”Thank you, sissy. Now, let”s turn off the lights and get some shut-eye.”
Amanda sighs. ”Can”t we stay up just a little longer? I never get to stay up late.”
”Don”t you want to get up early tomorrow before all the pancakes are eaten? You don”t want to sleep through that.”
Amanda lies back on her pillow. ”I guess you”re right. I”m kinda hungry now, though.”
”But dinner was… well, I guess dinner was pretty early.” I grab a plastic bag in the corner of the tent. ”I think there”s some snacks in here that Papa brought us earlier.”
Amanda leans over and peers inside the bag. ”Any cookies in there?”
I pull out a Ziploc bag full of chocolate chip cookies. ”Bingo.” I open the bag and hand one to her. ”Mother would kill us if she knew we were eating this late.”
”She never lets us have anything good,” Amanda says. ”Why does she want us to always eat like birds?”
”That”s just her way. She doesn”t want to have overweight daughters,” I tell her. ”But don”t worry about these cookies. They”ll be our little secret.” I pull another out of the bag and take a bite.
”These are good,” Amanda says, reaching for a second cookie. ”Wish we had some milk.”
I hold up my water bottle and hand it to her. ”This”ll have to do for now. I think the picnic area was packed up when it started to get dark, so they probably don”t have anything left.”
”You think Dylan will come back?” Amanda asks, letting a few crumbs fall onto her sleeping bag.
”I don”t think he will,” I say. ”Why do you want him to come back?”
”Because we like him. And he likes us… I think he likes you a lot, Lara.”
I shake my head, trying not to think about how much fun I had with him and how good he looked in the water. ”He likes me. We”re friends.”
”Not just that. He likes you like a girlfriend and boyfriend.”
”I”m not his girlfriend, though.”
”If I were going to choose a boyfriend for you, it would be Dylan.”
I roll my eyes and pull out another cookie. ”Amanda… I”m dating Parker. Dylan might be nice, but he”s… he”s?—”
”He”s perfect for you,” she squeals.
”Okay, time for bed.” I grab the bag of cookies between my legs and put it away. ”Dylan is a good friend. That”s all. Now, get into your sleeping bag.”
”But it”s hot.”
”It”s going to get colder the later it gets. Just leave it half-zipped.” I get inside my sleeping bag, too, trying to ignore the strange sensation I”m feeling from Amanda”s words. She wants me to be with Dylan, and for some reason, that makes me happier than it should.
I reach above my head and turn off the electric lantern.
The sky is clear tonight, and the moonlight filters through the mesh top of the tent, providing some light.
A few muffled voices are coming from the other campers around us, but it sounds like everyone is quieting down for the most part. I listen to Amanda and hear the rhythmic sounds of her breathing as she drifts to sleep.
As much as she fights bedtime, she”s always been able to fall asleep within minutes once her head hits the pillow.
I, on the other hand, am a different story.
Especially right now.
Even though it”s been a long, full day with plenty of activities to tire me out, I”m wide awake.
I know exactly why I”m awake, too, even if it”s hard to admit.
No matter how much I push away the thoughts about Dylan, they keep returning.
It was nice of him to stop by and check on us. Parker has barely talked to me since dinner. But Dylan was there to roast s”mores with us. He was there to hand us sparklers. And he stopped by the tent to check on us.
Why can”t he do something wrong so I can stop thinking about him?
Rolling on my side, I pat around for my bag and touch the handle. I pull it toward me, then pull out my book and a flashlight. Making sure I point it away from Amanda, I turn it on and open my book. Reading might make me tired and help provide a distraction from my Dylan-heavy thoughts.
After a while, I”m engrossed in my book. This is a great idea, and I”m starting to feel sleepy. If I can make it to the end of this chapter, then I can close my eyes and drift off.
Then a strange sound comes from outside the tent… like the rustling of leaves.
I switch the flashlight off and sit up slowly, listening to see if I hear anything else.
It”s probably the wind.
I look at Amanda. She”s sleeping, and I”m not surprised. That girl could sleep through a hurricane and never even stir.
A twig snaps near my side of the tent, and my pulse races.
Okay, it”s not the wind… there”s something out there.
Then comes the unmistakable sound of something walking around to the front where the entrance is.
Is there an animal outside stalking our tent?
What if it”s a wolf?
Or a grizzly!
Should I get help? Maybe I should start screaming. Maybe I?—
”Lara? You asleep?”
”Who”s that?” I whisper, my heart pounding.
The tent”s entrance unzips, and Parker climbs in. I gasp as he crawls toward me.
”Parker,” I hiss and push his chest. ”You can”t be here. You have to go.”
”Shhh. I thought you”d want me to come see you,” he says with a grin. ”Especially after the way you were earlier… Didn”t you want to go off on our own?”
”My sister is here, and Mister Caldwell is patrolling the tents. You have to go.”
”Kiss me.” He leans and presses his lips to mine.
I push him away. ”Now isn”t the time. Please go.”
He shakes his head, leaning backward. ”You wouldn”t say that to Dylan if he was here.”
I lean away from my boyfriend. ”What”s that supposed to mean?”
He leans back in. ”You know what it”s supposed to mean. Anyone who saw you with him today would think you two are together. Not you and me. You were all over each other.”
”That”s insane. Dylan and I are just friends, and that”s all we”ll ever be. I”m with you.” Even as the words come out of my mouth, I”m not telling the truth. ”Y-you should just go. We”ll talk about this tomorrow.”
”No thanks, Lara. We”ll talk about this now.”
I let out a groan. I glance at Amanda, but she still hasn”t moved an inch. I have to figure out how to get Parker out of here without anyone finding out.
”I”m serious. You need to go. Tomorrow, before we leave, we can find a place to talk about—wait—what”s there to talk about? I told you nothing is going on between Dylan and me, and that”s all I”ll say about it.”
Parker glares at me. ”What about that kiss?”
I”m going to explode. ”I didn”t have anything to do with that… Dylan was the one who?—”
”He might”ve started it, but I don”t remember you pushing him away.”
”I would”ve if you hadn”t punched his lights out… Look, we”re not going to do this now. Especially with my sister two feet away. She could wake any minute, and she”s going to be scared half to death if she sees you in here, so please would you just?—”
”What”s going on in there?”
I freeze as a flashlight shines through the top of the tent.
It”s Mr. Caldwell… shit.
”Come on out of there,” he says. ”There”s no hiding, young man. I know you”re in there.”
I close my eyes and wish to be anywhere except right here. I have a lot of respect for Mr. Caldwell, and the last thing I want is for him to think I invited a boy into my tent, especially with Amanda sleeping right next to me.
”Come on out, or I”m comin” in,” he warns.
I mouth the word, go, to Parker, and push him to the tent”s entrance. Reluctantly, he steps out.
”Now, what in tarnation do you think you”re doing?” Mr. Caldwell asks. ”This is the girls” section.”
Parker chuckles nervously. ”I was just talking to my girlfriend, sir.”
”I don”t care if it was your mama and your sister. You know the rules… after dark, boys aren”t allowed in the girls” tents. Now get on down that lane and get back to your own tent. And I”m going to be out here for a while. Don”t even think about trying to get back here. Understand?”
Parker lets out an exasperated sigh. ”Yes, sir.”
I roll my eyes.
I zip the tent shut while Parker marches away, with Mr. Caldwell following behind him. I couldn”t be more embarrassed Parker was caught in my tent. I”m relieved he”s gone. He”s trying to start something with me, and I”m in no mood. And he can forget going off alone and finding somewhere to talk tomorrow.
I lie back and watch the stars through the mesh top of the tent again. I don”t know why Parker thought visiting me was a good idea, but I didn”t want him to… especially when I”d much rather have Dylan visit instead.