6. Jack
SIX
Jack
The past week had been confusing at best. My attempts to get Nat out of my head had only backfired.
I’d ended up fixating on her more. I’d won at poker, but that wasn’t what I kept thinking about.
No, I kept picturing her working with me to install her AC in that too-hot cabin.
The way we’d looked into each other’s eyes for longer than was appropriate. And that hand touch.
Images of her kept flooding my mind. Her too-tight yoga pants.
That relieved sigh when the AC kicked on after our efforts.
At the mess hall, happy and playful as she set up the event.
Then riled up as she stormed off after I took her precious frog, Bernice.
Who names a keychain, anyway? The little thing was worn down and kinda cute in a been-through-the-wringer kind of way.
I’d set it on my coffee table over a stack of mail I hadn’t gotten to yet and looked at it like the trophy it was.
At the office, Autumn was running around with an air of deadlines about her. I tapped her shoulder, and she jumped. “So, how are things going?”
“Normally, amazing. But this week? Exhausting, if I’m being honest. Everything runs smoothly until the owners are gone, and I’m basically doing three jobs. I’m also the counselor supervisor, so if you could do me a favor and not need any supervision, that would be great.”
“They’re back later today, aren’t they?” And not a minute too soon, apparently.
“Yes, thank goodness.” Relief flooded her face as she blew her bangs out of her eyes and melted into her chair. “It’s been a long week, Jack. I mean, I’ve loved stepping up. I’m totally capable. But last night, Jamie asked if I was auditioning for a new role as camp ghost since I’m never home.”
I cracked a grin. My friendship with Autumn was the best thing to come out of my time in Palo Alto.
At the bright, bushy-tailed age of twenty-two, I’d decided to move down to California to work for my dad’s construction company.
He’d moved from Oregon after my parents’ messy divorce when I was in high school.
When a bad breakup had me feeling untethered, I’d figured there was no better time to move to California and reconnect with my dad.
He took me under his wing and taught me the ins and outs of his construction company.
Quickly, I fell in love with the work and learned everything I could.
I’d been in my mid-twenties when I met Autumn. She’d been a barista at the coffee shop I frequented. Come to think of it, she’d had an air of deadlines even back then, slinging orders like she was being chased. Only now, there was more of a love and purpose surrounding everything she did.
When Hazel called me with the job offer to come help her and Leo restore a former resort into their vision of Camp Starlight, I’d known she would need more help, and I’d recommended Autumn.
They video called that night, and two weeks later, Autumn and I were both packing and moving to the Oregon wilderness, thrilled for the opportunity.
I took in the room. Autumn’s space was a whole other level of destruction than usual.
When she hit a fugue state, my best friend buried her desk space and any other available surface in sticky notes.
There was an abundance of the color-coded squares, and I considered swapping the colors around just to mess with her, before thinking better of it.
Instead, I picked up a photo of her and Jamie. They looked amazing, all heart eyes and hugs. “Aw, the couple in love.”
Autumn snatched the photo frame out of my hands. “Don’t knock it ‘til you try it,” she said lovingly as she looked at the picture. It was of them holding each other all cute-like at the dock.
“Been there, done that, bought the T-shirt. Burned the T-shirt, spread the ashes at sea,” I said sardonically.
Autumn let out a little laugh, despite the tense conversation. “You mean the lake?”
I let out an exasperated sigh. “It’s a metaphor.”
She clasped her hands, her eyes filled with sadness. “So you’re never going to… ever?”
It was as if she didn’t know my shitty backstory.
Parents put the kids through a terrible divorce, dad moved to another state, both parents put pressure on me to choose who I’d live with, and they still can’t talk to one another, blah blah blah.
And that was just their relationship. My past was rife with cheating exes.
“Not everything ends up like how it did for you and Jamie.”
She set the picture back down with a sigh. “Listen, just in case it wasn’t clear before, I didn’t know that Nat was coming back. I swear I would have warned you.”
Just then, my phone started vibrating. I took it out to see my ex’s name pop up on the screen, telling me she was thinking about me and wanted to talk. As if she had any right to such a thing.
My hawkeyed bestie had no qualms about being nosy AF and saw the message. I hastily shoved my phone into my pocket, as if hiding it would make the text go away.
“What does Gia want?” Autumn arched a brow defensively, as if she were ready to jump to my aid.
I let out a sigh. “Don’t know, don’t care.”
Autumn must have felt my cold tone because she wisely didn’t press, and my shoulders relaxed, only to be bunched right back up a moment later when she used her too casual tone. “So how are you doing with the Nat of it all? Having her back here?”
I shrugged. “I couldn’t care less. It doesn’t matter to me. Not even a little.”
Autumn’s eyes met mine, as if she could see right through me. This wouldn’t be a problem if I could just ignore Nat, but instead, I was doing the opposite. For some annoying reason, I couldn’t get her being almost kind to me out of my head.
Luckily, Autumn went on, so I didn’t have to elaborate. “Look, I’m team Jack, always, but I’m also assistant director, so I can’t be mean to Nat. And neither can you.” She gave me a look that said I needed to suck it up. “We all have to work together.”
“Like I said, I don’t care. Having her around is no big deal.” And before Autumn could question the validity of that statement, I waved and gave her an excuse about needing to snake the drains, even though that was now Nat’s job.
Leo and Hazel arrived just before flag football, looking jet-lagged.
I figured they’d both take a break from the festivities and get some rest, but Hazel said she was riding a second wind and was excited to be the referee.
Apparently, she wasn’t messing around when she came out wearing a vertical black-and-white striped shirt with a whistle around her neck.
She looked like someone you didn’t want to fuck with.
We started the second Camp Wars competition with all seven counselors, and the new week’s campers who’d chosen to participate were lined up on the beach, ready to learn the rules and watch the first game between Chase’s and Lamar’s teams.
Sawyer had been a quarterback in high school, so they announced the rules as Hazel gave each of us bandanas.
I tied my blue bandana on my bicep, and Nat tied her red one into her hair.
I watched as she moved the long locks out of her face as if this meant showtime.
I wanted to remind her that it wasn’t even her round, but that’d sound petty, and Autumn had just mentioned I should get my shit together.
We’d chosen the beach over the meditation meadow as our field because, as Leo had pointed out, the meditation meadow was all about serenity and didn’t need to be tainted with our aggression. The field would have five team members from each side, with subs on the sidelines.
“The main difference is that this is a no-contact game. No fumbles, it’ll be a dead ball.
No tackling. That’s what the flags are for, people.
No blocking,” Sawyer explained before putting their yellow bandana over their forehead like they were the Karate Kid or something.
The majority of us moved to the seating area to watch the games begin.
Autumn had created a bracket, which she displayed on an easel. The plan was for each team to play a game until they lost, and the winners would move on to play each other.
Things didn’t turn out so well for Sawyer’s team.
They lost in their only round when they went up against Nat’s team, who’d won their first match against Emerson’s team.
Felicia was out after my team bested hers.
Chase and Lamar had faced off, with Lamar coming out on top.
When I won my match against Lamar’s team, it only meant one thing: there would be a Nat and Jack showdown. What a surprise.
I’d just come off from the field after an arduous win and wiped the sweat from my brow.
Nat, meanwhile, looked all too happy, soaking up the sun and laughing with Chase.
Chase had just flashed himself in the face with the sun on her compact mirror, and they both couldn’t stop laughing about it.
She then held the mirror and touched up her eyeblack. And of course, it looked cute on her.
Just what I needed, more reason to think she was cute.
I couldn’t let her get to me like this. Gia had thought Nat was cute, too.
Ugh, I hated how my ex kept popping into my mind after that text.
We were over. It had been months of no contact.
Why was she messing with me now? Maybe it was good to remember, since it reinvigorated my hatred of Nat. I could use that.
Throughout the day, people had come and gone, choosing to sit in to cheer teams on or participate themselves.
Most didn’t choose a side, but Chase, the poor sucker, seemed all too happy to cheer Nat on during both her games.
Was he trying to flirt with her? That man was a kind soul, too sweet for Nat, that was for sure.
But based on her track record, she’d chew him up and spit him out.
I shouldn’t have cared who was into her.
We walked toward Hazel for the coin toss. “Okay, heads is Nat. Tails is Jack,” Hazel said, flipping the coin in the air.