8. Eight #2
Then she booped his nose like he really was some sort of puppy and took off. Riley just stared after her. I laughed at his lovelorn face, “Dude, you’ve got it bad.”
He sighed, “I know, but like, can you blame me?” He pointed towards the now closed door she’d just walked through.
I laughed again. Poor kid sounded pathetic, but then again, his bunk wouldn’t be empty tonight while mine most definitely would be.
That thought reminded me of Abbi’s plans for the evening.
If anyone knew what was going on with Xav and Birdie, it would be Abbi.
So if I had to, I’d rely on second-hand pillow talk if it got me the details I was looking for.
As casually as I could, I asked, “So, Abbi’s hanging out with the other senior girls tonight, huh?”
Riley narrowed his eyes at me but gave up trying to guess my motives after only a few seconds, “Yeah, I guess so. I mean, they’re her friends.”
I nodded without looking up from my computer screen–hoping it made my interest seem like nothing more than making conversation–as I asked just one of the questions I was dying to get answered, “Does Abbi ever mention how Toni’s doing?
The question hung in the air as I raced to fill in, “You know, since all that stuff with her family this year?”
“Brenn…I…” His voice was tentative, and I knew then he wasn’t going to give me the details I craved so I cut him off.
“You know what, never mind, man. I shouldn’t have asked.”
Huffing out a breath, Riley ran his hand through his auburn hair, “Look, all I know is what Abbi told me, which isn’t much.”
My head popped up as he explained, “She just said that Toni’s way quieter than last summer, that she doesn’t really tell them shit. Abbs isn’t sure why, and she doesn’t say it, but I can tell she’s worried about her. And that’s really all that I know.”
That was enough, for now. “Thanks, man.” I smiled and he returned it with a tight one of his own.
My curiosity wasn’t exactly satisfied, although Riley had all but confirmed that there was something up with Toni, and if I could figure out what that was, then maybe I’d get a clue as to what the hell Xavier was doing in the woods every fucking night.
Call me chicken shit, but considering neither Birdie, nor Xavi, had spoken a word to me in the last two weeks, I wasn’t about to ask them directly.
But there was one other person I could talk to, the only other person who might be equally curious about what’s going on.
It wasn’t until after dinner that I managed to get my hands on Cole.
Since it was the last day of our staff training, there was no social scheduled for tonight.
Cabin leaders would be headed back to their cabins, giving them a final clean, putting up signs and decorations so that parents felt safe leaving their children in our care for months at a time.
Program staff would do a final sweep through their areas, checking equipment, and making sure all their supplies were in order.
Unlike our junior counterparts, neither Cole nor I had much in the way of stuff to do this evening.
Riley and I had spent the better part of the afternoon, after that strange phone call, tidying the office and getting it set up to receive families tomorrow.
Most parents take care of all the registration details in advance, but there’s always a handful that want to add laundry service or change their kid’s programs at the last minute, so we had spare forms and extra pens laid out and ready to go.
Cole, on the other hand, had nothing to prep for.
He’d be spending tomorrow smiling and waving, greeting people and escorting kids to cabins.
He was probably looking forward to all the dads who would ask him about hockey.
But that lack of any urgent tasks was what made it so easy to snatch him by the t-shirt sleeve as he was exiting the dining hall. That, and the fact that he was alone.
The last few summers–ever since he put me in the middle of his shit, hell maybe even before that–Cole Michaels was almost never alone.
As a kid, he’d been the most sociable of us, the most outgoing, the one who liked people.
I mean, I could be friendly when I had to be, but it was usually because I wanted something.
Cole was Mr. Team Player, always surrounded by a crowd of people, guys like Greer, some guy called Toasty, or some other bunch of idiot guys with ridiculous nicknames.
The same guys he sang with here in that silly wannabe band, at least until this summer.
He shook parents’ hands, he smiled, he played the popular guy, but I harboured no delusions; it was an act.
I knew what Cole’s genuine smile looked like, so the fact he was dragging himself down the steps alone, hands stuffed into his pockets and no sign of his regular shit-eating grin, caught me by surprise.
As his foot hit the gravel off the bottom step, I yanked his sleeve towards me, catching him off guard.
“What the fuck, Grace?”
I kept my hold on him, and turned, forcing him to follow me, “Throw. We need to talk.”
He shook off my hold, but I could still hear his heavy footsteps crunching behind me as we rounded the corner of the dining hall and dipped into the small, familiar gap in the trees that marked the path to Stones Throw.
Once we got there, it was like being in that space unlocked Cole’s ability to speak.
“What am I doing here, Brennon?”
I leaned back against one of the stones and rambled off my explanation, detailing every Xavi sighting I’d had over the last few nights,
“He and Toni are up to something, I know it.”
“I don’t give a shit what our former friends are up to,” he grumbled, “And the only reason you care is because you think they’re fucking. Without you.”
For the first time since I’d ambushed him, his flat expression morphed into a smug grin, if only for a second, before he licked his lips and locked his jaw again.
“No,” I insisted, kicking at the dirt, “It’s because they are up to something.”
“And if they are? So what?” He replied, shaking his head.
His frustration only made more questions tumble out of my mouth.
“What if it’s payback? You know, for last summer?”
Even in my own head, I questioned how frantic I sounded. My pitch rose with every word. Cole still wasn’t getting it and just continued to shake his head at me.
“What if they are setting us up?”
He tilted his head and lifted a brow, “For what? What could they possibly be setting us up for, Brennon?”
“To take the fall for Nick.”
That shut him up and sent him rearing back.
He started to chew his bottom lip, then he started to pace in circles around the stones, but not for long.
He stopped and leaned back against the largest of the rocks, “No. If Toni was going to expose our part in Nick’s death, she would have done it last summer when we exposed her. ” I stalled. His point held water.
“You need to cool it on the weed, man. You’re starting to sound paranoid.”
“Hey!” I jumped in defensively, “I’ve been sober since we got back here weeks ago.”
With a pointed look back at me, he shrugged, “And before that?” I didn’t answer him. I simply glared. Again, he shrugged like my lack of answer didn’t matter to him at all.
“Go get some sleep, Brennon. You look like shit.”
I knew at least that statement was true.
My under eyes were an unhealthy shade of purple after so many sleepless nights.
Beside me, Cole lifted his arm, pausing with his hand over my shoulder like he was about to comfort me and then remembered that it’s been years since that happened, so he just dropped the hand back to his side with a sigh, and walked away.
This time, I let him go without any snarky words or antagonizing.
He was right, I needed some sleep. Maybe he’d made some other good points too.
Still, the feeling that something was going on had burrowed into my brain, so even though I finally slept that night, my dreams were plagued by two beautiful bodies running, always just out of my reach.