8. 19 Years Ago #2
Matt caught eyes with me, then looked away, embarrassed.
Did she just kiss him? An unfamiliar feeling bubbled up in my belly as "Cotton Eye Joe" suddenly burst out through the speakers and the DJ announced that the dance floor was now open.
My fingers clenched into fists, fingernails pushing into the skin of my palms.
Suddenly, AJ was beside me. “What happened?”
I shook my head. “I’m going to kill her,” I mumbled.
“Who?”
But I was on the move. With laser-focus, I ran past the now-mixed crowd of kids line-dancing on the basketball court, not caring about the staff’s attempt to diffuse the situation with a high-octane distraction.
Lisa sat on a bench on the far edge of the rec field, alongside the third base line where the dirt met the grass.
Callie was gone, undoubtedly having left to get Lisa’s mom, Dottie D’Angelo, the camp cook.
She noticed me approaching and stood up, flashing a proud smile.
“Told you I was gonna—”
Like an out-of-body experience, I watched with awe as my open-palmed hand swiftly flew through the dead air between us, landing on Lisa’s arrogant, round cheek with a firm slap. The sound made me jump out of my skin and come to my senses.
Shocked, Lisa turned her face back to me and lifted a hand to her reddened cheek. “What the hell?” she yelled.
I was frozen, unable to explain. We stood like that for a suspended moment, the music in the background disappearing into the night air. I was unsure of what to expect next, readying myself, eyes fixed on Lisa. “He’s not your boyfriend,” I finally said.
“Oh yeah? Well, he’s not yours either! What are you, his mommy?”
An image of Matt’s mom appeared behind my fluttering eyelids: her warm smile, the chocolate chip coconut cookies she baked for me every time I went to their home to visit, the way her perfume smelled a little like funeral flowers.
Without thinking, I reached over and grabbed a handful of Lisa’s thick, dark hair and pulled as hard as I could.
“Hey!” Lisa squealed, twisting under my grip.
Lisa whipped around, clawing at my arms and torso with her long, painted fingernails.
We fell to the ground, Lisa howling like a cat in heat.
We bent in unnatural ways, me swinging at whatever my hands could find, Lisa kneeing me in the stomach and trying to right herself on the ground only to be pulled back down by the shirt, scraping her elbow.
Suddenly, I heard a voice louder than Lisa’s, more commanding, yelling at us to stop.
Two strong forearms linked under my armpits and untangled my rage-filled body from Lisa’s.
I twisted to try and escape the strength of the grip, but it was too powerful.
I saw that Lisa was being restrained by Hannah—and that one of her stupid eyelashes was hanging from her face.
Finally, I gave up, collapsing into the arms of Callie, who had dragged me away.
“Are you two kidding me?” Callie screamed. “Sit down now! Both of you!” she ordered, gesturing at the bench.
I sat as far away from Lisa as possible.
“Since when do we behave like animals? You’re an embarrassment to our cabin,” Callie hissed.
“She started it!” Lisa pointed at me while her other hand picked at the tarantula of eyelashes hanging in her line of vision.
Callie turned to me. “Is that true?”
“No! She’s the one who kissed Matt!”
Callie looked at Hannah. “Which one’s Matt?” Hannah shrugged.
“You said he was like a brother,” Lisa retorted.
“He is! That doesn’t mean you should attack him with your tongue! He obviously didn’t want you to do that!”
“Then let him say so himself,” she answered vainly, tugging at the other eyelid.
“He would have if you hadn’t made such a spectacle in front of the whole camp!”
“Who’s making a spectacle now?”
I glared in response.
“Listen, girls. I don’t really care what Matt thinks about all this.
We have rules here. You’re both lucky this is your first offense.
I’m going to have to have a conversation with your parents,” Hannah scolded us.
“Lisa, you’re lucky your mom wasn’t in the Lodge.
But I’ll be having a chat with her tonight, that’s for sure. ”
Lisa emitted a low groan.
“Sorry, but those are the breaks. You should be kicked out of camp for this kind of nonsense.” I felt a wave of nausea thinking about how a disciplinary call from Sound Hollow might be received by my parents. “Now, the first thing you’re going to do is apologize to each other.”
“Sorry,” I muttered reluctantly.
“Sorry,” Lisa echoed.
“And Lisa, you also owe an apology to Matt. But you can both expect to be cleaning the girls’ washhouse every morning for the rest of the week.”
“Just the two of us?” Lisa whined.
“Yep,” Callie chimed in. “That’ll teach you how to work together and talk through your problems without beating the crap out of each other.”
“And I’m telling you right now,” Hannah continued, “if this happens again, you’re both gone. Lisa, you think you’re excused from following rules because your mom’s the cook? I don’t care who your mom is. I don’t tolerate fighting in my unit. You got it?”
Lisa nodded solemnly.
“Now come on. Let’s go,” Callie said. We followed her back towards the basketball court, where a group of kids did the new “Apple Bottom Jeans” dance to the song “Low” by Flo Rida. AJ was talking to Matt by the snack table.
“I’ll go get him,” I announced. I ran ahead and grabbed Matt by the hand. “Excuse me, AJ. I need to talk to Matt for a sec.” I pulled him back to where Callie and Lisa stood.
He shuffled on the asphalt and buried his hands deep in his pockets.
“Lisa has something to say to you,” Callie prompted.
“I’m sorry,” she muttered.
“No sweat,” he answered quickly, studying his shoelaces.
“Okay, now go,” Callie said to all of us. “Not another word about this.”
I led Matt away from Lisa as the music did a complete 180.
The slow, intentional drumbeat and synthesizer keyboards of “In Your Eyes” played through the speakers, filling the humid evening with the melodious voice of Peter Gabriel.
It was an old song, dating back to the 1980’s, but had been played at every co-ed for generations.
The song, everyone knew, marked the last dance of the night. Sound Hollow tradition.
“C’mon. Let’s dance,” Matt suggested.
“Okay,” I agreed, feeling an unexpected lump rising in my throat. My adrenaline was pumping through my body and it was hard to calm down enough for a slow dance given all that had just happened. But he asked me, and I didn’t want to squander the chance to show Lisa that Matt was not hers to kiss.
We stood face to face, unsure of where to put our hands.
After a moment that felt like an eternity, Matt placed his fingers on the small of my back, arms outstretched, creating space between us.
He looked kind of like a zombie with his arms out like that.
I rested my hands on his shoulders. We swayed awkwardly.
I looked at Matt, trying to slow my rabbit-thumping heartbeat.
“So, what happened back there?” I began.
“I should ask you the same thing,” he countered.
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t know where to begin. Did you just get into a fight? Is that what I saw?” His lips turned up into a smirk.
I shrugged. “I guess.”
“Over what?”
“She kissed you! I mean, right? Isn’t that what happened?”
“Yeah, it was weird. We were playing that stupid game with the orange and I had to take it from her with my neck, you know? And all of a sudden, she must have dropped the orange out from under her chin and just leaned in and kissed me. It was… pretty gross, to be honest.” He laughed.
Disgusted, I shook my head. “She’s such a...” My voice trailed off. Slut? Hoochie? Skank?
“I thought she was your friend.”
“She was. I don’t know if I’d say that anymore.”
“Why’d you beat her up?”
I grinned, appreciating the fact that Matt assumed I won the fight. “I don’t know. I mean, you’re my friend. She had no business doing that.”
“Yeah, well, while you were over there kicking her ass, guess what happened?”
“What?”
“Corn Chip asked me if you were single.”
“What?!”
“He thinks you’re cute.”
“Corn Chip? Matt, that’s gross!”
“He’s not so bad. He’s funny,” Matt offered.
“Why did he ask you, anyway?”
“I don’t know.” Matt shrugged. “I guess maybe he thought you and me were…”
“You and me?” I parroted.
“I guess.”
“Well, what’d you tell him?”
“You mean after I threw up?” He grinned.
I laughed, shoving him out of my dance space. Matt grabbed me by the wrist and pulled me back to him quickly, and I couldn’t help but notice we were closer now than we’d been before. More comfortable. He looked into my eyes, his face serious.
“I told him we’re friends.”
“Well, good.” I nodded.
“So you’re free to go make corn babies with him,” Matt joked.
I made a gagging noise as the song—and the evening—came to an end.