Summer by the Lake

by Kay Gordon

  “Don’t even ask. He’s crazy.”

  My eye caught Christy’s as we made it towards the cabins and I knew she’d witnessed my interaction with Drew because she just glared. I looked at her for a moment, keeping my face passive as I did, and only tore my gaze from hers when Thalia appeared with the mail and asked if we could skip our evening activity at the batting cages.

  Much to her disappointment, we spent the last hour of the evening at the cages and headed back to shower. I sat down with the girls and did some hair while they told me what we’d missed for the day. Hannah joined us after her shower and we both fielded questions about what we had done with our time off.

  “Are you having sex with him?” September asked Hannah, whose face went red immediately. I smiled and looked at September.

  “That’s not really an appropriate question, missy.”

  She huffed and picked up Cate’s teddy bear from the bed she was sitting on. “Well, are you calling yourself his girlfriend?” She glanced at me and shrugged her shoulders. “Is that more appropriate?”

  I nodded and finished the twist I was doing in Maria’s long hair. “Much better.”

  “I honestly don’t know, September,” Hannah admitted quietly. “It’s complicated because there’s a thousand miles between him and me after the summer’s over.”

  Lizzy spoke from where she was writing a letter on her bed. “My boyfriend moved right after Christmas last year. We’re still together, just long distance.”

  “That works for some people,” I responded with a nod. “It’s not for everyone, though.”

  Hannah put the top on the nail polish she had been using to paint Emma’s nails. “Okay. Enough about that. Let’s talk about the next prank. We need two volunteers to stay up late tomorrow night to sneak into the boy’s cabin when they’re sleeping.”

  The girls chattered excitedly but most of them were too nervous to volunteer. It was decided that Emma and Nicole would go over with me to deploy two more pranks after the boys were asleep. I had wanted to do it that night but Hannah pointed out that Drew was expecting something since I’d gone to the store.

  I ran after the girls were in bed and Hannah was asleep when I made it back. I showered for the second time that day and fell into my bed. Despite the nap we’d taken earlier, I was exhausted. I didn’t know if it was the physical activity or the emotional activity that had drained me the most. If I had to guess, I probably would have said both. I was glad that we only had one day off every two weeks because I wasn’t sure I could handle being alone with Drew in bigger doses. Whatever we were doing almost felt like too much.

  My brain eventually let me fall asleep and I slept soundly until the wake-up tone chimed over the intercom at seven. I had to drag myself out of bed before doing the same to the girls so we could go eat breakfast.

  The scheduled activities we had weren’t bad and the morning flew by. Hannah and I had lifeguard duty after lunch while our girls were out horseback riding, and I walked along the deck with my roommate.

  “Are you going to the dance next week?” she asked from beside me as I scanned the water. I nodded and glanced over at her.

  “Are you?”

  She grinned and put her whistle to her mouth before blowing it once. She gestured for one of the kids to get off the buoy and looked at me.

  “Jordan asked me if I wanted to go.” She paused and her grin fell. “He told me he loved me.”

  I raised my eyebrows in surprise. “Wow. Do you love him?”

  “Can you love someone after only five weeks? Like, truly love them?” Hannah’s question was quiet and I didn’t know how to answer her. She turned and offered me a weak smile. “I do love him and that scares the crap out of me.”

  I nodded, understanding exactly why she was scared. It was quick, it was passionate, and the unknown after summer was scary.

  We split up to patrol the shore and she was silent for the rest of the time we were out there. When our two hour shift at the lake was over, we walked back to the cabin quietly. Campers were everywhere as they changed activities and we waved to a few people who passed.

  Cameron and Keaton were walking towards the lake and Cam wrapped both Hannah and me in a hug as we passed.

  “Are you playing counselor now, Keaton?” I asked with a smile as I gestured towards the shirt he was wearing. He shrugged and flashed me a grin.

  “Mom roped me into it since I was here. I’ve apparently become a floater.”

  With a smirk on his face, Cameron reached out and grazed my neck where a purple mark was standing out clearly. I was wearing my bathing suit and a pair of shorts, so the other along my neckline was obvious, too.

  “Have a good day off, Shay?”

  I blushed slightly and crossed my arms over my chest. “Shut up.”

  “That’s nothing compared to two weeks ago,” Hannah commented with a laugh. “Drew is using her chest like a paint-by-numbers.

  As I was shoving Hannah’s shoulder, Keaton frowned and shook his head. “You’re seriously sleeping with Drew?”

  “I don’t think that’s any of your business,” I murmured, feeling my blush intensify. Keaton raised his brows but Hannah didn’t give him a chance to reply.

  With her hand gripping mine, she tugged me towards the cabin. “We have to change and get to arts and crafts. Bye, guys.”

  I offered a flimsy wave to them both as Hannah and I jogged towards our cabin. We both pulled off our bathing suits as soon as we were in the room and I shook my head as I put on my bra.

  “What do you think Keaton meant?”

  Hannah was pulling on her t-shirt and she rolled her eyes. “It was just jealousy, Shay.”

  “I don’t know… it’s not the first time he’s said something like that. It didn’t feel like jealousy.” I stuffed my feet into my sneakers and waited for Hannah to do the same. She just shook her head and stood from the bed.

  “I think we’re seeing two different things.” She gestured to the door. “Let’s go.”

  We barely made it to arts and crafts on time and spent the rest of the period helping the third and fourth graders make their own dreamcatchers. When we were done, it was dinnertime and we listened as the girls told us that they’d lost their baseball game against the boys.

  “That drops us down to a one point lead in Cabin Wars,” Thalia informed us sadly. I shook my head and winked at her.

  “We’ll get back up there.”

  The girls just grumbled as they ate their pasta and I shared a smile with Hannah. Our campers were taking Cabin Wars far more seriously than I had anticipated. I leaned over and nudged Hannah.

  “We need to call a truce for week five or else they won’t have anyone to go to the dance with.”

  “I agree,” she whispered back. “But let’s not talk about the truce until after tonight.”

  I nodded and continued eating my dinner. I stood up to get rid of my plate when I was done and caught Drew’s eye as I turned around. He grinned from where he still had food on his plate in front of him and I returned it with my own. After a few beats of us grinning at each other like idiots, I turned and walked back to my table.

  Our evening activity was spent in the rec room as we played foosball, air hockey, and ping pong with the eighth and tenth grade female cabins. Thirty energetic teens in the room for an hour had me ready to murder someone by the time we went back to the cabin later.

  Everyone showered and I went over the plan with them after they were done. Emma and Nicole both looked a mixture of nervous and excited for our escapades and I promised to wake them up at one so we could go. I turned off the lights and we told the girls goodnight before heading into our room. Hannah immediately grabbed her journal and I changed my clothes and headed out the door.

  I’d just made it down to the lake when Drew called my name. I turned around and spotted him walking towards me in just his shorts and sneakers. I put my hands on my hips and waited for him to ge
t closer before shaking my head.

  “What are you doing?”

  “I haven’t seen you all day,” he explained simply before wrapping his arms around me. “I’ll suffer the punishment of running if it means I get to spend some time with you.”

  “Good answer,” I whispered before capturing his lips with my own and gripping his shoulders. He kissed me like it’d been more than a day since we’d seen each other and I had to step away to separate us before I invited him back to my cabin.

  I continued walking backwards and offered him a smile. “Let’s go, hot shot.”

  He chuckled and broke into a jog as I turned around to do the same. We ran next to each other in companionable silence for over a mile. When we hit the east side of the lake, the point furthest from campus and the same beach where I’d found him sitting alone all those weeks ago, Drew’s arm snaked around my waist and he stopped my movements by tugging me to his chest.

  “I want to show you something.”

  “You’re just trying to get out of running,” I teased as I followed him down the slope to the edge of the lake, past the beach he’d been sitting on. He didn’t stop until we were on an old, unused dock that you couldn’t see from the trail and he gently pulled me down so we were sitting on the edge. From that vantage point, you could see the moon reflecting off of the entire lake and the lights from the camp looked far away. It was beautiful.

  I leaned into Drew and his arm came around my shoulder automatically. We stayed like that, neither of us saying anything, for about ten minutes. When I lifted my head and turned to look at him, his eyes were on me. Our lips reconnected without saying anything and Drew’s hand came up to rest on my neck. I ran my hands up his chest and moaned when he nipped at my bottom lip.

  “I need you, Drew,” I breathed as I ran my hands down to his waist. He stopped my actions and pulled back to look at me.

  “I don’t have anything on me, Shay. And if a security guard walks by…” He trailed off and shook his head. “It kills me to say this but not here, sweetheart.”

  I groaned and pressed another kiss to his lips before moving to my feet. I wasn’t this person, the one who had sex in public places. There was something about Drew that made me lose my mind.

  “You’re right. I’m glad one of us was thinking rationally.” When I held my hand out to help him up, he shook his head.

  “I’m going to need a minute before I can run again.”

  I couldn’t help the smirk that flit to my lips but I didn’t say anything. After a few quiet moments, Drew stood and pressed a kiss to the corner of my mouth.

  “Doing math in my head worked. Let’s go.”

  We picked up the pace again and I made him jog a bit faster than I normally would in hopes it would help him sleep a bit harder for the night. I was excited to deploy our pranks and nervous of being caught. Jordan and Drew would never let me live it down if the latter happened.

  I glanced over at Drew in the dark and ran my eyes along his chest. Even though I had him all to myself the other night, I never got tired of looking at him. With my gaze averted, however, I tripped over a tree root on the edge of the path and fell to the ground. I managed to land on one knee with my hands extended in front of me, sucking in a breath when the pain hit.

  “Shit. Are you okay?” Drew was immediately crouched next to me with a look of concern on his face. I pushed myself to my feet with a nod and laughed softly.

  “I’m okay. I was distracted.” I brushed off my hands and knee before looking at him. “Maybe you should wear a shirt.”

  He chuckled while inspecting my skinned knee. “I’ll wear a shirt if you cover up from head to toe. You think seeing you in these shorts and this tight tank top isn’t distracting?” He blew his warm breath on my knee. “You need to clean this and bandage it up.”

  “I will when I get back to the cabin.” I tugged on his hand. “Come on.”

  We jogged the rest of the way in silence and I kept my eyes straight ahead. When we made it back to my cabin, Drew quickly pinned me to the side of the building and kissed me hard. We broke apart after a moment and he smiled.

  “Goodnight, Shay.”

  I watched him walk away with my own grin. “Night, Drew.”

  Hannah was asleep with her journal next to her face. I slowly picked it up and placed it in the drawer next to her bed before doing the same with the pen. I turned off the light and grabbed my pajamas so I could shower.

  After my knee was cleaned and bandaged, I sat in bed crocheting for a couple of hours. I shook Nicole and Emma awake a little before one. They both sat up quickly and were wide awake a lot faster than they normally were in the mornings.

  With the duffel bag of supplies in hand, we walked across the dim campus and made sure to stay in the shadows. I put my ear to the cracked window of the counselor’s room when we got to Cabin Seven. Both guys were snoring lightly so I went to the front door and opened it slowly.

  The girls followed me inside the dark space and we immediately went into the bathroom. I handed them some gloves and we got to work on wrapping the toilets up with plastic wrap. I used the flashlight to ensure that the seams were perfect and then we moved onto their toothbrushes. I let the girls finish adding the food coloring to each one and I snuck into the counselor room.

  My steps were slow and as light as possible. Jordan and Drew were both still asleep when I slid into their bathroom. I did the plastic wrap to the toilet before adding blue food coloring to the very back of the bristles on one brush and green on the other.

  I chuckled quietly to myself. Since Drew and Jordan had a mirror in their bathroom, it was unlikely that we’d get them both with the toothbrush trick, but the main bathroom for campers didn’t have a mirror over their sink. The mirror was only as you were leaving the bathroom so I was hopeful most of the boys would brush their teeth before they noticed what we’d done.

  The girls were still in the bathroom waiting for me when I was finished. We snuck out together and ran back to our cabin as fast as possible. When we made it in the front door, all three of us started giggling uncontrollably. A few girls woke up and looked at us expectantly through bleary eyes.

  “Mission accomplished. Now we wait.” I grinned at them all. “Go back to sleep.”

  I climbed into bed and fell asleep almost an hour later when the adrenaline finally left my body. I just wished I could have seen their reactions the next morning.

  Chapter Eighteen

  I was up like a pop tart when the bell chimed the next morning and Hannah and I went out to find the girls up and giddy, too.

  We all dressed quickly and headed towards the dining hall. Hannah shook her head when she realized we were the first cabin to make it to breakfast.

  “The anticipation is killing me.”

  We ate our food and kept an eye on the door as other cabins started to filter in. I coughed softly when Cabin Seven finally appeared and the girls immediately pretended to be in conversation or went back to their food. I stared at Emma, who was across from me, and pretended like I was paying attention to what she was saying. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Drew and Jordan approach us with their campers behind them.

  “Hi, Cabin Seven,” I said slowly with a small smirk on my lips. “Have you all had a good morning so far?”

  Everyone at my table twisted around so they were looking at the boys. Drew turned to glance at his campers before looking back at me and they all smiled at the same time. Almost all of them had colored teeth, including Jordan and Drew, and the girls dissolved into loud laughter. Drew and Jordan both grinned and Jordan gestured towards the food.

  “Go eat, guys. We’ll be right there.”

  Hannah grinned from her seat. “I have to know… Who got up to use the bathroom first?”

  “That would be me,” Drew replied, his teeth green as he looked at me. “Nothing like wet socks in the morning.”

  I blinked at him several times and my shoulders sho
ok as I tried to contain my laughter.

  “Lucky for you that we’re nice and did it right before laundry was due. And when you had to scrub the toilets and floors for inspection anyway.”

  “My boys are hungry for revenge, Butler,” he spoke in a low voice as he leaned in closer to me. “You girls better watch your pretty, little backs.” He held my fingers in his hand with a gentle grip. “Want to give me a kiss?”

  I shook my head and pulled away as my laughter finally escaped. “I’d say after you brush your teeth but…”

  My whole table laughed again and both guys joined in before going to get some breakfast. We all went back to our own food and congratulated one another for the great reaction. I got up to grab another cup of coffee and Drew was immediately at my side.

  “Was it you in the cabin last night? I can’t imagine your counterpart being quiet enough to pull it off.”

  I turned my head once my coffee mug was full. “Of course it was me. I was kind of expecting you and Jordan to be cuddling, honestly.”

  Drew narrowed his eyes playfully and danced his fingers along my side, causing me to squirm away from him. “That was pretty epic. I even rinsed my brush when Jordan’s teeth turned blue and mine are still green. I need to figure out a way to one-up you girls.”

  “Speaking of which,” I said as I directed him to the corner so we weren’t in the way of the beverage station. “Any chance we can call a truce starting Monday? Have a moratorium on Cabin Wars for week five?”

  “You girls need a break?” he asked with a grin and I rolled my eyes playfully.

  “Says the man with wet socks. I want them to have fun at the dance and my girls won’t go with any of your boys while we’re locked in competition. They’re in this to win.”

  He nodded and reached up to brush some hair off of my cheek. “Good point. Truce starting Monday morning. That means the next thirty-six hours are fair game, Butler. You might want to watch your back.”

  “That might have been so much more intimidating if your teeth weren’t green, handsome.” I grinned and placed a kiss on the corner of his mouth before walking away.