Sunkissed

by Kasie West

  My heart seemed to jump to my throat. “We should probably…D might…”

  He was quiet for a moment before his eyes went to mine. “You keep surprising me.”

  “Considering your initial impression of me, it hasn’t been that hard.”

  “My initial impression of you? Standing in that theater in a staff T-shirt?”

  “No, I guess I meant starting the next day in the dining hall.” Wait, why had I said that? Why hadn’t I asked what his initial impression of me in that theater was?

  It was too late; the moment was past and he was moving toward the curtain of water and saying, “Ready to finish this circuit?”

  I nodded and followed him out of the cave. It was eerily quiet as we waded through the pool. We were about to go down the second slide when Brooks pointed to our group on a lower bank, out of the water and gathered off to the side.

  “Avery!” My sister’s high-pitched scream filled the air, making my face go numb. I crawled to the shore and took off down the hill faster than I had time to process. My heart raced in panic. I felt Brooks at my heels. Rocks and twigs dug into the bottom of my feet as I went, but I didn’t slow down until I reached the group, which I could now see was surrounding someone on the ground.

  The first thing I noticed was that Lauren was one of the people in the circle, perfectly fine. Relief washed through me. But then I saw that the person on the ground was Ian, his hand on his head, blood dripping out from under it, down his eye and chin and onto his chest.

  “Everyone take a step back,” D was saying, her face pale.

  Brooks jostled past me and kneeled at Ian’s side.

  Maricela pointed up the hill. “I’m going to get the emergency kit.”

  Brooks nodded. “Ian, hey, look at me.”

  Ian groaned. “It’s fine.” He pulled his hand away from his forehead and looked at all the blood. “Did I win?” Blood continued to gush from the open wound.

  “You totally lost, dude,” Kai said in his cheerful way, trying to calm the group.

  Brooks, water dripping off his hair, directed Ian’s hand back to his forehead. “Just keep that there for one more minute.” His voice was perfectly steady, which I was sure helped Ian.

  “This is why there is a no-diving rule,” D said, her panic immediately counteracting Brooks’s presence. “We always say no diving.”

  “D. Maybe you can go grab a towel for Ian,” I said, hoping that would remove her from the scene.

  “Yes, I will. I’ll be right back. Everyone just stay calm,” she said as she sidestepped away.

  “What happened?” Brooks asked.

  “He dove off the last slide and hit a rock,” Lauren said, burrowing into Kai’s side. “Is he going to be okay?”

  Ian pulled his hand away again. “I’ll be fine.”

  “Keep it there,” Brooks said, now using his own hand to hold Ian’s in place. Then he smiled at Lauren with his magic smile. “He’ll be fine.” How was Brooks this calm under so much pressure? His dad, I realized. He took care of his dad.

  Maricela appeared with a black backpack. She opened it and several things fell out. I dropped down and collected the fallen items. One was a big square gauze pad.

  I ripped it open and went to Brooks’s side. “Here, use this. Is there a roll of gauze in there, Maricela?”

  “Yes,” she said.

  Brooks took the gauze pad from me and pushed it against Ian’s forehead. “We just need to keep the pressure for a minute.”

  Ian lowered his bloody hand to his thigh.

  “Janelle is going to kill us,” someone said.

  Brooks shot the guy a dirty look.

  “Ian,” I said. “Do you know what day it is?”

  He rolled his eyes. “What?”

  “Aren’t you supposed to answer questions like that when you hit your head?”

  “Do you know what day it is?” he asked.

  “Friday…right?” I actually wasn’t positive about that. It felt like we’d been at camp forever but I was pretty sure it had only been two weeks. “Fine, bad question. How old are you? Where do you live?”

  “Now you’re just trying to get personal info out of him,” Kai said.

  The group laughed. Even though Brooks had been playing calm this whole time, I could see the tension in his jaw. I found myself wanting to put my hand on his shoulder, tell him it was going to be okay. I folded my arms across my chest to resist.

  Maricela had found the roll of gauze and helped Brooks wrap Ian’s head.

  Ian’s eyes began to droop.

  “Ian,” I said. “Stay awake, okay?”

  “Of course I’m going to stay awake,” he said. “I don’t sleep on rock beds.”

  That produced another worried look from Brooks. “Let’s get you back to camp.” He stood and slowly helped Ian to his feet, draping his arm around his shoulder. Kai went to Ian’s other side, doing the same. Maricela repacked the first aid bag.

  “You know what would be helpful in a situation like this?” Lauren asked.

  Kai looked at her and smiled. “Cell phones?”

  “Exactly!”

  My skin felt hot. I knew without even having to look, as I lay there in bed, eyes closed, that I’d gotten sunburned the day before. It was a long hike, after all, made longer by how slow we’d walked back with Ian. But we’d made it and Ian went straight to the nurse. And that’s the last I’d heard. The band hadn’t played at dinner and my sister and I had exchanged worried glances all night.

  My hand went to my collarbone. I wondered if we had any aloe.

  The door opened and so did my eyes. Lauren swept into the room, shut the door behind her, and sat on her bed, cross-legged, facing me. “So, Ian’s still in sick bay being observed,” she said without preamble.

  “I figured,” I croaked in my morning voice. “But he’s okay?”

  “I haven’t seen him.”

  “Then how do you know he’s still there?”

  “I saw Kai.”

  “Where?” I sat up, flinging the blanket off my legs.

  “You’re sunburned,” she said.

  “I know.”

  “I’m going to visit him,” she said.

  “Who?”

  “Ian. Who else? Are you awake?”

  “Don’t let Janelle catch you,” I said.

  “Or D, I know,” she said.

  I narrowed my eyes at her. That sounded like someone who’d had experience avoiding those two.

  Seeming to read my mind, she said, “I’m doing the documentary. I’ve been around the band more than you.”

  Maybe I was overreacting about Kai. Maybe, like I had told Brooks, her enthusiasm about getting to know the guys really was about her documentary.

  “And D caught you?” I asked.

  “They were on the clock and practicing, so there wasn’t much she could say.”

  I nodded. So D had caught both me and my sister hanging out with band members. I had a feeling that was going to come back and bite us.

  “Do you want to visit Ian too?” she asked.

  I hesitated, not wanting to make things worse. But I knew Lauren was going to go with or without me, and maybe it would be better if she wasn’t caught there by herself. “Yes.”

  “Then get ready and let’s go.”

  * * *

  We knocked on the door with the red cross on it. An older woman answered. “Can I help you?”

  “Is Ian still in here?” I asked, hoping this woman didn’t know who all the staff members were and would assume we were two of them.

  “That boy gets more visitors than the Pope.” She opened the door wide, resigned. We stepped inside, walked down a short hall and to the only room in the small building. A half-closed curtain left only a foot visible at the end of
the bed.

  “Hello,” Lauren called out.

  “Hello? Come in,” Ian responded.

  We stepped inside and around the curtain.

  “Hey. How are you feeling?” I asked.

  Ian now had a more professionally bandaged head, but his eyes looked sleepy and his face was a bit gray. “I’m okay. You guys didn’t need to come.”

  Lauren shook her head. “We were worried. And we brought you some get-well chocolate.” She pulled a candy bar out of her back pocket. She must’ve gone to the camp’s general store or the snack hut sometime that morning.

  “Thank you.” He seemed genuinely touched by the gesture. He took the candy and put it on the table next to his bed. Then he cringed like it hurt to move.

  “You okay?” I asked.

  “Headache.”

  “That’s what happens when you go hitting rocks with your head,” I said.

  “I know. Not smart.” He settled back into his pillow, then pointed to a folding chair that was leaning against the wall. “I guess only one of you can have a seat.”

  “We don’t want to bother you,” I said. “You probably want to sleep.”

  “No, I don’t want to sleep. I’ve been sleeping so much.”

  The door creaked open and the nurse grunted. “Grand Central station.”

  “She can’t wait for me to leave,” Ian whispered.

  Brooks came into view. He took in the room: the curtain that hung from the ceiling, the glass jars of Q-tips and cotton balls, the blood pressure machine quiet in the corner. Then his gaze shifted to me and Lauren, like he was surprised to see us.

  “Are you here to break me out?” Ian asked.

  “How are you feeling?”

  “Good enough to leave sick bay.”

  “Nora won’t let you out until Dr. Casablanca clears you.”

  “That sucks.”

  For the first time since I’d met him, Brooks looked uncomfortable. Like he didn’t know how to stand or where to put his hands. He ended up leaning carefully against a counter, knocking over several boxes of gloves and then quickly righting them. “She’s coming from town, so it will be a while. Plus, Nora’s trying to get ahold of your parents.”

  He sighed. “Great. My mom will demand I spend the rest of the summer in a layer of Bubble Wrap.” Apparently that wasn’t a joke because when I laughed, he turned his attention to me. “Your parents aren’t overprotective?”

  “Not too bad.”

  “Are you sure about that?” Brooks spoke up. “They brought you here of all places. Far away from home, no way to communicate with anyone.” His eyes were smiling, so it caught me off guard when he added, “Who were they trying to get you away from? Crappy friends? Bad boyfriend?”

  I flinched a little without meaning to.

  “Are you kidding?” Lauren said. “This is supposed to be a reward for her. Avery’s last big trip before she abandons us for life, apparently. They’re already mourning her inevitable departure. She’s always been their favorite.”

  “Not true,” I said, a clear replay of how Dad had bragged about Lauren repeating in my mind. But was Brooks right? Was the “epic adventure” narrative my parents had been feeding me just a cover for the real reason we were here? This trip had been planned months ago. Had they not liked Trent? Shay?

  “Totally true,” Lauren said. “I mean, look at her puppy dog eyes. She gets everything she wants.”

  “Yes,” I said, straight-faced, knowing the longer I resisted, the longer Lauren would insist. And I was ready to be done talking about this. “That’s why I have a barn full of ponies and a convertible Porsche back home.”

  “What would you ask for?” Ian said thoughtfully. “If you could have anything in the world?” I knew he wasn’t posing the question to me specifically, but to the room.

  “Fame,” Lauren said without hesitation.

  “Money. Lots of money,” Brooks said. That would definitely solve a lot of his worries.

  Ian hummed as if thinking, then said, “I guess I’d want to hear myself on the radio once. Or be recognized in some way for my voice.”

  “Like winning a music festival?” Lauren asked.

  “That would be nice,” Ian said.

  Now it was my turn. Everyone was waiting for me to say something. But wasn’t that the whole issue I was having this summer? That I had no clue what I really wanted? That I had zero passion for life? “I already said mine: ponies and Porsches.”

  Before anyone called me out, the big voice of Kai was at the door. “Hey, nobody told me there was a party happening.”

  Lauren laughed louder than the statement justified. Then the nurse was in the room, saying, “This is too many people. All of you out. He needs to rest.”

  Brooks freed the walkie-talkie from his waistband and set it on the table next to the chocolate Lauren had brought. “Let me know if you need anything, Ian.”

  “Okay.”

  “I hope you get out soon,” I said.

  “Me too.”

  “Bye!” Lauren called. “See you at band practice once you get cleared.”

  He nodded.

  Kai smacked his leg and smiled. “Stop faking it. We have a song to finish.”

  As we left the building, Kai and Lauren fell into step side by side, Brooks and I walking behind them.

  “You’re sunkissed,” Brooks said, his eyes traveling my face.

  “What?” Hearing Brooks say the word kiss in any form made my stomach flutter.

  “My mom always tells me that’s the nice way to say sunburned.” He held his suntanned arm next to my pink one.

  “Oh yes, me and the sun totally made out.” I poked at his arm, making a white fingerprint appear. “You get that tan from here?”

  “Hours outside every day.”

  “You should wear more sunblock.”

  “Another thing my mom tells me.”

  “I think I’d like your mom,” I said.

  “Yeah…” His expression went dark with some unexpressed thought. “Yeah…”

  When he didn’t go on, I nodded over my shoulder. “Have you spent a lot of time in hospitals with your dad’s illness?”

  “Why do you ask?”

  “You seemed…jumpy in there.”

  “Huh,” he said. “Didn’t think I was that transparent.”

  “You’re not. Normally you’re a little harder to read,” I said back without thinking.

  He smirked over at me. “Are you trying to read me?”

  A group of kids ran by with water guns, laughing and squirting each other. I wiped at my arm after an errant splash of water hit me. “Yes. Yes, I am,” I said in my sarcastic voice, but I really did feel like I was constantly trying to read him and coming up short.

  Brooks’s gaze was ahead of us now, aimed at Kai and Lauren.

  “Did you get a chance to talk to him?” I asked.

  “I did. You have nothing to worry about.”

  I watched Lauren for a bit. She and Kai weren’t walking super close or anything, and from the snippets of conversation I could hear, it sounded like she was asking Kai about his history with music. I ran my thumb over my opposite palm a few times. “So did the band like the lyrics we came up with?”

  “Yes, it was a miracle.”

  That made me happy. “Just one more verse, then?”

  “Yes.”

  “So we should…” Jeez, Avery, you aren’t asking him on a date. You’re helping him. Just spit it out. “Get together again soon.”

  “For sure,” he said without a second’s thought. His eyes were on Kai and Lauren again. “Kai! Break’s over! Let’s go!”

  “Yes, Mom!” Kai called over his shoulder.

  To me Brooks said, “Soon,” and then he was gone.

  “Do you th
ink he’ll feel well enough to practice?” Lauren asked as we headed for the theater the next night. Maricela had told me Ian was out of sick bay, so we were hopeful band practice was back on.

  D was busy checking in a family at the desk, so we easily passed through the lobby unnoticed. When we walked through the theater doors, the first thing I saw was Ian standing by the microphone. Kai was sitting at the drums, and both Levi and Brooks were strapped into their guitars. But nobody was playing.

  “You’re here!” Lauren called out, and ran ahead.

  Ian turned his smile to her.

  By the time I joined my sister, Ian was squatting down and digging through his backpack. He pulled out some papers, then moved to stand and wobbled on his feet. Lauren reached out to steady him, but he waved it off with a laugh and handed Brooks the papers. “Those are the lyrics you gave me.” He cringed and pinched the bridge of his nose, in obvious pain.

  “You should sit,” I said.

  “He’s leaving,” Brooks said, rolling the pages and tucking them into his back pocket.

  At first I thought he just meant that he was leaving practice, but when Ian’s eyes shot to the floor, worry edged its way into my mind.

  “What did the doctor say?” Lauren asked.

  “Long story,” Ian said, “but my parents are here and the doctor said I have a concussion and Janelle won’t let me stay. Something about liability.”

  “Wait…you’re leaving, leaving?” Lauren asked, her eyes becoming big and even more concerned.

  “I know, it’s stupid.”

  “Concussions are pretty serious,” I said. “You should listen to the doctor. Take it easy.”

  Suddenly all eyes onstage were on me. Lauren’s held a look of betrayal.

  “But what about the music festival?” she said. “My documentary?”

  “I know,” he said. “That would’ve been really cool.”

  Lauren looked pleadingly at Ian. “What if you just stayed around Roseville? Then you wouldn’t have to work but you could try out with the band. You’ll probably feel better in a few days anyway.”

  I knew that it could take weeks to fully heal from a concussion.