He sat down next to her and said, “Can I see it?” Not that he could diagnose it, unless there was a jagged piece of bone poking through the skin.
She presented him with an impossibly long leg. For the barest fraction of a second his mind went blank, sort of. He took a deep breath and shut his eyes for a second to reset his brain. Focusing on her ankle, and only her ankle, he gingerly pressed his fingers around the spot she indicated. “Does this hurt?”
“Yes,” she cried. While he was trying to figure out what to do, she grabbed her phone, jumped to her feet, and ran as fast as she could. “Gotcha!” she called.
He laughed with relief. “Cheater!” he yelled after her.
When he caught up, she side-eyed him and asked, “Are you done? No more phone snatching or funny business?”
“No. There will definitely be more funny business.” That was a promise. “Wanna run around the lake?”
“I don’t think I can run too much farther. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m really out of shape. I’ve had a breathing problem recently.” She held up the inhaler for him to see. “I had pneumonia and my lungs still haven’t recovered.”
“I was wondering why you were going so slow.” Based on her grandma-style running, he’d started wondering if her dad had bribed all of the other athletes to throw the race at State. “You’re still doing really good. I mean, you’re keeping pace, even with pneumonia. That’s impressive.”
“I can’t believe I can keep up with you at all…in my current state. I know everyone thinks I’m like superwoman, but I’m not.”
Actually, he’d thought she was more like a super villain, Poison Ivy or Cat Woman, but he kept his mouth shut. Things were going too well to muck up. Some hair fell into her eyes, and she stopped to clip it back into place again. Everything about her was so different from the girl he remembered from the school year, so much more normal and likable.
At the top of the mountain, they took a break from running. The sun was just hot enough to make him feel warm and lazy. A gentle breeze wafted over them and blew Blake’s hair in her face again.
“God, I could kill the girl who talked me into these bangs.” She looked through her hair for the clip holding them out of her eyes.
He reached out a hand and brushed it back behind her ear, letting his fingers linger on her damp skin.
Looking embarrassed she apologized, “Sorry. I’m so sweaty.”
“So am I.” He’d like to get sweatier yet. But Blake started stretching. All cocky, he said, “Cool, first we’ll stretch and then I’ll aim for second base.”
Her eyes went wide. “Ben Iron Cloud!”
With a devilish smile, he said, “Just being honest.”
She blushed. Like the track team always did, he started the hip abductor stretch where you place one leg over the other, jam your elbow into your knee, and look over your shoulder. Blake gave him a funny look, like she was trying to figure out a Rubix Cube, and did something not even close to a hip abductor stretch. “Psst. You’re facing the wrong way.”
“What?”
When he did the hamstring stretch, she contorted her body into a random pretzel shape that didn’t involve any type of muscle stretching that he could identify. How could a chick who’d been in sports for years not understand a stretch? “Did you get amnesia and asthma at the same time? That is not even close to a stretch.”
She laughed and explained, “Ben, everyone’s body is different. My legs just stretch differently than yours.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Yes, but we’re both human. I’m gonna show you what a stretch should feel like.” With a glint in his eye, he knee-walked the two feet over to her. “Lay back.”
Her eyes went saucer big. “What are you going to do?”
He smiled like Casanova. “I’m gonna help you stretch.” He’d had plenty of coaches and trainers help him stretch his muscles. He imagined it would be a lot more fun stretching with Blake than Coach Peterson.
She looked like he’d just picked the restaurant without consulting her and she couldn’t decide whether to smile or take a stand in the parking lot of Bojangles’. Before she could protest, he walked her right through the doors of his favorite fast food joint and announced that he was going to order some fries with that shake. Actually, he said, “I’m going to touch your leg. I’m going to need to manhandle it a little.”
“Okay.”
He gripped along her ankle and her knee and helped her extend her leg, letting his fingers trace along her smooth skin just a hair longer than necessary. “I’m going to press your leg back, to help you stretch your hamstring.” He gripped her leg and pushed it back toward her body until her muscle was taut. He made her hold the position and then he pushed it even farther as he leaned closer and closer to her body.
“How does that feel?” His voice sounded hoarse, even to his own ears.
She breathed shakily. “Good.” Her eyes looked darker green than he remembered.
Because she hadn’t complained about the order yet, he said, “Let’s do your glutes now.” He took the same leg and pressed it across her body, pushing down on her knee and her ass cheek. That part might not have been strictly necessary.
“Ben,” she said.
“Yes?”
“Um.”
“Are you ready for the other leg?”
He released her left leg, letting his hands slide down her skin as he dropped it to the ground. “We’re gonna do the same stretch with your right leg now.” As he leaned in to the stretch with her, he noticed the beads of sweat on her upper chest.
She noticed and said, “Sorry, I’m all sweaty.”
Oh, to be a bead of sweat on Blake’s chest. “You still smell like flowers to me.” She did. He didn’t understand how girls always smelled like shampoo.
“Gardenias. The smell gets stronger when I’m all sweaty.”
She lay back and shut her eyes, letting the sun kiss her face. The Blue Ridge Mountains were filled with late summer flowers and grassy meadows. He lay on the grass next to her and reached out for her hand. When his fingers touched hers, she turned toward him and flashed the most beautiful smile he’d ever seen, not just because she was beautiful. It was like she wasn’t even the same person he’d known during the school year. He couldn’t believe the girl who’d had him hauled off campus in handcuffs was sharing this moment with him. It was awesome, but it also gave him a little bit of whiplash. He had to be missing something.
Ben wasn’t one of those guys who ditched his friends when a girl came along. He hated when guys did that. That night, he and George sat on the dock for some fishing. Well, Ben fished while George watched. Except for his own skin, George was all fake leather and animal-friendly dyes. He wouldn’t even catch and release because of statistics regarding fish mortality after release. His die-hard veganism had some limits, though.
“Explain your diet to me again,” said Ben.
“Well, I’m vegan except…” He held up a finger for each item he listed. “Grilled cheese, pizza, and Taco Bell.”
Ben snorted. The sun was going down and a hatch of mayflies was darting across the top of the lake. The fish were biting everything but his bait. He didn’t care, though. He just liked sitting on the dock and casting a line.
George swatted a fly and then shuddered at the carcass on his arm. The dude looked generally uncomfortable outdoors. Ben had been under the impression that vegans were into hiking and loving nature, but there sat George, propped uncomfortably on the grass in his black jeans and squinting into the sunset.
“You probably already noticed, but Blake and I are, uh, getting along now.” That was an understatement.
“What happened?”
“I don’t know. She’s just so different from the school year. I think I’m going to ask her out. I don’t know how that works at camp. It’s not like we can go out, but still… Maybe I’ll ask her if she wants to go to the dance after the games together.” He stared at the surface of the lake. It
was a perfectly still night. A fish surfaced for a fly and expanding concentric circles blossomed from the spot. “It’s not just because she’s hot even—I really like her. I don’t understand what all the pranking was about.” She forgave Nelly for the hair dye stunt, and she had been nice to everyone at camp, except him. Her behavior last year confused the shit out of him when he compared it to the girl he was getting to know at camp. Maybe if she needed an outlet for whatever excess emotions led to her criminal behavior, she could channel it into making out.
“Have you told her yet?”
“No. We’ve only been hanging out for a few days and we haven’t gotten around to talking much. Also, I wasn’t sure about her status with her ex.” Like he was announcing the enemy, Ben said, “Luke Culpepper. He’s the Bellevue quarterback. I’m racing him tomorrow at the games.” And he was going to be at the dance, which is why he had to lock Blake down.
George shook his head. “The way you say that…it’s like you think the winner gets the girl, but it’s a camp thing. I mean, it’s one step above a three-legged race.”
“I know it’s dumb.” Logically, Ben knew it was just a silly camp race, but when he thought about it, he wasn’t bringing that much to the relationship. He came from the wrong side of the tracks, didn’t have any money, and didn’t fit in with Blake’s friends, at least the ones she hung out with at Bellevue. Zoe was okay. The least he could do was be faster than Luke Culpepper. “Even if Blake doesn’t care, I want to beat him.”
George raised an eyebrow. “Dude, it’s like you don’t feel worthy of her or something.”
Ben shrugged. Blake had everything. Why would she want him? “On a more positive note, I think I have some Oreos leftover in my bag.” He and Blake hadn’t really gotten around to eating them.
“Score!” said George, reaching for a cookie.
Just then, Ben caught sight of his lady. Blake was striding purposefully across camp looking like a million bucks. There wasn’t a hair out of place on her head. She was rocking a fierce cat eye and wearing a dress. When she got to him, she wrinkled her nose and glared.
“Did you change in a phone booth or something?” he joked. It hadn’t been any time since they were sweating on the trail. He hadn’t even changed out of his running clothes.
When she gave him a weird look he corrected, “I mean, you look really nice. I’m just surprised. I didn’t think you had time to change.”
Blake bit her lip and shouldered past him without answering, like he’d really hit a nerve. Maybe she got dolled up because of him? “I screwed that one up.”
She seemed strange, though, almost like a flashback to the old Blake. He wasn’t going to let it bother him. He’d just decided to trust her. Still, the way she looked at him planted a seed of doubt. Maybe she’d already had enough of slumming it with him.
Chapter Seventeen
So Van Gogh
Mallory
The sun was just dipping below the hills surrounding camp. The girls in G7A were winding down for the day. The smell of nail polish and fruity shampoo filled the air. Zoe was painting zebra stripes on her toe nails while Mallory caught up on The Accidental Duchess. Things were going poorly for Lydia. After learning that Lydia had married him under a false name, the Duke of Blackmore was pursuing an annulment to their wedding. He didn’t yet know that he was the only thing saving her from the gallows. Without his name for protection, she was going to be hauled to Scotland Yard for murder of the duke’s real fiancée, not that she’d done it. At this point, no one would believe it was self-defense. Or care. The only thing that could save her was the duke’s love.
Mallory couldn’t take the tension. Lydia’s situation hit too close to home—not the gallows part, but the bit about getting dumped because she was pretending to be someone else. She suddenly wanted to see Ben, if only to reassure herself that everything was still okay between them. There was just enough time before lights out to catch him.
Even though she hated herself for it a little—she’d never thought of herself as the needy, insecure type—she wished he’d ask her to the inter-camp dance already. It was the day after tomorrow and she was fixated. They weren’t in the “friend zone” obviously. She had never made out with any of her friends, but it’s not like she’d feel comfortable changing her Facebook status to “In a relationship with Ben Iron Cloud.” Relationship-wise, they were in the gray zone, a classic Jane Bennet and Mr. Bingley dilemma.
Mallory looked at Zoe and said, “I’m going to run down to the docks and see if Ben and George are still there.” They’d tossed a fishing line in while she got changed after the run.
“Mind if I come? If you get Ben alone, I’ll make an excuse and get out of there.”
Mallory smiled. “Thanks. I’m dying for him to ask me to the dance.”
On the way down to the docks, Zoe offered her usual practical wisdom. “Maybe he assumes that you’re going together. It’s not like prom or anything. It’s just camp.”
Before Mallory could answer, she saw something that made her gasp in shock. At first, she thought she was seeing things. Why would her sister be at camp? It made no sense. Blake shouldn’t be here. If anyone caught them together, they’d both be ruined. It would be like a collision of matter and antimatter. Total annihilation. She remembered that much from like every sci-fi movie she’d ever seen.
But at camp she was. Blake was standing on the path, looking overdressed and lost.
Zoe saw her, too. “What?” She looked between Mallory and Blake and shook her head. “Um. You have a twin?”
Mallory nodded mutely in answer. How could she even explain this? A real friend would have mentioned a twin sister, not to mention used her real name. She braced herself for whatever her sister was about to say and walked slowly toward her. Zoe followed, seemingly transfixed by the unfolding drama. “Blake, what are you doing here?”
When Blake caught sight of Mallory, she exclaimed, “Thank God! I was so fucking lost. I couldn’t figure out which cabin you were in. Where have you been?” She said this as if Mallory had been expecting her.
“What are you doing here? If anyone sees you… How did you get here?”
Blake shrugged like it was no big deal. “I took an Uber.”
Zoe, who had been watching, looked at Mallory. “What is going on?”
Before Mallory could figure out how to explain the situation, Blake held out her hand and said, “I’m Blake.” She gestured to Mallory and said, “You’ve already met Mallory.” She said her name like a dirty word.
With a furrowed brow, Zoe said, “So, this is like Parent Trap?”
Mallory whispered, “I’m so sorry. I’ll explain.” It seemed lame, but at the moment, that’s all she had. She would share all the gory details after she figured out what was going on herself. At the moment, her own head was spinning. Why was Blake here? A month ago, Blake would have done anything to stay away from Camp Pine Ridge. Mallory remembered her sister sinking to her knees and wailing at the very thought of being sent to camp.
Blake explained. “I want to trade.”
It made no sense—Blake hated the outdoors. But then again, she liked to take everything good for herself. Blake always got the last piece of pizza, the top bunk, whatever thing it was that both of them wanted. Mallory always let Blake win because nothing ever mattered that much to her, but she didn’t want to give up camp. She took a deep breath and looked her sister straight in the eye.
“You can’t just change our agreement in the middle without telling me.”
“Why not? I got the instructor to give me the final exam in your math class early and I got like a hundred percent.” With a fake smile, she said, “Congratulations, Mallory! You aced algebra. That’s all you needed, right? And I saw pictures of you on the Camp Pine Ridge Tumblr. You are having way more fun than me.”
Mallory stood her ground. “I’m not leaving.” Camp Pine Ridge was sort of sucky in some ways, but there was something about the place. For one, it wasn’t bo
ring. She felt relaxed and happy. She had the freedom to spread her wings and jump out of the nest. The fact that no one here cared whether she flew or fell was even better. She was free, plain and simple. Besides Kipper, all the counselors were too busy making out with each other to care what she did. Having no one give a crap was liberating. Plus, there was Zoe.
But mostly, there was Ben.
They had something really special, a connection she’d never felt with someone else. Sure, she was lying to him, but she hadn’t even gotten a chance to let their doomed relationship blossom yet. Everyone deserved a tragic teenage love affair.
With her agenda (stay at camp no matter the cost) firmly in place, the first step in successful negotiation, Mallory said, “So what are we going to do about it?”
Blake settled her hands on her hips and set her jaw in a look that Mallory knew meant business. In the history of Jones sister arguments, Mallory had never won. It was Blake: 1,000,000, Mallory: 0.
Blake announced, “Well, I’m not going anywhere, either.”
Zoe, who’d gotten up to speed on the whole situation said, “So you’ve been pretending to be your sister the whole time? Without telling me?” She looked at Mallory accusatorily. “I thought we were friends?”
Blake tapped her foot impatiently.
Mallory withered inside. “Zoe, I’m so sorry. When I agreed to this I didn’t imagine making friends or hurting anyone along the way. It sounded like a vacation from my life. Once I’d been here for a while, it seemed weird to bring it up.” She’d been dreading this moment since she arrived. It wasn’t just that she was lying about her name. She was playing the part of her sister. Zoe would probably find the real Mallory boring. But standing there next to her sister, Mallory realized something—she could never be Blake. She wasn’t a good enough actress. Zoe had liked her for her, at least mostly. She had been an amped-up Mallory, but she could never pull off Blake.
Breaking the Rules of Revenge Page 13
