IT’S LATE. I DON’T know how late, but if I took a look at my phone, I’d bet on it being two or three in the morning. Poppy sways side to side next to me as we make our way back toward our cabins. I think it’s safe to say she had a little too much to drink. While some guys might find that unattractive, she’s a fucking adorable drunk.
If her giggles and hiccups weren’t enough, the way she keeps looking at me certainly is. Almost the way she used to look at me when we were younger.
“Careful there.” I tuck her tighter into my side when she trips on her own flip flop and stumbles forward.
“Careful, smareful,” she slurs, laughing at herself.
I slow to a stop at the bottom of the front porch steps that lead to Poppy’s cabin.
“Well, here we are.” I turn, tugging her into my chest.
“Are you hugging me?” Her voice vibrates against my chest.
“Is that okay?” I whisper into her hair, taking a deep inhale of her sweet scent.
“As long as that’s all you plan on doing,” she murmurs, pulling her head back to look up at me.
“You know, eventually I am going to have to touch you in front of people.”
“You were touching me tonight.” She taps my nose playfully.
“Not the kind of touching I’m talking about.”
“I am not having sex with you, Callum.” She hiccups.
“Pretty sure no one said anything about sex. I was more talking about kissing.”
“You want to kiss me?” She draws back.
“Want has nothing to do with it. No one is going to believe we’re together if we don’t show a little PDA.”
“So you don’t want to kiss me?” She pouts out her bottom lip, and it takes everything in me not to lean forward and suck it into my mouth.
No matter what the circumstances are, the fact still remains that I am a guy, and Poppy Harris is a very attractive woman. I’d have to be blind not to be tempted.
“I never said that.” I chuckle. “I simply said want has nothing to do with it. Doesn’t matter if I want to kiss you or not, it will be happening. So the sooner you wrap that pretty little head of yours around that fact, the sooner we can move forward.”
“Hey, bitches.” We both startle at the sound, Camila and Tripp coming into view moments later.
“Where the fuck have you been?” Poppy slurs, shrugging out of my embrace to turn toward her friend.
“We went down to the water. You guys should have come down. There are tons of people down there.”
“Is April still down there?” Poppy asks.
“April went to bed like an hour ago.” I lean in to tell her. “Remember, she came and hugged you goodnight.”
“Oh, yeah!” she says way too loudly, laughing at herself.
“Um, how much did she have to drink?” Camila asks me directly.
“Apparently more than she can handle.” I chuckle.
“Ya think? Lord.” She steps up next to Poppy and grabs her hand. “Come on, girl. Let’s get your ass to bed.”
“But wait.” Poppy hesitates on the bottom step before turning back to me.
One second she’s on the step, the next she’s in my arms, hugging me tightly.
“Thank you for tonight,” she whispers against my neck.
I don’t respond. I simply wait for her to pull back before laying a light kiss to her cheek.
“Goodnight, Poppy.”
“Night.” She smiles wide before turning back toward Camila, the two disappearing inside moments later.
“Well, well, well.” Tripp squeezes my shoulder.
“What?” I shake off his grip and swivel on my heel, turning toward our cabin.
“So, is it official?”
“Is what official?” I ask, climbing the stairs.
“You and Poppy.”
“Yeah, I guess it is,” I confirm, knowing that by this time tomorrow the entire school will know. If you want something out there, Tripp is your guy. I think it’s about time I used his big mouth to my advantage.
CHAPTER SEVEN
POPPY
“UGH.” I GROAN, ROLLING onto my back.
My head feels like it’s being hit from the inside with a sledge hammer. My throat and mouth feel like sticky sandpaper. And I can physically feel my stomach turning on itself.
“What the hell did I do last night?” I ask aloud, forgetting that I’m sharing a cabin with two other people.
“Well, let’s see.”
My eyes pop open to see Camila, fresh out of the shower, leaning against the doorframe of the bathroom door with a toothbrush hanging out of her mouth. She turns to spit the toothpaste into the sink, rinsing out the bristles before finally continuing.
“You drank like a fish. Grinded on Callum on the dance floor like you were trying out for a job as a stripper. And puked all over my favorite flip flops as I was trying to help you to bed.”
“Oh god.” I cover my face with my arm. “I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t apologize to me. I’ve seen worse. You might want to apologize to April though. When she said she was going to bed last night, apparently she did not mean alone.”
“What?” I throw my arm back and prop my head up.
“Her and Brock were in the middle of you know what when you started yacking your guts out all over the floor.”
“Oh my god.” My face heats in embarrassment. “Where is she?”
“She ran to that little tackle shop down the road to get coffee. I think she figured you’d need one this morning. I told her she could take your car. Hope that’s okay.”
“Of course.” I nod, flopping back down on my pillow. “God, why did I drink so much?”
“You were having fun. You know, that is allowed.”
“Well, I’m paying for it today.”
“Suck it up, buttercup. You need to get it together. We’re meeting the guys down by the lake in thirty.”
“Wait. What?” I croak, feeling like there’s no way I’m going to be able to pull myself out of bed anytime soon.
“You don’t remember? It was your idea.”
“Never let me drink again.”
“You say that every time you drink.” She laughs.
“I mean it this time.”
“Sure you do.” She pours a shot of mouthwash into the cap and tips her head back, emptying it into her mouth. She swishes the liquid around a few times then spits it out, wiping her lips on a hand towel as she turns back to me. “Now get your ass up.”
“I don’t wanna,” I whine.
“Well too bad. I’m not going to let your hangover prevent me from spending a day in the sun with a certain hot football player.”
“Speaking of which.” I force myself upward. “You and Tripp?” I arc a brow.
“It’s your fault,” she tells me, smiling as she slides on a sheer cover-up over the top of her bright yellow bikini. The color looks amazing on her brown skin.
“My fault?” I stand, having to grab the railing of the steps leading to the upper bunk to steady myself. Jesus, I feel like I’ve been hit by a truck.
“Yeah. He asked me about you and Callum.”
“He did? What did he say?”
“Nothing much. Was just saying how he saw it coming.” She pulls a hair tie off her wrist before tying her hair up in a loose pony. “Anyway, we started off talking about you, and before I knew it, we ended up hanging out the entire night. Funny, I never really cared for the guy. I think maybe I misjudged him.”
“Are we talking about the same Tripp Daniels? That boy is a player and you know it.”
“Of course I do. But isn’t that the point? It’s not like I wanna marry the guy or anything, but a fun, week long fling doesn’t sound half bad.”
“So that’s your plan? You’re going to sleep with him and then what, pretend like it never happened once we return to the real world?”
“Pretty much.” She giggles.
“What is happening right now?” I say mor
e to myself than to her, pressing the palm of my hand to my forehead in an effort to dull the ache.
“Says the girl dating Callum freaking Hanson.”
“I don’t know that we’re dating...” I let the statement hang.
“Well, according to Callum you are. At least that’s what he told Tripp. That you two are officially an item.”
“He told Tripp that?”
“Yep.” She pops her lips. “Now get dressed. I’m gonna run next door and make sure the guys are up.” With that, she tugs open the front door and disappears outside, leaving me to wonder what the hell else happened last night that I can’t remember.
“YOU FEELING ANY BETTER?” My eyes flutter open at the sound of Callum’s voice, landing on where he’s floating next to me seconds later.
“I am,” I confirm. “I still feel a little woozy but, all in all, I feel good.”
“Good.” He smiles, the dark tint of his sunglasses hiding his eyes from view.
“So, I hear we’re official now.” I slide my hand into the water and make tiny circles with my finger.
“Wasn’t that the plan?”
“It was. I just didn’t realize...”
“I planted the seed with Tripp. If you’ve heard about it, then clearly his big mouth is not disappointing.”
“Obviously not.” I snort.
“You’re not having second thoughts, are you?”
“No. Nothing like that.” I shake my head, not really sure where my mind is right now.
On one hand, I feel stupid and sleazy. On the other, I’m surprisingly enjoying this time with Callum, which is something I did not expect.
“So what happens now?”
“Now we make people believe it’s true.”
“And how do we do that exactly.”
He gives me a smile that says everything I need to know and my stomach immediately twists. I’m just not sure if it’s from anxiousness or excitement.
Excitement?
Before I have a chance to think it over for too long, a loud squeal draws my attention to the right where April, Brock, Tripp, and Camila are playing chicken in the water a few feet from where Callum and I are lounging on our floats.
Camila is on Tripp’s shoulders and April is on Brock’s. The girls are pushing and pulling at one another, trying to knock the other off their partners’ shoulders.
“Look at them. All of our friends getting along. Who saw that coming?”
“It’s kind of nice, isn’t it?” He slides his sunglasses on top of his head.
“It is,” I admit, surprised to find my answer is truthful.
Seriously... What the hell is happening here?
“Hey, we got the winner,” Callum hollers over at our friends.
“Oh it’ll be us,” I hear Camila shoot back a strained answer as she continues to battle April who’s laughing uncontrollably.
“What do you say, P? Up for a game of chicken?”
“You can’t be serious.” I roll my eyes at him.
“What? If I remember right, we made a damn good team back in the day. Undefeated if I’m not mistaken.”
A memory of us as kids, goofing off in Callum’s pool comes to the forefront of my mind. God, how many times did we do things just like this? Hang out. Laugh. It was so easy back then. So uncomplicated. I miss those times. I miss a lot of the things. None of which I realized until the last couple of days.
“I am not playing chicken,” I tell him on a laugh.
“Why, afraid you’re not as good as you used to be?”
“More like, afraid I might puke in your hair.” I give him a pointed look.
“You said you felt better.”
“I do. I’m just not sure being up on your shoulders, wrestling with another person is the best idea right now.”
“Well you better get over that because we’re up.”
“Huh?” I follow his line of sight as April resurfaces out of the water.
“Come on. Let’s show them how it’s done.”
I try to object, but when he slides into the water and lifts me off my float with ease, I don’t have much say in the matter. He sets me to my feet before grabbing both of our rafts and pulling them up to shore.
“I hope you’re ready to go down,” he tells Tripp when he reappears.
“Bring it on.” Tripp grins, Camila still on his shoulders.
Callum dips down, disappearing under the surface. Seconds later, he slips between my legs and suddenly I’m being lifted several feet in the air. I hold onto the top of his head, trying to steady myself.
“You ready, P?” he calls up to me.
“As ready as I’ll ever be,” I murmur.
“Okay.” April appears to my left, Brock standing directly behind her. “On the count of three. One. Two. Three.”
Camila strikes first, knocking me hard against the shoulder before April has even finished the countdown. I slip but quickly right myself, grabbing onto her arm as I tug her toward me as hard as I can. Tripp stumbles forward, having trouble holding himself steady as I swing Cam’s arm back and forth, not allowing her to get any kind of grip on me. The way I have her arm angled, she can’t reach me well enough with her other to do any real damage.
It feels like only seconds have passed before Tripp’s balance gives and they both tumble into the water.
“Victory!” I squeal, holding my arms up above my head.
“That’s my girl.” Callum chuckles.
His girl?
I get that we’re pretending, but hearing him refer to me as his girl is doing some weird things to my stomach.
“No fair. I want a rematch.” Camila pouts, always the sore loser.
“Well then let’s go,” I challenge.
“Here we go,” April grumbles. “I hope you guys are prepared to be at this all day because Camila isn’t going to stop until she wins.”
“Then I guess we’ll be going all day.” Callum laughs as Tripp lifts Cam back onto his shoulders and the two prepare to square off against us again.
“CAMILA DOESN’T TAKE well to losing, does she?” Callum snags my hand, entwining his fingers with mine as we make our way out of the water.
I try to ignore the sudden swarm of butterflies in my stomach or the way my hand feels tingly in his, but it’s impossible not to notice.
“Was it that obvious? I mean, after the fifth time you would think she would have given up.” I laugh, having gone a total of eleven rounds with Camila in which her and Tripp lost every single one.
“Still undefeated.” He smiles, releasing my hand as he abruptly turns and steps in front of me, cutting off my path to the beach. “Come here.” He grabs me by the waist and lifts me into him, giving me no other option than to wrap my legs around his middle.
“What are you doing?” I lean back, locking my hands around the back of his neck.
“We have an audience,” he tells me and my gaze immediately darts over his shoulders, scouring the beach.
“Don’t look,” he hisses, forcing my eyes back to him.
“Who? Where?”
“Heidi and Ethan. A little to the right.” I look back up, spotting them instantly. But that’s not the only person I see. Annika has finally surfaced and is lounging on the beach with a few of her friends, her eyes trained in our direction.
“Well that’s not all.” I look back to Callum. “Seems everyone is in attendance.”
“Even better.” He gives me a smile that could melt the panties off a nun before he starts moving again, carrying me toward the shore.
We no more than reach the sand when Callum turns, depositing me flat on my backside.
“Callum.” I grab a handful of sand and throw it at him.
He drops his head back on a laugh before flopping down next to me, both of us lying flat on the sand.
“I can’t.” I start to sit up. “I hate the feeling of sand on my skin.”
Before I can move, Callum rolls, his entire body covering mine as he presses me further
into the damp, grainy surface.
“Maybe you should get over it.”
With that, he rolls, placing me on top for a brief moment before he rolls again, and I’m back on the bottom. It doesn’t take me long to realize what he’s doing.
“I’m going to have sand in places you don’t even want to know about.” I laugh, smacking his bicep.
“I don’t know. I think maybe I’d like to know about them all.” He pulls back, hitting me with that smile again.
Dear lord. I’m not equipped to handle this.
“Are they watching?” I ask in a hushed voice, needing some sort of distraction.
Callum glances up and then back down.
“Houston, we are a go.” He inches his face in closer.
“What are you doing?” I still when his nose brushes mine.
“I thought that much was obvious, P. I’m giving them a show.” With that, his mouth seals over mine.
At first I stiffen, my mind racing with uncertainty. But when Callum’s tongue sweeps across mine, it’s like every single thought goes out the window. My hands go into his hair, tugging on the damp strands, pulling him closer, holding him tighter. And even though my mind is screaming for me to stop, my body doesn’t seem to compute.
I’m on fire.
Every single inch of my skin burns red hot.
Then as quickly as it began, it ends.
I try to hold in my disappointment when he pulls back. I try to act completely unaffected by the kiss. But something about his expression tells me he can read me a lot better than I realize. Or maybe I’m misreading him. God, I don’t feel sure of anything right now.
For something that’s supposed to be all show, it sure as hell felt real to me.
“I think we made our point.” He chuckles, dropping another soft kiss to my lips before shifting his weight.
Moments later he’s on his feet, reaching down to help me up.
“Callum, I have to rinse this off,” I tell him, wiping sand from my arms in an effort to avoid his gaze.
I didn’t expect that kiss to feel the way it did, and to say that I’m feeling a little unsettled would be the understatement of the year.
All the Pretty Lies Page 7
