Mattie is the first to stop jumping. “She’s the F1 girl, right? Can you get us paddock club passes?”
“There’s no way you two have been together for a month and haven’t fucked,” Bobby says expectantly.
“We haven’t.” They all stop celebrating. “They’ve got this no fraternization rule and to be honest I pretty much avoided her the first week. We’re fine now though, we’re friends.”
I have an audience of confused faces staring back at me. They look between themselves, silently nominating a leader, who turns out to be Kris. “You know no one will be sticking to that rule, right? A bunch of twenty-year-olds stuck together for two and a half months with a rule not to do something? Screw that.”
“I wouldn’t last the week,” Mattie mumbles, taking another bite of pizza.
Henry scowls at him. “Because you have no respect for authority.”
“Let’s see about that, Captain,” Mattie grins.
Henry’s eyes roll, like they do every time his newly appointed title is referenced. “Russ is following the rules.”
“Fuck the rules,” Bobby counters. “We could all die tomorrow.”
“I need the job, guys. Sorry to disappoint. She’s fucking great though, like as a friend. She’s . . . great.”
“Swallowed a whole dictionary,” Mattie laughs, dodging the napkin I throw at him.
I’d need a whole dictionary to describe just how great Aurora is. My mind wanders back to camp and what they’re doing. The kids will have eaten dinner by now; they’re probably drinking hot chocolate by a campfire. Aurora will be complaining her mug isn’t big enough to fit the excessive amount of marshmallows she adds and Xander will be daring her to try and beat her record for the amount she can fit in her mouth.
I wonder if anyone will walk her back to her cabin tonight and if they’ll wait to watch her go in.
Kris downs the rest of his beer, shrugging nonchalantly as he puts it back on the counter. “You won’t be the only guy crushing on another counselor, buddy, and they can’t fire you all.”
It’s bittersweet leaving home for the second time.
After the guys gave up trying to convince me to start living my life to the max, they moved onto telling us about Miami and all the wild shit they got up to. I stopped after the one beer, but by their fourth, Bobby and Kris were reenacting the moment Mattie was mistaken for a famous movie star and they all ended up in the VIP area with Tristan Harding, the guy from all those romance films Stassie and Lola love.
We reminisced about games from last season, our championship win where I saved the deciding goal and predictions for the new season. When I called it a night, knowing I had to get up earlier, they were genuinely gutted I was leaving again, which made me not want to leave at all.
Mattie and Bobby crashed in Robbie and JJ’s rooms, with Kris losing five consecutive games of Rock, Paper, Scissors in a row and ending up on the couch Henry violated.
They were awake, albeit slightly hungover, before the sun was up to make breakfast and coffee so I could have something decent to eat before getting on the road. Having real friends has shown me I don’t need to quietly blend into the background anymore. Telling my dad exactly how I feel has freed me from whatever has been holding me back this entire time. Don’t get me wrong, nobody changes overnight, but I’m parking up at Honey Acres again feeling like a brand-new guy.
I don’t look like a brand-new guy, though. I hardly slept and it shows on my face. I feel it in my tired body when I move; I’m stiff from so much driving.
Signing back in at the front of the camp, I find Jenna in a meeting, which means I can wave to her through the main office door’s glass panel and don’t have to answer any of her questions. It’s just before lunchtime and I know that Emilia or Aurora will be covering me. As tired as I am, more than anything, I want to take over so they can enjoy the day off I stole from them.
Brown Bears are scheduled for swimming and the lake is right by my cabin, so it gives me chance to put my staff t-shirt on and leave my backpack before taking over.
Walking down toward my room, I spot Aurora coming toward me, looking down at the ground.
“Hey,” I call when we’re six feet from each other.
Her head snaps up, eyes widening as she takes me in. I realize I’m holding my breath, waiting for her to say something back, to give me the smile I’ve become accustomed to seeing when I see her, but it doesn’t come.
“Are you okay?” she asks, hugging her arms around herself.
“Yeah, I’m fine. I’m sorry you had to cover for me. I’m heading to the lake now so you or Emilia can have your day off back.”
“It’s Emilia, I did yesterday. She won’t let you take over so leave her. We switched dance and swim around because we thought it looked like it was going to rain, but obviously this is California so it’s still hot and dry as hell. You look like you need to sleep.”
“I really am sorry. I’ll cover you so you can have an extra day off or something. I’ll make it up to you.”
“You missed the talent show practice,” she says softly. How disappointed she sounds fucking hurts. Her brows pinch together as she frowns. “I don’t care about covering for you, Russ. You disappeared. Jenna told us you had a personal thing and said it was no big deal. So I don’t get why you didn’t tell me you were leaving.” Her voice cracks. “You just left me. Us. All of us have been worried. Me and Jenna had an argument about it because she kept saying he’s fine and it was pissing me off.”
“Aurora, I’m sorry,” I take a cautious step toward her, then another, until I pull her into a hug. We fit together perfectly like this, with her arms wrapped around me, my head buried in her hair.
“Where were you? What happened?” she mumbles into my chest. “You can tell me.”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” I say honestly. “I’m sorry I missed practice. I’m sorry I made you worried. I won’t do it again, I promise.”
Something in what I said causes her to untangle herself from me and take a step backwards. “It’s fine.”
It isn’t fine and I’m gutted to be on the receiving end of that smile she forces to make people think she isn’t upset by something. I don’t want the wall to go back up between us. The words come tumbling out of my mouth before I really know why. “Tell me a secret.”
Taking in a deep intake of breath, she starts. “I’m sad you left without telling me. Not telling everyone, telling me. I think—thought—I might mean a little more to you than everyone else. That you might trust me the most because we have history, or whatever.”
“You do.”
“I thought about flirting with Clay last night just to feel wanted, how weird is that? I didn’t. I called my mom, I went to bed early and spent all day lurking around Emilia, trying to keep myself out of trouble.”
The idea that disappearing would drive Aurora toward Clay makes me feel like shit. “You’re not weird, Aurora. I’m sorry I hurt your feelings. Again.”
“It’s not about me, you’re the one who clearly has stuff going on. I’m just trying not to be the person that acts out because of other people. That’s something I do a lot and I don’t want to. It’s probably the only thing I do better than oversharing,” she presses her lips together as she stares up at me. I wish I could put everything out there like she does, but even after the past twenty-four hours, something is stopping me. She shrugs, arms wrapped around herself, protecting her. “I want to be there for you because I care about you. I feel like I could be a better friend to you if you communicated with me.”
“I made us miscommunicators again.”