“Were you interested?” Her eyes are searching mine, and for a moment my heart beats off rhythm under her gaze. Would I have been interested in another girl right now? Hooking up with September in her tent with Audrey and Cline in the one I’d brought for us all on this trip? The thought of Audrey in the sleeping bag alone while …
Then there would have been the wrath of Cline.
“No. I wouldn’t do that to Cline.” Or you, I think, but I don’t say it out loud.
Her demeanor has gone cold, and she scoots away to stand up. “Next time a girl asks if you’re available, I’ll let her know you are. I have to go change.” With that, she’s gone from the tent and I’m left to wonder exactly what the hell I’ve gotten myself into.
The sounds from the other campsite let me know our friends are awake, so I get up and change into my swim shorts and grab a towel, stepping out of the tent just in time to see Cline tumbling out of September’s. She’s on all fours, her head poking out of the flap, and he leans down to give her a kiss before he turns and half runs, half hops across gravel to get to me.
“I take it last night went well?”
The grin on his face is more than enough to answer my question, but he does anyway. “I wanna keep her. Can we keep her? Can she come with us?”
“She’s not a puppy, dude. She’s a person.”
His whole face lights up. “I think she might be my person.” He doesn’t wait for a response from me before disappearing into the tent and making a bunch of noise while he changes into his swim shorts.
I start to think about what he’s said. Is it that easy? Can you just meet someone that fast and know? Shouldn't it take longer?
As I’m pondering these questions, Audrey appears on her way back from the bathrooms. She has changed into a bathing suit, but she’s wearing some sort of cover-up on top of it. Her hair is pulled back away from her face, no trace of makeup, and she’s doing that thing with her hands again.
“Cline’s in there,” I call out in warning before she walks into the tent and finds him with his dick hanging out.
“Shit. I need my bag from in there.” Her fingers are tapping faster now, and there’s a look of panic that crosses her features momentarily before she smooths them out again.
“Which one?” I ask, though I think I know.
“The small one with the flowers. I keep it in my purse.”
“I know the one. I’ll grab it.” She doesn’t have time to argue with me before I’m unzipping the tent and crouching inside, ignoring my friend and his half naked ass. The bag is exactly where she says it will be, and it makes a rattling noise when I grab it, so I hold it closer to my stomach to quiet it down. Grabbing another towel, I wrap it inside and slip a bottle of water in there, too, before escaping back out without a word. I hand her the entire thing, discreetly packaged, because I know. And unlike what she may be used to, I’m not judging her.
Her lips are pressed together, and her cheeks are bright pink as she takes it from me with a quiet thank you. As she turns to walk away, I stop her and slip a granola bar on top of the towel. “Let me know if you need anything else.”
She’s gone for twenty minutes, and in that time, September has changed, grabbed something to eat, and left with Cline for the boat. When Audrey returns, it’s just the two of us and she’s a little calmer, a little less edgy.
“They went to the dock to get the boat ready. I said we’d meet them there in a few,” I tell her as she stops just outside the extinguished fire pit. “We can go whenever you’re ready. No rush.”
She’s staring at me, holding all her stuff, still and unwavering. We’re in a silent stand-off, neither of us moving.
“Why are you being so nice to me, Elliot?”
“What do you mean?” I ask, taking a step forward. She inches back a step and stops, staring at me curiously.
“Like, from the minute we met you’ve been nothing but nice to me. You haven’t said a mean thing once. You haven’t made me feel bad about myself. You don’t say anything about these.” She lifts her bag into the air and shakes it, making the bottles inside rattle. “You’re willing to drive me places and let me sleep next to you. You come running when I’m getting attacked by people-sized moths. You do really nice shit for me for no reason at all. Why?”
“I don’t know. Maybe my mom just raised me right?” I’m struggling to figure out why she’s asking me why I’m just simply being a decent human being.
“You don’t even really know anything about me. We’re practically strangers.”