“If you need to head home, kid—”
I wave him off and take a sip of cocoa. “My aunt is with her. She’s an elementary school teacher, so she’s got the time. When fall rolls around though that’s a whole different story.”
“Did you get the transfer paperwork in the mail?”
“Yeah.”
He claps me on the back with a giant hand. “Good. UCLA would be dumb to turn you down.”
I force a smile, but it doesn’t quell the fear tightening my chest. If they turn me down, I have no idea what I’ll do. There’s no way I can help support my mom on a minimum wage job. I need my degree, and I need it now.
“So, your friend seems to be doing better.” Mr. River points the butt end of a flashlight at Lyla as if I wouldn’t know who he was talking about.
“She’s a good kid.”
Kid. I wish she was still a kid. It would make this situation easier. Life was so much simpler when she was a rug rat who always had a book in her hand and mud on her knees.
“I agree. So, you’re relieved of duty.”
“No,” I blurt out way too fast—again going against my better judgment. Mr. River smiles, and the slight movement tells me he’s on to me. “What I mean is that you already set the partner schedule for the next two weeks. No need to cause a headache shuffling things around.”
“Sure.” He nods. “Plus, it will keep her away from troublemakers.” His flashlight once again points to where Lyla sits across the fire.
My whole spine snaps straight as I see the two douche-bros have taken the seats around Lyla and Scarlett. Mr. River once again chuckles as he gets up and makes his way toward his cabin.
“Lights out in five,” he calls over his shoulder to no one in particular.
Everyone else may ignore him, but I jump up ready to get to bed before I do something stupid like put my fist through a face. Lyla doesn’t seem to mind the attention and I have no right to be so possessive, but I can’t help it. If she’s going to be with someone other than me, it won’t be an A-hole.
“All right, let’s clean up.” I dump what’s left of my hot cocoa into the fire, then toss the cup in the trash. “Dax. Jason. Why don’t you two take trash patrol tonight?” The smile drops off Jason’s face in a rush and Dax narrows his eyes at me. I’m hoping they both keep quiet because now that I’m standing, I can see Jason’s arm wrapped around Lyla’s shoulders and it does nothing to help the anger simmering under the surface.
As if sensing the storm raging inside me, Lyla stands up, shrugging off his arm. “You heard co-captain. Campers, pick up your belongings. I can’t guarantee they will be here in the morning. And rest up, we have a long day tomorrow.”
She smiles at me as a few of the campers groan. I have an inkling some of them are here by force and aren’t into the whole wilderness thing.
“Need any help, boss-man?” she asks as people scatter in every direction, some not doing a dang thing as they sneak off to their cabins.
“Make sure the campers get to the right cabin?”
“Aye-aye.” She salutes me before walking off to find her friend Scarlett.
Perfect. Now I can keep an eye on the asshats and the girls will be far away from them.
Right as I turn around, Jason walks by, slamming his shoulder into my arm with enough force to knock me off balance. I stumble to the side and I catch the tail end of inappropriate language as he stalks off. He’s not competition. Not to me. But one of these days I’m going to put the tool in his place.
I grab a few articles of clothing the kids left behind and make my way to Mr. River’s office to drop them off at the lost and found. By the time I step outside, the place is dead quiet. How something can change in such a short amount of time is beyond me. I’m not complaining though. All I want to do is head to my cabin and have Lyla to myself for the tiny amount of time before bed.
Three minutes later I’m walking through our cabin door and notice right away that Lyla is nowhere to be found. I stop in the middle of the room and listen for the shower. She likes to take one before bed, which works, since I love nothing more than waking up to scalding hot water. Right now, though, I’m hearing nothing. It’s almost as quiet as it was outside.
I grab the flashlight I stored in my duffel bag since it has a brighter light than my phone and head back outside. There’s no sign of Lyla—there’s no sign of anyone. An aching pit forms in my stomach when I remember the first night and how she snuck away to party. I don’t think she would do it again, not after being caught, but something tells me her friend might talk her into doing things she normally wouldn’t do. Hell, I could talk her into doing dumb shit when we were younger. One of those times ended with a trip to the ER.
I circle around the now-dead fire and head out toward the lake, sticking to the edge of trees so the bright light doesn’t wake anyone. Not that I expect any of these kids to be asleep at ten, but I don’t want to be a reason they think it’s okay to head out into the night.
Twigs crunch under my feet and somewhere in the distance an owl hoots. Wilderness has always had an almost hypnotic draw. Something inside me screams to be with nature. It’s part of the reason I come back every summer as a counselor, even when I attended school in another state. Knowing this will probably be my last year is just something I’m not ready to face yet.
Just like I’m not ready to face the idea that my mom won’t get better. According to her doctors, there is a very real possibility she will continue to decline despite treatment.
A world without her is not something I’m ready to face.
I make it to the water’s edge and do a quick sweep. Not a single soul. My heart rate kicks into overdrive even though I know it’s ridiculous. There aren’t masked killers here picking us off one by one. She’s around somewhere. Still, even with that thought at the forefront of my mind, I can’t slow my heart rate or my feet as I race back to camp.
The cabin comes into view in record time and when I reach the stairs, I jump over all of them and fling open the door.
Lyla screeches and tugs the fluffy pink towel tighter around her body. I stumble and trip over my boots, smacking my head on the wooden frame of the bunk bed on my way down.
Lyla’s shock turns to laughter and all I can do is lie here staring up at the ceiling while praying to disappear. This is not how I saw the night—or any night going. Nobody wants to end up ass-over-end while the girl of your dreams is standing off to the side busting a gut.
After a few humiliating moments, Lyla catches her breath. “Are you alive?”
“Unfortunately.”
That gains another giggle as the door to the bathroom closes. I should get up off the floor, but the throbbing in the back of my head makes me want to curl up and stay right here forever.
“Is that where you’re sleeping now?” Lyla comes into view, clothed with her dripping wet hair stuck to her neck.
“Sorry I barged in on you.”
“Yeah, well, it was my fault. I forgot my clothes and when you didn’t answer me, I figured you were off helping Mr. River with something.” She offers me her hand, and I take it, allowing her to lift me off the ground.
My head pounds a thousand times worse now that I’m upright, so I reach over and grab ahold of the bed. We don’t need another embarrassing moment to add to the books.