Ordinary Human Beings

18: Camping Is For Losers

"I bet this is going to be good." Yasmina nudged me.

***

Safe to say it was not good.

We spent the rest of our days having multiple team and trust building exercises: after many failed trust falls and following the leader games, I have come to the realization that I am not completely ready to be a leader. If anything, Sofia has more qualities than I do: she's self-assured, vocal, and open to criticism as well as asking for help where needed. Surprisingly, for the past few days she hasn't been focusing much on me, nor has Audrey. I was happy about that because to some extent, I didn't care about Audrey, Liliana or Sofia; my focus was on bettering myself.

Needless to say, Yasmina surprised me the most during this camp.

Yas has never been one to back down or to completely stay dormant in stressful situations. She basically led alongside Sofia, which annoyed Audrey a lot. If she's actually serious about it, Yas could become a prefect. We've had cases like this before: a new kid comes in, becomes a prefect, gets another thing to add to their university application. If that's what she's doing, then she's doing it perfectly. I wonder how the boys are doing at the other side of the campsite; I really hoped to talk to Christian during this camp, but with how segregated the boys and girls are, it was virtually impossible. I got him after we're done though, knowing him, he's got a lot to say.

As we sat around the fire on our fourth night eating smores and getting ready for bed, Miss Verne tapped her cup. "Good evening ladies."

"Evening."

"I think as we're nearing the end of our time here, it's important to build your relationships with one another," she started. "I know we had a rough start in term one with a few…issues between students, but I think we should be able to resolve them tonight, or even tomorrow. So what I want you to do now is to sit in pairs and talk to each other. Sit with whoever you like and talk about whatever you want, there's no rush; we have until midnight."

As people began to scramble for others to talk to, I gave Yasmina a thumbs up, and she nodded, heading over towards Joanna. I scanned the area, looking for someone to talk to, and I noticed Sofia sitting in a corner, her gaze settled on the fire. Against my better judgment, I got up, and slowly walked towards her, contemplating my decision with each step I took.

Sabrina stood in front of her. "Find someone else."

"Sab, let her come," Sofia stated, surprising both Sabrina and I. "I figured she'd want to talk to me."

After staring me down, Sabrina stepped aside so that I could sit next to Sofia. Together, we stared at the fire, waiting for someone to break the ice. It was the first time Sofia and I just sat together without bickering, and honestly, it felt like we were still best friends. Sofia and I were like sisters, and to have this huge rift between us drove away the confidence I once had in coming to talk to her.

"Camping is for losers," she quipped, whistling slowly. "Rather be home watching Ginny and Georgia."

"Right? I haven't watched the new season yet and that bothers me," I continued. "Marcus is and will always be my comfort character."

She chuckled. "I'm glad that hasn't changed about you."

"Even though a lot has changed between us…"

The silence returned. It was as if I stepped on thinning ice and it broke, drowning me in the ice cold water. I looked at Sofia for some sort of negative reaction, but when I was met with sadness and contempt rather than bitterness and anger.

"And I'm sorry about that, really," she began. "I fucked up by dating your ex."

"And I messed up by trying to become head girl knowing that you've always wanted it," I continued. "I guess I was just mad at the fact that you'd do something like that to me, and to this day I still don't know why."

"Me neither."

"You're lying."

"You can't tell."

"We've been friends for a while now, I'm sure I can tell when you're lying, Allen," I fired back. "If you're not comfortable with sharing why you did it, I understand, but you don't have to lie to me about this; I'm over it."

"Are you over Liliana?"

I hesitated. "Sometimes I'd like to think I'm completely over her."

"Then why jump into something with Yasmina if you're not completely over Liliana?" Sofia said as we glanced over at Yasmina, who was laughing.

"So you do believe Yasmina and I are together." I smiled.

She snickered. "I never doubted it for a second; you could've been a one night stand for all we know, but a regular fling doesn't have the connection you two have and you know it."

If only she knew that I wasn't so sure of our position.

"I guess so," I agreed. "But if you never doubted me, then why did you do all this?"

"Audrey suggested it because you were going a little too far."

"Is Audrey suddenly your master?" I joked.

"Kendall."

"My bad." I looked at her instead. "Why aren't we friends anymore?"

Sofia's gaze met mine for a split second before she looked back at the fire, taking a deep breath. "Rather wouldn't share."

"Will you share it someday?"

"Someday," she confirmed.

"And will we be able to become friends again?" I bit my lip,

After a long, drawn out sigh, she nodded. "Someday."