Skinny Dipping At Dusk

Stay?

“So Mia, I don’t really know much about you, would you tell me something?” Landon asked after taking a bite of his food.

Raising and eyebrow, I replied. “What would you like to know?”

Thinking about my question, Landon managed to shovel about four large bites into his mouth before finally answering. “What do you like to do with your free time?”

Even though we were supposed to be pretending not to know each other, I knew he already had the answer to his question. “Well I do love to cook,” I said before rolling my eyes.

Landon pretended to act surprised. “Oh how lovely, I do like a woman who can cook a good meal.”

Taking a sip of my milk to wash down the delicious casserole, I laughed. “Tell me something about yourself Landon.”

“I like to play soccer, I was captain back in high school,” he answered.

“You?”

“Volleyball, I was captain too.”

“Hobbies besides cooking?”

“Art, singing, running.”

“You? Besides soccer?”

“Wrestling, weightlifting, running.”

We both took a long sip of milk before gazing at each other across the table. Why did Landon have to do this to me? One second he was unbearable and the next all he wanted to do was get to know me.

“Any baggage?” he finally asked.

I stared down at my food as if unwilling to answer the question. I had lots of baggage, and it wasn’t really something I’d like to talk about.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” he said quietly once I didn’t answer.

Biting my lip I glared at him across the table. “What about you Landon? Do you feel like sharing the reason you decided to up and leave camp?”

I knew I shouldn’t have said it, but the words were going to come out eventually. He set his fork and knife onto his plate before leaning back in his chair. There was something in his eyes but I couldn’t quite tell what it was. Anger maybe, sadness…

“It’s my mom and dad, they’re getting a divorce.”

Biting my lip, I looked down at my food in shame. I shouldn’t have gone so far. “Look Landon you don’t have to tell m-“

“See the divorce isn’t the problem, it’s me and my brother. They’ve decided that each of them will get to take either me or my brother. The thing is they both want me, but only because I’ll be going off to college and they won’t have to deal with me again. They don’t want to deal with a little kid like Luke, neither of them want him, but he’s there son you know? If it were up to me I would take him with me when I leave this place, but that would mean asking them for money to support us and I just can’t do that. My parents are so messed up they don’t even want their six year old son. I know he’s going to end up with my mother because she’s around more to take care of him, but I know she’ll just hire some maid to watch after him twenty four seven. Just like they did to me.”

I watched as tears pooled up in Landon’s eyes. He blinked them back right away, but I could tell that this whole thing was really upsetting him. His own parents didn’t even want their children? That’s horrible; I could never imagine something like that.

“Landon I’m so so-“

“Don’t apologize for something that’s not your fault,” he interrupted as if he heard the words so many times before.

Standing up, I pushed my chair in. “I wasn’t going to apologize for that, I was going to apologize for asking about it. It’s none of my business.”

He nodded his head and got up from his place too. “Look I should get going, it’s getting late and I have to look for a place to stay overnight. Do you know any motels around here?” I asked staying away from the topic of his parents. I could tell he didn’t want to talk about it.

“Why don’t you just stay here, we have guest rooms you know,” he offered.

I shook my head. “Look I already imposed enough by just coming by, and I wasn't very polite I think I should just go.”

Landon didn’t answer and grabbed my arm. He pulled me up the stairs and showed me to what looked like a guest room next to his. The room was smaller than his, but bigger than anything I’ve ever slept in. he brought me a t-shirt to sleep and then headed off towards his room.

“Thank you,” I called over just as he slipped out of the room.

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