Lucid June

Chapter Five - What Else, He Can Build A House From Scratch?

"That is so crude," Ella states, "and I don't like that it's true."

'It's scary,' I sympathise. 'But, we'll be scared talking to guys together.'

She laughs softly. "I guess so."

"Next activity! Get to your groups!" A counsellor's yell echoes from the main area of the dining hall, all of us quickly exiting and bidding quick goodbyes. 

Finding my group of kids loitered around Derek, we wait until the rest of the camp has filed out and we're left to the tables filled with puzzles and board games. 

"Alright," Derek claps his hands together. "We have board games, puzzles, colouring-in all on the dining tables. This is quiet time, this relaxation time, find something to do either on your own or with someone else, but this is down time." He explains to the kids. 

Once they get the memo, they head off to do as he told. Some go straight for the board games, a few go for the Puzzles, pouring them out all over the table and beginning the picture. 

"You play cards?" Derek suddenly asks. 

I peer up to meet his eyes, the ones that always smile. 'Yeah.'

"Wanna play?" 

'Sure.'

Taking a seat at an empty table, Derek takes one of the deck of cards and begins shuffling them. I sit unsure and a little nervous, his eye contact on me so inescapable I don't want to ever escape it. 

"What should we start with?" He asks. 

I purse my lips in thought. 'Snap?' I sign, snapping my fingers. 

"I'm great a 'snap', you really want to try me?" He teases. 

'Yup. Bring it on.' I smirk softly. 

Splitting the deck, he passes me one half and keeps the other. I nod for him to start, the game familiar as one I play with my dad when we're bored on rainy Sundays as the fire burns and we have enough take out for a family of five. 

With us each putting one card down, tension builds as we both eye for a matching number to pop out. My heart barrels against my ribs at the notion of this high-stakes game against my high-stakes crush. 

As he puts a two down, I also put one down, slamming my hand down a quarter second after he does, his yell of "Snap!" catching the attention of all the kids for a moment. 

"Don't mind me!" He calls out to them with a chuckle, before grinning back at me as he takes the stack of cards piled up. "I'm not making this easy."

I playfully narrow my eyes. 'Wouldn't want you to.'

He smirks, before placing the first card down and we fall back into that tense rhythm. It slowly, but surely builds and builds until a three lands on a three and I snap my hand down before he can. 

But I can't even revel in my win with his warm, heavy hand smothering mine, Derek making no move to seperate the touch as his thumb drags up the side of mine. The cloud of the kids chatter vanishes, my lungs holding in their oxygen from the anticipation. 

He's tracing my finger. His hand is on mine, and he's not moving it. 

Is this real?

Then to make the matter of my heartbeat fasten, he brings his other hand underneath mine and the cards, clasping it all in an intimate sandwich of crackling fiery touch that's melting me. 

And with swelled flusteredness and a tinge of bravery I'm using up for this one moment, I meet his gaze - one that's already set on me. His lips drawl into a slow, but heart-skipping smile that's so handsome and a little bit boyish. 

"Your cards," he passes the pile between our hands, setting them down in front of me. "We're tied now."

My cheeks redden. 'Tied?' I cross my middle and forefinger. 

"The score, Maggie," he clears up with this amused smirk. Right - duh. "We're tied."

Tied - I'm tied up in you, Derek Travis. 

***

"What else, he can build a house from scratch? He's just whipping out talents and hotness left, right, and centre. How are you putting up, Margaret? Cause I'd be soiled between my thighs if I were you." Josie describes. 

I laugh as my cheeks redden, my eyes glancing over to Derek for the five hundredth time tonight around the camps main bonfire. Kids roast marshmallows, some giggling and chatting away, as the others rest down by the flames. 

But all of them are enamoured by Derek, just not as enamoured as me. 

He plays a soft tune on his guitar, no lyrics or song, just a steady strum of no particular tune. It's entrancing me even more, my heart beating out of my chest so harshly my feelings for him worry me.

It scares me to like a guy this much. To like a guy who is so liked by everyone, and then there's me - the shadow people leave nightlights on for their children. 

'I'm dying.' I sign in response. 

"I wouldn't put it past you," says Ella. "I'm getting another fizzy, you girls want one?" 

"Get me a Fanta, please." Josie answers. 

Ella nods, her eyes moving to me. 'Just a coke.'

"Easy, done." She turns on her feet to go. 

"Say hello to Nelson for me!" Josie calls out, and I giggle when Ella flips her off as she stalks away to the main hall for drinks. "Those two are more than we think, Margaret." 

"Campfire song! Campfire song!" The kids pleads drag my gaze back over to Derek. 

He laughs as the kids swarm him, some sitting cross-legged in front, as others swarm around him on the logs. "What did you ask?" 

"Campfire song!" They yell louder. 

"I don't think I quite heard you," he cups his ear, "say that again."

The kids giggle before screaming, "campfire song!"

"Ah, a song. Alright, I can do that." He chuckles. 

A calm washes over the kids, spreading around the other counsellors as everyone waits for the song he'll choose. He strums a few random chords, giving some smiles to the kids, before singing the first few lines of Tanya Tucker's Delta Dawn. 

"What's that flower you have on? Could it be a faded rose from days gone by," his voice is low, almost husky, and making me sweat inside and out. It sweeps me in, draws me closer and closer without me moving an inch, only my soul flying about. 

The crowd joins in, but i'm focused on him. 

On his fingers over the chords, of his broad shoulders, of his sly smile, of everything he sits as on the other-side of the crackling fire. There's a rush in my blood that's full of desire, but this frivolous sparkly kind I've never experienced. 

And it electrifies when Derek's eyes flicker up to meet mine, those green eyes of his glowing in the embers and flames. But when I think he'll look down, he stays put. He doesn't let his eyes move away from me for more than three seconds. 

I was counting. 

Then he gives me a wink - and that's wink number I've lost count because my brain has gone all fuzzy. 

***