Return To Sender (Letters to Nowhere #2)

Chapter 51

~jordan~

God it's such a relief knowing that Karen is going as crazy as I am. Or at least somewhere close. Hours after making out in the shower, my wet muddy clothes are now dangling over railing outside my own cabin, and I'm still stuck in that moment.

The fire that another coach must have started earlier tonight is nearly dying out and I'm the only one left out here. Well me and a passed out drunken Tony lying in the grass nearby. I'm tweaking the second verse of the song I wrote last week, when voices emerge from the woods.

"You know Nina's gonna notice you're gone," I hear TJ say.

I look up from my guitar, expecting to see Stevie, but instead it's Blair walking quickly in front of TJ. Blair without Karen is even more of a surprise.

If it weren't Karen's best friend, an easily embarrassed and very innocent girl, I'd have a clever comment for TJ like, "dude, fifteen year olds, seriously?"

"I'm a guest, not a freakin' camper," Blair snaps at TJ. "I don't have a lights out time."

Blair comes to a dead stop when she sees me. "Oh. Hey Jordan."

TJ lifts his hands, exasperated. "Tell her she needs to get her ass back to her cabin before your dad or Nina find her wandering around at..." He pulls out his cell but it appears to be dead.

"Nine thirty," Blair finishes. "Nine freakin' thirty. Big deal."

Blair rushes over to the fire and plops down beside me. TJ glares at her. God, he's weird sometimes.

"Hey, Blair," I say hoping to cut the tension.

"What's this?" She picks up my notebook and squints at the page. "Are you writing a song?"

My neck heats up. I glance first at Tony—still out like a light—and then at TJ. He looks away, out at the lake. "I'm goin for a swim."

His T-shirt hits the ground in two seconds flat. Blair gives his retreating form the evil eye. "But there's no lifeguard, TJ! And it's dark, no swimming after dark!"

He shouts a few choice words at her and her expression shifts to a smug grin. She turns quickly back to my notebook. "I didn't know you were a songwriter."

That gets me to laugh. "Well, I haven't sold anything."

"Not yet." She shrugs. "Let's hear it."

My stomach immediately twists. I haven't exactly played a Jordan Bentley original for anyone. I kind of planned on doing that like never. But seconds later, I'm strumming the first chords, not braving the lyrics. Playing is one thing, singing is something entirely different.

Blair clicks on her flashlight, shining it at the page. She's studying my chicken scratch so closely, I get nervous and mess up the song. Blair doesn't even look up when I fumble, instead she rattles off a few suggestions for chord changes and when I try one and it works, she grabs my pencil and makes the adjustment on the page.

One minute of playing a song for Blair turns into a twenty minute musical rewrite, while TJ risks hypothermia out in the lake and Tony is halfway to a hangover. Blair's way too into this songwriting thing for me to stop her and ask how she knows so much about music. But when I play the newly written song, and Blair begins singing my lyrics, I've forgotten that question completely.

Her voice is not only pitch perfect, but it's something otherly. Totally, unpredictably, raw and honest. Too big and confident to come from such a small person. When we reach the end of the song, I don't give her a second to hesitant or revert back to Gymnast Blair. I play a different song, one I didn't write myself.

"You know this one?" I ask, diving into singing the first verse of Never Say Never by the Fray.

She nods and joins in, harmonizing perfectly with me. I coax her to hit higher notes, pull back on my own vocals. I have a feeling this is what my dad experiences when a kid shows up for their first gymnastics class and they've obviously got that special something—the four year old who whips out ten chip ups like it's nothing, the six year old who learns a back handspring or a kip on the first try—he's mentioned finding those kids before, the excitement. I've heard other coaches at the gym and here at camp talk about it. But I didn't get it until now.

The song ends and all I can do is stare at this alien creature in front of me. But I'm afraid to say anything, to break the spell.