Beacon in the Darkness

14. Cloudy

Michael dropped back onto the grass, drops of sweat trailing down his cheeks and dripping from his nose. "Okay, that's it. I'm spent."

Camila sat next to him, squinting and holding her hand at her brow, attempting to shield her eyes from the bright sun. "You're spent? After three boxes?" She shook her head and pulled her knees to her chest, holding them tight against her with one arm. "That's pretty pathetic, even for you."

"But it's like a thousand degrees out here," he whined.

"I told you to wear appropriate clothing—and by that I meant shorts. It isn't my fault you decided to ignore me and come in jeans."

"Mila, you know I don't wear shorts."

"Oh come on, Michael. Who cares if your legs are skinny and white?" She paused. "And what do you really expect when you only ever wear pants?"

"You know it's not just that!" he turned to her and whispered in a harsh voice.

Camila rolled her eyes. Ever since Hanson told the entire school about Michael's "inability" to grow hair on his legs he'd been afraid to wear shorts for fear that everyone would think he shaved. "I thought you said it was finally growing in?"

Michael frowned and glanced up at the sky. "It is, but it's still really sparse and—well, you know how I feel about it."

"All right." She held her hands up in front of her and fell back onto the grass next to him.

They lay there for awhile, side by side, their heads touching, while staring up at the clouds and pointing out different shapes to one another. Camila saw an elephant, a Chinese mask, and a pair of angel wings. Michael kept rattling off various video game scenarios that Camila had no idea what he was talking about, or how he managed to see such detailed scenes in a clump of moisture particles.

But she'd stopped questioning Michael's imagination a long time ago. It just wasn't worth the hour long lecture she received on which sorcerers harbored which power, the different weapon accessories available to each player, and which demons spewed poisonous venom.

Even though they hadn't spent much time together since his return from the summer excursion with his mother, it was easy to fall back into their easy friendship. Camila had almost forgotten what it was like. Most people looked at them and assumed what they had went beyond friendship, but that had never been an issue for them. Michael had been her best friend practically all her life and she just didn't see him that way. Sure, he was cute in his own geeky, Michael-way. And she loved him, but the relationship they had was perfect just as it was. No games, no worrying about looks, no pretending. Just them acting like dorks as they always had. She liked it that way.

But Shawn—well, Shawn was another issue entirely. From the moment she'd laid eyes on him she'd felt—something. It wasn't love at first sight or any such nonsense, but it was different than she'd ever felt for anyone else. A connection of sorts that was immediate and strong. She had no idea what it meant or what it was. All she knew was that she had to know him. Had to be around him and get inside to figure him out. But the more time she spent with him, the more she wanted ... more.