Learning A Lake ✔

- Thirty-Two -

♢ Laura ♢

Oscar left two days after revealing his illness to us. The hospital wanted to get his tests and treatment started as soon as possible.

Katie was pretty upset but the hospital was only a twenty-minute bus ride from camp so her and Rachel would be making regular visits together. Matt, Ryan and I also agreed to visit him whenever we could. Oscar explained that his case of Leukemia was rare so they wanted to monitor him closely to determine how strong it was and what treatment he needed first.

So much had happened since we all got here, some good things but some bad things and camp was over in just under two weeks. It was five days until Ryan's birthday and I had no idea what to get him.

After everything that we had all been through at camp this year, I wanted the rest of it to go smoothly without any more trouble. I definitely wasn't expecting some unwanted attention from Jess and Kayla the other day when they tried to make amends with me.

"Laura." Jess spoke plainly with no emotion on her face. "We want to apologise." Kayla spoke up.

"Why? You weren't involved." I said, trying to get away from them. They had bumped into me in the laundry room.
"Wait." Jess gulped. "We were friends with her and she did that to you! I don't think we could look at her the same way again, it's disgusting how she could do that to someone. Especially someone like you."

"Like me?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. I had no idea why they were doing this. I've stopped trusting people now and I was in no position to forgive them completely, even if they were not involved.

"Yeah, you're such a nice girl, you've done nothing wrong and we were both blind to her games for all these years. We are sorry." Kayla looked at me, sulking a little.

I sighed before replying to them. "You are forgiven, but I've been through so much now that it will take me longer to trust you. No offence but I don't want to get myself hurt again."

They both seemed a little happier with my response. "Thank you." They both said. "It means a lot, we didn't want it resting on our chests before leaving here." Jess said with relief in her tone.

"It's okay." I said and began to leave the room.
"One last thing." Jess looked right at me. "Watch out for Joel. He-"
I cut her off. "I know, he's trouble." I smirked at them.

"That's not all." Kayla rushed her words. "He was Jane's rebound."

There was something about hearing those words from Kayla which made my stomach twist. I couldn't put my finger on it but I knew I needed to avoid Joel at all costs.

I put the thoughts to the back of my mind and decided to put my headphones in and go for a run. I think that's what I needed, it always helped me burn of some steam.

My agility was poor now, I used to run every day after school and since being here I had barely done it once or twice. Deciding that pushing myself was the best option, I set off at a fast pace around the forest, blocking out all thoughts with my loud music.

I nearly screamed when I realised I wasn't running alone anymore. Joel was running with me and right now I needed to pretend that I wasn't panicking. The two of us were alone. Yanking my headphones out, I decided to play it cool when starting a conversation with him.

"I prefer to run alone." I smirked and picked up the pace a bit, he quickly caught up with me.
"I thought you wouldn't mind some company." He flirted a little, his eyes dropping down to my chest. I mentally rolled my eyes and thought, why did I wear a tight running top.