Wish You Were Here

57

My eyes were already welled with tears when I went into Grant's hospital room. When he saw me, he knew I had come to say goodbye and he put on his bravest face yet.

"I don't think I can leave you," I whispered through my tears. "Maybe I should stay. I mean, at least until your family gets here."

He smiled and reached for my hand. "No, I promised you I'd make sure you got back home and I meant it. Besides, my parents are coming. They'll be here within the next few hours. Don't worry!"

"But, when are we going to see each other again?"

"We'll figure it out, I promise," he said.

He scooted over in his bed and I laid down next to him. We stayed silent for awhile, lost in thought and enjoying the last peaceful moments we had together before we would be miles apart. Tears spilled down my cheeks when I sat up.

"You saved me, Grant," I told him. "I'll never be able to thank you enough."

He shook his head. "As much as I'd love to play the hero, it's not true. We saved each other. It's like I said, we make a good team."

"Yeah, we really do," I smiled.

I kissed him gently on the lips. After promising to call him as soon as I could, I reluctantly said goodbye. My doctor had prescribed me some strong anxiety medication, so I took one before leaving the hospital with my parents. I didn't want to think about leaving Grant. I didn't want to think about anything, really. By the time we got to the airport, I was relaxed and sleepy. Within minutes after take off, I fell asleep.

The first few days of being home were a strange adjustment. My parents hovered over me like a helicopter. As much as I appreciated the attention, my most peaceful moments were when I was in my room alone. After getting me a new cell phone since I never got mine back after Gina had taken all of my belongings, I could stay in touch with Grant as much as I wanted. Which, I'll admit, was pretty much all the time. Hearing his voice was usually the only thing that could calm me down when my anxiety hit a high. There were countless nights that we stayed on the phone until one of us fell asleep. It was also nice to talk to him about other things besides all of the trauma we'd experienced.

Grant has flown home the day after I did. Beth and Will did, too. Each of us were contacted by our local authorities and reminded over and over again not to tell anyone what we had gone through. The FBI was hoping to catch whoever was behind all of it, so we couldn't let anyone know the police were aware of it. Of course, I figured Cal would tell them if she could; if she knew who they were. Otherwise, she was probably on the run and onto her next crime.

The detectives and other law enforcement opened a huge investigation on the camp. Since it was so elaborate, and expensive, to have set up the camp, they figured it had to be a small group of people behind it, as opposed to being just one person. This group obviously had a lot of money. They had set up the island almost like a maze, but for whatever reason, it wasn't fully finished before I had arrived there. The wall that was made to look like a movie backdrop that Grant and I came across was most likely placed there as a way to deter campers from going off the path.

Detective Larsen would call and update us as much as possible. She said that there were probably supposed to have been more cameras set up since the goal was to live stream on the dark web. People could then place bets on which team they thought would win. Somewhere hidden on the island, police had found an underground storage space filled with more traps and elaborate drawn out plans that never took place, fortunately for us.

But, because there was still so much stuff unused, as well as game plans that never happened, the detective told us that they feared this group would no doubt strike again. The island was a test run; a way to see which things would work and which wouldn't. We were told that they were focusing as hard as they could on this since this was likely to happen again soon, but on a bigger and better thought out scale.

I hated the idea of anyone else going through what I had. It shook me to the core. I began seeing a therapist and continued taking anxiety medication. Since I couldn't tell anyone, not even my best friend, what had happened, I had to pretend like everything was normal. That was the hardest thing of all. I felt distant from everyone at school, often getting lost in thought in the middle of my classes. My parents were understanding and offered any help they could think of. But I knew getting past what happened was ultimately up to me.

Beth and I stayed in contact every few days. She said that she spoke to Will daily, usually more than once. One grade younger than me, she still had a few years left of high school. Will, on the other hand, was a senior this year, as was Grant. Beth told me that Will lived with his father and planned on joining the military after graduation. I could see Will doing that, he was the perfect candidate. Our camp experience was the thing that made him decide to do it, Beth said. Then, when she graduated high school, they'd be able to be together. Even though I knew a lot of high school relationships didn't always work out, something about the two of them made me believe that they'd be together forever. As happy as I was for them, I couldn't ignore the pit in my stomach as I wished I could have the same with Grant. My parents allowed him to stay with us whenever he could fly to visit, which I was incredibly thankful for. He slept on the couch, usually over long weekends or holidays, and I was always sad to see him go when it was over.

One evening while I was feeling especially down, Grant called me.

"I think I've figured out what I'm going to do after high school," he told me.

"What's that?" I asked.

"Well, did you know that Texas has one of the best police academies?"

"No, I guess I didn't know that," I said.

"Yeah, well, that's what I'm thinking of doing," Grant said. "I mean, if you're cool with me moving to Texas, that is. I don't have to-"

I jumped up and down with excitement.

"Seriously?" I asked. "You're not joking? You'd move here?"

"In a heartbeat," he told me.

After that, all I had to do was wait. Wait for Beth and Will's future together to begin, wait for Grant to move to Texas, and wait for the investigation to be solved once and for all. Until then, I was content with the mundane daily tasks that I used to find dull. I no longer craved excitement the way I had every summer. Maybe I had been running from the life I viewed as boring all those summers before. But now, I knew excitement was ahead, waiting for me when I was ready and I basked in the anticipation of it all. One day soon, I'd have the excitement of being with Grant again and leaving the camp behind us while we ventured into our new lives together in the future. All I had to do was wait.

Grant sent me a text one evening saying how much he missed me and of course, I felt the same way about him. Each day, week, month seemed to take forever as we waited for the school year to end so summer could begin and he could move. I cradled my cell phone in my hand, reading his words over and over again to myself before I sent him a text in response:

Wish you were here.