The Kids Aren't Alright

Chapter 60: Becca

"What's the rush?" Finn asks. "You don't smell that bad."

"I stepped in poison-ivy," Ronan blurts out. "So much poison-ivy."

"Where?"

"Everywhere!"

Finn gives me a look. I shrug at him, as if to say, no comment.

"Don't wait up for me," Ronan says, smoothing his hair back. "And please don't get your teenage hormones on my bed while I'm gone."

"Why would our hormones be on your bed?"

"I don't know. I don't want to know. Just stay away from my side of the room."

"Oh, fuck off."

"That's what I'm trying to do!" Ronan shoots us both a dirty look before stalking out of the cabin, letting the door slam shut behind him.

Finn lets out a long-suffering sigh. "Sorry about him," he says, a bit wearily. He gathers the scattered cards into a neat pile and slips them back into their cardboard box. "He's been acting so weird lately. Want to sit?"

I've been on my feet all night standing around the campfire, so I nod in agreement. We put the cards away and sit down on his bed.

As soon as my legs make contact with the sheets, whatever conversation we had going earlier dies instantly. I'm pretty sure we're both thinking about the same thing now: the kiss we shared by the lake that neither of us has acknowledged yet. Determined to break the awkward silence, I ask, "So, do you and Ronan play cards often?"

"Sort of. We only started a week or two ago."

"Are you friends now?"

Finn half-laughs. "I don't know if we'll ever be friends. It's more like... a truce."

"You broke his nose, and now you're on a truce?"

"We talked it out. Resolved our issues. It's all good now."

"His nose is still crooked."

"Yeah, but he likes it like that. He won't admit it, but he thinks it makes him look more bad-ass. I've seen him checking himself out in the mirror."

I stare off at the beams of wood supporting the ceiling and let the future wash over me like an outgoing tide. "What do you think Wolsey is going to show us tomorrow?"

"God, who knows. I still have no idea why Ronan is so insistent about talking to him. Do you remember how he shattered that window when we brought up the summer of '69? There's something seriously wrong with him."

"So, what's our next move then? If Wolsey doesn't give us any answers?"

"I don't know. Maybe we shouldn't have a next move at all. Why can't we just be perfectly oblivious like all the other campers? Why can't we just focus on—" he waves his hand at the space between me and him— "this?"

"And what's 'this'?" I ask wryly.

Finn's freckled face turns slightly pink. "I— uh—"

"Cat got your tongue?"

"Um...."

"It's okay, Fish, I'm just teasing. You can be such a prude sometimes." I roll my eyes at him and lay back on his bed, so my head is resting on the pillows. That's when I feel something poking into my neck.

But it's not a real sensation. It's a psychic one. Or maybe... a memory. The faded glimpse of a flashlight beam searching through the dark, and a lock being picked—