Chance Encounters

seventeen

I didn't, of course, expect to find myself sitting around a campfire with a bunch of strangers several summers later, with Will looking expectantly at me, entirely clueless, asking me if I'd ever gone camping before. Taking a deep breath, I forced out a smile.

"Not really," I replied. "This is the closest I'd ever gotten to a camping experience."

"Really?"

He looked surprised, and maybe slightly intrigued. He made it seem as though it was a rarity to meet someone who had never gone camping yet. Maybe it was. Maybe everyone else had fathers who didn't bail on them when they made plans to go camping.

"Yeah," I replied, almost bitterly.

My thoughts were making me feel weary, and before I knew it, I was already taking a swig of the beer he'd given me. I tipped it up too quickly, so I had to wipe my chin with the back of my hand when some of the liquid trickled down.

"My friends and I always go camping," Will said. "We plan to go through everyone's hometowns whenever we get the chance."

"What for, though?" I asked him, wrinkling my nose at the thought. Being in the wilderness, sleeping in tents with no electricity didn't exactly seem enticing to me.

"It's fun."

"Fun," I repeated flatly.

"You don't think it is?"

I simply shrugged, taking another sip of my drink, more carefully this time to avoid giving him a straight answer. When I swallowed, I said, "I don't see how it can be any different than sleeping indoors."

"Everything's better done outdoors," he said.

"Even sex?"

He spluttered on his beer, nearly spitting it all out, but fortunately didn't. "Jesus."

I laughed. "Are you all right?"

He was coughing, tears pricking his eyes. "You—uh—caught me off guard."

"Sorry?"

"No, no, no," he said quickly, but then coughed again. I was starting to feel bad, so I found myself awkwardly patting him in the back. When he was done, I removed my hand and tried my best not to laugh again. Suddenly, he was staring right into my eyes. "Reed. You know, you're very attractive."

I hadn't expected that, so this time, it was him catching me off guard. I hadn't expected him to be so forward. I looked down at my bare toes digging in the cool sand and tucked my hair behind my ear. "You're only saying that because I brought up the word sex."

When he laughed, I could tell it was real. He looked away from my eyes, shaking his head. "You're really something."

When I looked up from my toes, I made the mistake of looking at Austin's direction. Will's laugh must have caught his attention, making him look over at the two of us mid-conversation with Peter. Our eyes locked.

Peter must have been saying something funny. Austin's lips were frozen into a grin, and for a second, it seemed as though he was smiling at me. Immediately, I looked away, feeling my ears heat up at having been caught looking.

For a second, I almost thought that he was directing the smile to me and goddammit, did he have to be so good-looking?

Tipping my bottle back, I took a big gulp, suppressing the urge to wince at the awful taste of the beer, before facing Will.

"Games," I suggested out of nowhere, changing the topic abruptly while simultaneously trying to find a way to distract myself. "Don't you guys play campfire games?"