It was dark.
I hated the dark.
I wasn't afraid of it or anything, I just didn't like it. But of course that was what I was surrounded by right now. Sure, there were few lights here and there, just enough for me to be able to see, but it still wasn't enough. I needed way more light to feel comfortable.
I had a feeling someone was watching me, even though I knew that no one was. Don't you just hate that feeling? I always seemed to get it a lot.
I wished that I had decided to take a walk during the day, but I was stupid and I didn't. Now I had to deal with the consequences and just continue to walk in the dark.
I heard an owl hoot, and it almost scared me so much that I jumped. I hated being so jumpy at night, but could you blame me? Being best friends with a scary movie junkie like Lexi took its toll on me, and now I was afraid that a vampire was going to jump out and attack me every time I heard a noise.
Well... as long as they didn't sparkle, that was perfectly fine.
Now, if it was a werewolf, I would have been long gone.
But who knew what lurked around the woods that surrounded Camp Kingston? Lions, tigers, and bears? Oh, my...
But on all seriousness, I was actually afraid of walking around in the dark. I should have known that it was going to get dark when I started walking when the sun was almost set, but I acted like an idiot and just kept on going. I just needed to clear my head, and I knew that I wasn't going to be able to do that in Cabin C.
But what could actually be in the woods? A wolf? A bear? A vampire?
Not that I believe in vampires or anything...
I really just wanted peace and quiet.
That's really just all I needed.
But as my phone rang shrilly, breaking the silence of nature that surrounded me, I couldn't be more ticked off. I just wanted to get rid of all my worries, and I thought that a walk might help.
It might have, if whoever was calling me wasn't calling me.
Marnie and her friends were staying at a hotel nearby, and I kind of wished that I had gone with them. After witnessing what had happened between Marnie and Jesse, I had gotten to talking with both her and Delilah. They were actually great people, and I wanted to talk to them more. We had exchanged numbers so that after they left we could still talk to each other.
So I thought that it was either Marnie or Delilah that was bothering me, but when I saw the familiar phone number show up on my screen, I only rolled my eyes.
"Hi, Grandma."
"Hi, Jordan!" she cried enthusiastically on the other line. "How's my lovely granddaughter doing?"
"Tired," I answered, rubbing my free hand over my face.
"What are you tired from? Is Jesse too rough for you?"
"Gr--Grandma!" I shouted, a little too loud. I clasped a hand over my mouth, hopeful that no one had heard me. Why did my grandmother have to make such perverted comments? It was creepy! Especially since it was about a guy I couldn't stand!
"What?" my grandmother asked innocently, and I knew that she was probably blinking. "Am I right?"
"No, you're wrong!" I whispered hoarsely, shaking my head widely, even though she couldn't see me. "Wrong, wrong, wrong!"
"Okay, just keep on denying it then, Jordan."
"Dallas is here," I told her, not even meaning to. I'd rather her tease me about Dallas than about Jesse. She had always liked Dallas when we were little, even going off and calling him her grandson, so I knew that she would have been a lot happier if it was Dallas and not--
"You mean the scum of the earth?"
My thoughts were cut off by my grandmother, and I only blinked in surprised. She loved Dallas!
"Grandma?" I asked now, unsure if she was losing her hearing or something. "Did you hear me right? Dallas is here."
"I heard you perfectly fine. The jerk that left you is there?"
Ah, I understood now. Even though she had loved Dallas when we were little, she obviously grew out of it after he had ditched me at his prom. I didn't really blame her, but she had to know that Dallas hadn't meant to do that and that he knew it was a mistake...
"He apologized, Grandma," I told her, sitting down on a tree stump. "He's one of the camp counselors here, and he almost looks the exact same. He's still tall and handsome and everything. If only you could see him, Grandma. It's just like when we were kids; just like it was four years ago."
"Except four years ago he didn't break your heart."
"It's fine," I sighed, waving a hand in front of my face. "He told me that it was a mistake. Don't you remember how much you loved Dallas when we were little? He's still the same old guy. He's still sweet and funny, and nothing's really changed. He's--"
"Well, I'm not about to trust him just yet," my grandmother informed me moodily. "He'll have to gain my trust back. Why can't you just be with a good boy like Jesse?"
I remembered what Jesse had said to Marnie, about how he was a bad guy, and I found myself frowning.
"I have to go, Grandma. I'll talk to you later, okay? Love you."
"Love you, too, Jordan."
After closing my phone, I let out a long sigh and got up from the tree stump.
I continued on walking, getting more and more tired with every step I took. I knew that I shouldn't have gone out on a walk, but it was too late now. I was pretty far away from my cabin. I was by the main office and the dock, which was farthest away from Cabin C.
Last time I ever take a walk to get rid of my worries.
Ever.
I immediately regretted walking around the camp barefoot (at night, which makes it ten times better) when I pretty much sliced my foot open on who knows what.
Okay, maybe not sliced, but it was a pretty big cut. I wasn't sure how deep it was, but it hurt like hell and I could barely walk on it. I let out an irritated groan as I tried to think of what to do, and I remembered that Erica had said something about a first aid kit being in the main office somewhere.
So I hopped to the main office, and I was lucky that I was only a few feet away when I cut my foot, because I knew if I had to hop anymore, I was going to fall down.
When I hopped to the front desk, the secretary glared at me. I noticed that this wasn't the normal secretary, but it was a fill-in. I heard Andi, the actual secretary, was out sick. Now how lucky was I? I got the mean, grumpy secretary when my foot felt like it was going to fall off.
Okay, not really, but you get what I mean.
Her eyes narrowed as I leaned against the desk to supported myself. "Is there something you need?"
"First aid kit," I answered, doing my best not to fall over. I didn't know how badly I was bleeding, but I wasn't about to look at my foot. Even though I wasn't afraid of it or anything, I still didn't like to look at blood. It was just so gross to look at.
"Here," the mean secretary said, her nose wrinkling as she pushed the box toward me. "Go do it outside. Don't get any blood on the carpet. Now hurry, shoo, shoo. Your curfew's in a half an hour, and you don't want me to have to get you in trouble."
I only nodded, taking the box and limping out of the main office. Wow, what a grump. I never thought I would meet anyone like that, besides Erica. Except Erica said the meanest things in Spanish and not English, so it wasn't that bad, I guess.
After disinfecting my cut and bandaging it, I sat back and relaxed for a little bit. I was still a little spooked after what I had seen between Marnie and Jesse. He had punched the wall, and he had called himself a bad guy... How was Jesse a bad guy?
The water felt good against my toes as I sat against the dock, my legs hanging over the edge. I hadn't been there since the night I tried to seduce Jesse.
I had spent the last four years of my life thinking that I knew Jesse Jacobsen so well. But did know anything about him at all? I knew he annoyed me. I knew what school he went to and when his birthday was, but I didn't really know anything that would make him a bad guy. Sure, he would my life miserable, but I knew he was talking about something else when he was talking to Marnie. And I wanted nothing more than to know what it was.
Jesse never seemed dangerous or anything at all. The only time he had ever really scared me was when he pushed me against the wall, but he apologized for that almost immediately, which was something he never did. Unless it was a prank, Jesse had never scared me before. He just wasn't a scary person.
In fact, if he hadn't annoyed me and ruined so many things for me throughout high school, maybe I would have even fell in love with him or something. If he wasn't so annoying and mean, who knew what could have happened between us? Honestly, I didn't want to know. Jesse had been annoying since the second I had met him.
I closed my eyes and let out a long breath of air. Why was Jesse always in my mind? Why did he always have to invade my thoughts? He just couldn't leave me alone, could he?
"You having fun looking like a loner, Emery?"
Apparently he couldn't.
The voice of the aforementioned boy caused me to let out another breath of air, but this time it was out of annoyance. I opened my eyes, but didn't look back at him. I knew he was going to come up and sit next to me, so I wasn't even going to try to do or say anything.
"Well, I was having fun until you showed up," I grumbled, leaning back as my toes continued to stay in the water. "I was actually relaxing for once."
There was something different about him, I noticed, but I just didn't know what. And I hated when I didn't know something...
Jesse stretched and was about to say something until he suddenly recoiled, biting his tongue to stop himself from making a sound. I looked over to see what the problem was, and my eyes widened slightly when I saw the scratches on his hand.
Oh, yeah... He had punched the wall.
"What's wrong, Jacobsen?" I asked, sounding a little smugger than I had meant to. Obviously it would have hurt if you punched a wall. I did have the first aid kit with me...
As if reading my mind, Jesse looked over at the first aid kit in surprise. "What do you have that for?" he asked, ignoring my question as his eyebrows rose on his forehead as he did so.
"Oh, I cut my foot, that's all," I explained, lifting up my injured foot, as if to prove it to him. "That secretary filling in for Andi sure is a grouch. She told me not to get any blood on the carpet. Like I can even help it! I wouldn't have been bleeding if it was up to me..."
It was strange, talking to Jesse this way, as if he was my friend or something. But, for some reason, it felt a lot easier to talk to him about this type of thing than it did with Dallas. And I didn't understand why.
"You were bleeding?" Jesse asked, sounding concerned. "How bad?"
"Not too bad," I shrugged, propping my foot up on my other leg to show him. "It was a pretty big cut and all, but not very deep. I'm sure I'll be fine by tomorrow."
It was so strange. I was actually having a normal conversation with Jesse Jacobsen, and out of everything, it was about my foot. How weird was that? I didn't think that it was even possible to have an actual conversation with him. I always just thought that we would always fight whenever we spoke to each other...
Jesse moved his fingers, but then let out a slow his of pain. I looked down at the scratches that were all over his fingers, and I couldn't help but feel kind of bad. Even though he did it to himself...
"That looks like a pretty bad wound," I told him with a sigh, very tempted to take his hand to examine it. "How'd you get it?"
He didn't know that I had been watching, and I wasn't about to tell him that I was, because then he would have gotten angry. But then again... who cared if Jesse was angry with me?
"I was roughhousing with Alex, and I rammed it into a wall," Jesse lied with a shrug, as if it wasn't anything at all. "I took some painkillers a little while ago... Actually, I took a lot... And they still didn't help at all..."
I blinked, understanding what he said. He had taken way more painkillers than he was supposed to.
"You idiot, if you take too many aspirins, you could die," I told him, staring at him flatly. No wonder there was something kind of off about him. He was high.
"I didn't mean to," Jesse defended, a goofy grin on his face. "Alex gave me too many by accident. I didn't know that it was too many until I started feeling weird."
I rolled my eyes. "What an idiot..."
"It sucks. I've never gotten high before since I don't do drugs. Well, it's what I get for wrestling Alex. A busted up hand, and then a drugged up night..."
I let out a sigh, shaking my head. "I know you punched the wall, Jesse," I told him quietly, letting out a small breath of air. "It pretty much shook the cabin... I didn't know you were that strong."
When I looked up at him, I expected him to be glaring at me, or to shoot back with some obnoxious retort. But what I saw when I looked up at Jesse's face wasn't that. He was giving me a look that I couldn't understand, but once he realized that I was looking at him, the look was quickly replaced with a smirk.
"Why, you called me by my first name, Emery. Don't tell me you're just falling for me now."
I elbowed him in the side as hard as I could, but I knew that it didn't do any good. "Just shut it, idiot," I told him. "I have disinfectant and bandages here, so I'll help you with your wound. No matter what you say, I know it hurts. It was such a stupid thing to do, punching that wall. What were you even thinking? Ugh, don't even answer that, just give me your hand. You're right handed, so you'd just mess up if you'd try to do it yourself. Come on and hurry up, give me your hand!"
Jesse continued to smirk. "Alright, Mom."
I pulled out the disinfectant and a few cotton balls, laying them out on my lap as Jesse gave me his hand. As I moved his fingers around a little, he hissed out in pain, and I only rolled my eyes. It was his own stupid fault for punching the wall. Of course he was going to get hurt! What did he think, he was going to punch a hole through the wall? Knowing Jesse, he probably did.
I dipped a cotton ball into the disinfectant before gently rubbing it against part of Jesse's wound. He let out another hiss of pain and tried to pull away, but I continued to hold onto his wrist as if my life depended on it. "Stop acting like such a baby," I snapped, gripping onto him tighter. "I had to go through this with my foot, so you have to go through it, too. It may hurt now, but it won't later. So shut up and suck it up. Be a man or something."
Jesse rolled his eyes, continuing to let me clean his would. He would hiss every now and again, and I couldn't help but giggle every time he did so.
"What's so funny, Emery?" he asked, sounding amused.
"Oh, it's nothing, nothing at all..." I giggled, continuing to clean his wound. "It's just that you sound like a cat when you hiss. I'd find it kind of scary if cats weren't so cute."
"So, you're calling me cute?"
"Th--that's not it!"
"Sure it isn't, Emery."
I rolled my eyes, rubbing a little harder as I continued to clean his wound. He recoiled slightly, but didn't make the hissing sound that made him sound like a cute cat.
Wait, not cute. Ugly. Ugly cat.
Jesse continued smirking at me even when I was done disinfecting. I didn't know why I was helping him get rid of his pain when I should have been the one inflicting it, but I continued to help him anyway.
I now took gauze out of the box and slowly wrapped it around each of his fingers, wrapping it around his knuckles last. I wished that I could have wrapped his around his mouth, but I knew that that wouldn't have stopped him from talking or annoying me. Nothing would ever get him to stop annoying me.
"Thanks," he said, wiggling his fingers a little. "It doesn't hurt as much anymore."
"Just be happy it didn't get infected," I grumbled, turning away from him and putting everything back into the first aid kit. "It wouldn't be so much fun making fun of you if you didn't have a right hand."
Suddenly, an arm wrapped around my neck, and my back was pressed against something hard. I immediately recognized it as a chest, but it took me a few more seconds to realize that it was only Jesse and not some psychopathic killer.
"Thanks, Emery," he whispered, his breath tickling my ear. "Now how can I repay you?"
"Y--you're making me sound like I'm some kind of prostitute or something," I stuttered, elbowing him in the stomach lightly. "N--now let me go."
"You're cute," he whispered in my ear once again, causing me to freeze. "You're so cute, Emery..."
"Let me go, Jesse," I told him, trying to keep my voice steady. "You're high. You don't know what you're talking about."
"Come on, Emery..." Jesse continued, ignoring what I had said as he nipped at my ear, causing me to squeak. "You kissed me earlier today..."
"That was just to get Aimee angry!"
"Come on, Emery... Let's have some fun..."
"Hey, both of you!" the familiar voice shouted, saving me. "What are you doing out after curfew?"
Normally, I wouldn't have wanted to hear that voice, but now I was perfectly fine with it. I was even okay with getting in trouble, as long as I could get away from a high Jesse. Who knew what he was going to do if we didn't get interrupted? I had to make sure to never let him ever take painkillers ever again.
Jesse still hadn't let go of me as we looked over at Erica, whose eyes went wide when they landed on Jesse. A hand flew to her mouth, and she looked like she couldn't believe her eyes. I peeked over at Jesse to see that he looked shocked as well, and I didn't understand it.
"Jesse?" Erica asked once she had removed her hand. "What are you doing here?"
Jesse blinked. "What are you doing here?"
Erica then seemed to remember that I was there. She looked at me with such hatred that it almost scared me. She never looked at me like that before... "Ugly!" she snapped, almost causing me to jump from Jesse's arms. "Go back to your cabin! Y--you to, Jesse!"
Did she just stutter? Why was she stuttering?
"Is she calling you ugly?" Jesse asked, ignoring Erica as he turned me around to face him. The look on his face scared me a little, and I shook my head as quickly as she could, just so I wouldn't have to see that face.
"N--no, i--it's just... Sh--she has n--nicknames for a--all of us..."
Now why was I stuttering like an idiot? Seriously?
"Erica," Jesse said, turning toward my counselor, who actually looked pretty nervous, "go away. Now. We'll go back to our cabins in a few minutes."
"But--"
"Just go!"
She nodded, scampering off in the other direction. My jaw dropped as I watched her leave. I hadn't ever seen Erica like that before... How did she know Jesse?
"How do you know Erica?" I asked, voicing my thoughts. "I thought it was impossible to get her scared or anything... And wait... Aren't you high?"
Jesse unwrapped his arms from my waist, hopping up. "Let's just say that this is the second time you've been pranked on this dock, Emery," he winked, turning around and starting to walk away, completely ignoring my Erica question. "Oh, yeah. Thanks for cleaning up my wound, too."
So he hadn't really been high? That jerk! He really scared me! People died from taking too many painkillers!
"Then, wait, were you really serious when you called me cute?" I asked, scrambling up onto my feet to try to stop him. I put all my wait on my left leg, the one without the cut, and I waited for him to respond. He had stopped walking, and he was just standing in front of me with his back to me.
He turned, smirking at me. "Maybe I was, maybe I wasn't. That's just something you're going to have to figure out on your own, Emery."
Before he could turn around and start walking again, I took a step forward. I let out a shriek of pain when I felt pain shoot up from my foot and through my leg, causing me to collapse. I had fully expected to fall onto the cold wood of the dock, but when I had been caught, I was really surprised.
"You gotta be more careful, Emery," Jesse sighed, shaking his head as he did so. "Can you walk?"
"N--no," I stuttered, biting my lip to stop the tears from falling. "It really hurts."
"Idiot," Jesse said, picking me up bridal style. "What did you even step on?"
"I don't know; it was too dark to tell," I whimpered, scrubbing the tears from my eyes. "The cut didn't even seem that bad when I was fixing it... But I didn't put any weight on it until just now..."
I wrapped my arms around his neck, burying my face into his shoulder. "That was a mean prank that you pulled," I murmured, suddenly growing tired as he continued to carry me to my cabin. "I thought that you could have died. People actually die from drug overdoses, you idiot."
"And you would have cared if I died?" Jesse asked, obviously just joking around.
"Yes," I answered truthfully, not even meaning to. This caused him to stop walking and completely freeze, annoying me a little. I really just wanted to go to bed now. Why had he stopped?
"You'd be upset if I died?"
"Yeah, I would," I told him, rubbing my eyes. "You're a good source of entertainment. I'm good entertainment for you, aren't I? I'm sure you feel the same way about me, right?"
Jesse continued walking, his lips buried into my hair. "Something like that..."
"And after this year ends, we won't ever see each other again," I noted sleepily, burying my head into his chest even more. "So, why not have fun while we can? I don't want you dying before our time is up. Let's make these last two months together fun. I'm going to be moving to Yale early on in the summer, so I won't be here for long... So let's make it fun. We'll prank each other, and make fun of each other, and all the other things we've been doing since we met. It'll be so much fun."
"Jordan?" Jesse asked, sounding almost completely broken. It caught me so off guard that I didn't even realize that he had used my first name.
"Hmm?" I murmured, now half asleep.
"Please don't talk about you leaving."
I didn't even have enough energy to nod, but I did my best and tried to anyway. "Okay."
"Goodnight, Jordan."
"Goodnight, Jesse."
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In my opinion, I think this is the best chapter. ^_^ Definitely my favorite.
That dock is going to be a very special place for Jordan and Jesse... ^o^
Please COMMENT, VOTE, and FAN! :D