Sixteen: Cupid, You Need to Work on Your Aim
Straight after the mentally scarring and mortifying incident that I will never speak of again, I head to Savannah’s cabin.
This is partly because she always knows what to do in these kinds of situations, but also due to the fact that mental support is greatly required at the current moment in time. It’s kind of required a lot, actually, but this is probably why Savannah’s so good at it. She’s used to me humiliating myself almost constantly, especially after committing to being my best friend for the best part of ten years.
I swear, she must have the patience of a saint.
All is quiet as I hasten up the stairs of the porch. The girls from Harmony Cabin must be down at the rec room or something, because no sound greets my ears, even when I am standing directly outside the door.
It’s not locked; I let myself in. Even when I enter the cabin and close the door behind me, no sound greets my ears. This seems strange for me, but that may be because I’ve been living in a noise-filled environment for the past week, where quietness is a rare privilege. Savannah’s kids happen to be some of the best behaved in the camp. It’s alright for some.
“Savannah?”
I frown slightly when there is no response.
Once I am inside, I am kind of surprised at the appearance of the cabin. Are other people’s really this tidy? I thought it was normal for clothes to be strewn over every inch of floor, and for it to be a miracle if the beds are made. As I look around Savannah’s cabin, it occurs to me that this might just not be the case.
But seriously? Getting the boys to tidy up is an impossible task.
A road that I would rather not venture down.
“Savannah?” I call again, a little louder this time. The main cabin is empty, but suddenly the sound of muffled speech greets my ears, originating from behind the door to Savannah’s room.
I hasten over towards it, grabbing the handle and pushing it so the door swings open. Instantly, my eyes are drawn to Savannah, who is sitting on her bed. But the thing that strikes me the most is that she is not alone.
She and Danny spring apart immediately, barely giving me the opportunity to register how close they were sitting before I interrupted. “Bailey?”
“Oh, um, sorry...”
Well, this is awkward. At least I hadn’t caught them in a full on make out session, but from the looks of things, they were getting pretty close to each other. In hindsight, I probably should’ve knocked.
I should really start thinking things through a little more.
“Bailey! I wasn’t, um, expecting you...”
Savannah’s cheeks are flushed pink, the rose shade infiltrating her perfectly tan skin.
“It’s okay, I can come back later…”
I pivot one hundred and eighty degrees on my heel, ready to exit Savannah’s room and leave the couple alone to complete their unfinished business (which, I have a feeling, includes their lips pressed against one another’s). It’s only when I am just about to take the first step that I feel a hand on my shoulder.
“Don’t worry,” Savannah says. “Danny was just, uh… leaving anyway. You’re not interrupting.”
It’s pretty obvious that I am, but the black haired guy in question rises from his seat on the bed anyway, nodding profusely in agreement to Savannah. “Yeah, I’m just going,” he says quickly. “Um… bye, Savannah. I’ll see you at dinner?”
My best friend responds positively to his statement with a couple of nods, and calls a goodbye as he makes his swift departure. I wait for the sound of the cabin door closing to reach my ears before I pounce on Savannah.
“Oh my God, you were so about to make out with him!”
Straight away, Savannah’s cheeks darken until they start to resemble the color of a ripe raspberry. “I was not!”
“Well, you seemed to be getting pretty close on the bed there…”
“Shut up!” Her dainty hand turns out to pack quite a punch, as my unfortunate arm discovers. “We were just talking, okay?”
“Whatever you say…”
“Bailey! I could say the same thing about you and Blake!”
“Maybe if he’d get his head out of Cindy’s cleavage.”
At this point, Savannah can’t resist letting her lips break into an amused smile, which lights up the whole of her face so vividly as if someone has just flicked the switch on a personal spotlight. “You’re surprisingly calm about it.”
Shrugging, I make my way over to her bad and sink onto it. “I’m getting over it. But seriously… what’s the deal with you and Danny?”
“There’s no deal!” Savannah persists, but the squeakiness of her tone suggests otherwise. She can be as bad a liar as me sometimes, and that’s coming from someone who blunders over their words so much I end up unable to form a coherent sentence. “Honestly… we’re just friends.”
“Friends with benefits?”
A cushion from her bed is thrown in my direction, colliding with my face when I am least expecting it. I pull it away from my face, which emerges grinning. “You’re so dirty minded,” Savannah scolds me. “There is a thing called just being friends, you know.”
“You told me you liked him.”
“I said maybe.”
“Which means you like him.”
“Which means maybe.”
I sigh deeply, shaking my head at my best friend. It was pretty obvious that if I hadn’t walked in, the two of them would’ve been engaged in a steamy make out session at this very moment. However, being the modest and respectable girl she is, she won’t admit this. “Anyway,” I say, suddenly remembering the real reason why I came over here. “I’ve just emerged from possibly the most embarrassing situation of my life.”
“Even more embarrassing than that time you walked around school with your skirt tucked in your panties?”
“Oh my God!” Just when I’ve been trying to erase that painful seventh grade memory from my mind. “Do you have to bring that up?”
Savannah’s lips curl in a smirk. “It was pretty funny, though.”
“Uh, can we not start listing my middle school humiliations?” I say exasperatedly, feeling my cheeks already start to burn. Why did I have such a painful and mortifying childhood? Because I was a freaking weird kid, who never really grew out of the awkward phase. “I don’t want to be here all night, anyway.”
“Sorry,” she says, although her expression is far from apologetic. “Carry on.”
“Well… let’s just say it was on par with the seventh grade panties fiasco,” I tell her, grimacing. “Because it was pretty bad. And I know you’re going to think I’m some complete weirdo stalker when I tell you this, but-”
“You stole a pair of Blake’s boxers and now sleep with them as a snuggle blanket?”
“Uh, what?!” My eyes widen at Savannah’s ridiculous suggestion. Is she actually implying that I would do something like that? I hope not. Because I may hide in a bush outside his cabin, but of course I would draw the line at stealing his underwear…
“Just a suggestion.”
“Well, that’s not it. I’m not that weird. And don’t say anything,” I add quickly, when I see Savannah begin to open her mouth. “The thing is… I kind of got caught hiding in the bush below Blake’s window…”
Immediately, Savannah bursts into spontaneous laughter. Okay… that was not really the reaction I was expecting, but I suppose we can work with it. After a few seconds, and when she has recovered from the peak of her giggles, she slaps her thigh lightly and grins at me. “Good one, Bailey. Even I know that you wouldn’t do that.”
“Uh…” I chew my lip. “I was actually serious…”
“Wait… what?!”
“Um, yeah…”
“Why the hell were you in a bush?!”
“Come on, Savannah,” I say, forcing out a laugh. “When you say it like that it makes me sound like some sort of crazy person…”
“Since when is stowing yourself away in a piece of shrubbery outside someone’s cabin normal?” Savannah’s disbelieving expression is enough to make my own transform into a grimace. “Freaking hell, Bailey. Dare I even ask what you were doing?”
“I didn’t really mean to… I mean, I was just casually walking along when I saw Tom going into Blake’s cabin. And Tom had already said that he’d squeeze some information out of Blake, anyway… I just saw the opportunity and took it! I didn’t mean to stay there for so long, and I really didn’t mean to get caught!”
Savannah’s eyebrows are raised, which is probably because she can’t believe my stupidity. To tell the truth, I’m still getting my head round it myself. I mean, although I’ve done some pretty weird things in the sixteen and a bit years I’ve been on this planet, it didn’t occur to me that I would ever get caught eavesdropping on someone’s conversation from a piece of shrubbery a meter below their window.
“And who was it that caught you?”
Biting my lip, I roll the answer around on my tongue for a few seconds before making the decision to release it into the air. “Uh, Blake…”
“Oh my God, you are so weird.”
“I know! I just couldn’t help it, and now I think I’ve just been embarrassed into the next century. How can I ever face Blake again?”
Savannah considers the options for a few moments. I can practically hear the cogs whirring in her brain, but I suppose this is a big decision. This is the difference between crawling under a rock and staying there for the rest of my life, or continuing on as a confident person who’s never hid in someone’s bush. You know, like Cindy.
Just with a way flatter chest.
“You’re just going to have to wing it.”
“Wing what?”
“Everything.”
My blank expression hopefully portrays my intense confusion. “That doesn’t really help me.”
“Just act like it never happened, and you’ll be fine.”
“Uh…” This is way easier said than done. I mean, in theory, yeah, it seems like a great idea. But how can you possibly act normal around the hottest guy on Earth, when just the previous day you were caught stalking them from the comfort of their garden? It’s just not happening.
Well, it won’t for me anyway. Because I know what I’m like. One amused look from Blake’s direction will send me into a flustered mess, tripping over my words as if they’re hurdles on a race track (and let me just tell you, since you weren’t there to witness the painfully embarrassing event in freshman gym class… I suck at hurdles). It’s impossible to take one look at those deep blue pools that happen to be his irises and not start drowning. This would probably be a whole lot better if I could actually swim without the use of armbands, but you know. I’m pretty sure even an Olympic swimmer wouldn’t be able to keep afloat under the intensity of that gaze.
“You can manage that, can’t you?”
Savannah is looking at me, prompting a response. It’s quite clear that on any planet in the universe this will be impossible for me (apart from maybe the dream world that is my imagination), but I nod anyway. “Yeah, I suppose.”
“Just think… confident.”
The same type of confidence you get from being caught stalking someone?
Maybe not.
“I’ll try.”
God, since when did my life get so complicated? I swear, back home it was so much easier. All I had to do was wake up, show up to school and try my hardest to act like being at the very bottom of the high school food chain doesn’t bother me in the slightest. Which it doesn’t.
Not much, anyway.
But my point is… I never had to worry about keeping a load of unruly kids under control, resisting the almost overwhelming urge to punch Cindy’s sickly little face in, or pretending that I actually have the basic knowledge of music that most of these kids acquired at the age of two.
As well as keeping my underwear out of the sight of hot male counselors.
I don’t remember that part being mentioned in the brochure.
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This story makes me laugh... even though I wrote it :P I love it too much. The one I'm writing now doesn't compare :( Anyway, hope you like it! Bit of a filler chapter, but I decided to add in a little Savannah/Danny romance :D Drop me a comment and let me know what you thought :D