Total pages in book: 104
Estimated words: 98264 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 491(@200wpm)___ 393(@250wpm)___ 328(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 98264 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 491(@200wpm)___ 393(@250wpm)___ 328(@300wpm)
And the something-good-or-something-bad pain in my chest.
And this time, add all the flutters in my stomach.
I had no idea how to react to any of those things. For as little experience as I had in the feelings department, I had infinitely less in the boy department. With Camden’s blue eyes and bright smile homed in on me, waiting for all the praise he rightly deserved, there was only one thing left to do.
I gave him a titty twister and took off like a Gold medalist, straight for the creek.
“Last one in!” I yelled, stripping my clothes off to reveal my purple tankini as I ran.
“Hey, that hurt, you cheater!” He laughed, hot on my heels, rubbing his pec.
As I was toeing my shoes off, he did a cannonball, beating me into the water once again.
But it was okay.
While he was underwater, I took a second to compartmentalize all the feelings screaming inside my mind. It was a trick I’d learned shortly after my mother left. Everything had a nice, neat drawer in my head, hidden out of my thoughts so I didn’t have to deal with any them until I was ready. Sometimes, late at night, I’d plunder through those drawers—considering and contemplating. But for the most part, I’d sealed them shut, never to be visited again.
If the last two days were any indication, I was going to need a lot more drawers for Camden Cole.
We played in the water for several hours. Made bets on who could hold their breath the longest—him. And who could do the most flips underwater—me. We even played Slapjack, and surprisingly enough, he beat me twice. By the time we returned to our little slice of peace on the creek bank, our fingers and toes were prunes and the sun hung high in the midday sky.
“I’m starved. You hungry?” he asked, collapsing onto his towel.
I shook my head despite the emptiness of my stomach.
“Oh, come on.” He started zipping and unzipping various compartments on his bag. “No use in us sitting out here wasting away.” When he found what he’d been searching for, he lifted two plastic baggies in my direction. “I brought one peanut butter and jelly and one turkey and potato chip. Made ’em myself. Your pick.”
Oh. My. God. This was worse than the bug spray.
So, so, so much worse.
Because it was so, so, so sweet.
I couldn’t accept it though. Ramsey and I had made a deal years ago not to take handouts from strangers. It was easier to keep our secrets that way. If we weren’t in need, nobody asked questions.
“Thanks, but I’m not hungry. I had a really big breakfast.” Technically, the bowl had been really big, but the leftover cereal mixed with the dust from the bottom of the bag inside said bowl was a different story. Still, my body’s built-in lie detector did not accept half-truths and my cheeks went up in flames.
He eyed me curiously. “You sure? You gotta be hungry by now.”
“I'm positive.”
That should have been the end of it. He could eat his lunch and then we’d be back to normal. Just two normal kids hanging out at a creek, running a racket on worms.
Only the speed in which his smile disappeared as he tucked not one, but both sandwiches back in his bag wasn’t normal at all.
His whole body deflated as he mumbled, “Okay. Never mind.”
I narrowed my eyes and stared at the side of his face. What exactly was happening?
Was he…disappointed? Judging by his Stegosaurus backbone, he could have benefited from eating both the sandwiches himself.
I grabbed my backpack and sat on it so my wet bathing suit didn’t get muddy in the dirt. “You can eat, ya know?”
He kept his gaze trained on the ground. “Nah. It’s okay. I’m good.”
“Cam, you literally just said you were hungry. Eat.”
“I’m fine,” he snapped, and it was so unlike him that it was jarring.
Wow. He was disappointed. Like, actually pouting because I didn’t want to eat the sandwich he’d brought.
No. The sandwich he’d made.
For me.
That he must have made at the crack of dawn because he was already at the creek, complete with bug spray, at an ungodly hour waiting on me.
Damn, why did all of that make me feel like I was a jerk for not taking the sandwich?
This was why I didn’t have friends. I didn't understand my own feelings, much less anyone else’s.
We sat there in total silence for what felt like an eternity.
Him staring at the dirt.
Me pretending to pick at my fingernails just so I had somewhere to look that wasn’t at him.
All of it super awkward.
None of it worth ruining both of our days over.
Besides, Ramsey couldn’t get mad. He took food from Thea all the time. Camden wasn’t really a stranger anymore.
And I was hungry.
And he was hungry.
And there were two perfectly good sandwiches sitting right there.