“Juuuuustin…are one of those hotdogs for me?”

Justin looked up from the campfire as I sidled up to him the next day. “Sorry, Chief, but I’m starving.”

A frown formed across my face. Justin was like the king of the perfectly cooked hotdog and if he didn’t cook me one, I was going to be stuck with the burnt one Lola was currently cooking. Turning on all the charm I could muster, I wrapped my arms around his neck and pressed my cheek against his.

“Justin…if you give me one of those hotdogs I’ll make you a s’more tonight.”

He sighed like I had asked him to give me one of his kidneys. “Fine.”

“Yay! Thanks!” I gave him a loud kiss on his cheek and then straightened. “You rock my world.”

“And I rock your headboard every night.”

I laughed and let out a whoop. “Damn right, stud!”

“You’re so hyper right now,” he commented with a laugh.

“I’m excited to be camping. I love camping.”

Justin’s brow furrowed in concentration as he turned the hotdogs just slightly. “Can you get some buns?”

“Yep.” I went over to the picnic table where Becca and Lola’s cousin, Gavin, were standing. “Can you hook me up with some buns?”

Gavin handed me a couple. “I rolled a couple joints and we were going to go smoke them after we eat. Are you going to come?”

I smiled a bit. Gavin is such a pothead. I had been wondering when his stash was going to make an appearance. I squirted ketchup in one of the buns and considered his offer. “Not today. I’ll get tired and I was going to go swimming.”

“What about Justin?” Becca asked.

“I’ll ask.” I left them and returned to Justin. I handed him the buns and then sat down in the camping chair beside him. “Everyone’s going smoking. Are you going with them?”

“Not tonight. I don’t really feel like it. Are you?”

“No. I want to swim after we eat.” I took the hot dog he handed me and took a bite.

Absolute perfection.

“So will you come swimming with me after we eat?” I asked though a mouthful of hotdog.

“Yeah, sure.”

I put the last bite in my mouth, chewed, and swallowed. I stared at the fire for a minute before glancing over and Justin and sighing. He was barely halfway through his hotdog.

I really can’t explain how it’s possible for a human being to eat as slow as Justin. Now, I’m a fast eater and I know that. But Justin is incredibly slow. He’s always the last one eating when a group of us go out for dinner. Actually, once I tried to eat as slow as I possibly could and see if I could get him to finish before me. Of course he didn’t. It drives me nuts because I simply don’t understand the purpose of eating that slow.

I grabbed his phone from his lap and began to through the pictures he had stored in it to pass the time before we went swimming. I had just grown bored with that when his phone vibrated in my hand and a message popped up on the screen.

“You got a new text message.”

Justin licked a bit of ketchup from his thumb. “What does it say?”

I pushed a button and some annoyance went through me when I saw the message was from Ben. I read it and frowned.

“Who’s Katrina?”

“What?”

“ ‘Katrina just made me a kick ass lunch’,” I read. “From Ben.”

Justin cracked his jaw, something he only does when he’s nervous or angry. “Uh…she’s this girl he’s, uh, seeing,” he mumbled, stuffing the last of his hotdog in his mouth so the end of his sentence was muffled.

“Seeing,” I questioned with an obvious edge in my voice. “Like dating?”

He was now avoiding my eyes. “I guess.”

I really hated Ben. “Since when?”

“I dunno. Just a few days. You know, it’s not really dating. They’re-”

I didn’t want to hear anything more so I stood. “I actually think I’m going to go with everyone else.”

Justin’s eyes narrowed a bit. “Emily-”

“Lola!” I called, ignoring him. “Are you guys going soon?”

“Right now. Are you coming?”

“Yep.”

Justin tried again. “Emily-”

Everyone started moving to the path leading out of our campsite and I went to catch up with them.

“Hey, Emily!”

I turned when Justin yelled my name. “What?”

He gestured for me to come back over to where he was still standing by the fire. With a loud sigh, I went back over to him.

“Yes?”

He grabbed my arm and pulled me a bit further away from everyone else. “What are you doing, Emily?”

I smiled slightly. “Specifics or…?”

“Why are you going to get high?”

“Why not?”

“Come on, Em.”

This time it was my eyes that narrowed. “Don’t even start to give me a holier than though speech. Don’t act like you never get high cause that’s bullshit.”

“I’m not saying that. But you’re pissed that Ben’s dating some girl and if you think getting high is going to make things better, you’re wrong.”

“Have I ever mentioned how much I hate it when you try and analyze me?” I replied, my hand coming to rest on my hip.

“I’m just trying to look out for you.”

“I’m twenty four and I already have parents, thanks.”

“Em, stop acting like this. You really need to stop running from your problems. You’re stronger than this.”

My annoyance was definitely rising. “Stop it.”

“Em-i-ly!” Trace called. “Are you coming?”

“I thought we were going swimming,” Justin said.

I gave him a pointed, annoyed look before turning away. “Yeah, I’m coming,” I said. I went over to them and we all began to walk out of our campsite. I threw one last look over my shoulder at Justin standing there before following my friends.

* * *

“You’re starting to look pink,” I commented to Lola. “Do you have sunscreen on?”

Lola raised her arm up and examined her skin. “SPF fifteen.”

I laughed slightly. “It’s like forty degrees. You’re gonna burn if you don’t put something stronger on.”

“Becca only has tanning oil on.”

I turned my head to look at Becca lying on the beach a few yards away. “She’s not white. You’re like albinoish.”

Lola threw a glare at me. “I’m not THAT white.”

I smiled and tilted my face towards the sun. “Notice that I had to put my sunglasses on when you came over here cause of the glare of the sun coming off your skin?”

She huffed for a second and then stood up. “Whatever. I’m going to go back to the site and get more sunscreen.”

I smiled as I returned my eyes to the magazine I had been previously reading. I had probably been reading for five minutes before a shadow was cast over me. I glanced up. As soon as my eyes made contact with Emily standing there, I looked back to the magazine. I really didn’t want to talk to her. Although completely aware of her every move, I tried to ignore her as best I could.

“Have you been out here the whole time?” she asked, sitting beside me.

I barely nodded and kept my eyes on the magazine even though I couldn’t make myself actually concentrate enough to read any of the words.

“I was sleeping in the tent and it was like a million degrees in there when I woke up,” she said, squirting some sunscreen on her arms and rubbing it in. “It better cool off in there by tonight or that’ll be gross.”

At this point I was beginning to wonder how long it was going to take her to realize I wasn’t talking to her. She usually isn’t so dense.

“Lola came back to the tent while I was back there and she was so red. I don’t know why that girl thinks she can sit out in the sun with like no sunscreen on. She’s too fair skinned for that.” Emily moved to rub the sunscreen into her legs. “Are you mad at me for earlier? Is that why you’re not talking to me?”

I let the silence hang over us for another long moment before speaking. “I just don’t feel like talking.”

She snorted and placed the bottle of lotion off to the side. “Justin…come on. Was it really that big of a deal.”

I raised my eyebrows, said nothing, and moved my eyes back to my magazine.

She sighed. “Why are you mad? Just because I ditched you?”

I looked up and sighed. She was doing that pout thing again. “You have to start facing your problems. It isn’t healthy to run away every time you don’t want to deal with something.”

She stared at me for a moment. “I’m not running away from anything. Ben can date who ever he wants. We broke up so why would I even care.”

“Because you’re still hurting over the break up.”

“No, I’m not.”

“It’s not a bad thing to still be upset. But it’s bad to just keep running away.”

“I’m not running away. When have I ever run away?”

A small laugh escaped me. “Uh, maybe when you went to Ohio for a month? Or how about when you caught Ben cheating and you disappeared for three hours? Or what about all the times you’ve shown up at my house because you and Ben got into a fight and you couldn’t ‘deal with him’?” I could see she was about to protest so I quickly continued. “And today you didn’t want to deal with the fact that Ben is seeing some girl so you decided to go do something where you wouldn’t have to think about it.”

Her shoulders slumped and she shook her head. “So maybe that’s just how I deal with things. And maybe it’s not the most healthy thing but it’s what works for me, okay?”

“You know it’s okay to still be upset over Ben, right? You don’t have to pretend to just be over it.”

“I know that.” She fell silent and I watched as a look of sadness flickered through her eyes as she sat there. It was at that point that I began to wonder just how much pain she had been pushing inside over the past few weeks.

“And you know if you need to talk to someone who’s been through it, you can always talk to me.”

“I know.” She sighed. “I just don’t like to think about it.”

“But it does no good to try and ignore it.”

She nodded. “I know. You’re right.” She ran her hands down her legs. “So are you still mad at me?”

I couldn’t stop myself from letting a small smile spread over my face. “No.” Didn’t she know I never could stay mad at her?

She giggled. “Come on, let’s hug it out.”

Laughing, I leaned in to her and accepted her hug. She squeezed me tight and then leaned back.

“Still up for swimming?”

“Sure.” I put my magazine to the side and got up with her. Becca and Gavin were already in the lake and I trailed behind Emily as she ran into the water to join them.

I hoped she had actually listened to what I had said. She had the tendency to push things down and try to ignore it when something went wrong. This definitely wasn’t the first time I had said something to her about it.

Everyone somehow convinced me to play chicken and I was regretting it even before we started. Having Becca on my shoulders, hitting my head when I’m not playing well enough, isn’t exactly my idea of a good time. Like the prospect of potential brain damage is supposed to somehow motivate me.

When my shoulders were eventually aching too much, I convinced them to end the game. I could feel my skin burning so I went back to the beach to grab more sunscreen. Once there, I laid back on my towel and pulled my hat over my face. I was so glad to be able to just have a week off and enjoy myself. I haven’t gone camping in years and I’ve forgotten how much fun it was.

Hearing Emily and Becca’s laughter, I lifted my hat and raised my head to see them coming out of the water and walking towards me. My eyes traveled over Emily as she neared.

She had been looking pretty good these days Whatever farm work she had been doing in Ohio had definitely worked for her. Her entire body looked more toned. Not that she’d believe it if I ever said anything. She had this really warped body image thing going on. She’s constantly complaining about her ass and hips and how they’re too big even though they’ve always seemed pretty good to me. And she’s always going on about some calf deformity or something, which goes completely over my head. I have never met another soul besides her who has issues with her calves.

Yeah, so I really don’t know why she has such problems with her body. From where I’m sitting, she’s looking pretty good in her bikini with water running down her skin.

I had never told anyone, but right before she and Ben had gotten together, I had been thinking of maybe getting something started with her. We got along so good and I had always been attracted to her. But then she and Ben had hooked up and I had laid off. I just pushed away any feelings about her to the side because I didn’t want to ruin anything between her and Ben. There had always been something there though.

“I’ve decided that I’m going to be as brown as Becca by time we leave,” Emily announced as she and Becca reached me.

I smiled. “Dickie’s half black though.”

“Are you doubting my tanning abilities, Justin?” Emily asked, resting her hands on her hips.

“I’ll give you twenty bucks if you’re even close to Becca’s color when we leave,” I began.

She smiled. “Perfect.”

“BUT if you’re not than you have to clean my house.”

She narrowed her eyes at me. “Don’t you pay someone to do that?”

“Elsie has a couple weeks off,” I shrugged. “What, are you suddenly doubting your tanning abilities, Chief?”

Her eyes narrowed even more. “No. Be prepared to be out twenty bucks.”

I pulled my hat back on my head. “Yeah, I’m really scared.”