Page 51 of Wildfire
“You’re a good friend,” I laugh.
He nods and heads up the stairs, looking at me over his shoulder. “So are you.”
NAPPING HAS NEVER BEEN MYstrength, even when I haven’t got a head full of noise. I put my phone on do not disturb after my brother started with the calls and the messages. Being without consistent reception for a month has killed any dependency I had on my cell phone; if I can hear it now, it irritates me.
I don’t know how long I’ve been staring at the ceiling of my bedroom, but I know that it’s long enough for me to be annoyed at the sleep that won’t come. Maybe it’s because I can’t hear Xander snoring or there isn’t a dog trying to starfish in my already limited space.
“Honey, we’re home!”
At first I think I’m hearing things, but then I hear a laugh soloud and ridiculous I know that there’s no way I could imagine that. Henry is a few steps behind me as I make my way down the stairs to the living room. Kris, Mattie, and Bobby are dropping pizza boxes and beer bottles onto the kitchen counter by the time I get to the bottom step.
“There he is!” Kris yells excitedly. “The prodigal son returns.”
“I’m too jet-lagged to explain to you all the ways you don’t understand what that means,” Mattie says.
“Ignore him,” Bobby says, slapping his palm against mine and pulling me into a hug. “He just likes saying he’s jet-lagged so people ask him where he’s been.”
“Can you even get jet-lag from three hours?” Henry asks, immediately opening one of the pizza boxes.
“How was Miami?” I ask, accepting the beer Kris hands me.
“Wild, dude.” Mattie hands me his cell phone, showing the three of them outside the Miami branch of The Honeypot. “Next time, you’re both coming.”
“I’m good,” Henry says instantly.
Bobby hands out the pizza boxes as we all congregate around the kitchen island opening them. I suppress the urge to groan as I bite into the pepperoni slice, realizing it’s the first thing I’ve eaten today. “What’re you guys doing here anyway?” I ask, washing down the pizza with my beer.
“Hen said you’d turned up and unintentionally edged him,” Kris says.
Henry groans in protest. “I didn’t. It’s in the group chat, did you not see it?”
“No, sorry,” I pull my cell phone out of my pocket, turning my notifications on out of guilt. “I haven’t really been on it since I left.”
“We missed you, buddy,” Mattie says, “and we’re nosy fuckers. We want to know why you’re back from camp because Turner is too nice to press you for it.”
“But we did miss you,” Bobby adds. “Which is more important than whether you got fired or not.”
Henry mutters something under his breath I don’t quite catch. I know I can trust Henry and he’d never share my business. “A drunk driver hit my dad. He’s fine. I was visiting him but I’m going back to camp in the morning.”
I nod through the echo of well wishes, thanking them and saying nothing more about Dad. They might not know exactly what the situation is, but they know there’s something not right with my life outside of college. As much as I love my teammates, I don’t think I’ll ever be in a place to explain how embarrassed and frustrated I feel about the whole situation.
“Does Jenna still work there?” Bobby asks with a weird smirk on his face. “Everyone was obsessed with Jenna.”
“You were obsessed with Jenna,” Kris says through a mouthful of pizza. “He was convinced he’d have a chance as soon as he turned eighteen. We only went for one summer but he talked about her for, like, three years.”
“Yeah, she’s my boss. She’s great, super nice. She kind of hates being in charge of people, so as long as you’re not doing something wrong she stays out of your way.”
“Is she still hot? I don’t know why I’m asking because I know she definitely is,” Bobby says. “Shit, maybe I’ll work there next year.”
“What’s your group like?” Mattie asks, rolling his eyes at Bobby.
“Honestly, they’re pretty great. There’s one guy, Clay, he’s a bit of a douche, but he isn’t unbearable. Xander, the guy I share a cabin with, is really cool. Maya is great, she’s on one of those Camp America international work things with her friends. She tends to hang out with them when we’re not working, so I don’t know her well yet. Emilia and Aurora are nice.”
“Back up,” Kris says.
“Aurora?” Henry follows. “That girl who left you in the middle of the night?”
I rub the back of my neck to ease the nervous prickling happening as I nod. We need to come up with a new way to identify her, because things have changed a lot since she was that Aurora.
