“Oh, Cassie! How badly are you hurt? We need to take you down to the clinic.” Kelly reaches for my hand, but Jay blocks her.
“It’s nothing. I just need to wash it off. The guys were playing superheroes again, and I bumped my head,” I explain because I don’t want to be separated from them right now. We need to talk about what we just heard.
“Boys have a tendency to do that.” She smirks at them. “If you don’t want to be checked out, I should still walk you back to your cabin.”
“I would like to stay with my team if possible. This is the second time this has happened. I’m not sure I’ll be able to sleep. I’ll feel better if they’re around.” Now, I want to kick myself. I’ve never played the damsel in distress card, and I hope the guys know I’m just saying this so I can stay with them.
Mr. Smyth walks up to us and joins the conversation. “That’s not possible. Boys and girls are not permitted to stay together.”
Instant irritation rushes through me. Something about this man makes me uncomfortable. I glare at him. “It’s possible, and it will happen. If you send me back to my cabin, I’ll sneak out to find them. I’m tired of being lied to. We’ll stay together.”
“You do not run this camp, Cassandra.” Mr. Smyth tries to pull the adult card on me. “Follow Kelly back to your cabin. We will discuss this more tomorrow because I have other things to deal with right now.”
I shake with anger. “I never said I ran the camp, and if what you’re doing is running it, then we’re all in deep shit because that’s twice someone has fired a gun when we’ve been around. You can continue to lie to me about it being teens in the area, but I will call your bullshit.”
Parker holds me tight. He probably worries I’ll go for Mr. Smyth’s throat if he doesn’t hold me back.
“Cassie! You will not talk to one of us that way.” This time, Ms. Carlton tries to push me toward the cabins.
“Why won’t I? I have every right to protect and defend myself. If you want to ship me back home, so be it, but either way, tonight I’m staying with them.” It’s good Parker’s restraining me because I probably would go after her.
“Whore!” Ms. Carlton gets out of her mouth, but just barely because Jay starts yelling at her.
“I will never hear you talk about her like that. I don’t give a fuck who you are.” Jay’s voice gets louder. “You have no right to talk since you were all over the four of us the other day. Rubbing your tits on Parker as you looked over his shoulder.”
This time, it’s me calming Jay down. I lay my hand on his arm. “Come on, Jay. We need to get to our room.”
I glance at Mr. Smyth and Kelly to see if they’ll stop us, but Mr. Smyth just moves his head to the right toward the building. I take this as a sign of acceptance we can go together, grab Jay’s and Parker’s hands, and move.
Once we’re back in the room, silence bears down on us, the atmosphere thick with our thoughts. Misery plasters the guys’ faces. I hope they’re okay with me deciding we’re going to stay together. It’s what we agreed to, but they may not want to break camp rules. Then, I got Jay involved.
“Look, guys, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to get you in trouble. I don’t have anything to lose here, but I know this is important to you.” I stare at my shuffling feet.
“Hey.” Lucca tilts my chin up. “We decided we’re going to stay together. You just made it happen. I wish I could be as bold as you are.”
I give him a quick hug then walk over to Jay. “Thank you for sticking up for me. I really don’t care what she thinks as long as you guys know who I am. We’re the ones that matter.”
Jay hugs me back, briefly tilting his forehead against mine. “There’s something about her I don’t like. She gives me the creeps and not many people do that.”
“I thought you might hit her,” I admit to him.
“I wouldn’t hit anyone, especially a female, unless they truly deserved it. I’m not stupid enough to believe a woman wouldn’t hit me out of malice. If I can stop it from happening, I will.” I appreciate his earnest answer.
“Well, I’m glad you were there with me.” I release him and step back.
The night was going so great until the gunfire. Ugh, the gunfire, I totally forgot about it.
“I wouldn’t be anywhere else. We’re a team and stick together,” Jay says as the others murmur their agreement.
Noah pokes my side. “Stop trying to get rid of us.”
“Why would I want to do that? The whole point of this place is to win, and so far with you, I’m doing that.” I wink at him.
“Ha! We’re in the lead because of you. No one else is going to come close to your numbers this week.” He high fives Lucca.
“We still have a long way to go. That is unless they kick me out, or someone kills me.” I was kidding at the end, but they take my statement seriously and tension fills the room once more. Now we’re back to where we started.
“We need to talk about this.” Parker sits on one of the desks.
“Can we get situated for bed first? I don’t think any of us will sleep anytime soon, but I would still like to get comfortable, at least as comfortable as possible in this dress. Maybe I should have gone back to the cabin. Fallon, Lily, and Lara are going to worry. They probably don’t know what happened down here. I think I was the only girl from our cabin in this dinner round.” I’m torn, now, but I made such a big deal about staying here with them. Being with them is where I want to be because I want to talk about tonight while it’s fresh.
“Here.” Parker takes off his shirt. “You can wear this to sleep in. It will probably be longer than your dress.”
Under his dress shirt, Parker wears a ribbed, white tank. His muscles flex as he hands me the shirt, and I can’t help but admire how good he looks.
Before I start drooling, Lucca pokes me in the side. “Stop staring.”
“How can I not stare? He has a great body. You all have great bodies.” I need to start fanning myself.
I pull the shirt on over my dress and try to reach around to unzip the dress, but I can’t reach it.
Noah walks up. “May I?”
“Sure.” I close my eyes as he does it. I’ve never had a guy help me undress before.
After he unzips the dress, he steps back. I slip the dress down so no one sees anything. Parker was right; the shirt is longer than the dress.
“Lucca, come with me. There are some blankets and things in a closet down the hall.” Parker directs Lucca out the door.
I slide my shoes off and walk to the windows. Blinds we’ve never used are pulled to the top of the windows. Assuming they work, I climb up on the heater to reach the cord, but it’s still too high. I’m about to jump when hands grab my waist.
“Monkey, what do you think you’re doing?” Noah shakes his head at me as he lowers me down.
“I wanted to shut the blinds, but I can’t reach the cord.” Isn’t it obvious what I was doing?