Hey! This is Prompt No. 43-Never
"Never!" Her shrill scream ricocheted throughout the busy, bustling cafeteria, making all motion come to a screeching halt. All heads turned in the direction of the middle table in the room, curiosity in every single pair of eyes.
There, standing up, her eyes blazing with a look that could almost be compared to hatred, stood Tess Tyler. Her immaculate blond hair looked rather ruffled, perhaps by whatever had happened to cause her outburst, and her face, no, her whole body, looked pale. Campers watched as Tess's pale features transformed into a furious red color, indicating her anger. When she looked up, she noticed that everyone was staring at her, and then the red color changed from being just a color of anger to a color of anger and embarrassment combined.
"I don't understand," came the voice of the person sitting next to her, staring up at her with confusion written across his face.
The campers turned their attention now to him, and a few let out sighs of disappointment as they realized that it was Jason Grey, member of Connect 3. They thought that while he was rather scatterbrained, he was too sweet to be torn apart by Tess in this way, in front of the entire camp. But thankfully, or perhaps it was unfortunately, Jason wasn't paying attention to what anyone else was saying or doing. He was only looking up at a furious Tess Tyler, his palms raised in confusion.
"I will never, and I repeat, never, go anywhere, much less the Rocker's Dance, with you!" Tess cried out, her voice a note away from hysteria. She turned away from where Jason was sitting and quickly fled from the cafeteria, letting the door bang loudly behind her.
Normally, when drama like this took place at camp, the campers would begin to talk and speculate, their voices mixing and becoming a hum that rang throughout the whole cafeteria, but today, no one felt like talking. Everyone just stared at Jason, who was sitting exactly where Tess had left him, staring down at his plate. Everyone heard his voice, weary and defeated, say, "I really don't understand." He shook his head and stood, grabbing his paper plate so that he could throw it into the trash on his way out. The campers watched him go, silently noting his slumped shoulders and his unconsciously slow, dejected walk.
As soon as the door closed behind him, the humming began, each person having their own take on what had happened, but everyone was in agreement with one thing: Tess needed a talking to. At one table in particular, the four friends were really discussing the problem. "I can't believe that she'd do that to him," Shane said out loud, voicing everyone's main thought.
"She was doing so well in getting over her I'm-a-loner-in-this-world attitude," Caitlyn remarked. "She and Jason have gotten pretty close, too. How could she do that?"
"I can't believe it," Nate replied as an answer, shaking his head.
"That was cruel," Mitchie added, poking her fork half-heartedly at her salad.
"It'll break his heart," Shane predicted. "He won't show it, but that'll just break his heart."
Caitlyn, who had been turning redder and redder with barely contained rage jumped up. "That's it!" she cried, her voice nearly a growl. Without another word, she stormed through the cafeteria amidst whispers and more humming, banging the door behind her as she left.
The table remained rather silent for a moment and then Nate turned and looked at Shane and Mitchie sitting across from him. "What do you think she's going to do?" he asked.
Shane shook his head and shrugged. "I don't know," he replied honestly, "but something tells me that whatever it is, I wouldn't want to be Tess."
He was right. Caitlyn stormed through the door on Tess's cabin minutes later, only to find Tess lying on her bed, her face buried in her pillow. "What exactly is your problem?" Caitlyn asked, trying very hard to keep the anger out of her voice.
"Excuse me?" Tess asked, lifting her head off the pillow, but not turning to face Caitlyn.
"Yeah, well, I've tried, but it isn't working," Caitlyn replied dryly. "Why are you acting this way towards Jason? If you didn't want to go with him, you could've at least told him nicely. Would it kill you to be polite?"
Caitlyn was expecting some diva response, a burst of dramatic woe-is-me tears, or even a couple of screams about not realizing what it was like to be rich and to be able to do whatever you want, but Tess gave her none of that. Her body went stiff for a moment and then, with a sigh that was great in size and absolutely miniscule in drama, she sat up and showed her face for the first time. "I know," she whispered as Caitlyn stared in utter shock.
Tess's beautiful face was streaked with tears and had turned a horrid, blotchy red in color. Her eyes were red from crying and her lashes were still wet. Her mascara had run, leaving black trails down her face, and her hair was still ruffled and messed up, partly from having buried herself in her pillow. She bit her lip, nervously fiddling with her hair and plucking at her designer jeans before she looked up at Caitlyn and said, "Please say something."
Caitlyn sat down on the edge on the bed and said, "Tell me first if you're okay."
Tess smiled weakly and said, "Do I look like I'm okay?" The question held no malice, only a weak attempt at comedy.
"No," Caitlyn responded honestly. "But I wanted to make sure that there was no internal bleeding caused by the knife you stuck in Jason's heart, and I wanted to make sure that you're not brain hemorrhaging from crying your eyes out." Her reply was aimed at tartness, but her words seemed to strike a chord in Tess, for the latter winced.
"No," she responded silently. "Nothing of that sort."
Caitlyn sighed and rolled her eyes, trying to find the most effective way to talk to Tess. "I'm sorry," she finally apologized. "Would you please tell me why you refused Jason like that?"
Tess blinked rapidly, keeping her tears at bay as she said, "I didn't want to, but I was afraid. I was afraid, and I reacted the way the old me used to." She raised her head and looked at Caitlyn. "Is he alright?"
"I don't know," Caitlyn responded truthfully. "He left without saying a word to anyone." She sat forward, turning herself toward Tess more so that the other girl would realize that Caitlyn was all ears. "Why were you afraid?"
For a moment, Tess didn't respond. She just looked down at the floorboards and refused to say anything. Finally, she said quietly, "I was afraid that I would get too attached, and then he would leave."
Caitlyn looked closely at her friend. "You like him then," she guessed.
"Yes," Tess admitted quietly.
Caitlyn placed a hand on her friend's arm and said, "Well I know for a fact that he likes you too, and that you should go talk to him."
Tess raised her head to stare at Caitlyn. "Really?" she asked, as though expecting Caitlyn to be teasing her.
"Really," Caitlyn said with a confident nod. "And if you're ready, I know just where you can find him."
Tess smiled at her. "I'm ready."
Ten minutes later, Tess slipped into the Arts and Crafts cabin, trying to be as silent as possible. She found Jason, the only one there, standing in front of a long table, painting small boards for his birdhouse in bright, Camp Rock colors. She walked over to him and tapped him on the shoulder. Startled, Jason whirled around, splattering paint all over Tess. They both gasped, Tess from surprise and Jason from fear. "I'm sorry!" he exclaimed, standing there with his paintbrush, his mouth hanging open in dread.
"It's fine," Tess assured him as he grabbed an old rag and began wiping her face off with it as gently as though he were dusting a china doll.
"What about your expensive shirt?" Jason asked timidly, looking pointedly at the fashionable, expensive shirt Tess was wearing as he continued to wipe the paint splatters off her face.
"It can be replaced," Tess said comfortingly. She bit her lip for a moment, took a deep breath, and said, "You, however, can't be."
Jason stopped wiping, his face confused. "Can't be what?" he asked.
"Replaced," Tess explained. "You can't be replaced." When he seemed to be waiting for her to go on, she did so. "I was wrong when I told you that I didn't want to go with you to the dance. No, I was scared. Well, I was wrong and scared." Realizing that she was rambling, Tess smiled hesitantly at Jason, begging him to give her time to explain. "I've been so afraid that I would get attached, and then you would leave, that I let my mind take over instead of my feelings. I'm so sorry," she said earnestly. She grinned nervously. "Thinking is overrated."
Jason grinned, putting down the rag he had used and stepped closer to her. "What are you saying?" he asked.
"I'm saying that I'm so sorry, and that if you don't have a date for the dance, I'd like to go with you."
Jason pulled her close and kissed her lightly, holding her in a tight hug when they both pulled away. "Never say never," he whispered in her ear.