An Obvious Ruse

Everything about her was a lie. Elka was a master manipulator. It was as if she latched on to his every word, but then, she picked apart what she wanted to hear and ignored any useless jargon. If Nils said, "I was at the lake for some of Milla's special levitation training and met up with Crystal and Clem afterwards," then Elka heard, "I was at the lake with Crystal."

There had been a time when he thought Elka was incredible. Last year had been his first summer at camp, and she swept him off his feet. She was stylish and beautiful with full blonde hair that he could thread his fingers through and bright eyes that he got lost in when they parted from a kiss. She was coy, too. She easily kept up with his flirting. When he told her that her rosy lips would look better on him, she cut him off by kissing him right on the mouth. Nils broke away seeing stars and almost thought she was the one. Bantering with Elka was more fun than he could imagine, especially since the other girls wanted nothing to do with his dalliance, allowing him to focus his efforts on getting to more bases with her.

It should have been a casual fling. At first, Elka was fun. They went on long walks in comfortable silence. They shared kisses under the sunlight and moonlight. They helped each other in classes whenever they weren't in the back making out. He even enjoyed helping her with clairvoyance, using it as an excuse to hold her hand or kiss her cheek.

But then, he started noticing the cracks in their relationship. Elka tightened her grip around his hand whenever he glanced at another girl. She dragged him away if he winked at Crystal and kissed him instead when he demanded to know what she was doing. Casual comments towards Phoebe and Lili were shot down by Elka snapping that he was her boyfriend and that they needed to "back off."

It became apparent to Nils that Elka was two-faced. She presented herself as his charming girlfriend when they were alone, and then, she was an innocent victim to his wiles if any other girl happened to be around. The other girls hadn't seemed upset when he hit on them. His dad told him that all girls liked it, that it made them feel special, but Elka blamed him for every problem that arose in their relationship because of it. When he complimented Kitty's makeup, Elka accused him of wanting to kiss her. After he blew Phoebe a kiss while she played during the camp talent show, she punched his shoulder and loudly claimed that he wanted to break up with her in front of everyone with her eyes full of unshed tears.

Mortification followed that very public incident. The wasted hours he spent listening to her talk about her foresight when he could have been dating someone else taunted him. Hearing her lament about her parents' eventual divorce filled him with apathy and annoyance. She had been the one to manipulate him throughout their relationship, and she had the gall to try to make him pity her, which made his stomach churn as she prattled on and on about the future they would eventually share, one she insisted would be better than her parents' marriage.

That scared him the most. Elka insisted they would be together. She said it with such certainty that he almost believed her. Her pointed way of talking felt like he was being cursed by a witch, plaguing him as she took his hand and dragged him down an unknown, thorny path.

So, on the last day of camp, with his bags in hand, he walked past Elka and pecked Lili on the cheek.

Elka lost her mind and broke up with him right then and there in front of everyone. Shouting that he was a pig, that he was the reason all men were evil, she screamed in his face that they were through forever. She bawled all the way to the airport, filling the bus ride with nothing but misery as the other campers endured her sorrow. Phoebe tried comforting her and seemed happy to do so, but as Nils sat in the back of the bus enduring spitballs from Bobby and Benny and watched Crystal and Franke include themselves in Elka's pity party, he told himself that being slapped by Lili was worth it.

Breaking free from Elka had been the best decision of his life. He ignored her phone calls and deleted her voicemails. He went on with his life while she stubbornly tried winning him back. A few snide comments on Campster was all he gave her. Nils finally had control over his life again, and he even looked forward to Whispering Rock in hopes of securing a new girlfriend so he could fully forget his time with Elka.

But when he returned to camp, he realized JT was ensnared. It was obvious JT was Elka's rebound. Elka paraded him around, calling him James and refusing to leave Chops alone with him for a minute. It was a sorry sight. He wished JT luck online, but seeing it in public made him question their relationship, and as soon as Elka left JT alone in the lodge, he decided to hear him out.

"Dude," he said, leaning into the picnic bench, "what are you thinking? Are you insane?"

JT fiddled with the brim of his ten gallon hat. He cleared his throat, replying, "I can't fathom what ya mean by that."

"You and Elka? Really?" He sighed and shook his head. "You know she's only dating you to get back at me, right? I mean, it's pretty obvious."

JT leaned back in his seat, his brows furrowed. He narrowed his eyes at Nils, his pupils constricting as he said, "I reckon that ain't it. Elka's a fine girl. 'Sides, ya ain't so innocent. You did somethin' terrible kissin' Lili like that outta the blue last summer." He crossed his arms. "That was a mighty bad thing to do, Nils, when you were with Elka. Made that lass cry all the way to the airport."

"Come on, bro, no offense-" Nils clasped his hands together, choosing to ignore JT's sharp remarks. "-but unless you're suffering from amnesia, there's no way you forgot how me and Elka were last summer. Sure, we were hot and heavy, but man, she's a stick in the mud. You can do a lot better. Trust me." He flicked his wrist. "Seriously, you should break it off before she starts saying you guys are gonna honeymoon in the Caribbean."

Glancing at the floorboards, JT tugged at his bandana. With the way his head was angled, Nils couldn't see his expression. He itched his neck, his own collar suddenly suffocating him. It wasn't like he and JT were close. He didn't know him like Chops did, but seeing him wrapped around Elka's finger forced Nils to pity him, which only grew stronger when Elka emerged from the bathroom shouting at "James" to stop talking with Nils, and as he stepped back, letting JT leap up from his seat to dart over to her, he shook his head.

Poor guy doesn't want to believe she's using him, he thought as Elka cast him a glance, her eyes filled with yearning as she dragged JT out the front door. Good luck, dude. You're gonna need it.

tbh, nils is my least favorite camper. i don't care about characters who are overly flirty or hit on others. this was originally gonna be about chops' annoyance with elka, but honestly, that seems like a beating a dead horse at this point since i've already written something like that, and after reading a comment nils made about elka saying "Oh, that's the other thing she's really good at. Ignoring. Neglecting. Until you start dating someone else that is, then she stops ignoring you pretty quick" had me wanting to change the fic from chops to nils. i still don't really care about nils, but that comment gave me a little more insight into how he views their relationship and how it soured.