Chapter 13 - A promise
Keeping to her word, Bella arrives nervous as ever. She took her time. Makes him wait a little. She immediately gauges his demeanor to see if he missed her at all. Any given day or circumstance she'd chuckle at this.
He detests her.
Well, she accepts the challenge. Scary or not.
She takes the initiative and unpacks the meals for the day. She added two Budweiser's to get in his good graces. In those long lists of missing things at the center, she remembered his poison.
This will be a silent day. Yesterday wasn't a good one, so she brought reading material. She pulls off her shoulder a beach chair and unfolds it. Her backpack leans by the tree with that mushroom growing from it. She steps back. Her own little spot under her favorite hammer.
Perfect.
He marches toward her. She closes her eyes and braces. The ruckus of a chair being flung across the camp and at a tree doesn't even need sight for her to know.
"Well, that's that," she thinks. She calmly gets it back and sits this time. Emily Dickinson in her hands, one of the readings for the summer. She licks her finger and flicks the page.
He looks murderous.
Maybe she won't do that.
She fans the pages and folds them quietly. He hides in his tent the entire morning.
She can see him a little, though. She looks up once in a while when the back of her book is burning with a heated stare.
He eventually pulls out a book. It's familiar. Bella tilts her head. She squints. Yup. That was hers. The bookmarker is the same. She's been looking for that book everywhere. He looks faintly smug.
Her eyes narrow.
Oh, she can play.
She packs up then. This is basically the hour the campsite back home comes alive. Jameson will pick her up to go to the lake, and the girls will be ready to tag along.
"Tomorrow, I'll ask you your name. If you answer, I'll leave you alone for the rest of the week. That's a promise," she says by the tarps covering the tent.
Bella has plans.
…
A/N: I'd love to answer questions. Let me know!