"1, 2, 3… 1, 2, 3… 1, 2, 3…" Lucy leads everyone in an International Standard Waltz. "I… ugh…2, 3…" She's usually quite clam although, I'd be irritated too if I was dancing with an inexperienced, teenage boy who kept stepping on my feet.
"Sorry!" I whisper every time my toes end up on hers. My apologies don't seem to help the dance at all.
I've always been a klutzy dancer but my focus is completely gone today. Daniel and I are meeting again after dinner. We made plans to hang out today and tomorrow, it seems like this is going to become an everyday thing. I'd like to make a move; it's just a little difficult considering what happened with Nate. And it's not like I can just ask, 'Hey, Daniel, are you gay?' And if he isn't he'll probably be offended. Tess has actually been trying to think of subjects where one of us would be in an appropriate situation to mention sexuality. 'You're over thinking it too much,' she always tells me, 'Just tell him your gay and he'll either say okay, me too or run away in screaming terror.'
"I'm so sorry about your feet, Lucy!" I say one more time on my way out the door. She just looks up at me through her bangs while she's messaging her toes through her skin colored tights.
On my way out, I don't see Daniel but I'll see him later today so I don't wait around. At lunch I see Mitchie and Tess sitting at a table together and laughing. Everything feels normal as I sit down next to them. It's like I haven't been going through the most dramatic summer of my life. Half way through my pizza, Mitchie's mom walks up to our table.
"Hi, Mrs. Torres," Tess says in what I think is the sweetest tone I've ever heard come out of the mouth of Tess Tyler.
"Hey, girls," she responds. "Shane, your uncle Brown wanted to talk to you down by the stage."
"Okay, thanks for telling me," I say. After throwing away the rest of my lunch and walking over to the outdoor Camp Jam stage, I see Jason, Nate and Uncle Brown waiting around for me; Brown looks mad, Jason and Nate look worried.
"I'm really disappointed," My uncle says right away, knowing I have no idea what he's talking about-and I don't think Jason or Nate do either- "We all wanted you guys to come back this year so you three could be a good influence on the younger campers. These kids look up to you! And now I'm hearing from one of them that they've been seeing one of you sneak out every night after dark." He waits a second while the three of us are silent. "They were too far away to make out who it was," he continues, "One of you has to come clean soon or else I'm pulling the plug on spending another summer here. We've all been through enough."
Nobody says anything. Jason and I look at each other, expecting Nate to say something but he doesn't. We both know it's him. Why doesn't he say anything? Eventually Nate and Jason just walk away. Maybe Nate wanted to think about how he was going to tell Brown.