42 more days until camp was over
As the last campers trudged into their cabins, her fellow counselors headed to the food hall to converse and relax like they normally did after a long day of rallying pre-adolescent kids from one activity to another. However, Caitlin wasn't very up to talking. So not long after the building grew crowded and noisy, she slipped out unaware; it's not like she had made any friends here to miss her presence anyway.
She began walking towards her designated cabin, thinking she might try to get some light reading done, but her feet decidedly had other plans as they wandered towards the camp's lake instead. The bright moon overhead had entranced her, like a beacon, as it reflected beautifully off of the still water, illuminating enough of the main shoreline that Caitlin didn't hesitate to sink down into the grass to admire it.
During the day, kids were jumping in and out, lifeguards were blowing their whistles, and the sun was beating heavily down too much for Caitlin to enjoy the body of water. But now, at night, with only the ambient sounds of crickets chirping and frogs croaking, Caitlin felt like she could finally breathe for the first time since she had gotten to this camp a mere week ago.
Minutes later, a huge splash sounded nearby, breaking the tranquility. That sound was then paired with snickering shadows running away from the docks.
Before she could theorize what those shadows had been doing and what could've made the splash, a head popped up from under the water.
"Okay, I did it," she heard someone holler into the darkness.
Nothing was said for a moment, as she heard the person waddle around in the blackness of the lake, moving closer to the docks.
"Cisco?!" the person called out. "Ralph?! Guys?!"
Caitlin stood up, finding herself gravitating towards this person. As she got closer to the docks, she could make out that the person was a guy and roughly her age. "I think your friends ditched you."
His head snapped to her presence, eyes bugging. "Why - why do you say that?"
"I saw a couple people running away just as you jumped into the water."
The guy groaned. "Of course they did…"
"Did you need them?"
"More so for the clothes of mine that they took…" he shyly admitted.
Caitlin furrowed her brows, confused by his predicament, before her own eyes widened. "Oh, you…?" she trailed off, unable to get out the rest of her sentence as her eyes treacherously looked downwards, her face flaring up at what her imagination was concocting that laid underneath the water.
The guy coughed. "My friends, they, uh, dared me…"
"I - I see…"
"Right…" he awkwardly let out, rubbing the back of his neck. "You - you don't happen to have, like, a towel with you, do you?"
She sadly shook her head. "No, but here," she said, unzipping the red cotton jacket that all of the camp counselors were given and extending it out for him to take.
The guy looked at the piece of clothing. "You sure?"
"Do you want to wait in the lake until someone else sees you in this dilemma?"
"No, no, I don't," he hastily answered before hesitantly looking at her. "Can you…can you turn around?"
She refrained from laughing as she did what he asked, patiently waiting as she heard him climb out of the water and onto the platform behind her. And as water droplets continued to fall on the wooden planks, she felt the jacket being taken from her hand.
"You can turn around now," he said moments later.
Caitlin turned around and was immediately taken aback from the sight. Not just because her jacket was now wrapped securely over a stranger's private area, but because she was not expecting him to be so tall or so lean or so boyishly handsome. And she definitely didn't expect butterflies to swarm around in her stomach as he smiled down at her.
"Thanks," he sheepishly said, hands tightly holding the jacket in place, evidently not taking a chance to let it fall despite its sleeves being tightly tied behind his back.
"Hap-happy to be of service," she stuttered, mentally kicking herself at how stupid she must've sounded. Her conversational skills were dreadful, but it was a lot easier to talk to him when he was submerged in the water and not nearly-naked and dripping-wet in front of her.
"I, uh, should probably be getting to my cabin before everyone starts leaving the food hall for the night."
Caitlin looked over at the said building. The people's voices and laughter sounded like their festivities were in full swing, but knowing they'd all have to be up early the next morning for work, things would probably be wrapping up shortly.
"Yeah, they'll probably be trickling out soon..." she supplied, turning back to him. "So unless you want your cute tush out on display, you'd probably want to leave now."
His lips quirked ever so slightly as a hesitant chuckle fell from his lips.
Caitlin suddenly realized what she said and felt the embarrassment wash over her like a tidal wave. "Not - not that I've seen your tush - butt - to know," she awkwardly tried to backtrack. "It's - it's an expression."
"Right…well…my tush and I appreciated the help," he said as he walked around her figure and backwards up the dock. "Hope I see you around," he told her as he flashed her another dazzling smile, before taking off into the direction of where she assumed would be his cabin.
However, due to her jacket only covering his front, his tush was very visible as he ran off into the distance. And she had to admit, it actually was kind of cute.
.
41 more days until camp was over
The next night, Caitlin skipped the food hall entirely. It felt exhausting trying to relate to people who were supposed to be her peers but instead made her feel so alien. Most days, she would try, but lately she hasn't had the energy to, especially tonight.
Instead, her feet once again led her to the lake. The silence and stillness of the water once again brought about some peace to her ever racing mind and emotions. She sunk into the grass and immediately pulled her knees close to her chest as she stared at the crystal clear night sky.
The one (and maybe only) benefit of being at this camp that was in the middle of nowhere was that she could see so many stars. Her pointer-finger rose to loosely trace a couple constellations, and that is what broke her as a sob wracked through her body.
"Hey!" she suddenly heard someone holler behind her.
She abruptly rose to her feet, her fingers rapidly wiping away the falling tears, trying to erase any evidence of what she had been doing as a stranger jogged over to her.
"Great - it's you! I was hoping you'd be here again," the person said, and Caitlin immediately recognized it as the guy from the night before.
"Naked guy?"
He coughed. "Uh, yeah," he sheepishly admitted. "Glad you can still recognize me with clothes on," he joked, but she could tell he immediately regretted it since he winced shortly after. But before she could say anything back, she witnessed his excitement falter and morph into something more tender. "Wait, were - were you just crying?"
Consciously, she dipped her head down. "No, I'm fine," she immediately denied, but her voice was still so clogged with emotion that it didn't even sound convincing to her own ears. From the stranger's growing frown, he evidently didn't buy it either. "Okay," she relented as she wrapped her arms around her middle, "maybe I was…"
"You okay? Do you…want to talk about it?"
She bit down on her lower lip as she tightened her hold around her stomach more securely. "No offense, but I don't even know your name, so I don't think I'd feel comfortable divulging such details to you."
He cocked his head to the side. "I get that," he said, and she hoped that would be the end of it and he'd leave her alone to her own devices again, but he didn't. Instead, he reached out his hand. "I'm Barry."
Internanally sighing, she hesitantly shook his hand back, hoping that by humoring him that he'd leave sooner. "Caitlin."
His grin resurfaced, and those damn butterflies from the other night resurfaced too. "I know," he proudly confessed. "It was etched on the jacket you gave me last night."
"Right…" she let out, suddenly feeling her face grow hot, which was ridiculous since she wasn't the one that had been naked, yet he was making her currently feel like she was. "So, it seemed like you wanted me for something?"
Barry rapidly nodded his head. "I wanted to thank you again for last night," he told her. "Literally the second I got back to my cabin and got dressed, my bunkmates walked in. You're a live-saver!"
"It was really nothing," she insisted.
He nodded, looking at her intently. "So, before last night, I - I've never seen you around. What's your primary job at the camp?" he asked as he took a seat on the grass.
Feeling foolish for standing over him as he sat, she clumsily joined him on the ground. "I help with the arts and crafts..."
"Oh, so you're mostly in the air-conditioned buildings. Lucky!" he exclaimed. "But no wonder I haven't seen you then; I'm always out in the fields, running one of the million activities going on out there."
"You must enjoy it though, right? That's why you signed up to be a counselor?"
He wobbled his head from side to side, undecidedly. "More like I wanted to make some extra money before university. My other friends applied, and I didn't want to be left behind. But the kids can be fun most of the time, so it isn't too bad," he answered. "What about you?"
She sighed, the thought alone was already getting her worked up. "My mother thought getting out of the house during the summer might do me some good before I go off to university," she replied. "It was this or work side-by-side with her, and the latter sounded like too much of a nightmare."
"But," she then added, eyes drifting back to the sky above, "when you have views like this, it makes the gross humidity, bugs and brats somewhat bearable."
He hummed in agreement, his eyes drifting to the sky too. "I don't think I've ever seen so many stars at once before," she heard him comment in awe.
"Yeah," she let out, her own eyes canvasing across the sky. "It's amazing how much more you can see when you're further away from the light pollution."
"Is that Ursa minor over there?" he suddenly asked, pointing to a specific part of the sky.
She cocked her head, studying the area. "Yeah, that's it," she answered, impressed. "Most people don't know the actual name of that constellation, they only know-"
"-the little dipper?" he finished, turning to her with a proud smirk. She shyly nodded. "I'm a bit of a science nerd, and space has always fascinated me ever since I was a little kid."
Caitlin let herself smile. "Same. My dad and I actually built this home telescope when I was little and he taught me the constellations with it."
"He seems like a really cool dad."
She tucked her chin in a little as she nodded. "He was…but he passed. A year ago today, actually."
She heard Barry lightly curse. "I'm - I'm sorry, I didn't know…"
Instead of wallowing in that feeling like she had so much recently, she found herself laughing. "Barry, you've known me for a total of 5 minutes, so I don't think you could've known."
He hesitantly smiled. "That…that is true," he agreed. "So, was that why you were crying earlier?"
She thickly swallowed, the feeling threatening to bubble up again. "Yeah…he - he was my best friend," she confessed. "And it's been a whole year, but I still feel like my head's just above the grief trying to swallow me whole."
"He was your dad, it's going to be rough, and grief takes time, but it will get better to manage. You just have to give it time."
Caitlin let out a stunted laugh. "And how would you know? Because your pet hamster died?"
She expected him to get mad and storm off, but he didn't. Instead, he looked almost amused, but above all, empathetic despite her mean quip. "I've never had a pet hamster," he told her, "but I did lose a mother, when I was 11."
Immediately, she was left with dread. "Oh my god, I'm so sorry, Barry. I - I sounded like such a bitch just now and I never should've assumed..."
He turned to flash her another grin, though it was a lot somber than before. "You're still in the midst of grief; I know not to take it personally," he told her. "But maybe I should go. I did interrupt you when you obviously came out here to be alone," he then said, moving to get up.
"Wait," Caitlin said, reaching out her arm to touch his shoulder, causing him to still his movements. "Stay," she softly requested.
"It's fine. You don't have to be polite."
She shook her head. "I'm not just being polite. I really would like you to stay. These last few minutes with you have made me feel the most normal I've felt in the longest time."
His body settled back down. "Okay then, I'll stay," he told her, offering her another dazzling smile. "Do you think you could show me some more of the constellations then?"
Caitlin shyly smiled back. "Of course."
For the next hour, in between showing Barry the various other constellations visible to them, the two also talked about other science related topics that they were interested in and shared that they were both planning on becoming science-related majors. That then morphed into conversations about music and tv shows and movies.
"I've never actually seen any of the Star Wars movies…" Caitlin sheepishly admitted.
Barry let out an exaggerated gasp. "That's a cardinal sin."
She humorously rolled her eyes.
"I wish there was a TV around here that we could use, because I would so have us do a marathon of all of them. It's a cinema experience that can't be denied."
"Uh huh…I see…"
"I swear, once you see them, you'll regret missing out for as long as you have."
"I'll make sure to put the movies on my to-watch list."
He playfully narrowed his eyes towards her. "You're never going to watch those movies, are you?"
"I will!" Caitlin insisted, before meekly shrugging."I just can't promise if that will be next month or next year…or next decade…."
Barry laughed as he shook his head. He opened his mouth to say something more, but the sudden commotion of people leaving the dining hall interrupted him.
"I guess we should be getting to our cabins too," Caitlin relectanctly said, getting herself up from the ground, dusting off any dirt or debris that might have clung to her.
Her companion followed her lead. "Yeah, I guess…"
For a moment, the two just looked at each other. It may have only been an hour of talking about nonsense, but it was the best hour she experienced in over a year. The most happy and light she'd felt in just as long. Part of her yearned to ask for more time, but she felt that it would be too selfish. Surely Barry had better things to do than talk to her again.
"I - I guess I should be going," she finally spoke up.
He nodded. "Me too…"
Not knowing what else to do, Caitlin awkwardly offered up a small wave, before turning around to walk to her cabin. However, she only walked a few paces before she heard her name being called.
She turned to the voice to see Barry still where she left him, but now with his hands anxiously shoved into his pockets. Once he realized he had her attention, he grinned, before asking, "Do you think you'll be at the lake tomorrow night too?"
Caitlin found herself smiling. "I can be."
And so a tradition began. Every night as their co-workers went to the dining hall, they instead made plans to meet up at the lake to talk. They'd debate theories, complain about the heat, reminisce about things from their childhoods. Even on rainy days, to her surprise, he'd seek her out in the dining hall and they'd pick up right where they left off. On those days, sometimes even his friends (yes, the same ones that took his clothes that first night) would join them in their conversations, but most times they stayed their distance and watched knowingly from afar.
So many complicated but exhilarating feelings surfaced and grew night after night. She was having fun and enjoying herself and feeling like a normal teenager. All because of Barry. Because he was so smart and funny and charming and understanding. He made her feel seen. He made her feel important. He made her feel like she had a greater purpose.
But all good things have to come to an end eventually.
"I can't believe we leave to go back home tomorrow," Barry expressed with a sigh, before throwing a stone into the lake, watching it skip a few times before sinking into the water.
Caitlin, who was sitting on the grass nearby, bit down on her lower lip. The last month and a half had flown by so quickly, she almost couldn't believe it. Just a few weeks ago, she had been counting down the days to leave, but now she wished she had more time. More time to point out more objects in the sky. More time to laugh over childhood stories. More time to just…be with Barry in this little bubble of theirs.
"Caitlin?"
She broke out of her thoughts. "I - I can't believe it either," she lamentfully expressed, before trying to push those feelings aside. "Seems like just yesterday I was saving you from having to streak through the camp grounds."
He chuckled as he took a seat next to her. "My hero," he let out, placing a dramatic hand over his heart.
She rolled her eyes, playfully knocking her shoulder into his. "There was a casualty that night: my jacket."
Barry snorted. "Well here," he started, taking off his own camp jacket that he happened to be wearing and offering it up, "have mine then."
"I couldn't…"
"Why not? Tonight is probably like the 3rd time I wore it all summer and, I promise, it's been nowhere near my genitalia."
She giggled, which spurred a full-toothed grin of his to appear. The butterflies in her stomach unleashed, a sensation that hadn't lessened in the slightest over the last month.
"Come on, I know you want toooooooo," he teasingly sang, and she hated how much she actually did want it, but she also didn't want to seem eager. "It seems only fair anyway. I have yours and now you can have mine."
She let a few more seconds pass before giving in. "Fine," she said, taking the jacket like it was an obligation, but inside she was gleeful. "But only because I'm actually a little chilly right now," she fibbed as she put the jacket on, immediately overwhelmed by how it smelled of Barry's cologne - a smell just as intoxicating as its wearer.
Barry looked at her, amused, almost like he could see right through her. "Whatever your reasons, now you'll have something to remember me by…so you don't forget about me…"
Her mood turned solemn. "I don't think I could ever forget you, Barry."
"Because I made an unusual first impression?" he wondered with a hesitant laugh.
She giggled at the memory, but shook her head. "While true, I tend to think of all the moments after when I think of you."
"Really?"
"Really," she maintained, letting out a deep breath. "When I first met you, I was in a dark place and buried in grief. I had lost faith in just about everything. And while I'm not magically better, you showed me that one day I could be. You gave me hope…"
She saw him swallow down thick emotion, while a lone tear fell from his one eye. "I'm…I'm happy I could do that for you," he managed to eventually say.
She interlocked her arm around his and bravely laid her head on his shoulder. "You're my hero, Barry Allen. Hard to forget a guy like that."
…
Caitlin had been at university for two weeks now, meaning it had been a full month since she had last seen Barry. They had exchanged numbers before leaving camp, and they had texted on and off over the weeks. But while that was great, it wasn't quite the same. It just made her long for their star-gazing nights by the lake even more.
She sighed as she walked out of one of her lectures. She really didn't have the time to mope over a boy. She needed to start working on the mountain of assignments she still had left to complete. But instead of taking the normal path back to her dorms, she decided she'd visit her favorite spot on campus instead..
During her first week, she had gotten lost. She took the long path back to her dorms, which took her towards the outskirts of the campus, which looked like nothing but trees. However, about halfway through the trail, there was a clearing that had a cute little lake that usually had ducks waddling around it. Caitlin would sit there and study when she wanted some genuine quiet time. Admittedly - foolishly - she'd go there to feel closer to Barry too.
So as Caitlin walked closer to the lake area, she was surprised to hear movement in the water, since not many people took this trail, except for maybe the occasional jogger. She immediately contributed it to the ducks flapping around, so she continued her trek to her usual spot nonplussed. But as she got closer, she nearly died on the spot as she witnessed a human head pop up from under the water.
"Caitlin?!"
After giving a moment to herself to still her beating heart, she looked at the person, her eyes widening. "Barry?!"
During the entire time at camp and even in the past few weeks via text, they had danced around telling each other exactly where they would be going to school in the fall. He didn't offer it up, so she decided she wouldn't either. Plus, she didn't want to get her heart crushed if he had said he was attending a school somewhere half-way across the country, and it might have been even more soul-wrenching to find out he was going somewhere close by and they still decided to not hang out. But evidently, he was here, in front of her, at her school.
"You go to CCU?" she questioned as she slowly walked to the edge of the lake, a smile slowly growing as she reached him.
He paddled over to her, a grin of his own surfacing. "Yeah, I do. And I guess you do too."
She nodded, too overwhelmed with emotion to say anything else. She seriously thought she'd never see Barry again, especially since both had admitted that they probably never wanted to be camp counselors ever again.
Caitlin then looked to the side and noticed a piece of clothing on the ground. She picked it up and noticed it was a red one-piece suit that people on track teams tended to wear. "Is this yours?"
She saw Barry's face go a bit red, embarrassment settling over him. "Uh, yeah…I'm - I'm on the track team."
She nodded her head in approval. "Maybe I'll go to one of your meets then. See how fast you are…"
"I'd love that," he told her, his mortification subsiding slightly, but he still looked uncomfortable. And while they could both get shy and awkward around the other at times, they weren't ever uncomfortable, except for that first time they met but…
Caitlin looked back down at the suit in her hand and then back at Barry. He had swam closer to her upon her arrival, but he hadn't made any movement to get out. Unless… "Barry…are you naked again?"
His cheeks immediately grew as red as his suit. "I - I can explain…"
Caitlin threw her head back with laughter. "We need to stop meeting like this."
He both grinned and grimaced. "I swear, this is the 2nd time I've ever done something like this."
"Just…why? What compelled you to do it this time? Another dare?"
"No, I was just all sweaty after practice and needed a place to cool off, and I didn't want my suit to get all swampy smelling."
"Do they not have showers in the locker room? At your dorm?"
He rolled his eyes. "Yes, but my teammates - it's like some initiation thing for the team - they stole everything in my locker. I noticed before showering, so I tried to catch up to them before they left the premises, but I was too late. And since my key card to get back into all of the campus' buildings was with my stuff, I couldn't get into the gymnasium or my dorm…"
Caitlin tried her best to hold in a snicker. "So you came here instead…"
"I found this place while jogging one day. No one is ever around when I go by, so I thought I'd just take a quick dip while I waited for my roommate to get out of his last class for the day."
"Well, I don't have a jacket to give you this time…"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, just turn around," he playfully barked.
She did as he instructed, and a funny sense of deja vu struck her as she heard him getting out of the lake behind her and tugging the suit from her hand.
"You alright back there?" she humorously wondered after hearing him lightly curse under his breath.
"Juuuuust a little…harderrrr to get back in…when you're…wet," he narrated, and she tried her utmost best to not let her imagination get the best of her with those words.
A few moments later, he finally told her she could turn back around, and she deserved an award for not gawking. Those suits were downright sinful.
She cleared her throat. "Um…how much longer is your roommate supposed to be in class?"
He shrugged. "Maybe another hour. Why?"
"Well…why don't I walk you back to your dorm? I can open the building for you," she said, holding up her own key card.
"Coming to my rescue again?" he fondly asked, eyes soft with gratitude and maybe some other emotion.
"Wouldn't be much of a hero if I didn't, now would I?"
A big grin grew across his face. "Okay, that sounds like a plan," he said as they both turned to walk back onto the trail and towards the part of campus where all of the dorm buildings resided. "I need to get into some normal clothes and fast," he said, walking weirdly for a moment as he tried to get comfortable in his suit. "I think I'm getting a rash."
A small giggle slipped from her lips. "I think you should probably hold my bag in front of you too as we get closer…" she suggested, handing him her backpack.
He accepted it with a frown. "Why?"
"The suit is clinging to you a little extra snuggly," she cryptically told him, trying her hardest to not laugh.
Barry looked down and immediately covered his front with her bag, his ears tingeing red and his face downright on fire. "We're not even dating yet and I feel like you've seen more of my body than I have."
She cocked her head to the side, taking a moment to register if she heard him correctly. "Not dating…yet, huh?"
His head whipped to her, eyes wide as saucers. "Uhhh…" he let out, smiling nervously. "I - I mean…well, I got this vibe between us at camp, but didn't act on it then because I didn't want you to just be this summer fling," he admitted. "But now that we know we're at the same school…I - I figured maybe we could go out now…if you wanted to go out with me, of course…"
She shyly dipped her head as the corners of her lips kept getting increasingly further apart. "I'd really like that."
He beamed back at her. "Once I'm in normal clothes again, we can go over the specifics for our first date, but I have tons of ideas."
She linked their arms. "Oh really? Like?"
"Well, we could have a picnic at the lake we were just at, we could ask the astronomy department if we could use their telescope…Or or or we could do a Star Wars marathon!"
She lightly rolled her eyes. "I guess I'll finally be watching those this year then, huh?"
"Oh, definitely," he said with a promise in his voice. "And then there's that ice-cream place down the street and the mall…" he continued, animatingly rambling off more and more ideas while Caitlin just contently listened.
Things were looking up and definitely getting better. Much better.
A/N: This is for Simply Snowbarry's #SummerLovin23 Event.
I used the following prompts: Lake, Summer Job, Camp, "We have to stop meeting like this," and "don't forget about me."
Hope you enjoy - let me know what you thought! :)