Wait (The Fast Series) (13 page)

“If it’s over then why are you telling me and looking all mopey? Did you do anything with him?”

“You know me, so, the answer is no,” I grumble. “Well, we kissed. Just once. But only because I offered to hook-up with no feelings getting involved and he wanted to prove to me that I couldn’t hook-up without feelings. It was a great kiss, but just for me.”

Ashley’s face drops. “What. Are. You. Doing. Up. There? You offered to ‘hook-up’ with a guy who is just like Josh? Please end this.”

“It’s over. I swear.” I don’t look at the screen.

“Maybe you should come home. You and Kent can try again, you both miss each other.”

“Ashley, please, coming home to be with Kent is ridiculous. You know as well as I do how stupid that sounds. Tucker is over. I called you so I could get it out of my system. And now it’s out, I’m over it.”

“I’m a little nervous Tessa. You don’t sound too convincing that it’s over. Call me in case it’s not out of your system. You can call me anytime you want, day or night.” Ashley sounds leery. “And be careful.”

“I swear, it’s over. We don’t have service at camp, but I’ll call when I can.”

“Promise me, if you feel yourself weaken, you’ll call me.”

“I swear.”

We say goodbye and disconnect.

A dose of reality is only a call away. Perfect. I will definitely call Ashley if I feel myself weaken. Ashley will help me through this, giving me all the advice I need. I know Ashley won’t ever let me make the same mistake.

I pick up my phone to make another call. The face appears on the screen immediately.

“I knew it. You’re totally in love with him.” Ashley shakes her head at me.

Cassie

“I’m not so sure about this.” I reach up and touch a piece of silver foil. “What if it comes out too blonde?”

“There’s no such thing as too blonde. But if you don’t like it then they’ll fix it. But trust me it’s going to look great. It’s going to lighten you up and be beautiful.” Tessa sits in the empty chair next to me in the hair salon. Her pretty blonde hair is natural,
supposedly
, so she’s there for support only.

I agreed to the change in a moment of weakness. Ready to make some changes, I figured my hair is a good start. The other changes I’m still figuring out.

The first foil comes off and a thin blonde strand hangs down in front of my face. I smile. It’s different. Once the hair is blow dried I’m shocked by the full effect of my new color. I was nervous it was going to turn out blonde like Tessa’s but it just made my dark color softer, a warm caramel effect to it.

“What do you think?” Tessa grins behinds me in the mirror.

“I think I love it.”

The weekend gives me the reboot I need, new hair, new habits, a new outlook. No more flings, no more drinking and no more sleeping until noon on the weekends. My need for a crazy filled summer is out of my system. When the summer ends and I’m back home I need to be at the bakery at four a.m. every morning. The place will be mine one day and I’m excited to start learning all the ins and outs of the business. Time for me to grow up.

Tessa would love some of the stuff I make. Not to eat, she isn’t a big sweet eater, actually Tessa claims she hates cake, but she does love pretty girly things. Pretty creations are my specialty. I’ve done a few themed sweet sixteen cakes that went over really big. My father and I did one that was five tiers right before I left. It was adorable, a make-up theme. I made little lipsticks out of fondant in different shades that lined the bottom. It was a huge hit. Just thinking like this makes me in the mood to bake something. And eat something covered in frosting. Yum. I need to bake cupcakes or something when we get back to camp.

Early Sunday evening we arrive back at camp. Our first priority is laundry. Neither of us in the mood after a long weekend away, but we need clean clothes.

The laundry room isn’t crowded, but as luck would have it Courtney’s perched on top of the counter. She’s playing with her nails, listening to her iPod and thankfully doesn’t notice us walk in. I load up the washing machine plinking my quarters in one by one. Trying my best to avoid Courtney I bump right into Sawyer.
Seriously?

“Hey.” He seems happy to see me. Not miserable and avoiding me like I expected. “I looked for you all weekend.”

“You did?” I have no idea why he would look for me after our “hut” incident.

“Yeah, why are you asking me like that?”

“I just thought after, you know, what happened,” I lower my voice. “You wouldn’t really want to see me anymore.”

He pulls his head back surprised. “Oh, is that what you want?”

I assumed it was over, whatever
it
even was. I hadn’t really given him much thought over the past week. Just figured our fling had flung.

“No,” I say. Not because I mean it, but because it seems like the right thing to say.

“Good. This weekend is over, but next weekend let’s definitely hang out.” He holds up his stuffed plastic garbage bag of clean laundry. “Alright, I’m done in here. Have a good week.”

I walk back to where Tessa’s reading a magazine. “That was strange. He still wants to hang out even after that whole nightmare in the hut.”

“And you want to?”

“No, he took me off guard.”

“Cassie your hair looks amazing. I didn’t even know you were back.” Courtney interrupts our conversation. “You guys missed everything this weekend.”

Tessa and I exchange looks, we’re about to hear all the gossip. Most likely all stuff we don’t care to know.

Courtney begins to dish. “Okay well I got in a huge fight with Julie. It was a long time coming. Last year there was all this drama with me and her over Vinny. Julie and Vinny used to date, high school sweethearts or something, and then we hooked up one night. Julie was furious. She broke up with him, big tears, the works. I was with him one time, but she never let it go and last night she totally lost it accusing me of being with Vinny again. She’s crazy. That’s why no one likes her here.”

“Were you with Vinny again?” I cross my fingers.

“No, I’m still with your brother,” she declares dramatically.

I wondered if we were still “related.” I was unsure whether Mark told everyone the truth or not after our fiasco. Looks like we’re keeping up the charade the rest of the summer.
Great
. Not that I have any right to complain, it was all my doing.

Courtney continues. “Tucker finally took Brianne up on her offer to go the hut.” I hear Tessa take a sharp breath in. “But they were only in there for a minute. If you thought Brianne was pissed the first time,” Courtney laughs. “You should have seen her this time.”

“Did she say what happened?” Tessa pipes up. Her knuckles are white wrapped around a bottle of fabric softener.

“Yeah. Nothing.” Courtney signals a big zero with her hand. “Then she told everyone she hooked up with someone and wouldn’t tell us who. Which means no one, but whatever, she’s embarrassed, we’ll pretend she has some secret hook up going on if she wants. And me and Mark…”

“I think I heard your dryer go off. You can fill us in on the rest tomorrow.” I cut her off. “We have to finish our laundry up too, anyway.”

“Oh, okay.” Courtney’s face deflates before she saunters away.

“Are you okay?” I turn towards Tessa.

Tessa bites her lip and nods, but I know she’s upset.

“She’s ridiculous with the gossip. Besides she said nothing happened.”

“I know, but he still went.” She shrugs. “It doesn’t matter. Nothing is going to happen with us anyway. But geez, why did she have to tell us about it?”

“Because Courtney is a gossiping bitch,” I state angrily.

Tessa hides her face. “I was so much worse. Last year, I gossiped even worse than that. It was my way of feeling like I mattered. Isn’t that sick to admit?”

“I can’t picture you as a gossip.” I try to imagine Tessa in high school. All I can envision is popular and pretty. Not struggling, gossiping to feel like she mattered. It’s sad the ways girls try to cover insecurities, myself included.

“Really?” Tessa asks surprised. “’Cause I was the worst gossip in high school and I was known as the biggest bitch.”

“Oh, the bitch thing I totally see.” I give my friend a gentle hair tug and smile teasing her.

“Yeah, well it takes one to know one.” Tessa reaches over giving my hair a much rougher tug. Kind of crazy what good friends we’ve become since that crazy first night.

“You know what, Tessa. Let’s just forget about guys the rest of the summer. Girl power and all that crap.”

“Yeah, you’re right. No more guys. This summer can be about me and you hanging out.”

We both nod our heads in unison, agreeing to our liberating declaration. Even though we are both fully aware…we’re full of shit.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Tessa

I want to know for sure. Not that it matters, but I just want to hear it for myself. I make it a point to stand next to Brianne watching our two groups of campers play a tedious game of volleyball.

“So crazy about Tucker,” I say crossing my arms casually, waiting to see how Brianne will respond.

“What’s crazy?” Brianne folds her arms the same way and faces me. Her eyes are guarded under mirrored sunglasses, but the snarl on her face is giving me a warning.

“It’s crazy, he turned down Cassie, he turned down you, and he turned down me.”

Brianne lifts her sunglasses off her eyes and squints at me. “He turned you down too?”

“Yeah.” Technically he did, so it isn’t a lie.

“Hmm, I don’t know, maybe he’s gay.” Brianne shrugs putting her sunglasses back in place. “I tried twice, I’m done trying.”

“I don’t think he’s gay, you at least got him to go to the hut with you. So, something must have happened with you guys.”

“Nope. Nothing. I don’t really care. I’m hooking up with someone else now anyway.”

Brianne confirmed it. Nothing happened between them in the hut. It should make me feel better, but it doesn’t. He still went, he’s still a liar. He’s still Josh.

In the middle of the night, I sneak over to Cassie’s bed and wake her up.

“I need to go somewhere real quick. Are you okay if I leave, I promise I’ll be back in less than an hour,” I whisper so I won’t disturb the sleeping campers.

“Are you okay?” Cassie sits up. “You’re not leaving the grounds are you? We’re not even supposed to leave our cabins at night unless it’s an emergency.”

When the campers are there, no one is allowed to leave the grounds without permission. But I need to go somewhere. To me it’s an emergency.

“I’m fine. I just need to do something. I’ll be back as soon as I can, I promise.”

I sneak out in the dark with my keys and purse. I don’t use a flashlight and wait to turn my headlights on until I’m out of the parking lot relying on the few dimly lit lamp posts. Phone in hand I drive until I see enough bars of service, pull over and park.

“Hello?” Ashley’s sleepy voice answers.

“You said I could call day or night if I needed you. And I need you.”

“About that guy?”

“Yes, Tucker.”

“What do you need?”

“I just need to hear you remind me how stupid this is.”

“It’s stupid.”

“It is right?”

“Tessa, listen to me, it’s very stupid.”

“Alright, thanks, that’s all I needed.”

“You really like this guy that much?”

I don’t answer.

“Geez, Tessa, really?” Ashley sighs into the phone.

“I don’t know.”

“Please keep calling me. I’ll get you through this. I can’t let you go through the same shit all over again. Not after you’ve come so far. Tessa, just remember how much that hurt last year.”

“You’re right. Thanks, Ash, I’m probably going to keep calling you.”

I drive back to camp, feeling much better than I did. In the parking lot I tiptoe past the row of parked cars stopping in front of the red truck with Jersey plates.

Yeah. I do like him that much. I really do
.

Maybe if I tell Ashley more about him, maybe there’s a way to get her to tell me its okay? Maybe if I stop telling her only about all the bad things and tell her about some of the good things, like the date we went on with breakfast and bowling, or about how he walked me to my cabin, came to check on me the night of the storm, our spot on the rock.

Every time I think of these good things I wonder if he is really like Josh. Am I labeling Tucker because of his past? Ashley has a past. Maybe if I start actually telling her more about Tucker she’ll help me figure out if there’s a way it could work for us.

If anyone can help, I know it’s her.

Cassie

More freaking rain. We’re stuck inside with our unhappy campers who are huddled around a laptop watching a DVD.

Tessa and I lie across my bed with the fan pointed at us. Tessa is in a cute yellow tank top and I’m all butched up in black t-shirt with the sleeves rolled up. This place is hot, sticky and moist all the time. I swear the second I see the first leaf fall this year I’m going to dance for joy.

I pull a picture out of the book where I keep it hidden and study it. My favorite picture, me and Mark at the prom. We went together as friends. There was no one else I wanted to go with. I smile down at the picture of Mark lifting me up so our mothers could get a good picture of the red Converse I was wearing underneath my black gown. We’re laughing in the picture, eyes sparkling, and happy faces. It was the start of the best night. Dancing, laughing, I wanted to jump up and kiss him in the worst way and I might’ve done it if hadn’t been for our principal. He grabbed the microphone to make a short speech about prom safety and reminded us graduation was only a few weeks away. Yes, graduation then college. I didn’t let it ruin the good time we were having like it usually did when I got the reminder Mark would be leaving soon, but it did remind me why kissing him was out of the question.

Mark’s fast relationship with Courtney proves to me what’s going to happen when he goes away to college. I’m not mad about it, or at least I shouldn’t be. That’s what supposed to happen when people go away. They’re supposed to party and have fun. Not sit around with a girlfriend at home, or worse, party and have fun, cheating on a girlfriend at home.