Boyless: A Summer Romance by Janci Patterson

Author:Janci Patterson [Patterson, Janci]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Tags: Teen, Fiction, Romance, Summer, Camp, Weight Issues, Fat Acceptance
Publisher: Garden Ninja Books
Published: 2016-05-08T04:00:00+00:00

Fourteen

At the beginning of the fourth session, I distracted myself by trying to teach water colors. Armed with a gallon of spare water for filling spilled cups, I gave each girl a plastic cup, a set of paints, and a thick piece of paper and walked them up the hill behind the art shack.

By the middle of the week, the girls had trampled every fern on the hill. The older girls' ferns mostly looked like forked lightning and spider webs. The younger girls used far too much water, so their brushstrokes all ran together until their paintings turned into mud. Still, I'd never seen girls so proud of mud.

That was something.

On that Wednesday morning, I rose with Celeste. I hadn't been swimming since the incident with Evergreen, but my body still refused to let me sleep in, especially knowing that Logan and Celeste were still meeting up outside the mess hall.

If I was up, I might as well go for an early morning hike to scope out new painting spots. If that hill got any more trampled, Evergreen was going to have even more reasons to be mad at me.

Camp was still as I walked Celeste up to the mess hall. The sky was barely beginning to turn a deep indigo color; the pre-morning light dyed the trees in shades of blue. "So," I said. "How's it going with Logan?"

Celeste shrugged. "He's flirty enough, I guess. But I keep dropping hints that he isn't taking."

I tried not to wince at the idea of him flirting with her. I should have realized he teased everybody, not just me. "Maybe you're being too subtle."

Celeste's eyebrows rose. "Are you giving me relationship advice?"

"No," I said quickly. Too quickly. My face flushed. "Sorry."

"Are you kidding?" Celeste said. "I'm thrilled. I never thought Bryn Cooper would care about flirting."

"River," I said, looking over my shoulder for campers. Mostly I did that so she wouldn't be able to read the embarrassed expression on my face. "You make me sound like a terrible friend. Like I don't care about your happiness."

Celeste bumped my shoulder with hers. "You care. You just don't understand."

"Then educate me," I said. "How do you get this guy's attention?"

Celeste shrugged. "I don't know that I do. I mean, maybe he's interested in someone else."

I was pretty sure he had been. But I'd also seen the way he looked at her ass. He wasn't uninterested in Celeste. "Maybe you just need to get him out of camp," I said. "His mom has been kind of a witch about him talking to us." I felt a stab of guilt. I didn't want to get Celeste fired any more than I wanted to be fired myself. And since my job had been threatened, it was only fair to warn her. "In fact, I think she might fire anyone she catches with him."

Celeste snorted. "Might be worth it."

It might, I thought. Immediately I wanted to kick myself. If I got kicked out of camp over Logan, I would also not be near him anymore.

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