Hazel’s eyebrows were raised as if she were doing the mental gymnastics to figure out when she’d last had a girls’ night. I’d just assumed that the regular camp girls hung out all the time together. They all seemed so close.
“Yeah, that sounds fun. It’s been forever for me, too.” It wasn’t quite a lie. I’d hung out with Mandy and Shoshanna before, if being a third wheel counted. And then there were all those times in college. Most of my travels included women, but we didn’t get together in large groups. I was kind of out of my element.
I didn’t need to harp on it. I was here now, and I wanted some of that feminine energy. If it coincided with getting away from my roommate, well, that was just a bonus.
The four of us giggled with pizza grease fingers and pink cheeks as we passed around the gin and a bottle of Pamplemousse sparkling water.
“Remember that couple with the bark burn?” Felicia giggled before she opened up for Emerson to pour some gin and sparkling water into her mouth. She shook her body as though that were the only way to mix the two, and we all burst into laughter.
“There’s no such thing as bark burn,” Hazel said once things died down. She turned to Emerson and me and explained, “A couple was caught at the naked tree in the first year of Starlight. They had some… interesting injuries.”
Emerson touched her chin, as if she were pondering something. “I think if you can get rug burn, you can probably get bark burn.”
Felicia pointed enthusiastically. “Exactly!” she shouted a little too loudly.
The giggles didn’t stop for much longer than was acceptable. The drinks made everything a bit funnier and made me happily fuzzy. Or maybe that was just a side effect of hanging with these amazing women. We shared story after story, and I heard about other ways they’d caught campers in compromising positions over the years.
Emerson delighted in having her own story to share with the group. “You know, the session I was here, I went with a group of friends to the East Side dock, and a couple was skinny-dipping there. They must have been under the dock, because we didn’t see them, but I saw their clothes. I think they were just hiding there while we hung out.”
Hazel bounced on her hands. “Oh my god, you do know that was Jamie and Autumn, right?”
“No way,” Emerson screeched.
I was beside myself with this news. “How long were you there for?”
“Like twenty minutes,” Emerson said, wheezing.
Everyone lost it. Then a knock sounded at the door, and several of us screamed.
“Shh, shh,” Hazel whispered loudly. “Leo?—”
“Can hear you through the screen door.” He chuckled, opening said screen door to four women spread on the floor, cheeks red from laughing.
“Leo,” Hazel whispered loudly. “You look so pretty with bedhead.”
Leo patted his hair down. “And you look so pretty tipsy,” he countered playfully. “But it’s past your bedtime.”
“Are you here to tuck her in?” Emerson asked, holding back a smile, and we lost it yet again.
Hazel’s cheeks turned bright red, but she was still laughing, so that was a good sign.
I took Leo in, with his squirrel pajamas and sleep mask, pushing his hair up in more directions than usual.
“I thought you hated squirrels,” I questioned, hoping to deflect the attention from my embarrassed friend.
“Hazel got these for me. They’re super comfy.”
Nope. Her cheeks just got redder.
Leo picked up a slice of pizza before heading to the door. “If you could just take it down two notches, I’d very much appreciate it.”
“Okay, Daddy Leo!” Felicia called after him.
He looked over his shoulder, rolled his eyes, and left. I swore I heard him laugh from the porch and mutter, “I’m not getting any sleep tonight.”
He probably didn’t appreciate the laughs that followed as the screen door closed behind him.
As I approached,Jack’s face lit up for just a moment before he seemed to catch himself. He had on his binoculars, and I giggled to myself, remembering my first prank on him. He took them off and set them on the table, no doubt seeing where my mind went. I picked them up and hung them on his designated hook.
