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Amelie frowned. She seemed to be studying him just as intently as he was studying her. “You grew your hair out,” she finally said.
“Yeah.” He touched the camera. His hand brushing against hers caused something within him to light up. “Are you going to open it?”
She looked down as though she’d forgotten she’d been holding something. Slowly and meticulously, she began unraveling the paper. Her eyes lit up when she removed the last piece. “Wow. Thank you, Jack. This is really, really nice. I mean… wow. You really know your stuff. But… you totally didn’t have to do this...”
Jack smiled. He hung on every word she’d said. “Yes, I did.”
Connor sighed loudly. “Are we done with this little reunion? Amelie and I here were discussing something important.”
Amelie stepped forward and threw her arms around Jack’s neck. “I mean it, Jack… thank you.” Unable to help himself he inhaled her scent then pushed back abruptly. He grabbed her by the shoulders and glared into her eyes. “Amelie. Are you fucking high?”
She laughed. “Maybe. A little...”
Jack dropped his hands from her shoulders and lunged for Connor. Unfortunately, Connor was quick. He ducked. So Jack drop-kicked his ass straight into the lake. “Jack!” Amelie screamed. “What is wrong with you?”
Jack turned to face her, his eyes boring into hers. “Ha. I guess I could ask you the same question. I really didn’t take you for stupid, Amelie.”
Amelie raised her voice. “Well, I’m so very happy to have proved you wrong.”
“I never got the chance to say I was sorry… but I wanted you to know. In person. Clearly that was my mistake. Anyway, I hope the camera is ok.” Jack shook his head, turned, and walked away.
If he thought this was going to be an in-and-out trip, though, he’d been dead wrong.
For the next week, Jack observed ‘Douchebag Connor’ parading his friend, his only friend—by the way, around camp. Connor was making a fool of the both of them. Jack kept his head down and tried to stay out of trouble, which for the most part meant keeping his distance. Until a few days later when Amelie left several photos for him in his camp mailbox. One of them was of her and with it a note that read: I’m sorry. Truce?
Jack turned the piece of paper over and wrote six words: Tomorrow, noon. Dark Room. Come alone. He stuck the note back in her box and spent the rest of the day alone in his cabin working and doing whatever it took not to think of her.
The next day, he showed up to the rickety shack, which had been turned into a dark room, where he found Amelie, already working. He stepped inside and leaned back against the counter. He crossed his arms and watched her as she worked. The longer he stared, the less it seemed he could make out what it was about her that had changed so much. Over the past year, she had grown several inches and quite obviously, filled out in exactly the right places. This bothered Jack more than he wanted to admit. She’d changed in other ways, too. The shy, lonely girl he remembered had somehow blossomed into a social magnet. He hated this newer version of Amelie so much that it pained him to admit just how attractive she’d become. From the way she laughed to the way she moved to the way the tiny blonde hairs stuck to the back of her neck—it was too much. It made Jack want to touch her, and it made him picture her in ways he never co
nsidered—and for this, he hated himself.
She nodded in his direction. “What’s up, buttercup?”
Jack shrugged. “Nothing.”
She raised her brow. “You wanted to see me… here… for nothing?”
He crossed and uncrossed his legs. “I think you should stay away from Connor Levine.”
Amelie laughed. “Really? Because I was worried that you hadn’t made your feelings transparent enough already.”
Jack studied her for a second before speaking. “You’ve changed.”
“It happens, Jack. People change…”
“And why are you smoking pot, anyway? You’re too smart for that shit, Amelie.”
“Says who?”
Jack moved closer. “Look. I know what I did last summer on the dock was wrong. I came here to apologize… and to try to make it right. Whatever that means. I’m leaving in the morning but before I go, I need to know that you’re going to stay away from Levine. He only wants one thing from you, kid. And we both know what that is. It’s no different from the others.”
“And your point is...?”
Jack sighed. “That you’re too good for him.”
Amelie pinned the photographs up to dry and turned to him. “I happen to like Connor. And I also happen to like getting high. Why do you care so much, anyway? Is Kristy too busy for you this summer?”
He rolled his eyes. “This has nothing to do with Kristy.”
