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I look down at the design of the white moon peeking out from some dark clouds with a few twinkling stars keeping it company.
“What made you put that on your body for all eternity?” she marvels with a shake of her head and lets go of my arm, much to my inner chagrin.
“Excuse me, is that not a sick-ass drawing for a ten-year-old?” I ask rhetorically. “That had to go in my little record book. “Besides, it reminds me of when I met you,” I add as casually as I can, already feeling a pang of anxiety at giving her even a partial truth of how I feel about her… the whole truth being that I had heard what the name Luna meant, and decided that she was my moon. My Luna.
“Yeah, it’s time I handed the gun over to someone else though, so I can get this other arm done.” I change the subject and nod at my right arm. “It looks like I dipped one arm in ink.”
“Well whoever does it, make sure they’re the best. Don’t trust just anyone with your designs.”
“Don’t worry. Remember Logan?” I ask, and she rolls her eyes skyward for a moment.
“From our first year here? He was hanging out with the two twits that taught us truth or dare?”
“Yes,” I chuckle, bending a knee and folding my arms over it. “Anyway, his town isn’t too far from mine, and his old man has a shop of his own. I’ll probably go there.”
She tucks her lip in and nods thoughtfully, her tell that her mind is racing a mile a minute. “Would you come up with a design for me?”
“For a tat?” I ask, dipping my chin forward a little and she nods her affirmation. “You're going to saddle me with that impossible task, huh?”
“Please?” she begs, giving me the cheesiest grin she can muster.
“Fine.” I roll my eyes acting like it’s a hardship, when in reality, there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for her.
“Yes!” She celebrates by doing her double fist-pump thing she’s done for as long as I’ve known her.
“You owe me though,” I say and give her an admonishing look, to which she tilts her head.
“Yeah, right,” she tilts her head and squints her eyes up at me.
“I’ll collect,” I tell her, just to piss her off. It’s fun. “Might be tomorrow or five years from now, but I’ll collect.”
“Oh, you…” she looks around at the campers as they fold up their letters into envelopes, “butthead,” she finishes
“So what about you, goof?” I ask as we stand just in time for the dinner bell to ring, and she starts collecting all the envelopes from the kids.
“What do you mean?”
“What are you going to be doing while I’m learning how to kick your ass at boot camp?” I ask as I follow her around, and a couple of wide-eyed campers swivel their heads my way. I look between their slack mouthed expressions and up to Luna to see her widening her eyes at me with a hard set of her jaw.
“A year of college, and then hopefully a bomb art school,” she answers my question without meeting my eyes as she arranges all the letters in the bin tucked under her arm.
“Okay, I get the art school, but why lose a year going to college first?” I ask, feeling my eyes squint, trying to process this. I just don’t see Luna in a library, studying her ass off. She is and has always been a hands-on kind of girl.
“I just…” she starts to twitch, still not looking at me, “promised my parents I’d try college for a year. They’re worried I won’t be able to make a living as an artist and think I should go to school for some kind of degree that’s more in demand. I’ve told them I don’t want to and that I’d rather make peanuts doing what I love, but… they’ve done so much for me and I don’t want to let them down, so we compromised.” She lets out a hard breath before finally looking at me. “I promised I would try it for a year, and if I don’t like it – which I know I won’t – they’ll help me transfer to an art institute.”
I stare down at her as she shifts her weight between both feet awkwardly. I want so badly to point out that she just minutes ago told me I should go for it with my drawing, but I don’t.
“It’ll be good,” she nods, and I can tell she’s trying to convince herself. “Maybe that year at a university will help me get into a really good one.”
I let a moment pass, telling her with my solemn stare what I really think, before finally letting out a resigned sigh. “Cool.”
She knows that response is full of shit, but she takes it as her free pass, smiling at me before turning away to take the letters to the office.
5
LUNA
After the last of the campers leaves in the back seat of their respective sedan, minivan, or SUV, the rest of the counselors and I hurry to close up the camp for the fall. We get to stay one more night, sans children, and so as you can imagine, we’re eager to get the work part over with.
