Chloe

My fingers tapped against the wheel of my Lincoln Mercury classic convertible, my already racing thoughts needing an outlet.

“This traffic sucks,” Millie humphed next to me.

My best friend’s words made me relax. Coastal Connecticut’s traffic was a bear but it helped to know she was just as anxious to get to Camp Winni as I was. “Totally,” I replied giving her a grin. Since we were at a dead stop, I used the opportunity to check my reflection in the rearview mirror. Messy ponytail, with cute little tendrils, check. Even coating of pale pink lip gloss, check. Stylish dark sunglasses, double check.

I am not normally so fixated on the details of my face but I couldn’t help it today. First of all, I was finally a counselor at Camp Winnipeg’s Summer Recreation Program and not just a little camper anymore. I’d been waiting for this since day since the age of ten.

At least that’s what I told my mom as I had rushed out the door. And I was excited about finally being a counselor. I was going to study early education at Simmons College in Boston this fall so this was an amazing opportunity for me to teach kids and gain some experience.

The truth, though, was that I was far more eager to see my not-so-secret crush, Alex Gorski, again. It had been ten months since I’d last caught of glimpse of his deep blue eyes and charmingly boyish smile. I’d started to wonder if I was making it up, just how handsome he was. More importantly, would I still feel the same after almost a year had gone by? I was sure I would. How would he see me now that I was a counselor and not just another little camper?

He and his friend, Drew, had joined the staff last year and I had been instantly smitten with Alex. Just thinking of him made me fiddle with the loose curls about my face. Another quick glance in the mirror revealed an entirely different Chloe. My nose turned up too much, my glasses where crooked, and too many curls had fallen from my ponytail. Ugh, just thinking of Alex caused all kinds of self-doubt.

But he was a god among college-age boys. Blonde and tan, with rock hard muscles. I’d been too awestruck last year to do a thing about it and by the time I’d pulled myself together, Tiffani Parker had already swooped in to claim him. Even her name sounded snotty. Tiffani. Okay, it was a great name. I was being petty.

Tiffani was the statuesque redhead that had a way of looking down her nose at everyone. Even people who were taller than her. And her lips were always pursed, nose wrinkled as though she had smelled something foul. She made me uncomfortable, especially because I could tell she never liked me. She was always rolling her eyes when I was around her. I was relieved she wasn’t returning to the camp as a fellow counselor.

I huffed to myself, thinking about Alex and Tiffani.

Millie turned to me. “What’s wrong?”

This traffic, it’s insane,” I lied. “Why isn’t this line of cars moving?” My foot eased off the brake hopefully.

“It’s the beach. It’s always like this.” She patted my arm. “Try not to worry. I doubt there will be time for another girl to beat you to Alex in the extra fifteen minutes it takes us to get there.”

I glanced at her, laughing a little. She knew me so well. “I know you’re right but I just don’t want to take any chances.”

“Besides, he could have a girlfriend already.” She nodded while she spoke as though that were a valid point.

The corners of my mouth turned down. “He doesn’t.” At least not as far as I could discern on Facebook and Instagram. It wasn’t stalking, I assured myself. I had just wanted one piece of information. Did Alex have a girlfriend? As far as I could tell, he hadn’t dated anyone all year.

“You know who else is a total hottie?” She let out a little sigh. “Drew. He has those deep mysterious eyes. Dreamy. Don’t you get the feeling he sees right through you and he’s writing a song about you in his head?” She flipped down her own visor and started primping in the mirror. Millie was a petite redhead with ivory skin and flashing green eyes. She was stunning. How she ever made it the entire summer at the beach with that skin, I couldn’t say.

I wrinkled my nose. “Drew? He’s so…” Annoying, rude, crass, pig-headed. I tried to decide but couldn’t seem to pick just one.

“Tall,” Millie filled in. “Dark. Handsome.”

Well, yeah, there was that. But he was also the lead guitarist for a band and thought he was way cooler than the rest of us. He was always putting down the camp and what he called ‘the perky joiners,’ aka yours truly. “You forgot obnoxious and egotistical.”

Millie turned to me. “You’re not wrong, I guess. Remember when he sang, I’m a Barbie Girl every time you walked into the craft room?” Millie gave a shrug. “Though he only seemed that way with you.”

Great. Alex’s best friend hated me and only me. That did not bode well. A little niggle of worry slid down spine. Why did Drew dislike me so much? I wasn’t hateable. I was nice to everybody, I tried my best to be enthusiastic and helpful. But I pushed these thoughts aside. I would not care what Drew McCabe thought about me.

The cars finally started moving and we gave a little whoop. We were close enough now that I opened the top to my little pink retro convertible. I know, it’s so girlie and cheesy to have a pink convertible. But I loved it. It was so…me. It had been my aunt’s, who I admittedly took after. Same bubbly personality, same messy blonde hair.

She’d finally gotten married last year and, with a baby on the way, needed something more practical. She said it was an early graduation gift but I’d heard my dad say that she couldn’t give the car away. I didn’t care, I was so thankful she’d given it to me.

Millie let out a cheer as the top folded back to let the sun shine in on the worn seats. Then she promptly broke out a tube of sunblock from her purse and started applying it in the mirror.

I flipped on the radio, hunting for the perfect song. I loved to sing, especially if the song was upbeat and happy. Finally, Katie Perry’s, California Girls came on and I cranked the volume, both Millie and I singing at the top of our lungs. Aside from being in Connecticut, instead of California, it was perfect. This was going to be my summer. I just knew it. And I was going to land the perfect guy. Bring on the sun and the beach, this was my year.

We finally pulled into Camp Winni and I grinned as all eyes turned to us. Every other year, my parents had had to drop me off, to sign all the waivers and stuff. But now I was eighteen and a counselor. Only the counselors arrived without parental units. “Hey,” a few guys I didn’t know called and waved. Millie waved back as I maneuvered through the crowd of people and cars to find a parking spot.

I could already smell the beach and see the line of shingled cottages that would be our home for the next six weeks. I loved it here.

As if that wasn’t amazing enough, just as I was pulling into a vacant spot, Alex walked down the sidewalk right in front of my car. Sweet serendipity. He was everything I remembered. Broad in the shoulders, with lean muscles and a square jaw. My breath caught just looking at him. Ours eyes met and he lowered his sunglasses to give me an appraising stare. “Nice wheels,” he said, drawing out the two words to show his appreciation. Then he added a whistle at the end for effect.

I blushed, looking down at my lap as butterflies flapped around my stomach. For sure, this was the year he would see me as dateable material. “Thanks.”

“I guess somebody grew up this year.” Alex still had that same tone of appreciation and my heart beat wildly in my chest. This was it. He was finally noticing me.

I heard Millie tsk next to me. “Stop it,” she said as she clicked the latch on the door to open it.

My heart went from wild beating to seizing in my chest. I looked quickly at Alex to see that he was appraising Millie. Not me. This couldn’t be happening. I swallowed the lump that was clogging my throat as tears inexplicably sprang to my eyes. I’d been planning this perfect moment for a month.

Right up until now, it had been happening exactly as I had pictured it. Cool car, perfect guy greeting me, him telling me how much more mature I looked. Except for it wasn’t me he was looking at. I knew Millie was a total hottie. Jealousy and self-loathing bubbled in my chest. I was a frizzy-haired freak. I’d never been so deflated in all my life.

“Hey,” Drew nodded toward me with a smile and then stepped off the sidewalk to come to my car door. I refocused my gaze. I hadn’t even seen him until he’d spoken. “You made it through graduation, I see.”

Now what was that supposed to mean? Did I not seem like I could graduate? “Yeah,” I snipped, irritation making me huffy. The last thing I needed was to be teased by Drew. Couldn’t he see I was falling apart here? And besides, I’d only just pulled in the parking lot. Did he have to start giving me a hard time already? “Most people do.”

I watched as his smile turned brittle, the corners pulling up tightly. A tiny bit of guilt made my toes curl in my shoes. He hadn’t actually been rude…yet. This time, I was the one who was taking my disappointment out on him. He opened my door anyway and reached his hand in to help me out of the car.

My brow wrinkled. What was going on with Drew? Because that was rather chivalrous. And as far as I knew, Drew didn’t do the nice guy thing. He sat playing his guitar by the fire and rolling his eyes at all the bad singing. If a camper was sick, he’d make a sarcastic comment about how they ate too many tacos rather than holding back their hair.

Unlike Alex. He was more like me. Patting a kid on the back, helping them conquer their fear of the ocean, teaching them how to search for starfish. Singing at the top of his lungs. Weren’t you supposed to date someone who was like you?

“Thanks,” I said as I stood, coming up next to him. His hand was still holding mine, warm and strong, he already smelled of sunshine and tanning lotion and a hint of aftershave. I don’t why but it made me slightly giddy. I tilted my face up to his, my lips parting in a question. Was Drew making me giddy? God, why?

His answering smile said that he knew something I didn’t. I meant to tell him how annoying that smile was but then his other hand came to my waist to move me over as he closed the door. I’d danced with who knows how many guys, who had all put their hands on my waist but this was different. Maybe it was because the sun beat down on us but I could feel warmth spreading through me.

His grin broadened. “What college did you decide to go to?”

It was a simple question. Later, I would wonder why I was such a bumbling idiot but in that moment all I could say was, “Huh?”

His hand slowly slid out of mine and then he took a step back so there was more space between us. “College? Where are you going?”

“Oh,” I blinked, my brain suddenly working again. “Simmons. It’s in Boston.”

He gave me another smile and this one was unlike any I had ever seen from him. It practically knocked me over, it was so bright. Full lips revealed sparkling white teeth that were so straight, they looked fake. It was a great smile. It was like, well, it was like Alex’s actually. It might have even been better. “Yeah, I know. I’m transferring to the Boston Conservatory School of Music. They’re like a block from each other. I saw Simmons when I toured the campus.”

“What?” I was back to being dumb. But I seriously couldn’t process that I might be running into Drew when I moved two states away for college. He was going to be able to torture me year round, in front of all my new, super cool college friends. Not that I had any of those yet. I was just picturing it in my head. Like my moment with Alex. The one that had gone terribly wrong. “You didn’t like UConn?”

He shrugged. “It was fine, I guess.” He looked almost vulnerable as his hands shoved into the pockets. That was not Drew at all. What had happened? “But an actual music school is a great opportunity, especially because I got a scholarship.”

“Well, congratulations.” My hands hung limply at my sides. Not sure what else to do, I reached up and punched him lightly on the arm. “Maybe we’ll carpool sometime.” I didn’t know why I’d just said that. It was a reflex, like breathing. Why couldn’t I turn nice girl off?

He looked down at his arm where I’d just hit him, his eyebrows going up above his sunglasses, his mouth slightly ajar. Then he looked back at me. “Sure, but we’ll take my car.”

I huffed a breath. That brought me back to myself. This was the guy who’d given me crappy nicknames last year. Who teased me every time I sang around the camp fire. Who was he to judge me? “I love my car.”

“It’s pink.” He pulled the sunglasses down to reveal his dark eyes and penetrating eyes. They stared at me, seeing past the lenses of mine. It was as though he expressed his disappointment in me without saying a word. I shuffled my feet as my stomach started to flutter again.

“It’s cute.” I gave him my ick face. The one where I pretended to be Tiffani. “What is your problem with happy?” I turned away from him. I couldn’t look at him anymore, though I wasn’t sure if it was his annoying words or his soulful eyes. Walking to the trunk of my car, I popped it up to pull out my suitcase.

But he followed me. So weird. Why was Drew even talking to me? Even weirder was that as I got to the trunk, Alex was there helping Millie pull out her suitcase. What was happening? Wasn’t Millie just talking about how dreamy Drew was while I had been fantasizing about a date with Alex forever?

“I don’t have a problem with happy.” Drew reached around me, his body brushing mine as he grabbed for my suitcase. It made me tingle in the oddest way.

Alex and Millie stopped, staring at us for a few seconds before they burst out laughing. The noise helped me shake my strange feelings around Drew.

“Dude, you totally have a problem with happy.” Alex grinned.

Drew set down my suitcase and furrowed his brow, his mouth turning down. “I love happy.”

“Remember when you told Chloe she should be medicated to reduce bubbliness? Alka Seltzer for the personality, you said.” Millie ducked her head as she pulled a small duffle from the trunk.

That one had irritated me. Sunshine had been one thing. I could pretend that it was a compliment. But Alka Seltzer? He’d said it in front of whole group of counselors, all guys, all in college. They’d all laughed at me, pointing and jeering. I don’t get upset too often but I’d gone back to my cabin to cry. Secretly, I’d blamed Drew for why Alex didn’t want to date me. Though, to be fair, he’d already been an item with Tiffani by the time Drew had dropped that little bomb.

“Remember when she came into the rec room during song time and you played ‘Shiny Happy People’ as she walked across the entire room?” Alex was suppressing a smile which only riled me more. How would Alex ever like me if I was the constant subject of teasing?

Millie opened her mouth but I sliced my hand through the air to cut her off. “Can we not take this trip down humiliation memory lane please?”

“Humiliation?” Drew said behind me, his voice rising like this conversation upset him, which was crazy. I was the one who had been teased mercilessly. I should be upset, not him.

“Whatever,” I replied, not looking at him as I grabbed the handle of my suitcase. I reached in and grabbed my other duffle bag and then slammed the trunk back down. “It doesn’t matter anymore. I’m headed to my cabin. You coming, Millie?”

“Sure,” she chirped grabbing her own stuff.

I didn’t wait for her to have it all in hand. I’d stop halfway to the office to let her catch up. I needed to get out of there before I did something stupid liked cry… again. Because thinking back at all those things really hurt my feelings. Why did Drew dislike me so much? And, I reminded myself, he’d ruined my first conversation of the summer with Alex.

A little voice chided me that it hadn’t been Drew’s fault that Alex was checking out Millie. But I silenced it. Drew was to blame. Definitely Drew. How was I going to avoid the most annoying guitar player to ever grace Camp Winni for the entire summer?