Jennifer
“Do you trust me?”
Lucas held out his hand as I threw him a skeptical look. Staring out over the lake, I wanted to take it and join him in swinging over the surface of the water and jumping in. But I didn’t know how to swim, and I didn’t know if I should tell him. What if he made fun of me? Jennifer can’t swim. How about that? Only ten summers coming to Happy Endings Resort for the summer season and never swimming? How had she managed that?
“It’s not that I don’t trust you, it’s just that I—I can’t….”
“Just hold on to me. I won’t let go.” Lucas held his hand out and waited for me to take it. I swallowed, sweat growing on my forehead as I felt faint.
“I can’t.” I turned and ran away, feeling my chest seize from a lack of air. Not taking note of where I was going, I ended up at the edge of the campgrounds and continued into the forest. Only then, when I reached a dip in the terrain, did I sink against a fallen log. Leaning into my knees as I grasped them, sobbing into my own shirt, I wanted to sink into the mulch. I sat there for what felt like forever before I wondered what time it was as I saw the light dimming above, filling me with panic. I didn’t know how far I’d gone into the woods or which direction to take back. My heart jumped again, and I was sure I’d die of something out there as the evening chills set in. I froze as I heard a crunch of twigs nearby.
“Jenni?” A familiar voice flooded me with relief, and I perked up. Jumping to my feet, I saw no one.
“Lucas?” I scanned the surrounding woods, but it was darkening quickly. A light flicked on and shined right into my eyes. I squeezed my lids shut, blinded.
“Jenni? Oh, thank god. Are you all right?” It was Lucas, and he nearly stumbled into me as he made his way over the dip in the terrain, branches snagging at his socks and shirt and scratching up his legs. He lost his balance and rolled on the ground, and I held my arms out to him once he had recovered. He readily took them as we sat back down and held one another for what felt like minutes.
“I’m so sorry, Lucas, I didn’t mean to run. I… I can’t swim. I just never told anyone.”
“That’s it? I thought I’d grown horns or a tail or something.”
I laughed, grateful for his innate sense of humor. “You’re insane.”
“Certifiable.”
“I just… I can’t swim. I never tried. Not since… not since I almost drowned at four years old. I just can’t do it.”
He rubbed my shoulders, and I took the comfort well, snuggling closer and enjoying the warmth radiating off his body. The night had arrived, and the air had literally dropped ten degrees. I shivered.
“Want to go back?”
I nodded. “Yes, but I won’t be able to find my way back. I forgot to check which direction I was going.”
“Come on, I can get us back. We should go slowly because there’re so many dips in the ground here. Might break a leg if we go too fast.”
“Okay,” I agreed, slipping my hand into his. He gripped me tightly, the connection igniting sparks along my skin as he pulled me out of the hole we’d settled in. I wanted to hold him closer, but the brush was thick enough that we had to walk one behind the other. Before too long, my teeth were chattering madly, and gooseflesh had flared across my body.
“Please don’t tell my mother I ran away. She’ll freak if she thinks I’m capable of dashing out here like an idiot.”
“No worries. She doesn’t exactly like me, remember?”
I groaned. “Oh, yeah. Hey, maybe if I tell her you rescued me, she’ll grow fond of you.”
He chuckled but cut it short as I slipped on a wet rock. Reaching out, he caught me just in time before I was a goner, mangled across the rocks.
“I’m sure she’ll totally blame me for letting you get lost in the first place. I’ll let her think what she likes. She’s already got me pegged as a troublemaker.”
“Oh, but you are!”
“You know you love me for it.”
“I do.”
At this, he paused in the middle of the path. The terrain was looking familiar. Still, he hesitated to continue.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“You meant that? You love me?”
I tapped his chest with my palm. “Of course, silly. You know that. We’ve been together since we were six, coming to this crazy place. You and me, together forever. Remember?”
He nodded, his eyes deepening with things unsaid. “I remember. I just wanted to make sure.”
“Make sure of what?”
“That you felt the same way.”
I peered at Lucas and wondered what was brewing up in that head of his. “You okay?” I asked.
He nodded. “It’s just… you said you wouldn’t be coming back next summer, right? That your parents were renting out your family’s cabin to vacationers instead of returning, right?”
I nodded. “Yeah. Only because we’re moving to northern California. Can you believe that? What the hell is there that isn’t here already? Nothing! More surfers? It might as well be China for all I care.”
“That would be worse.”
I groaned. “You know what I mean.”
He chuckled and pulled me closer, his heat deliciously enveloping my sixteen-year-old frame. I didn’t want to pull away ever, but the way his hooded eyes peered at me, flashing under the twinkling fireflies’ light, was doing things to my insides I’d never felt before.
“Promise me something then,” he whispered, his breath hot by my ear. I shivered, but it wasn’t from the cold anymore.
“What is it?”
“Promise me you’ll come back here when you can. Don’t fall in love with anyone else. Don’t get married. Come back here when you can, by twenty-five at least. Come back to your old cabin, and we can get married.”
“Twenty-five? That’s a long time to wait.”
“I’ll wait forever. Promise me?”
I laughed, but he was dead serious. I cleared my throat. “Okay. I promise. But you better think twice about making such a rash commitment. I intend to keep my word. And… what if it doesn’t happen? What if we never see each other again?”
“Oh, I plan to see you again and again and again. I’ll make sure of it,” he whispered as his lips grazed my neck, slipping down the curve and over my shoulder. I gasped as sparks of lightning shot down my skin, flaring up more gooseflesh as my mind settled on all sorts of forbidden things. I sighed into his chest as he stroked my back, his lips devouring mine with a feverish desire. I liked it, cherished it, and the night no longer felt frigid but sizzling hot as he laid me down in a soft bed of forest mulch and leaves, taking care to clear the rocks from our earthly bed. The moments vanished into a blur of passion and fire, into something I’d later fight to forget.
After that night, I never saw Lucas again.