Camping, Families, and Odd Occurrences

T e n

T e n ♥ June 30th

It was another hiking day, sadly, but it was also the last day of June, so yay!

Matt took us on a four mile hike today, so nothing too difficult. Plus, so far nothing truly embarrassing had happened yet! So, it was beginning to look like a pretty good day for me.

After watching the sunset yesterday, we all had decided to call it a night. It wasn't late or anything, but we'd been swimming and exerting energy for quite some time which made us all (besides Hailey of course) super tired. So, I went with Val to hang out with her at her camper and Cole stayed with the Bennetts at their house until our parents got back from whatever the hell they were doing.

Valerie was sitting in a white plastic chair in front of me outside next to her camper. In between us sat a standing tray which was currently holding my hands up so she could properly paint my nails.

She was doing a very pretty design that included stars on my nails. I wasn't too worried about it looking awful; I'd watched her paint the first nail and decided that even if she was at her worse, it would still look better than I had ever painted them. Besides, I'd probably be picking off the polish within a few days anyways.

Valerie had her pulled tight away from her face in a ponytail. She wore a casual tee shirt with some shorts. She was a minimal amount of makeup and was intently staring down at my hands. It surprise me when she spoke to say, "So, what do you think of the Bennetts?"

I glanced up to see if she was even looking at me. She was. She had an expectant look that urged me to say something. I shrugged. "They're cool. They're fun to hang out with."

Valerie rolled her eyes and sighed. "By 'what do you think of the Bennetts', I really meant 'what do you think of Matthew Bennett?'" she elaborated. I could feel my face heat up as I shrugged once again.

"I don't know. He's cool."

Valerie sighed. "Stop saying everyone's cool. There's definitely something going on between you guys, right?" she questioned. I frowned and shook my head. "He's never given you a heated look or said something hot?" Once again, I shook my head. "What about at the beach, did something happen then?" Something might've happened then, but I didn't feel like sharing about it, so I shook my head once again. "You guys haven't ever kissed?" Valerie looked like her head was about to explode.

I laughed at that last question. "No, of course not! I literally met him not even a week ago! Have you kissed Calyx?"

Valerie's entire body turned a light pink.

I gasped. "Whore!" I said playfully. Valerie laughed with me and stuck her tongue out.

"Prude." She said.

After our laughter died down, Valerie began working on my nails again. With a more serious look on her face, she said, "Tell me about Florida."

I sighed and leaned back in my chair, careful to keep my hands steady. "What do you want to know?"

Valerie pondered this question for just a moment before saying, "Everything. Just tell me about it. Tell me about your friends and past lovers."

I sighed and nodded. "Okay.

"Well, my best friend is named Kennedy. You those friends that everyone has that are just brutally honest about everything? And although you sometimes are made at them for it, you also have this weird sort of admiration? Kennedy was that friend. She's always honest about things, even when I don't want her to be. And sure, sometimes she's a total beach," Valerie chuckled at my replacement for the B-word, "she can be a really awesome best friend. I just love her."