STUFFED

Winnings

The morning drags on and feels longer than usual today.

It took forever for everyone in her bunk to wake up and go through the buffet line. Now they're all sitting together in their cabin groups. Courtney only half pays attention to the conversation going on at her table. She shifts her head from left to right scanning the room, trying to locate the seven guys from last night. She doesn't see everyone, she only ends up seeing four of them and all of them are either sat facing away from her or aren't looking up.

She gives up and decides to engage with the conversation going on around her.

Everyone at the table has almost finished what's on their plates when someone comes up behind Courtney and taps her shoulder. She turns her head to find Carson standing there.

"Mason's cabin at three."

Carson leaves as quickly as he came and Courtney turns back to the group. So they're meeting at 3pm later, cool. She's glad that she's not being left out or forgotten.

Courtney goes through the motions all day, anxiously waiting for free time at three.

She goes on the extra long walk (which doesn't feel impossible to complete today), they make threaded bracelets, then have lunch, and then go on a scavenger hunt. Three o'clock rolls around and everyone goes their separate ways for free time. Courtney makes her way to cabin 116. The door to Mason's room is closed when she gets there. Courtney puts her ear up to the wall but can't hear anything. She lightly knocks twice.

She hears a bunch of murmurs before the door opens. When she steps inside, she realizes she's the last one to get there.

Courtney looks over to Mason, who's holding a stuffed looking backpack up to his chest.

"Did we do it?"

"Hell yeah we did!"

The way they all semi-silently celebrate is adorable. She really forgot how much she missed team sports.

"We couldn't have done it without you Courtney!" Bailey beams.

They all clap and Courtney takes a couple of dramatic bows.

Mason walks around the room with the open backpack handing out snacks. When all of the winnings have been dispersed, some people leave the room and others stay. Courtney is about to sit down when Ryan calls her name. He motions for her to follow him and she obliges. They go outside and sit down in the grass behind the cabins, leaning their backs up against the wall.

"That was a lot of fun." Courtney says.

"I know! We really got away with it too. You honestly made all the difference though Courtney."

"Oh, thanks." Courtney chuckles, slightly embarrassed.

An awkward silence hangs between the two of them.

She looks around, awkwardly. What are they doing? Why did Ryan invite her out here?

She can't take the silence anymore so she turns her head back to face him and as she's about to say something, she watches as one of Ryan's cosmic brownies falls into his lap. Her facial expression immediately changes as she giggles and automatically reaches for it. She looks at him, brownie in hand, and Ryan stares back at her. Her giggling dies down as they hold each other's gaze. For some reason, Courtney gets nervous. She has two options; she can bashfully return the chocolate and they can go back to awkwardly sitting beside each other in this field... or...

Courtney glances down at Ryan's partially separated lips. His bottom lip is fatter than his top and it has a layer of glistening saliva just around the inner rim.