𝐂𝐀𝐋𝐀𝐌𝐈𝐓𝐘 → original

eight

They arrived back at the cabin, tired and sun kissed, and were met with the sight of Tyler pulling out the grill from the shed. He looked up as they approached, his eyes straining against the sunlight, before pulling his lips into a tight line.

"I'm grilling out for everyone tonight." He announced it firmly, like it wasn't an offer or a suggestion. It should have been a kind gesture, but in his weird stiff way he seemed to even ruin that.

No one responded to him beyond a quiet "thanks." They simply went inside and took turns using the two showers. Ophelia and Nadia went first, leaving Lou and Amory to rest in their room. Neither of them wanted to sit on the bed, considering Amory was still wet with lake water and Lou felt gross simply from her hours outside, so instead they sat side by side on the floor.

"You seem calmer." Amory noted after a few silent moments, eyeing the girl beside him while her eyes were trained on the TV. He meant it, too. Prior to today, he could practically feel the stress radiating off of her, could see the tension pulling heaving in her bones, even if she didn't want to admit it. 

Lou simply hummed in response, not wanting to say aloud why there was a change in her behavior. Lou didn't consider herself a particularly secretive person, she just didn't want to reveal the things about herself that caused her such stress. She was supposed to be put together, cool calm and collected, and if she admitted to anything otherwise, she may just crack.

"I know you don't want to talk about it," Amory paused, getting a bit comfier beside her. His shoulder brushed against hers as he scooted down, making them eye level. "But if you ever decide you want to, I hope you know I'm here."

Lou furrowed her brows and finally looked into his eyes, because she wasn't exactly sure what he meant. "Talk about what?"

Amory could think of a million responses to that question: Topher, Caspar, school, this vacation, life. He had first noticed the change in Lou around Caspar at Vallie's wedding, once Nadia pointed it out to him, and it was something that had stuck with him ever since. It was odd at first, he thought, as if none of them could ever cross the line from friendship to something more. He had always held himself back, so he assumed the others would want to do the same. The more he thought about it, though, they made sense together, and he really just wanted her to be happy.

"Anything. Everything." Amory shrugged. 

Lou studied him for a moment, before nodding and retraining her eyes towards the TV. She realized that maybe she wasn't as hard to read as she had hoped.

Upstairs, Caspar and Marc also did not get in their beds. This had less to do with not wanting to dirty their linen, and more to do with logistics of it; if Caspar climbed up in that bed, he would fall asleep rather than climbing back down. When Caspar sat on the floor, Marc joined him. They were both sitting with their legs crossed, facing each other.

"Do you think Tyler is going to make any sides, or are we just going to be having hamburgers and hot dogs tonight?" Marc wondered aloud, his mind drifting to cooking as it often did.

"Probably not, you buy anything we could have with it?" Caspar replied, brushing his hair out of his eyes. His parents often told him it was too long, but he liked it this way. 

"I could probably throw together a salad." Marc suggested, thinking through his list of ingredients in his head. "Think it would offend him if I stepped in?"

"Who fucking cares." Caspar shrugged, leaning back on his palms. "Anything to save us from clogged arteries."

Marc smiled at this, a big, toothy smile. Him and Caspar were never particularly close in college, not any closer than he was with the others. They never hung out or talked one on one for long periods of time, but this felt easy. Marc felt warm in his presence, probably because he knew that Caspar had no expectations of him. Marc knew that he could have come here and announced he had abandoned law to be a stripper, and while everyone else had some big reaction, Caspar just would have hummed and returned to his book. He liked that about him.