BELONGS TO ME

Chapter 25

Camila

I was hoping for an invite to sleep in Lauren's tent last night, but not an hour after our marshmallow fun, Hailee was down for the count, which put me on best friend duty.

I did, however, set my alarm for when she mentioned she was getting up, so I could help her pack and say bye before she took off. Knowing my friends, we'll be here as long as possible, cutting it to the very last minute before we have to head back to campus. They're every bit outdoor, hands-on, adventure idiots.

By six a.m., on the dot, Lauren's pulling out of the campsite, headed home for her visit with her mom.

As quietly as I can manage, I snag the last of the logs near Harry's truck and carefully arrange them into a tall point around the mess of ashes. There's enough kindling still burning below that I don't have to use the brush to get it going today—clearly some campers had a way later night than I did for this baby to still have some life—so I stay crouched, watching to make sure it burns evenly or the fire will weaken sooner than we want.

"You need another log?"

I glance over my shoulder to find Shawn stepping up, his hands buried in his hoodie pockets, beanie hanging half off his head, as if he forgot to tug it down when he crawled out of bed.

"These are the last of them."

He nods, coming forward. "You're up early. Hailee okay?"

I chuckle, pushing to my feet. "Drooling all over my pillow when I last checked. Her ride home won't be fun."

He grins, following my steps.

"Want to help?" I gesture to last night's beer pong mess, pulling two garbage bags from the plastic bin under the food table.

Wordlessly, he grabs the bag, and we start on opposite sides, picking up the empty cans on the ground first, moving to the tabletop second.

"I miss partying like this." Shawn looks across the trees. "Well, I guess this is only our third parent-free camping trip, but still. I could go for more of these."

"Good thing we've got all that practice from sneaking onto the back of Harry's grandparents' property, or we'd be coming out here with nothing but tents and an ice chest."

He grins. "Yeah, we discovered the hard way you have to bring wood camping, didn't we? That was a failure of a trip."

"We had to leave in the middle of the night, and we slept in the truck outside my house because Carl didn't want to see the grin on my dad's face when he got to say 'I told you so' when they said we weren't ready to go on our own."

Shawn laughs, nodding his head.

I gasp, looking to him. "Do you remember summer of sophomore year, when your parents let us have that pool party at your place?"

"Our first adult-free swim session."

"That took two weeks to get them to agree to, and in the end, only hit us with one condition... " I raise a brow at him.

Shawn drops his attention to the table. "No fighting."

"Yes, no fighting, and what do you know, they come home to find their very own son, with a black eye because you just had to go and hit on Jake's girlfriend."

I laugh, thinking about it, but when I look over, I find Shawn frowning at the stream of beer he's pouring into the dirt, so I close my mouth and continue cleaning.

After a moment, he sighs. "You bought a new swimsuit for that party. Pink with white stripes."

My head snaps in his direction.