Listen to Your Heart

Chapter 16

"Hey, you were great in rehearsal today," Walker says.

"Thanks, but I wasn't really doing anything, it was just a read through."

"I know but the Spanish accent you did, that was really amazing. How did you learn it?"

"My Spanish teacher in school is really bent on us having good accents when we speak Spanish so I just tried to apply those rules to Taz's lines."

"Well you were really good, it's probably why you got the part."

I blush and say, "thank you."

We reach the lake and he's about to ask me a question when Joey approaches us and says, "Lauren would you like to go on a boat ride with me?"

I look at Walker and he gives me a look that seems to say 'go on' so I say, "sure."

"Okay let's go. Want to take a paddleboat? I feel like they're the easiest," Joey says.

"Okay," I respond.

"Are you going to only respond with one word answers?"

"No," I say and he gives me a look. "I mean, yes Joey, I would love to take a paddleboat. Is that better?"

"Much," he says.

"Now who's at it with the one word answers?"

"Very funny Lauren," he says while we climb into the boat.

We paddle away from the dock and Joey says, "so why did you end up back at camp this summer? I thought you hated this place."

"I do. I mean I did. Every summer I spent here was torture. I'm only back because my mom got me the job and I couldn't say no."

"Were really all of your summers that horrible? Like even your first summer?"

"Of course that summer wasn't bad. And no, not all of them were bad. I would have a bad summer and my parents would convince me to go back for just one more year, if I really hated it then I could stop coming back. I think they just didn't want to deal with me over the summer. Anyways every summer after a bad one was okay. It's not like I had a bad time. I had fun, but I didn't really have any friends, and finally when Meredith decided not to go back, I had to courage to leave too."

"I'm sorry you had such a shitty time here. I feel like I contributed to that and I feel guilty over the things I did to you every day."

"Why should I believe you, Joey?"

"I don't know. I haven't been the best guy, but we need to trust each other, get out any secrets if this is going to work."

Oh no, he probably thinks that I'm hiding something. I try to keep calm and say, "okay, you first."

He sighs and says, "I never kissed Jaime."

"What?"

"Junior summer. When I said that I only danced with you because Jaime said she would kiss me, it was a lie."

"Then why did you say it? Was it really worth pretending that you were going to kiss her just to embarrass me?"

"I didn't do it to embarrass you. That summer my counselor told me that 'you never tell a girl you like her because it makes you look like an idiot.' I thought he meant that I should treat you rudely, because girls like a bad boy. I tried to go after you when you ran back to your bunk but my counselor caught me trying to sneak away and wouldn't let me go."

I can't believe it. One of the main reasons I hated Joey isn't even true. Maybe he isn't such a bad guy after all.