Camp Idol

Episode 12

Cori inhaled, eyes widening. She was so close to Nicky that she could feel his breath on her face, and notice every small detail of his own visage; his creamy skin, his lips plumped with sleep, his long eyelashes fluttering every so slightly.

For a stupified moment, Cori stared in disbelief at the sleeping celebrity, half-hoping it was still just a dream- but when no further awakening occurred, and the reality set in, Cori began to pull back, careful not to wake him. However, before she could fully release him, Nicky rolled over in his sleep, wrapping his arms around her too.

Cori tried not to totally lose it as Nicky pulled her close, but unable to suppress a small, surprised squeak, Nicky began to stir. Slowly his eyes blinked open, at last coming into focus on Cori's extremely near face.

Eyes expanding to their full awareness, Nicky looked into Cori's eyes. Cori held her breath and stared back, the dream's surge of nerves escaping into reality just as the embrace. With a gulp, she watched as Nicky continued to gaze, his expression transforming from the initial shock to something different- something more serious.

Long seconds passed, and Cori wondered if Nicky could feel her heart pounding against him. As Nicky stared at her, even she couldn't deny the anxiousness that was growing inside. Just centimeters away from her own, Nicky's lips twitched, sending Cori into a sheer panic. However, differing from her expectation, he only cracked a smile.

"Sorry," he whispered, at last letting go.

Cori shook her head, too flustered to speak, as a strange feeling swept over her- one that didn't quite feel like relief.

"Me too," she finally managed, but Nicky raised his brows.

"Um, Cori?" his hushed voice began.

"What?" she gulped again.

"You can let go now," he chuckled softly, nodding to her arms which were still tightly wrapped around him.

"Ah! Sorry!" Cori sprung up in a flash, fully embarrassed, but chuckling again, Nicky sat up, and with another smile, crawled out of the tent.

"What just happened?" Cori's face heated up, when a sudden rustling beside her made her jump. "Tanner!" Cori froze. In her bewilderment, she had completely forgotten anyone else was even in the tent.

"Morning," Tanner sat up, smoothing down his hair.

"Morning," Cori's breath was halted as it was now Tanner's turn to eye her. "Why's he looking at me like that?" she worried. "Did he see?"

However, after a moment, Tanner's strong gaze turned playful as a grin broke out over his face.

"What?" Cori looked at him nervously.

"Your sunburn looks brighter today," he laughed. "Unless you're blushing," he added with a smirk.

"Huh?" Cori threw a hand to her warm cheek, completely panicking.

"I'm not surprised," Tanner went on. "It's not every night a girl gets to sleep next to Tanner Lee," he smiled smugly. "Or hold his hand."

Shooting Cori one last grin, Tanner climbed out of the tent, leaving her alone with her burning face.

"Okay, Tanner didn't see what happened," Cori tried to calm herself before exiting the tent. "Ahh, but why did that happen?" she felt another tense flip of her gut. "Okay," she repeated. "It was just because of the dream. Just like when I woke up hugging Tanner's teddy bear yesterday morning." Cori sighed slightly, then frowned. "But why did I dream that?"

Fanning her still-warm cheeks, she noticed the Miracle 10 magazine which was laying near the plate of crackers.

"That's it!" Cori scrambled to pick up the booklet. "I saw that picture of Nicky hugging a teddy bear last night before bed. That's got to be why I dreamed about hugging him!" She quickly flipped open the magazine, but in her haste, passed the page she was looking for, opening instead to the shots of Nicky without his shirt. 

Cori immediately closed the book, using it to fan her face once again.

"Why am I getting so worked up over this?" she breathed. "I only hugged him because of the dream. And I only dreamed that because of the magazine," she told herself. "But that still doesn't explain why I dreamed that the other night too..."

Cori grimaced at the magazine, a lump in her throat.

"I've looked through this magazine a million times," she finally realized. "That picture of Nicky must have been in my subconscious. I bet that's the reason," Cori smiled to herself and turned the page to the muddied photo of Tanner, instantly recalling his similarly muddied appearance after tag the other night. "You know... You dreamed about him too last night" she bit her lip. "And you held helds," Cori took a staggered breath. "And it wasn't because of a dream."

Beaming beyond ecstasy, Cori tossed aside the printed Tanner and made for the tent flap, ready to find the real thing.

"The Nicky thing wasn't real. But the Tanner thing was," she smiled as she climbed out of the tent. "We're good."

"Hey, Cori!" JM was sitting by the fire pit, poking at a charred remnant of toast with one of the roasting sticks.

"Hey," Axel nodded from the log next to him.

"Where is everybody?" Cori blinked around the sunny camp.

"In the cabin looking for something to eat," explained JM.

"What we really need, is coffee," sighed Axel, standing up. "I couldn't sleep even with the air mattress."

"Yeah, I know what you mean," said JM, dropping the skewer and getting to his feet, too. "I can't even imagine trying to sleep in the other tent," he grimaced at Cori before following Axel towards the cabin.

"Honestly, I'm surprised no one's complaining," Cori heard Axel continue. "I thought for sure Tanner would be a bigger grouch than usual after sleeping on the ground."

"Yeah!" JM agreed again as they neared the cabin. "But I think I actually saw him smile when he crawled out of the tent! How weird is that?"

Axel's final sentence before disappearing into the cabin wasn't much more than a whisper, but in the calm of the morning, it still carried to Cori's ears.

"Maybe it's because of her," she heard him say, a smile now cropping up on her own face.

"We're good," she thought again as she headed for the cabin, too. "We're really, really goo-"

"WHERE IS IT?!?!?" Tanner was standing at the top of the balcony, screaming.

"What?" Kole stared up at him from the kitchen, dropping the pack of cookies he was holding.

"It's gone," Tanner continued to fume from above.