Camp for the Emotionally (Un)Stable || Lams

Chapter Five: Alex Has A Crush

Hamilton|First Person

Breakfast the next day is brutal. Peggy and John sit across the room at their own table, occasionally glancing over at me. Hercules and Lafayette give me an exaggerated recap of yesterday's events, along with a couple of interjections from Eliza to correct them when they go too far off track. The truth is, I can remember the majority of the day, and all of their depictions are nothing like I remember. Angelica sits slumped on the bench beside Eliza, yawning as she picks at her food. She tries her best to look put together when she catches people looking at her, but for the most part you can see that she needs a nap. 

After the meal, which isn't so bad in the terms of the food- the chef here doesn't suck nearly as bad as the ones at school do- I break away from the group and weave through the crowd over to Peggy. She stands alone by the edge of the room, her face lighting up when she sees someone she recognizes. 

"Hi Peggy," I say as I come to stand beside her. "Where's John?" She shrugs, scanning the room for moment before turning to me. 

"He said he wanted to find someone." 

"Do you have anywhere to be?" I ask, hoping she'll say no.

She shakes her head, much to my relief. "Not for another hour. Why?"

"I can't stand to be around those people anymore," I rub my eyes. "They physically exhaust me."

"I get what you mean. D'you want to go out to the dock? It's usually empty." I shrug and let her take the lead toward the dock I didn't even know existed until a second ago. Sure enough, behind a cluster of trees near the end of the sandy strip of land by the lake is a wooden dock that sticks out over the lake. It's far enough from the beach so that no one can hear you, but close enough to camp that you can hear the screeching of kids who pelt each other with water balloons. 

"This is cool," I comment, going to sit at the edge. Peggy joins me nodding. She sits with her legs crossed and hands clasped in her lap. I tug the sleeves of my sweatshirt over my palms and lean back on them. 

"Yeah, last year Eliza and I jumped off the edge to see who could go the farthest." She smiles, looking like she's traveling back in time.

"Who won?" I ask, earning a grin from the girl next to me. 

"I did." I nudge her with my shoulder and smile back. 

"Sounds like fun." 

She nods. "Yeah, back then Lizzie and John still got along, I don't know what happened." She furrows her eyebrows. "John used to get along with most of the group before they all dropped him." She shrugs, "I can't see why though. I think he's ok." 

I nod, my thoughts going back to John's perfectly proportionate face. "He is pretty great," I muse. I smile a little, thinking of his tired voice muttering a goodnight back to me last night. 

Peggy chuckles, breaking me from my thoughts. I look over at her, questioning. "Do you like John?" She giggles, wiggling her eyebrows. 

"No way, Pegs." I say, though I feel my face growing red by the second. 

"I think you do," she counters. "John and Alex, sittin' in a tree..." She sings, grinning at me as I continue to blush. 

"Shut up, Peggy." She laughs and continues to sing until I put my hand over her mouth. "He's going to hear you and think I'm completely obsessed with him." 

"So you do like John." She says once she's pried my hand from her lips.

"I never said that." She lifts an eyebrow. I roll my eyes, "fine, maybe I thinks he's a little cute." 

She grins, "I knew it!" 

"Knew what?" Someone says behind us. I turn around quickly, surprised to see John walking down the dock towards us. 

"Nothing," I say quickly. "Peggy was just being immature." She giggles and I glare at her. John sits down next to us. 

"I didn't do anything but speak the truth." I roll my eyes again. "I have to get to the mess hall for arts and crafts, you two...have fun." She winks at me and pushes herself to her feet. I watch her walk away, feeling a little betrayed she would be so blunt. 

John chuckles beside me. "What was she so excited about?" He asks, knocking me lightly with his shoulder. I feel a punch of anxiety to the stomach as he does so, realizing we're all alone and his leg is just barely touching mine. 

"Uh, I don't know. M-maybe it's her friend, Maria." He nods, thinking this over. 

"Do you think there's really something there?" He asks, leaning towards me just the tiniest bit.

"Uh, yeah. W-well I hope there is, for her benefit." I cringe at my stutter, wishing the dumb thing would cease to exist. John frowns as well, he seems to pick up on things like that. Little tells, body language. It's like he's reading my mind.

"You ok, Alex?" He asks. I nod, looking down at my lap. He touches my shoulder and I flinch, looking up to see him leaning back from me a little. "Are you sure?" 

"Yeah, I-I just slept weird last n-night." He presses his lips together, something he does when he doesn't believe someone. 

"Alright..." He looks me over, then seems to accept my answer. "What d'you have scheduled today?" He asks, dropping the subject as a whole. I'm grateful he doesn't push it. It would only make things more awkward between us. 

"Capture the flag, I think. Before lunch." I stick my legs forward and let them dangle towards the water.

"Me too." We both nod at each other somewhat awkwardly for a moment. "I don't really like the whole physical aspect of camp to be honest." I chuckle, him doing the same after a moment.

"Me either." I say, kicking my feet a little so that they nearly touch the surface of the lake.

"I say we skip," he says, knocking his shoulder with mine again. This time though, I keep my cool and smile over at him.

"And do what?" 

"I dunno, eat." He shrugs and I laugh. 

"Sounds good to me."