Camp Hazelbrooke

Chapter 7

Cold water rushed over my head as I plunged underneath dark surface of the lake.

I opened my eyes and instantly they stung, limiting my vision even more than it originally was.

I could only vaguely make out dark outlines of figures as I continued to sink deeper.

Wait? Wasn't the life jacket supposed to work?

Quickly, my hand shot up to my chest where I could feel the thin coating of plastic.

Deflated! Just my luck!

Weren't these things supposed to work?

Like I said, the lake gods must hate me today.

The cold water numbed my fingers as I began to make my way to the surface.

But it was becoming increasingly hard due to the oxygen escaping from my lungs.

Suddenly, when my air supply was about to run out, I felt a warm hand grasp mine and pull me towards the surface.

I came up coughing as my lungs screamed for air.

My throat burned as the figure hoisted me up into what looked like anther canoe.

One I finished coughing I felt the figure wrap a warm towel around my body, causing my shivers to vanish, though I never noticed I was cold until that moment.

I looked up at the figure, expecting it to be Hunter.

But instead of the brown eyes I was expecting, a pair of calm but anxious crystal blue ones greeted me instead.

And those eyes belonged to Aaron.

"Oh thank god Spencer you're alright!" he gasped throwing his arms around me.

The gesture surprised me but I hugged him back nonetheless.

"I'm fine," I mumbled into his shirt, which smelled surprisingly good.

He then pulled back, a little too soon for my liking, but kept both his hands placed gently on my shoulders as he looked behind me.

A light blush arose on my cheeks and I involuntarily moved a little closer to him.

He didn't seem to notice when he did the same.

The silence was broken when he shouted something to Gwen, who paddled over in another canoe.

"She's fine, Gwen," he said. "But do you know what happened to Hunter?"

We both tensed when he said Hunter's name.

"Oh, him? Yeah he's fine," replied Gwen. "Natalia and some guy named Tyler helped him out a few minutes ago."

Hold on a second. I was down there for a few minutes!

My face must have looked pretty alarmed because Aaron whispered "Don't worry Spencer, you're safe now."

I nodded and wrapped the towel tighter around me.

Slowly, Aaron began to paddle the canoe back to the shore of the lake.

Once we arrived, Director Thomas rushed over.

Woop-dee-fucking-hoo.

"Are you alright..."

"Spencer," I finished for him. "And yes, but thanks for asking."

He seemed satisfied with my answer and went back to helping the others who had reached shore shortly before we did.

Aaron led me over to a large rock a few steps away and sat down, patting the spot next to him.

I gladly took the seat.

I glanced over at Aaron and he looked to be in deep thought.

I nudged his shoulder and said "Hey, how'd you know where I was? And how did you know what to do?"

He looked back over at me. "I always volunteer at the local beach where I live as a lifeguard, so I know how to save a life if I have to."

Lifeguard? I'm sure lucky he was one or else things could have turned out pretty bad.

"How... how long was I down there for?" I whispered.

"Uh, about 3 minutes and 14 seconds," he murmured back.

My eyes widened at the thought.

Three minutes! It only felt like seconds!

At that moment it was like he could read my mind.

"Your body didn't react fast enough because the water was so cold. That's why it took you so long to get up," he said quietly.

I nodded my head and I could see out of the corner of my eye that he saw me do so.

My eyes scanned the surrounding area around the lake.

I noticed campers everywhere, but my eyes locked on three people.

They happened to be the blonde buff guy whose name was Tyler, Hunter, and Natalia who was standing extremely close to Hunter.

I watched as Tyler passed Hunter a blue towel and my eyes drifted to him as he ran it through his hair.

He coughed up some water and Natalia quickly ran over to him whispering what I thought to be words of comfort.

Cough fake cough.

I guess my brain was finally coming to my senses because I thought of the very sensible idea to go over and see if he was alright.

I stood up and almost simultaneously Aaron did too.

"I'm gonna check on Hunter, okay?" I said turning towards him.

He nodded but didn't say anything.

Now, I don't know what came over me to do this so don't even bother asking me why.

Just as he was about to walk away I turned and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.

He stopped abruptly and turned around, sporting a bright red face.

"Wh-why did you, uh, do that?" He stuttered, not daring to look up at my face.

"I was thanking you, stupid. I don't just go around kissing anyone without a reason," I, who was now blushing, mumbled.

"Oh," was all he said.

I turned to walk away, but was stopped due to two strong arms wrapping around me.

"I'm glad you're okay, Spencer. I really am," Aaron mumbled into my shoulder.

By now my face looked like someone threw a bunch of tomatoes at it.

When he finally let go he said, "And you're a pretty good kisser by the way," and winked before walking away.

My face grew impossibly redder as I looked down at my feet.

Once he was gone (and I had glanced around to make sure of it), I turned around and began to walk towards the trio seated by the lake's edge.