LOST AND FOUND | A Camp Rock Story |

Chapter Two.

"Really?" She asked in a voice that sounded more breathless than she would have liked.

"Yeah." He nodded, "Tour was pretty long, and I figured this place is as good as any for a break."

It was then she saw it. The hollowness in his eyes and the slump in his shoulders. He looked as tired about life as she felt.

"I get it." She nodded, before trying the lock one more time. It didn't budge.

"Oh, you have to jiggle it a bit." He said, reaching over to help. His hand rested on hers as he pulled it a bit to the right and she felt the lock give way underneath.

"Thanks." She smiled, trying to push the memory out of her mind. Because him helping her was so achingly familiar.

She was sat, alongside the other kids, with a guitar case in front of her. She was a homesick eight year old, and didn't want to play with guitars like their counsellor had wanted, she just wanted to go home. It was her first summer at Camp Rock, and she already wanted out. She gave the case an aggressive hit when it wouldn't open. She was becoming more frustrated by the minute.

"If you just..." A boy with curly dark hair who was sitting on her left leaned over and gave the case lock a nudge and she watched it open before her eyes. His smile was friendly, the first one she had gotten all day. All the other kids had made friends quickly but she hadn't. Another reason why she had wanted to go home.

"Thanks." She mumbled back to him.

"Your welcome. My name's Nate. What's yours?"

"Caitlyn." She said back, his smile was infectious, and she felt her own smile growing.

"Do you want to be friends?" He asked. "My brothers go here and have lots of friends, but it's my first year here..."

"Mine too." She admitted, breathing a sigh of relief, "Yeah we can be friends. What instruments do you play?"

And a friendship had been formed out of broken locks and loneliness.

And there they were again, she mused, letting the door open. She led the way through to the bright room with twin beds against opposite walls.

"So, what brings you here?" He asked as she dumped her bags on one of the beds. She hesitated, wondering just how much she was willing to give away, before turning back to face him.

"Do you want to go hide out for a bit?" She asked, diverting his question.

"Yeah, I do." He smiled, a proper one, her favourite one. The one that lit up his eyes. Not that she was paying that much attention to eyes, or so she told herself as she followed him back out of the cabin, locking the door behind her.

They fell into step together, so easily, making their way off the beaten track, across the grass and down behind some trees and along the bank of the lake before finding their hiding spot. A little grove of trees and hedging, hidden from view along the lake, where they had placed a bench they had 'borrowed' from the camp. They had had six summers together before Connect 3 was launched, and in those years the mysterious vanishing bench had become a camp myth.

They had had many hours together, sitting there, watching the water, listening to the music that was carried on the breeze. There were never any secrets between them, they had shared their homesickness woes, Nate's excitement about his band, Caitlyn's worries over Tess and being popular, Nate's frustration over the camp assignments and Caitlyn's wonderings of the future. She had missed him. He was her best friend at camp. And he couldn't come back when his band had made it big time. They had stayed in contact, sure, but it wasn't the same.

They took their seats again, something they hadn't done in seven years and fell into the comfortable silence they had always shared.

"So..." He started, knocking his shoulders lightly against hers. "What are you hiding from Caitlyn?"

"You first Gray." She sighed, she knew she would tell him eventually, but she preferred putting it off, nobody knew the extent of how much her life was crumbling down around her.

"What am I not hiding from." He deadpanned, "Dana, the press, the pressure to always be creating something, Dana..." He shrugged.

She took a breath to gather her thoughts. "Cheating ex-boyfriend, the humiliation from that, and the loss of friends. The injury to my ankle, the loss of my regular jobs and the lack of prospects for any future opportunities." She counted off on her fingers, trying to shrug it off but she saw the way he looked at her. Like he was reading her, seeing right into her soul.

She always thought that he could read her like a book when they were younger but it had taken a hit seven years ago when she realised that it wasn't the case, at all.

Because if he could have read her so easily, he would have known that she had been in love with him seven years earlier.

All those seven years ago, she had been beyond delighted to get her Camp Rock best friend back. A summer with Nate and Mitchie and everyone else? It had seemed like her personal version of heaven. Even with the hectic schedules and crazy responsibilities, it hadn't put a dampener on her delight.

What had caught her off-guard that summer was something she hadn't seen coming. Not the camp wars, not the pressure, or the near-closure. It was the sudden butterflies she got in her stomach every time her best friend smiled at her. The crazy way her heart would jump if their hands brushed accidently. The unexpected fact that had clutched at her heart and wouldn't let go. She had fallen for Nate.

He was still the same sweet Nate she had grown up with. Sure he had changed a bit, his curls had been cut back, he had become more focused on the drums and had started trying to grow a moustache but he was still the same guy to her. But she found herself thinking about him all the time, fussing over her hair and clothes and worrying if he thought about her that way too.

Even with the madness of the summer, they had managed to find time to hang out (usually hiding from Mitchie in their hide out spot) and she had heard from camp gossip that Nate Gray had a huge crush on a girl.

She had thought he had been crushing on her.

Until she found out that he wasn't crushing on her.

He had been crushing on Dana.

And all her hopes, and daydreams that summer came crashing down around her after the Camp Wars competition.

She had finally worked up enough courage to sing with him at the final camp fire. They sounded perfect together. And she couldn't help but think that they would be perfect together. He was the patience to her stubbornness and she was the confidence to his shyness.

But he obviously hadn't felt the same.

Because Dana showed up.

She eclipsed their duet, and stole the heart of the boy Caitlyn cared about the most.

She wasn't blind. She knew then that Nate had never looked at her like he looked at Dana as she approached him at their bonfire. He never held her hand like that, or hugged her like that, or kissed her like that afterwards. Caitlyn tried to shrug it off, she was used to being the odd one out and she had developed tough skin because of it. She was used to not being seen, of being overlooked, but this was too painful. And for once, something got under her tough exterior and she had to leave the group. Slipped away quietly so that nobody would notice.

She had come to the very hide away spot they were sitting in now, as adults, and cried her heart out. Her tears fell to the lake and she held out hope that Nate might notice that she was missing but he never came to find her. So she cried until she couldn't cry anymore.

And there she was now, sitting next to the man, that seven years ago, had been her first love, and her first heart break.

Thanks for reading! Please let me know what you think so far! :)