Summer Bites(BOOK 3-Bites series)

Chapter 10

I took my normal seat at the table where West and I usually sat. I waited for her, but after about ten minutes I started to get worried. West was never late for lunch. She always came early and saved a seat for me. I left the cafeteria and checked the cabins. West wasn't in any on them I began to get frantic and started to look everywhere. I even journeyed into the camp manager office. It turned out Kathrine didn't know where West was either.

Finally I found her on the tennis courts hitting balls across the green pavement. "Hey, why didn't you go to lunch?" I asked.

She frowned and hit another backhand ball, "No reason."

I rolled my eyes and turned off the ball machine. "What's up with you? You've been acting very strange recently."

"Nothing's up, Melody." She reached into her pocket and started hitting a ball against the fence.

"Something is wrong and you won't tell me what it is. Why?" I demanded, catching the ball that she had been bouncing.

"It's nothing personal. I just can't tell you." She muttered.

"Wow. That makes me feel so much better." I said sarcastically.

"Melody. You've got to trust me on this one. It's better in you don't know." She sighed.

"How is it better if you're keeping secrets from me?" I whined.

"It's not just you Melody. It's everyone. No one knows and I like it that way." She insisted.

"Okay. I'll just find out by myself, then." I said, frustrated.

"Good luck, but you won't find anything." She called out as I left the tennis court.

"We'll see about that." I yelled back confidently, but inside I know that without internet connection or even a library I wouldn't find a lot of stuff. I decided to put the West case to rest for a while, at least until I figured out the jealousy plan. I had way too many problems.

I switched my mind to jealousy plan settings. I had to stay as far away as I could from Chris. But I would have to tolerate him through lunch duty tomorrow and every night during campfire time. As always, Katherine broke me out of my day dreaming phase with a whistle.

"Campfire!" she yelled.

I sighed, leaned against a nearby cabin, and waited for Chris to come find me. He appeared a minute later and decided now would be a good time to start to be nice to me.

"Hey Melody. How are you doing today?" he asked politely.

"What happened to you?"I asked, raising my eyebrows. How could his demeanor change so much in such a short period of time. But even though he was nice now, that didn't completely erase what he did in the past, or the jealousy plan. I really needed to figure out exactly what this plan consisted of and how to stop it.

Thursday evening went pretty well considering that Chris was civilized. Maybe if he were more like this, we could be friends, but I would still have to get over his jockiness. Friday, although, was a different story.

Chris and I were hanging out in my cabin playing chess. I had just captured his queen and check mated his king. "Whoa. How do you do that?" he gaped.

"Practice, and chess games every morning for seven years." I smiled and cleared the game board.

"Next we play checkers." Chris muttered.

"Bad choice considering you're facing the New York state champion checker player." I giggled. "So what do you want to do now?"

"I have an idea." He said, leaning in.

"Um...what exactly did you have in mind when you said idea?" I stuttered, backing up against the hard cabin wall, but Chris proceeded. When his lips touched mine I pushed him back and stood up.

"What the hell was that?" I exclaimed.

"What do you mean, what the hell was that?" he smiled and tried to kiss me again. I squeezed my hand into a fist and sounded it against Chris' face.

"Get away from me!" I yelled.

"What's your problem?" he laughed dumbly, here was the old stupid Chris.

"I don't like you." I separated each word as if I was talking to a small child. "I am going out with Andrew."

"Were going out with Andrew." He laughed, leaning on the side of Lexi's bunk.

"What do you mean WERE?" I demanded.

"He and Lexi are dating now." Chris shrugged.

"Andrew would never do that to me!" I said with conviction, but inside I was beginning to doubt myself. What if Andrew was really going out with Lexi?

Just to make me even more insecure Chris held up his phone and smiled, "I've got proof." I grabbed the electric device from Chris and looked at the LED screen. There was a picture of Andrew and Lexi sitting on a broken log together. Andrew's arm was around Lexi's shoulders. I felt a pang of jealousy but remained strong. "This doesn't prove anything."

"You can go outside and see for yourself." Chris shrugged, taking his phone away from me. I clenched my fists and walked out of the cabin. The cold night breeze whispered past me creating a chill to travel down my spine. Stars twinkled over head and I could see a campfire gleaming in the distance.

As I walked up to it, Katherine greeted me, "Hey Melody. I've been wondering where you've been."

"What do you mean?" I asked. "You told me that I couldn't come to the campfire for the rest of the week."

"Um...no..." Katherine said, confused. "Campfires are a Camp Sunshine tradition! I would never take that away from you!"

"Then..." I though back to who had denied my campfire rights. "Lexi." I growled. I pushed past Kathrine and ran even closer to the campfire. Lexi and Andrew were sitting on the North side of the flame. Lexi looked up and saw me watching them. I grimaced as she smiled wickedly and turned to face Andrew. I frowned and crossed my arms over my chest. She rolled her eyes and tapped Andrew on the shoulder. When he turned she pressed her lips against his. I squeezed my arm and waited for Andrew to pull away, but he didn't. A tear fell down my face as Chris ran up to me.

"I told you so." He said. I jabbed him in the stomach with my elbow. As he bent over in pain, Lexi pulled away from Andrew and winked at me. More droplets of water spilled from my eyes and onto my cheek as I turned away and ran back to my cabin.

I felt a cavity forming at the bottom of my gut. Andrew was cheating on me with Lexi, Lexi of all people! The lowest person on the planet! How could he do this to me? How could he hurt me so much? I collapsed into my bunk and fell into a very deep sleep.