Summer Dream

Chapter 12

Sunday came and the first week was over. Michael had successfully avoided Aspen since Wednesday. Aspen stopped at the keeper's house while on her nightly jog. She walked inside while Carter and Karmen were snuggled up on the couch, watching Netflix. "Carter, we need to talk." Aspen said, closing the door behind her. "Karmen, you should leave the room."

"Nope, she stays. If there's drama here, she needs it for the article." Carter said, pausing the movie. "My love needs as much as she can to write the best article anyone's ever read."

"You disgust me." Aspen groaned. "I need you to switch me and Audrey again. I need to be Michael's partner."

"Why? So you can continue to sneak off to have sex?" Carter questioned.

"We've done that, like, twice." Aspen rolled her eyes and looked at Karmen. "Don't write anything about that. Image control is important here."

"No promises." Karmen smiled at her sweetly.

"So glad there's a journalist in the family." Aspen sighed. "Anyways, Audrey is a cunt and I need to be with Michael so he's forced to talk to me again."

"You guys aren't talking now? Was the sex that bad?" Carter joked.

"This isn't a joking matter, asshole. She's lying about what happened again." Aspen crossed her arms. "I don't know what she's saying this time, but it has to be bad."

"Alright, I'll switch you back. Now, go away. I'm trying to enjoy time with my wife." Carter said, turning the movie back on.

"Nice to see you again, Aspen." Karmen smiled. Aspen huffed and walked out again. "She hates me." Karmen sighed.

"She's just not thrilled that the journalist that called her 'Wannabe Taylor Swift' is now her sister-in-law." Carter sighed and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. "She'll get over when she reads this summer's article, I'm sure."

On Monday, the kids sat in the chapel waiting to be excused for their activities. Aspen found Michael and sat next to him. "We're partners again, so you're gonna have to actually talk to me."

"Mhm." Michael crossed his arms and stood up when the kids found him.

"Do we get Aspen now instead of Audrey?" Nick asked.

"Yes, she's taking for Audrey. But, we'll still see her at activities, since she's with Calum now." Michael explained.

"Oh, I was hoping we wouldn't see Audrey. Aspen's much more fun than Audrey." Nick smiled and hugged Aspen.

"Aw, that's sweet, Nick. Have you been practicing your mandolin?" Aspen asked, allowing Nick to jump on her back for a piggy back ride.

"Yeah! I'm getting so much better. My dad's gonna be so proud of me." Nick grinned. "Mikey, did you know that Aspen's the best mandolin player in the world?"

"Is she really? Did she tell you that?" Michael raised an eyebrow.

"No, I learned it myself. She taught me how to play, and now I'm really good, too!" Nick smiled proudly.

"That's great." Michael rolled his eyes and led them to their small group spot.

"Why's Mikey so crabby?" Katie asked, sitting next to Aspen.

"I don't know." Aspen hummed. "Maybe he needs you guys to work really hard on your practicing before he'll feel better."

"Let's do the best practice ever!" Hannah said, grabbing her violin. Aspen smiled and helped them all find where to start practicing. She finally made her way to Michael.

"They're all doing amazing, aren't they?" She smiled at him.

"Yeah, sure." Michael said, walking away from her.

"This is hopeless." Aspen sighed, sitting on a tree stump.

When freetime came around, the boys found Michael headed toward the pool. "Wrong way, mate! You're coming to the lake with us." Ashton smiled at him. "We've hardly seen each other since camp started, we need to spend some time together."

"Alright." Michael shrugged. "I guess I could use an afternoon away from all this."

"There ya go." Luke smiled and they all walked to the lake together.

"Hey, Mike, how come you aren't interested in Aspen anymore?" Luke asked as they sat in the sand.

"I learned that she's not who I thought she was." Michael sighed.

"What do you mean?" Ashton asked.

"She's a liar. Everything she's told me was a lie. She wanted me to feel bad for her, so I'd spend all my time with her. She used me, and I fell for it. She stole Audrey's chances at a career and felt no remorse for it." Michael sighed. "The Aspen I knew wouldn't have done any of that."

"Mike, I think you need to hear Aspen's side of the story. It's not really fair to blindly believe Audrey." Calum said.

"Audrey warned me that you guys would be like this. Aspen's manipulated everyone into thinking she's so kind and sweet, but I know the truth now. Nothing you say will change my mind about her. She's not what any of us think she is. She's the definition of evil. She's used this industry to benefit only her, she doesn't deserve the success she's gained." Michael stood up. "I knew coming here was a mistake. I'm going back to Audrey. The one person here I can trust." He glared at the boys as he walked off.

"Huh, I guess something is going on here." Karmen whispered to herself. She wrote out a note in her notepad "goodbye MASPEN hello MAUDREY. Tensions are rising but what happened between MASPEN?"