Free Sun Kissed (Camp Boyfriend) by Joanne Rock

admitted softly as he eased back. “It nearly killed me to see you dance with Devon.”
    I blinked and swallowed, trying to find the right words. Voices approached as a few laughing girls made their way through the maze. Seth pulled me behind him, guiding me out the other side of the labyrinth. For a moment, I caught a glimpse of the dance before he headed for the kitchen’s dark entrance.
    Shoving through the swinging door, we entered the end of the food prep area near the walk-in freezer. The lights were off, but moonlight shone through a window nearby, making everything shades of gray.
    A soft moan startled me and I froze.
    We hadn’t noticed Madison—another Divas’ Den girl—when we first walked in. But I could see her plastered against a boy in the far corner of the kitchen, her skirt dangerously high thanks to his roaming hand.
    Seth steered us to the other side of the freezer where we wouldn’t be overheard. Still, the vision of Madison and her hook-up lingered. I hadn’t even known she had a boyfriend. Was this some random thing or was she like me, keeping things a secret? And if so, did she hate it as much as I did?
    “Is this better?” Seth threaded his fingers between mine and dropped onto a wooden bench near an empty coat rack.
    I nodded as I sat beside him.
    “What’s wrong?” He tipped my chin up to meet his eyes.
    “I only danced with Devon because you didn’t ask me.” I took off my glasses to clean them. Or maybe so I didn’t have to see rejection in Seth’s eyes. “I didn’t know what to say to him when you’ve made it clear that … you know. You don’t want anyone to know about us or think we’re boyfriend/girlfriend.”
    My voice trailed off at the end, hurt making the words stick in my throat.
    He was quiet for so long, I put my glasses back on, hoping I’d see some sign of what he was thinking.
    “It’s not that I don’t want to be your boyfriend, Lauren.” His voice was serious. Intense. He sounded older somehow. “I just don’t want either of us getting hurt.”
    “How will we get hurt?” I blurted. “I thought we liked each other.”
    “We do,” he said slowly.
    “So if we are … you know … a couple, other people won’t ask either of us to dance.” I glanced at our fingers, taking some strength from the way he held my hand.
    “But once everyone knows about us—” His hand slid away from mine and he stood.
    “What’s so bad about that?” I stood too. No way was I letting this go now that I’d brought it up.
    “It’s bad enough when people break up.” He turned around to face me, his jaw tense. “But when everyone else knows about it and it turns into this big, public humiliation….”
    I wondered if he still had the folded newspaper article that featured the story of his mother abandoning him at daycare. It had made local news because they’d originally thought she’d been kidnapped instead of running away. When I’d spotted it in an open bureau drawer one summer, he’d told me it was the only picture he had of her. His father had thrown out the rest. Could he be afraid that if we didn’t work out, we’d be Camp Juniper Point’s feature story for the summer? It must be why he wanted the secrecy.
    “I would never do that to you.” I put my hand on his cheek, remembering how good it had felt when he’d done the same to me. “I would never hurt you that way.”
    As soon as I said it, my conscience chirped. What about the fact that I’d first kissed him on a dare? But I’d done it because I wanted to. Plus, technically, he’d been the one to kiss me …
    “Me either,” he promised, wrapping his arms around my shoulders and crushing me to him. “I don’t want to hurt you, Lauren. I’m—ah—I’m ready to tell everyone.”
    Happiness replaced the tightness in my chest. My head fit beneath his chin, my cheek against his soft, blue polo shirt. He smelled like campfire and laundry detergent and I never wanted to leave this spot.
    Seth