Free ARC: Essence by Lisa Ann O'Kane

chores.”
    “Welcome to the Community,” Jett finished, dropping our bedsheets and new clothes before pulling us into tight hugs. “I think you will both love it here.”
     
    The awkwardness started the moment Jett and Cody said goodnight. I had already claimed the right cot, and I was sitting, swinging my legs, when Javi turned and said, “I’m sorry I said you were pretty earlier.”
    He flinched and tossed his bundle of new clothes aside. “I mean, I’m not sorry, because I meant it. But it was a weird thing to say, so I’m sorry if it made you feel uncomfortable.”
    “That’s OK. I…” For some reason, I couldn’t look him in the eyes. Instead, I found myself staring at the floor between our feet.
    The pulse of drums echoed outside the tent. “I know I’m not off to a great start,” he said, “but I really want us to be friends. I know we just met, and I know this whole thing is crazy, but I feel a little less crazy when I remember you’re here, too.”
    “I do, too.” I wasn’t sure how I felt about Javi, but I knew I liked the crinkle of his eyes and the way he bit his lip when he was nervous.
    He seemed nervous right now. Maybe even more nervous than me. And I don’t know why, but I realized I liked that as well.
    “Good,” he said, and his smile was shy when he reached to unfold his clothes. “I’m really glad to hear that.”

 
    CHAPTER NINE
     
    I didn’t sleep well. My head was swimming with thoughts of Javi, with thoughts of Brady and with questions about whether or not I had just made the biggest mistake of my life. Music from the gathering echoed from the Meadow until nearly dawn, and my cot creaked like it might collapse at any minute. Javi’s repeated tosses and turns told me he probably didn’t appreciate my squirming.
    Not that his presence lent me to easy sleeping. I was panicked by the idea that I was sharing a bedroom with a boy, and I was so self-conscious that I’d snore or drool or look stupid in my sleep that I kept adjusting my expression to look as pretty as possible in case he happened to glance my way. When that became too tiresome, I turned my back to him, and that’s how I stayed for most of the night.
    I’m not sure how he kept the woodstove burning. He must have gotten up several times to tend it, but I don’t remember any of those moments. That led me to believe I must have slept some, but I sure didn’t feel refreshed when our front door began rattling the next morning.
    “Morning has broken, you guys! Get up; you’re missing it.”
    Jett was vivacious, filled with laughter and dancing in impatience as we stumbled from our tent. Cody waited beside her, and he greeted us with a much less enthusiastic nod. His hair was skewed in a wild tuft, and it was easy to see he wasn’t a morning person, either.
    “OK, Javi, you go with Cody. Autumn, you’re coming with me.”
    Jett dragged me from the boys before I had time to protest. My long cotton nightgown dragged behind me as she pulled me through the dappled light of the pine trees.
    “I packed a towel and a change of clothes for you; hurry or the Balcony’s gonna fill up.”
    “Balcony?”
    She pointed to the cliffs just past the hotel. “There’s a ledge up there where the water flows through a couple of natural pools before it feeds down into a creek. The sun warms it up – just slightly – so we use it for bathing.”
    “You bathe in a creek?”
    “No,” she laughed. “We bathe at the Balcony. The boys bathe in the creek.”
    She paused for a moment and then pointed at the hotel. “We don’t have electricity at the Ahwahnee, but we do have solar panels in case we need an emergency heat source. The panels also power our refrigerators, and we use them to warm our bath water in the winter.
    “We go on occasional supply runs for any outside materials we can’t produce here, but we live simply for the most part, and that includes bathing outside during warm weather instead of wasting drinking