Give Me a Sign(56)
The taste of his mint toothpaste. My fingers through the curls of his hair. His arms wrapping around my back and reaching beneath the oversized hoodie to directly hold my waist. The certainty that he wants me as much as I want him—and that the storm, the miscommunication, the chaos, the confusion—all of it got us to this moment.
* * *
Several bright flashlights are coming our way. I jump back from Isaac, withdrawing my arms into the sweatshirt sleeves. How long have we been out here?
A voice shouts from behind one of the lights. “What the hell, Lilah.” It’s Simone, along with Mackenzie.
“I was so worried.” Mackenzie wraps me into a suffocating hug. “A girl going missing from her bed doesn’t usually end well. According to true crime podcasts, that is.”
“What?” I ask, still standing several feet apart from Isaac, knowing we’ve been caught. But if it’s just Simone and Mackenzie, hopefully it’s all right?
“Gary’s on his way,” Mackenzie says. If the director is heading over from his small cabin near the front entrance, then something is really wrong.
Simone walks forward, shining her flashlight right in my face, then pulls out her phone and holds it to her ear. I take a step toward her, my brain racing through ways I could possibly sneak back to my cabin and make like this never happened.
“What’s up?” I ask nervously. Isaac is also fidgeting beside me. I guess there are worse states we could have been found in, but I have no idea what to expect for being caught out and about after curfew.
Through the darkness, I see Ethan up ahead, waiting outside the cabins. Shit.
“Yeah, no, we found her,” Simone says on the phone. “Turns out someone else was missing, too. Uh-huh. Yeah. M’kay.”
When Simone hangs up, Mackenzie finally answers my question. “One of the campers was sick,” she says and signs. “They tried to wake you up, but instead they woke me, and I panicked when you weren’t there and I couldn’t find you.”
“Who was sick?” I ask, but Mackenzie is already walking back to the cabin. Isaac gives me an apologetic shrug and follows her lead.
When I turn to Simone, she looks mad. “Phoebe ——。”
“Phoebe?” I ask, concerned. “Is she all right?”
“Yeah, she should be. I mean, she threw up and was looking for you.” Simone saunters back to the cabins. She has some things she wants to say to me first. “Then Mackenzie gets me from the staff cabin, and I go over to find Phoebe anxiously avoiding a pile of vomit, the little girls complaining about the smell, and you nowhere to be seen.”
“Shit.” I twist my fingers together, feeling the exhaustion crashing over me.
“Mackenzie made a whole production out of it, straight up assuming you were abducted or some shit.”
“I’m so sorry.” I’ve been up nearly twenty-four hours straight at this point. What time is it even? “I just stepped outside for a minute and then—”
“Lilah, that was irresponsible.”
“But . . . I mean, come on. Haven’t you and Bobby kind of been encouraging this? As my friend, can’t you be a little understanding?”
“This? No, I have not been ‘encouraging this.’ You have a break from nine thirty until midnight when you can do whatever you want if you’re not on duty. Otherwise, we’re on the clock. It was a stressful enough day already without all this. So yeah, sure, tough break or whatever.”
“For sneaking out?”
“Getting caught.” She nods up ahead. “—— so guess who gets to clean up the vomit pile.”
Oof, that’s easy enough to assume. “Me.”
“Yep.”
I’m directed back to the cabin, where Ethan is still waiting outside, shaking his head disapprovingly. “Gary will be having a talk with you two.”
I hurry inside, immediately hit with the smell. Most of the young girls are still awake but quiet in their bunks. I shine my phone flashlight, discovering the puddle of puke in front of Phoebe’s bed, as colorful as the cereal we had for dinner mere hours ago.
“Hey, it’s me. Are you all right?” I ask Phoebe. She rolls over and takes a sip from her water bottle.
Mackenzie steps inside with a handful of paper towels and Clorox wipes. “Simone said to give these to you.”
“Ah, Lilah,” Phoebe says. Her voice is hoarse and low, and her lips are moving slowly. “You’ve missed all the fun. My stomach certainly had a night.”
* * *
I finish the sanitizing job and meet Gary outside the cabin. I dare a quick glance at my phone. It’s almost four in the morning. Fuuuuck. I join him outside and wait in uncomfortable silence while he checks his phone before looking up at me.
“I’m very disappointed,” he says loudly. “Can you hear me? That was immature behavior and not why you’re here this summer.”
“I’m sorry. I—”
He puts up a hand. “Now is not the time for this discussion. Honestly, with everything that happened tonight, —— at the bottom of my priority list. —— first and only warning. You enjoy considerable freedoms as a junior counselor, but you are still a trainee. Don’t slack on your job responsibilities. Or else, since you’re not yet eighteen, I’ll have no choice but to call your parents.”