FOUR

Trip was awoken that night by a counselor, a twenty-year-old named Skyler, hissing in his ear. “Trip. There’s been a problem. Can you get up?”

The clock read 12:30, so he hadn’t been asleep that long. “What’s going on?” he asked as he flopped out of bed.

“Shh! Don’t wake up the other guys. I only need you.”

Trip was confused. What could they need only him for?

Skyler led him to the administrative building and to the counselor’s lounge.

Trip heard Annaliese crying before he saw her and quickened his pace. He knew exactly what Annaliese sounded like when she cried. In the room, a female counselor was hovering over Annaliese, clearly unsure of what to do.

As soon as Annaliese saw him, she rushed him like a little girl who needed a hug. Trip put his arms around her. It was only a little awkward and the strangeness of them touching like that melted away in seconds.

“What happened?” he asked the counselor over Annaliese’s head. The top of her head only came up to his jaw.

“Someone put a dead, bloody, rabbit in her bed. Either she got into bed and didn’t notice it at first or someone put it in after she was already in bed. Needless to say, when she put her feet down at the foot of her bed, she felt something weird, investigated and this is the result.”

“You need to call her mother,” Trip said instantly.

“Let’s not be hasty,” the female counselor said.

Trip understood immediately. This counselor, Camilla (Trip read her name tag), knew that Annaliese’s mother was a lawyer and didn’t want to involve her. Instead, she wanted to see if she could de-escalate the situation on their own. The first thing they needed to do was calm Annaliese down. They asked her if there was anyone in the camp who could comfort her, and she gave them his name. Trip tightened his arms around her.

Camilla went on to explain that it would be wisest if Annaliese and Trip took a few minutes to calm down in the counselor’s lounge while she found out who had put the dead rabbit in her bed.

Trip agreed that was fine. They might be able to rectify the situation before they reported the incident to Annaliese’s horrifying mother. If they couldn’t set things straight, nothing was going to stop the horrifying mother. It was much better to try to find a solution first.

He pulled Annaliese over to the couch and held her close as he yanked a tissue from the box free.

Camilla left and Annaliese took the tissue from him like he was a hero and blew her nose.

Skyler held a garbage can out to her.

“How are your feet?” Trip asked the weeping girl.

“How do you think? I left bloody footprints all down Roger’s Hall.”

“Did anyone take a picture? You’re going to want that for the scrapbook,” he chuckled ironically. “So many memories.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

“This is serious,” she wailed. “I have to see a doctor in the morning! I’m up on my tetanus shot but I’m going to need a round of antibiotics.”

“So you got your feet washed?”

“I washed them in the bathroom sink, but I don’t know. They still feel weird,” she wiggled her toes.

“Let me see them,” Trip said, moving to look at her feet.

She had cute feet, perfectly polished toes, and an anklet made of string, which had absorbed a bit of blood through the ties that dangled.

“Your anklet is ruined,” he observed. He pulled her ankle onto his knee and undid the knot. “I hope this wasn’t like a friendship bracelet.”

Annaliese did not have close friends. “Nah, I made it myself, but I’m annoyed. I liked it. I bought the materials myself and learned how to make it myself so I would have one.”

“Let’s keep it,” Trip said brightly, exuding a next-level charm he didn’t know he had. “Can we get a baggie?” he asked Skyler.

The counselor looked surprised but could see no reason to deny them a sandwich bag, so he got up.

“Are your feet clean enough? Do you think we should wash them again?” Trip asked, turning her foot around in his hand.

“I dunno. I scrubbed them. I want a pedicure.”

“You know,” Trip said with a cheerful, yet wicked, smile. “If we told them you needed a pedicure to feel better, I bet the two of us could spend tomorrow in that cute little tourist village we passed on the way here.”

She turned to him. “Are you good at milking things?”

“I bet I could make you cry all over again if you want to make the appeal look genuine.”

Annaliese’s mouth fell open. Alone in the counselor’s lounge, she bent toward him. “You want to go to the village, go to a spa, and get a pedicure with me?”

“I’ve never wanted or had a pedicure in my life. But, I was told that I was supposed to look out for you at this camp, and so far… this is a bit beyond my pay grade.”

“They’re paying you! I could die of embarrassment,” she cried as she pulled a throw blanket off the back of the couch and covered her head with it.

“They’re not paying me!” he said as he pulled the blanket off her head.

“Really?” she asked with wide eyes.

“Really,” he said flatly. “All I was saying is that this is a little more drama than I was expecting on the first day! I require professional assistance.”

“Look, I know you didn’t come to this camp to hold my hand.” At that moment, he was literally holding onto one of her feet. Annaleise was not able to articulate that the gesture was the most reassuring thing about having him come to comfort her. If he was willing to touch her foot, then what happened must not have been that big a deal. She pulled her feet back and tucked them under her on the couch.

Trip didn’t get to say anything further before Skyler came back with a ziplock and a tray of snacks and drinks. He turned on the TV for some background noise and prepared to hunker down.

“Was Camilla thinking that she’d figure out who did this before sunrise?” Trip asked.

“She was hoping,” Skyler replied.

Trip thought that was impossible, but far be it for him to criticize. He spent the rest of the night on the couch watching old TV programs and convincing Annaliese that it was fine to snuggle with him.

The whole thing was a bit of a revelation for him. He learned that he was cool-headed in a crisis, that he enjoyed cuddling with a girl, and that he could outlast a camp counselor in a game of which one of them could keep their eyes open the longest. As soon as Skylar was asleep in the recliner next to them, Trip maneuvered Annalise so she was using his lap as a pillow and leaned back himself.

He hadn’t been aware that he had a crush on her. He had a soft spot for her from their collective childhood as he had always thought she was very sweet. He liked her better than the other girls he knew. She was not fascinating to him in a novelty kind of way. He had crushes on girls at his school sometimes, but it never felt like a replication of what he felt for Annaliese.

He clicked his tongue dryly and wondered if she was his first love. Part of him hoped she wasn’t. The idea of a first love sounded doomed to failure in his mind. The other half of him timidly suggested that he would have to find someone very attractive for him to find them more attractive than Annaliese.

The idea was simply impossible.