“Then sure,” he says, kissing me lightly on the lips. “So, I’ll see you tomorrow?” he says. I nod, and kiss him again. He pulls me closer by my ass, and I shiver as our bodies collide.
“Hey, wait,” I say, suddenly remembering this morning, before I was made captain. “Did you want to talk to me about something? You said something about going to the obstacle course?”
“Oh,” he says, as if remembering, too. Honestly, I’m a little offended he hasn’t been thinking about it all day. “So, yeah … I thought maybe, if you wanted some alone time, we could sneak out after curfew … but now I don’t know. I don’t want to get in trouble.”
That’s never stopped him before. “Oh.”
“I mean … I’d love some alone time with you, babe,” he says, sliding his hand up my shirt. “But maybe this weekend?”
“Yeah,” I say, leaning forward to kiss him again as his finger makes a crescent moon under my nipple. “This weekend would be good.”
“You’ll be ready?” he asks. “I mean … what I’m saying is—”
“Yes. I know what you’re saying.” Honestly, I’m ready now. He’s opened up to me, he’s actually said he’s falling for me, and he’s talking about the end of the summer. The plan is working. And besides, I want it. If he asked me to strip right here I’d probably do it, but two weeks was the original plan anyway, and now I have the color wars stuff eating up my time, so this’ll be perfect. Sunday, after Blue wins.
He smiles, his tongue against the gap between his teeth at the corner of his mouth, a little gesture I’ve only noticed this summer and am already obsessed with. I think it means he’s happy, but also turned on. It turns me on, anyway.
“Cool,” he says, like I didn’t just say I want him naked and against me in so many words.
“Cool,” I say back to him.
“So, good night,” he says.
“Good night.”
I float into the cabin and get ready for bed, barely paying attention to everyone around me, and when I fall asleep, I dream of Hudson, in a blue sequin jumpsuit covered in pink stars.
EIGHTEEN
The next day goes quickly—a hike, hand in hand with Hudson, swimming, lunch, softball, more swimming. I love every moment with Hudson, but when I have to go to meet up with the other color war captains, I get excited about that, too. I’m the first one in cabin four after pool time. Connie comes in a moment after me, then Jimmy, Paz, and Charity, who’s carrying perfectly folded squares of fabric tied with curled ribbons.
“I made us matching rompers!” she says, handing one out to each of us. I look at Paz, who shrugs. “I know you’re doing this butch thing this summer, Del, so I did them in black-and-blue plaid. Pretty butch, right?” She grins. I nod. “I’m good at eyeing people’s measurements, but let me know if anything doesn’t fit. Oh, and I put a little black lace down the front of mine. I can do that for any of yours, too.”
“Cool,” Jimmy says, taking off his shirt.
“Jimmy, I don’t think here is—” Connie starts, but Jimmy has his shorts off before she can finish, and is pulling the romper up over his candy-cane-printed boxers. It’s unbuttoned to the waist, and he makes no move to button it up, but it does fit him perfectly. Charity has a great eye. And she’s right, it may be a romper, but I don’t feel like I’m going to look too femme in it. Just shorts and a button-up shirt—as a one-piece.
“These are great, Charity,” I say. “Thanks.”
“Try it on and make sure it fits when you have a moment,” she says.
“Thank you,” Paz adds, looking hers over. “We’ll be pretty cute, all of us in these at once.”
“It’ll be so cute,” Charity agrees as the door opens behind her.
We turn to see the Red team captains. First is Ryan, the sports counselor, and following him are Sam, who was on my team in capture the flag, Brad, and Jasmine Khatri, who’s a year older than me and spends most of her time waterskiing and canoeing, and is always the first in the audience to stand up during the musical and clap. Behind her is Hudson. I grin at him when he comes in and he smiles back.
“I knew it,” he says. “You wouldn’t be sketching the obstacle course for your parents.”
“I thought it was a perfectly good lie,” I say.
“All right,” Connie says. “Let’s all sit down.”
There are more chairs and we all sit around the table, Hudson scooting his chair up to mine.
“First of all,” Connie says, “I want to emphasize that this is a FRIENDLY competition. No pranking each other, no cabin raids, no chants about the other team dying or being hurt or crybabies or anything like that. This is about fun, and part of fun is good sportsmanship. As the captains, you have to demonstrate that, and if you see anyone being out of line, even if they’re on your own team, call them out for it.”
“Yeah, people,” Ryan adds, “play nice.”
“Now, let’s plan the big entrance on Friday night. Usually we do this at the end of dinner. Some kind of sketch with the captains leading into a big reveal as you run around the room, cheering, getting people hyped up. Any ideas?”
“We should use Del and Hudson,” Paz says.
“What?” I ask.
“You guys are the most public couple this summer. You should have a big fight or something, and be like, ‘There’s only one way to settle this—color wars!’ and then the rest of us come running out and do our thing.”
“We’re not the most public couple,” Hudson says. “What about Lillian and Daphne? Or Dave and Dimitry? They’ve been together for years.”
“No, it’s you,” Jasmine says. “You guys are waaaay into the PDA.”
Everyone around us nods and I stare at my feet to hide my blushing.
“I dunno,” Hudson says.
“I’m okay with it,” I say, turning to him. “Could be fun.” And my only chance to do some acting this summer.
“Yeah?”
I turn back to the group. “But the fight has to be over something really dumb.”
“How about food?” Sam suggests.
“Oh yeah,” Paz says. “Pepperoni or sausage pizza or something.”
“Not sausage,” Connie says quickly. “Let’s see if we can make it color associated. And I’m not sure what the menu will be.”
“Bug juice,” Jimmy says. “The powdered drink stuff. Can you make sure there’s blue and red that night?”
“Yes, I think we can.” Connie nods.
“So I say the blue is better? And Hudson says the red is better?” I ask.
“Yes,” Paz says. “It works because they all taste the same. Like sugar.”
I turn back to Hudson. “You okay with this? I don’t want to pressure you into it.”
Hudson shrugs. “I just don’t know if I’ll be good at it. I’m no actor.”
“It’ll be short. We can practice beforehand.” I lay my hand on his thigh. “I think it’ll be fun.”