Part 15 (2/2)
”I hated that you had all of this boy experience and didn't tell us.”
”Me too.” Alicia pouted and jumped in on their hug. ”I was so sad. I totally thought we were drifting.”
”Puh-lease! We're so not drifting.” Ma.s.sie wanted to cry with relief. ”I would never make out and not tell you. I just didn't want the other girls to know our private Pretty Committee business, so I was throwing them off the trail. I thought you knew what I was doing. If I knew you believed me, I never would have-”
”Oh, puh-lease.” Dylan chuckled. ”We totally knew. You're just such a good actress we started falling for it.”
”Yeah.” Alicia widened her eyes. ”You're incredible.”
Claire smiled softly, shook her head, and looked out at the lake.
”I promise, I'll tell you when it happens.” Ma.s.sie paused and looked back at Derrington's cabin. ”If it ever does.”
”It will.” Claire finally spoke.
”Yeah, don't worry.” Dylan threw her arm around Ma.s.sie. ”Come on, let's go back and get changed for the bonfire reading. We'll make you look ah-mazing so Derrington will beg for your forgiveness.”
”Nah, you guys go ahead.” Ma.s.sie smiled. ”I don't feel like sitting in the cabin right now. I'll meet you at the fire pit.”
”You sure?” Alicia sounded concerned.
”Totally.” Ma.s.sie tried to sound chipper so they wouldn't suspect that she was afraid to face the angry MUCK girls. ”I just need some fresh air. It's good for the pores.”
Alicia gave Ma.s.sie a hug. Claire and Dylan joined in.
Ma.s.sie, who was usually the first one to break away from a hug, held on to her friends as tight as she could.
Claire was the first to loosen her grip. ”We'll see you at the fire pit,” she said.
”Cool.” Ma.s.sie smiled as her friends turned to walk back to the cabin.
Ma.s.sie waited until they were out of sight before making her way back. She was furious at herself but wasn't exactly sure why. Was it because she felt the need to be something she wasn't? Or was it because she was stupid enough to get caught?
She crept behind the cabin and found a lone birch tree that looked like it needed some company. Ma.s.sie ran her cold palm along the soft white bark but immediately stopped when she chipped her French manicure. Couldn't anything anything go right? go right?
She leaned against the trunk of the tree and then lowered herself until she was seated on the cold ground beneath it. Her sudden need to write was overwhelming. Ma.s.sie peeled a layer of white, papery bark off the tree, pulled a purple glitter pen out of her coat pocket, and poured her heart out.
Ma.s.sIE BLOCK'S CURRENT STATE OF THE UNION.
IN.
OUT.
The Pretty Committee The MUCK girls Keeping my mouth shut!
Open-mouthed kisses Doose Derrington
When she was done, Ma.s.sie folded the bark and stuffed it in the back pocket of her jeans.
”Psssst,” someone called to her from behind a nearby bush.
”Hullo?” Ma.s.sie heard her own voice tremble. Were the MUCK girls spying on her? Did they have weapons? ”Who's there?”
”It's me,” a girl's voice answered.
”Me who?”
Ma.s.sie heard a familiar phlegmy laugh. Was the trauma making her hallucinate?
”Kristen?” she whispered into the dark, cold night. she whispered into the dark, cold night.
Kristen stepped out from behind the bush and giggled. She was wearing her green-and-white OCD soccer uniform.
”What are you doing doing here?” Ma.s.sie hugged her friend as hard as she could. here?” Ma.s.sie hugged her friend as hard as she could.
”I used the money you gave me from MUCK to buy a ticket on Adirondack Trailways,” Kristen said.
”What about all of those Presidents' Day sales?” Ma.s.sie couldn't resist a lighthearted tease.
”We already have all that stuff-it's so so last season.” last season.”
”How did you know where to find us?”
”My memory skills are incredible now,” Kristen said. ”I looked at your itinerary last week and the Forever Wild campgrounds address was at the top. And I remembered it.”
Ma.s.sie smiled and hugged Kristen again to hide her tears. It was nice to be in the company of someone who didn't know what had just happened.
”I can't believe your mom let you come here,” Ma.s.sie said. ”She thinks my my house is far.” house is far.”
”Well ...” Kristen stuck her finger through the green Puma sweatband around her wrist. ”She kinda thinks I'm away with the soccer team. So no one can know I'm here.”
”I know how you feel.” Ma.s.sie looked over her shoulder to make sure the MUCK girls weren't spying on them.
”You do?” Kristen sounded pleasantly surprised.
Ma.s.sie nodded. Kristen smiled. She could have told her friend what had happened, but why ruin the moment with more talking? Especially when they both seemed so satisfied just being together.
Ma.s.sie opened her arms and threw them around Kristen.
Claire had been right: sometimes there was no need for words.
LAKE PLACID, NEW YORK FOREVER WILD CAMPSITE THE GIRLS' BUNK.
Monday, February 23rd 9:29 P.M. P.M.
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