Chapter Text
Max Mayfield had never had a crush on Lucas Sinclair. Okay that was a lie, there had been that one time when she had spent the whole summer before Freshman year in California visiting family and when she’d gotten back Lucas had gotten a lot taller and that had really messed with her brain. But after like a week of being back she’d gotten over it once she realized that despite this new confusing development, he was still the same nerd that had been her best friend since she moved to town in first grade. Lucas had been there for her when she’d split her knee open after jumping off the swings when they were nine and he’d been there to help her egg Kyle Carman’s house when they were fifteen, after she’d found out he’d been cheating on her and kissing Beca Fry after band practice.
Yes, all six of them were good friends, the four boys and Max and then El when she had moved to Hawkins at the start of high school. They were all close, but Max would still call Lucas her best friend. Yeah they bickered constantly, and sometimes she couldn't stand him and his dumb face, but they got each other's backs and were there for each other through everything. They had been friends for so long that it was all so natural, so easy, so uncomplicated. And it had always been that way, if you didn't count that short-lived crush when they were fourteen.
Which was why Max was so confused and weirded out by whatever the hell was going on with her right now. It was the summer before Senior year, a summer Max had planned on spending skating, playing video games and drinking ungodly amounts of soda, enjoying the last summer before the responsibilities of having to figure out the future fully got to her. But as it turned out, her plan was not to be. Dustin and Lucas had been working as counselors at Camp Lake Jordan ever since they'd gotten old enough to graduate from campers to counselors, and so their plan was to spend three weeks at camp once again this summer. But two days before the camp was to begin, Dustin broke his ankle and had to cancel. Which, after a lot of negotiating and pleading had led to Max now sitting here, on the steps of the main house of the camp, ripping a band-aid open of its packaging and carefully placing it on the knee of one of the campers.
"See? It’s all good now. Told you it was no big deal," she said, trying her best to cheer up the eight-year-old, a blonde girl from her cabin called Chelsea. She looked a little unconvinced, her nose scrunching up in disgust as she looked at the band-aids covering her knee. She had only fallen from the swings, but by her dramatic reaction to it, she might just as well have gotten a bullet to the knee.
"You're sure it's fine? It looked bad," Chelsea asked, her brow furrowing.
"I'm sure. I've been skating since I was your age, if anyone would know how to treat knee wounds, it would be me," Max assured her, as she picked up the little slips of paper left behind from getting out the band-aid, and stuffed them into the first aid bag along with the little bottle of disinfectant . It was the free time before dinner and Max had planned on spending it by catching up on a book instead of reassuring overdramatic eight-year-olds that they didn't actually need to have their leg amputated because of a little scratch.
"Oh hi Chelsea! I was just coming to look for you, check this out!"
Max turned to look back at the main house behind her, seeing Lucas walking out the double doors, a volleyball in his hands.
"You fixed it!" Chelsea exclaimed, getting up from the stairs, turning to Lucas.
"I sure did! Here, catch!" he replied, throwing the ball to her with his underhand.
"Thanks," Chelsea said, catching the ball and then she bounded down the stairs and ran towards the grassy volleyball field, her wounded knee already forgotten.
"Thanks for distracting her," Max said as Lucas got down the steps, sitting down next to her.
"I was sure she was gonna demand a full body cast next," she added, going to zip up the first aid kit.
"And I'm pretty sure we just gave out the last one of those we had," Lucas commented, settling to sit down on the steps.
"Typical. I knew I should've packed an extra one with me," Max said with a faked sigh of exasperation, setting the first aid bag down.
"You had to pack last minute though, so you might get a pass," Lucas pointed out, continuing to keep his face level.
"Good to know I'm forgiven. It would've gnawed at me for the rest of camp otherwise," Max said dramatically, looking over at Lucas, letting the corner of her lips to lift up into a smile. Just a bit though.
"You're welcome," he commented, his expression mirroring hers, before turning to look out at the grassy yard in front of the main house. Max turned to look ahead too, leaning back, her elbows on the stair behind her, stretching her legs out. It was another hot August day, the late afternoon sun beaming down on the steps and porch of the main house which was located on a small hill above the grassy clearing and the other smaller buildings and cabins scattered along the tree line. Camp Lake Jordan wasn't that big, with eight cabins of elementary school aged kids and a dozen teenage counselors plus the adult staff, working to keep everything together. Max had never planned to become a camp counselor, but she had to admit it wasn't the worst way to spend half her summer. Maddie, the counselor she was paired with to head cabin number four was a camp veteran and knew how to run things so she didn't have to stress too much, and she got along pretty well with the campers and the other counselors. Being a counselor would also be a good thing - and to be honest, the first thing - to add to her resume for college applications. As much as Max liked to ignore it, the end of high school was nearing awfully fast, and when Dustin had asked her to replace him at camp, she had realized this was a chance to at least do something about it. Another plus side to camp was that that food was pretty decent, and she got to hang out with Lucas for the whole time. Which she had looked forward to for a chance to have someone to bitch to if the camp had annoyed her, but now that there wasn’t much to complain about, it was just nice to hang out with him.
But all the time she got to spend with him now had caused a weird side effect. She was starting to notice things. Things about him she hadn't paid any attention to before. Like how he tilted his head slightly to the left when he focused on listening to what she had to say, how a small dimple would appear at the corner of his mouth when he laughed at her dumb jokes, or how the summer sun would make gold flakes appear in his brown eyes. Yes, she'd technically seen all those things before, but now they were the only thing she could think about whenever they hung out, going through the daily tasks, preparing activities, cleaning up after dinner. And she had no idea why it was happening. She'd spent the first week of camp trying to come up with a reason why, trying to wrack her brain for it as she laid awake in her bunk at night. Maybe it was because Lucas was the only person she really knew at camp so she was focusing on him, maybe it was the abundance of fresh air and sunshine making her brain go into overdrive, or maybe she was just bored and looking for something to pass the time. She still hadn't come up with a good explanation but she knew there had to be one. Because she didn't like Lucas like that. She didn't have a crush on him, obviously she didn't. Their friendship was so solid, so comfortable, built over the last ten years. So there was no need for a sudden, unneeded crush to ruin it all.
Max blinked her eyes against the bright sun, turning to glance at Lucas as he sat on the steps next to her, looking over the yard filled with campers enjoying their free time. He looked like he had needed this little break too after running the nature expedition earlier in the day, and he looked relaxed as he too leaned back, his palms pressed against the worn wooden steps, as he stretched his neck, his head turning slowly from side to side. He had the bright yellow Camp Lake Jordan Counselor t-shirt on just like she did and it once again made Max wonder why she'd never realized how good the color looked on him. Trying to think back, she was pretty sure she'd never seen him wearing yellow before this summer, and now that too was added to the list of new and different things she was noticing. Just like the way she was all of a sudden letting her gaze linger on Lucas when he wasn't looking, going over the lines of his face, the ridge of his nose, the details of his lips, counting the dark lashes circling his brown eyes. Under normal circumstances she would never let herself do that, but now? Everything felt different somehow, out there in the sunny pine tree scented air of the camp. The circumstances weren't normal, so she let herself stray from normal for now.
"Hey, Earth to Mayfield!" Max jumped slightly, jolted awake from her thoughts as Lucas looked at her, confused, catching her staring at him.
"Huh?" Max asked, sounding truly intelligent.
"I was just asking if you were in the schedule for tonight's cabin checks?"
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure I am. You too?" Max asked, trying to seem casual, and not like she’d just spent the last couple of minutes staring at him.
"Yep. I need to go over tomorrow's kayaking lesson plans with Kevin after the campfire but I'll try to make it quick so I can join you for the cabin checkups," Lucas explained and Max nodded.
"Okay. I’ll start from the first cabin, just catch up with me when you're done," she said, leaning forward, reaching down to pick one last piece of band-aid wrapper from the step by her feet, trying to avoid looking straight at Lucas. Had he noticed she'd been staring at him? Was he freaked out? Could she explain it by saying she'd just been zoning out? Before she came up with an excuse, one of the other counselors came out to the porch from the main house, calling for help setting up for dinner. So the two of them got up, going to round up the groups of campers in dinner duty today, going their separate ways with quick “see you later”s. And Max tried to convince herself that Lucas hadn't noticed her staring at him. Because the last thing she wanted was to make him uncomfortable.
“You guys need my help to do what exactly?” Lucas asked, furrowing his brow in confusion, looking up from the clipboard he was holding. Him and Max had just finished the nightly cabin checkups, leaving cabin number ten now.
“The VCR player isn’t working, we’re not sure what exactly is wrong with it, but I said you could figure it out. You know, with all your accolades and all, Mr. Vice President of the AV Club,” Max explained, bumping her elbow against Lucas's arm.
“Ugh, fine, I'll check it out," he said with a huff, tucking the clipboard under his arm.
"But is Friday the 13th really the best movie to watch? Late at night? While at a summer camp in the middle of nowhere? Won't that hit way too close to home?"
"Exactly! That's what's gonna make it so much fun! Meg's got the VHS, and we have a late morning on Saturday so tomorrow night we can all watch it in the rec room!" Max explained enthusiastically.
"And be scared shitless for the rest of camp, sounds great!" Lucas said, mocking her tone but Max just rolled her eyes at him.
"Come on, you'll love it," she said, bumping her shoulder with his as they made their way up the hill from the cabins to the big house. Or she would've bumped his shoulder if he wasn't a good five inches taller than her, so she only reached his arm. He didn't say anything and so they walked in silence for a bit, the sound of crickets echoing from the woods around them, moths buzzing around the lamp posts lighting the trail up the hill. The yellow of the lamps mixed in with the pale bluish light of the full moon, made the woods around them look not so dark as usual. And with a slight breeze coming in from the lake cooling the air after the hot day, the night was really nice as they walked through it in comfortable silence.
"How do you think we'd do in a horror movie?" Max asked as she stepped up onto a log lining the trail.
"Huh?" Lucas voiced, looking up from the clipboard he'd been adding final notes on.
"Like in Friday the 13th . If there was a masked killer at camp, how do you think we'd all do?" Max elaborated, bringing her arms out to her sides to balance her steps on the log. Lucas nodded in understanding, putting away the clipboard again as he thought about his answer.
"Well I'll refuse to be the first to die, that's for sure," he started, looking over at her with a point of his finger.
"Oh yeah, gotta put that tired cliché to rest," Max agreed.
"You'd be the reasonable one, telling everyone to get the hell out of here. But we wouldn't listen," she elaborated and Lucas seemed to agree, nodding.
"It would be a slasher movie, so obviously not," he said.
“And you…” he added, pausing to think for a second.
"You'd want to fight the killer, to face him head on. I could imagine you charging at him with an axe. Yelling at him to fuck off," he explained, a smile rising to his face.
"So you're saying I wouldn't be the Final Girl? Ouch, I'm hurt," Max exclaimed, bringing her hand to her chest in fake shock.
"Nah, you're too gutsy to be Final Girl. They usually start of all shy and reserved, and only turn into badasses by the end of the movie. You already are one," Lucas explained.
"Okay then. Thanks, I guess," Max replied, trying to sound casual and hide the dumb smile that was fighting its way onto her face because of the compliment. Lucas hadn't meant much by it, it wasn't a big deal or anything.
"But who do you think would be the Final Girl? Out of us all," Max added after a while.
"Maddie, maybe? Or Jennifer?" Lucas suggested.
"Oh yeah," Max agreed, nodding.
"I could totally see Jennifer surviving. Bashing Jason's brains in in the end," she continued, mimicking slashing an imaginary weapon through the air.
"With that axe of yours. You could have a final heroic sacrifice and pass it on to her to kill Jason,” Lucas described, a grin spreading to his face, imagining the action.
“And he would be dead and beheaded, only to emerge from Lake Jordan a year later to terrorize a new group of campers,” Max narrated with dramatic flair, jumping down from the log to walk next to Lucas again. He grinned and Max looked up at him, the gold light of the lamp hitting his face. He looked really nice. She turned away quickly, blinking. She really shouldn’t be staring at him. Not when he could see it. So she looked down instead, at the dirt path under her feet, trying to focus on the pinecones and twigs and stones instead of how badly she suddenly wanted to reach out and touch the gold on his cheek.
“Oh you gotta be kidding me,” Lucas said, sounding frustrated and Max snapped her face back up, nerves twisting in her stomach for a split second before she noticed he was looking out at the lake and not at her.
“What? Is Jason rising from the lake to merk us all?” she asked, trying to mask her nerves with a joke as she too turned to look over at the lake, rising to her toes to see better.
“No, look,” Lucas said, pointing at something out on the lake, a fifty or so feet from the shore.
“You gotta be shitting me! Again?” Max yelled out once she spotted what Lucas was looking at. A stray canoe drifting on the water, slowly getting pulled further and further to the lake by the wind.
“Whose job was it to clean up after kayaking today?” she asked as they started to jog down the hill towards the lake, trying their best to not trip over roots and rocks on the dark path.
“I don’t know. But whoever it was, looks like they half-assed it,” Lucas huffed, stepping over a final tree-stump before they got to shore.
“That much is clear,” Max huffed out in annoyance as they passed the showers and the lake shed, walking onto the dock. Lucas didn’t say anything, looking out at the canoe, still a good forty feet away.
“So? What’s the plan?” Max asked, putting her hands on her hips, looking over at Lucas. He was looking around, his brain clearly at work trying to figure out what to do.
“Well, um… Maybe we could…” he mumbled, going to grab a coil of rope from the pier.
“Lasso it?” Max asked, her brow knitting in confusion.
“Didn’t know you were a cowboy.”
“Ha ha, funny,” Lucas said dryly, turning the rope in his hands.
“But you’ve got a point. It probably won’t work.”
“So I guess I’ll just…” he sighed, setting the rope back down, kicking off his shoes.
“Go and pull it to shore."
"Are you crazy?" Max exclaimed, her eyes wide as she looked at Lucas who took off his watch, handing it over to her.
"Well we gotta get the canoe before it drifts all the way across the lake," Lucas explained, stepping up to the edge of the dock, looking down at the dark water.
"But you don't need to jump to the lake all by yourself, I can help out too," Max pointed out.
"You can help me pull it on land," Lucas said, backing up and then he took a few running steps and jumped into the lake without second thought.
"Since when did you become reckless?" Max yelled out to him as he resurfaced, his head and shoulders coming above water.
"Since I'll be running the kayaking trip tomorrow and I know we'll be needing all of them," he yelled back, starting to make swim strokes to get to the canoe.
"And not at all because you’ll be blamed for the canoe going missing and you don’t want it on your record?” Max added, yelling out to him as he got further away.
“That too!” he yelled back, getting to the canoe. Max peered out at him through the dark, watching as he grabbed onto the side of the canoe, wiping water from his eyes and turning to look back at the shore.
“Can you help me get this onto the beach?” he asked and Max gave him a thumbs up, running back along the wooden dock, heading for the shore. She kicked off her flip flops as she reached the sand, looking out at the lake to see Lucas making headway with the canoe, slowly but surely nearing the shore.
“You good over there?” Max yelled out to him, walking right up to the edge of the water.
“Yeah, I’m fine!” Lucas answered, his voice a little strained by his efforts.
“Hey look at it this way, you get to go on a full moon swim!” Max yelled out to him, trying to cheer him up.
“How romantic!” he commented with a huff, continuing to guide the canoe towards the shore. Max tried to ignore the weird tug at her heart. What the hell was that all about?
Lucas was getting close to the shore so Max walked into the lake, the cool water lapping around her ankles. She had gotten knees deep into the water when Lucas reached her with the canoe.
“Here, let me help you out,” she said, grabbing hold of the front of the canoe, starting to pull it forward.
“Thanks,” Lucas said, relieved he didn’t have to haul the weight on his own. Max readjusted her grip on the canoe, turning towards the beach to pull it forward, hearing Lucas scrambling up from the water behind her. They didn’t say anything as they pulled the canoe ashore, dragging it along the wet sand.
“There,” Lucas said with a groan as they finally got the canoe on dry land, letting go of it. Max let go as well, wiping her wet hands onto her still dry shirt. Lucas wasn’t as lucky, he’d kept his counselor shirt on when he’d jumped into the lake and it was soaking wet. Max looked over at him, and at the water dripping from his clothes, and he noticed, looking down at himself too, picking at the fabric of his shirt, wet and stuck to his skin. Max gulped.
“There should be some towels in the shed, I’ll put the canoe with the others, go dry yourself off,” Max said, turning to look away, hoping he didn't notice how her voice had risen in pitch. She was mentally hitting herself for acting like this. She really had to get herself together.
“You sure you don’t need help with that?” Lucas asked.
“I’ll handle it. Don’t need you catching a cold,” Max assured him, shooing him away. He left, starting to head for the shed by the dock, and Max grabbed ahold of the canoe again, starting to pull it towards were the other ones were, stored securely on a stand and under a tarp.
She worked to secure the canoe in place, trying her best to do it like Maddie had taught her at the start of camp. She tied a rope around the canoe, trying to make a secure knot, but she couldn’t help but feel distracted. Distracted by how weird she was feeling for no good reason. Her hands were a little shaky, her throat dry. She really was trying to focus on getting the job done, but her mind just kept on going back to how Lucas had looked just now, how the moonlight had caught the water clinging to his skin and wet clothes. If earlier she’d noticed how the sunshine made him appear golden, now he’d looked like he was glowing silver and deep blue, like he was a neon-lit character from Blade Runner or a mysterious love interest from a music video on MTV. And she shouldn’t be noticing any of it, she knew she shouldn’t. But she couldn’t help herself.
“Shit,” Max muttered, having somehow managed to tie her finger into the knot. She undid it, trying again, just wanting to get this done. It was late, she needed to go to bed and shut off her brain for a while. Finishing tying the knot, she pulled the tarp over the canoes, taking a step back. She stood in the middle of the beach, looking over the calm lake, the moonlight reflecting on the soft waves. Max took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down. There were two more weeks of camp left, she just had to power through it, to ignore these weird sudden feelings.
She turned away from the lake, placing her hands on her hips as she tried to decide what she should do, looking at the trail leading up the hill, and then at the lake shed Lucas was in. He’d left the door partly open; she could just let him be, yell out that she was heading to bed and leave. But… She took out his watch she’d stuffed into her shorts pocket when he’d given it to her. She brushed her thumb over the digital watch face, weighing it in her hand. He’d had that watch since they were in middle school, he would definitely notice if she didn’t give it back right away.
Her steps light on the sand, Max made her way towards the shed. She bit her lip, turning the watch in her hands nervously as she neared the open door. She wasn't sure what exactly she was on her way to do, her feet and beating heart were leading her forward, her brain few paces behind. She stepped into the shed, rapping her knuckles against the door frame to let Lucas know she was there. He was standing on the other side of the small shed, in the corner by the supply shelf, twisting his t-shirt in his hands, trying to get the water out. Hearing her walking in, he turned to look at her, his face catching the faint moonlight coming in from the small window.
"You got it?" he asked, wiping his face with a towel he had hanging around his neck.
"Y-yeah, I did," Max answered, a beat too late, as despite her efforts, her focus kept drifting down to his bare arms and torso. Why couldn’t she just keep it together for five more minutes?
"You good?" Lucas asked, his brow furrowed in confusion as he started to walk towards her. Looked like he'd finally caught onto the weird way she was acting.
"I, umm," Max started, her words failing her as she averted her eyes, trying to look anywhere but at Lucas, hoping it would snap her out of this weird state, shake some sense back into her, remind her that this was her best friend, not some nameless magazine model for her to ogle.
“Here,” she got out, handing out the watch to him.
“Oh right, thanks,” he said, taking the watch and securing it on his wrist with practiced ease. A beat of silence passed between them and Max finally looked back at Lucas to see his expression was becoming concerned, his focus on her face, studying her, trying to figure out what was going on. She knew he didn't mean to do it, but she felt the weight of his gaze heavy on her, making all the air escape from her lungs. It felt horrible, suffocating, but oh so great too, making her head feel all light and airy.
"Is there something wrong?" Lucas asked as he stopped right in front of her, leaning his head down just a bit, genuine confusion and concern on his face. When Max still didn't say anything, just opened and closed her mouth, he added:
"Okay you're starting to freak me out. Is there an actual ax murderer outside?"
"No," Max finally got out, screwing her eyes shut, frustrated. She wasn't sure what was going on with her, but what she did know was that she needed to put an end to it. And she suddenly understood what she needed to do to make that happen.
"Okay, but what is it then?" Lucas asked and Max sighed, not believing it had actually come to this. Then she opened her eyes, seeing Lucas's face just inches from hers, his expression truly perplexed. And she knew it was about to get even more so.
"Screw it," she muttered under her breath, and Lucas leaned closer, trying to catch what she was saying. But as he did, she met him halfway, her lips finding his in a kiss she so desperately needed to end the weirdness within her. It was quick, just a hasty press of lips against lips, and then before he could react, before he could say anything, Max leaned away, turning around and running away. It had to be done, but she still wasn't proud of it. And it felt like even bigger of a mistake with every hurried step she took on the dirt path up the hill. She'd just kissed her best friend.
“Max, you coming?” Maddie yelled out from the doorway, looking at her watch impatiently.
“I’m almost ready, you go and get everyone up for breakfast, I’ll be right there,” Max said, standing in front of the mirror, her hands stretched up above her head, frenchbraiding her hair.
“Just meet us in the mess hall,” Maddie said with a huff and then she hurried off.
“I will,” Max assured her, yelling after her, turning back to look at herself in the mirror. Usually she would’ve felt bad about being late and making Maddie do all the work with the morning routine. But this morning, she wanted to do everything as slowly as possible, delaying the moment she would have to leave the cabin and face the other campers and counselors. The moment she would need to face Lucas for the first time since she’d gone and kissed him out of the blue. Gone and ruined ten years of friendship in one moment of confused and reckless action. Well, to be fair, she had kissed him once before. But that had been during a game of spin the bottle ages ago so it didn’t count, it wasn’t a real kiss. She doubted he even remembered it. But this situation was different. There was no game she could hide behind this time. This time she didn’t know how she could ever face Lucas again. Honestly, if Jason Vorhees were to climb through the cabin window and kill her right then and there, she’d thank him. Because then she wouldn’t have to own up to her mistake and explain to Lucas why she’d gone and kissed him like that. She wasn’t really sure if she even had an explanation to give him. It had been many small things; the moonlight, the late night, the confusion and uneasiness that had been building up within her for the past week. Probably it wasn’t even him, maybe she was just bored and antsy and needed to take it out on someone. Maybe he’d just happened to be there, caught in the crossfire of her sudden burst of teenage recklessness.
Max finished her second braid, tying it with a green hair tie. She huffed, messing with the braids, smoothing hairs on top her head, pulling strands away from the braids to frame her face. She was stalling, and she knew it. It was nearing eight o’clock, and she should’ve been at the mess hall already, or at least on her way there. If she didn’t get going soon, she’d have to face Maddie’s wrath. So with one last nervous tuck at her braids, she turned and headed out the room, walking down the cabin steps into the bright and sunny morning air.
She reached the main house just in time to meet Maddie and the cabin four campers by the doorway, joining them as they lined up to get breakfast. Maddie gave her an annoyed look as she joined them, and Max mouthed “sorry!” to her before focusing on herding the kids inside, telling Katie to wait for her turn and not push the others in line. Their cabin was one of the last ones to arrive for breakfast, the large and airy mess hall filled with the sounds of kids chatting and eating, the smell of warm toast, orange juice and breakfast sausages floating in the air. Max grabbed some breakfast and then joined the campers at their table, and the whole time she ate, she felt like she was being watched, constantly looking around to see if Lucas was there, in the line for breakfast, or at the table with his campers. But she didn’t see him anywhere. She should’ve been relieved, happy that she could delay the moment she had to speak to him, but instead she felt anxious and paranoid, glancing around as she ate her toast and eggs, waiting for Lucas to jump out at her any minute.
“Hey, Max?” Max jumped, feeling someone poking at her arm. She quickly turned her head to see it was Emma, the camper sitting next to her.
“What is it?” Max asked, trying to seem calm and not like she’d just gotten majorly freaked out.
“Are we making new bracelets today? Cause mine broke and I wanna make a new one,” Emma said, picking up a broken bracelet from her shorts pocket, multicolored plastic beads rolling all over the table.
“Umm, well we’re doing crafts after lunch, so if you finish your project then yeah, you can make a new bracelet,” Max answered, trying to pay attention to the conversation but her focus was seriously straying away once she noticed Lucas entering the mess hall from across the room. He was talking with one of the senior counselors, probably about the canoeing lesson after breakfast. Max ducked her head, looking at him from the corner of her eye as he walked across the room. It didn’t seem like there was anything off about him, his movements were relaxed as he walked, happily greeting his table of campers. Emma kept on speaking, explaining what kind of bracelet she wanted to make later, and Max nodded along, trying to seem like she was listening, while looking over at Lucas as he went over to where his cabin was sitting, leaning his hands on the table, listening to the campers excitedly talked to him about something. He smiled, shaking his head, trying to calm them all down and Max couldn’t help but keep her gaze on him. He was so comfortable in the counselor role after all the summers he’d spent at camp, and all his campers loved him, thinking he was the coolest person ever. Which wasn’t far from the truth.
Maybe it was a coincidence or maybe he’d sensed her staring at him, but suddenly Lucas’s eyes were on her, catching her gaze from across the room and over the tables of campers.
“Shit,” Max hissed, turning away quickly.
“You swore!” Emma gasped, pointing her finger at Max, her jaw dropped and her eyes wide.
“I did, I’m sorry. Don’t repeat it, okay?” Max hurried to tell her, focusing back on her plate of food. But as much as she tried to ignore it, she still saw from the corner of her eye that Lucas had left the table and started to make his way towards her. But it didn’t necessarily mean he was coming to talk to her, maybe he was going to another table, maybe he’d seen someone else and was going to talk to them.
“Hey.”
Well crap.
“Morning,” Max answered Lucas, trying to sound cool and collected, picking up her piece of toast.
“All ready to go kayaking?” she asked, her tone conversational as she looked at him, hoping that pretending that nothing was going on would make him forget it all.
“Oh, yeah, I am,” he answered, seeming caught off guard by her casual tone.
“Are we going kayaking too?” Emma asked, excited as she looked from Lucas to Maddie at the other end of the table.
“Yes, right after breakfast. So eat up!” Maddie said, gesturing at the still mostly full bowl of cereal on the table in front of the girl. The campers all dug into their food, chattering excitedly about the kayaking lesson. With the loud clamor Max could almost pretend that Lucas wasn’t still standing there next to her. Taking a bite of her toast she glanced up at him, looking at him with a question on her face. Trying to seem like she had no idea what he wanted to talk to her about.
“Can we talk?” he asked, lowering his voice to further hide it under the noise.
“Sure. What’s up?” Max asked, continuing eating, picking up her glass of orange juice.
“No, I meant…” Lucas said, glancing around, shifting nervously in place.
“Somewhere else,” he added, his voice dropping even more, looking beyond uncomfortable, shoving his hands into his short’s pockets.
“Oh,” Max said, gripping tight onto the glass in her hand. Shit shit shit shit.
“Okay then. I’ll finish this and I’ll see you outside,” she said, hoping to sound casual as she looked up at Lucas again.
“Okay,” he said, and for a second he looked like he was about to say something more, pressing his lips together, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. But then he seemed to decide against it and walked away without another word. Max picked up her glass again, turning it in her hands as she looked out across the table, her brain busy trying to come up with an escape plan. She could just get on one of the canoes and paddle away, never to return. She sighed, focusing back into the reality, seeing Maddie eyeing her from across the table, her expression a mix of annoyed and curious. Not wanting to say anything in front of the kids because she knew she would never hear the end of it, Max just shrugged, doing her best to seem like it was no big deal.
Having dropped off her empty plate and glass, Max made her way out of the hall, trying her best to blend in with the campers who'd already finished their breakfast and were hurrying to get outside. She still felt like everyone was staring at her, watching her every move and wondering where she was going. She almost wanted to turn to face the room and yell at everyone that there was nothing going on, that everything was cool! That it was perfectly normal for her to go and kiss her best friend of ten years without any warning and ruin their friendship in one fell swoop. That it was all cool that she was about to be yelled at by him, and for good reason too, that it was perfectly normal that he would probably never want to speak to her ever again. Everything was just great!
She pushed open the door to the front hall of the house, having to get out the way as a group of boys ran outside, nearly knocking her over.
"Hey, watch out you guys!" she yelled out at them, getting yelled out “sorry”s from the kids as they ran outside. Huffing, crossing her arms over her chest, Max looked away from the open double doors leading outside and jumped when she saw Lucas at the other end of the room, standing around looking awkward.
"Shit you scared me!" Max exclaimed, looking around to check if anyone was nearby.
"Sorry, I thought you told me to wait here," he pointed out, his brow furrowing in confusion.
"Yeah, I know, sorry," Max said, unfolding her arms, pressing her palms together instead. There was a moment of awkward silence as they both looked around in the empty room.
"Um, so I was thinking we could…" Lucas started after a moment, pointing at the door to the rec room.
"Yeah, sure, okay," Max mumbled, following him as he rushed in, making sure the room was empty, the awkwardness between them reaching a new high. She kept her gaze down as she entered the room a couple steps behind him, turning to close the door. She wasn't sure what exactly she needed to say to him, but she needed to say something to fix this, to explain what she'd done, even if she still couldn't really explain it to herself. Squeezing the door handle, Max closed her eyes, steeling herself before turning to face him.
"Lucas, I'm so sorry. I don't know what I was thinking and…"
But that was all she got out because Lucas was suddenly standing right in front of her. And then his hands were on her cheeks. And then he was kissing her.
Max didn't even have time to close her wide blown eyes before he stepped away, dropping his hands from her face. Max took a step back too, blinking her eyes, opening and closing her mouth as she tried to understand what the hell just happened.
"Wait, what did… what are… why…" she mumbled, bringing her hands up to the sides of her head, feeling like her brain was boiling over, trying to understand what was happening.
"You're not… You're not mad?" she finally got out, looking at Lucas who was standing frozen in place.
"No," he simply said, looking over at her.
"Oh," she breathed out, blinking as she looked up at him. And then she wasn't sure which one of them moved first but then they were kissing again.