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“She totally wants me!” Duncan says to Geoff and DJ as they walk back to the Killer Bass cabin from the main lodge after supper. “I just need to get her close to me somehow.”
“For sure, man! We’ll figure something out,” Geoff pats his back as they climb up the cabin steps. As they trek to the boy’s side, Courtney and Bridgette emerge from the girl’s side, bath towels and shower caddies in their hands.
“Hey, Princess!” Duncan calls out at the sight. “We were just talking about you,” he smirks.
Courtney rolls her eyes. “I’m going to go shower, Duncan. When was the last time you showered?” She pretentiously sniffs the air around him and crinkles her nose. “Feel free to join me, because you need one.”
“An invitation to join you in the shower, huh?” Duncan sneers. “Don’t mind if I do!” The boys begin laughing. Bridgette elbows Geoff in the side.
Courtney’s face becomes red as a tomato as she realizes the implications of her insult. “That is not what I meant, Duncan! You are so perverted,” she scoffs.
He walks up to her and gets close enough that he can feel her heart beating through her chest. He loved when she got embarrassed. She was too cute. “You sure, Princess?” He swipes her pink towel from her hands and spins it around. “Your towel is a little girly for me, but I don’t mind sharing, as long as I’m sharing it with you.”
“Please, Duncan. Like I’d ever share a towel with you! Now give that back!” Courtney reaches for her towel. He chuckles and holds it above her head.
“Promise?” Duncan continues to spin and twirl the poor towel around as if he was a circus juggler, until he accidentally loses his grip on the fabric, and the towel is catapulted into midair. On its way down, it becomes stuck on the roof of the cabin.
Everybody gasps. “You’re getting that down!” Courtney pokes her finger in Duncan’s chest.
“Relax, Court. We’ll get your precious towel down,” Duncan assures her. The roof was too high for any of them, even DJ, to reach the towel with their bare hands. “There’s a ladder around here somewhere, right?”
“I think there’s one on our side,” DJ walks into the boy’s side of the cabin. After a few moments, he emerges with an old, shabby ladder that looked like it was on the brink of turning to dust. It had less rungs than a typical ladder, but it would do the job.
“I’m glad one of you boys has a brain! Thanks DJ,” Courtney swipes the rusty ladder from DJ’s hands and thrusts it towards Duncan, who grimaces at the sight of the decrepit rungs.
“Yeah, no can do, Princess,” Duncan raises his eyebrows. “That thing looks like it’s about to fall apart any minute! Either you or Malibu Barbie over here need to get the towel. You both weigh the least out of all of us. I don’t know how much the ladder can take.”
Courtney blushes, her face softening. “Well, there’s no point in making Bridgette suffer! I’ll get the towel,” she hands her shower caddy to an appreciative Bridgette. Her, Geoff, and DJ all watch in fear as Courtney apprehensively ascends the creaky ladder. Duncan swiftly comes to her rescue, firmly holding the ladder in place with a cocky grin on his face.
“Don’t worry, I’ve got you,” Duncan affirms. Courtney glances down at him with a bewildered look on her face and he sends an affectionate wink her way. “How does it feel to have your life in my hands, Princess?”
“I’d feel safer on the deck of the Titanic!” She glares at him. He holds onto the ladder securely until she has the pink towel in her grasp. As soon as she’s holding onto the fabric, Duncan begins to vigorously shake the ladder.
“Still doing good up there?”
“Hey!” Courtney yelps as she begins to lose her balance on the ladder. “Are you trying to kill me, Duncan?” Her eyes widen as her feet slip off the rungs and she goes tumbling down. She covers her eyes with the towel as she falls off the ladder.
But Duncan always has his reasons. As soon as she slips, he lets go of the ladder, and immediately holds his arms wide open in an effort to catch her. In a swift motion, she falls into his arms bridal style, looping her arms around his neck in the process. Her grip on him tightens as she subconsciously pulls herself closer to him, relieved after being saved from the fall.
“I knew you were falling for me, Princess,” he smirks with Courtney in his arms. It was a compromising position, exactly what Duncan had wanted. They were so close that he could smell her perfume and feel the curve of her body against his. Having her in his arms made him feel so impossibly warm. He had never felt anything like this before. He almost didn’t want it to end.
However, Courtney almost instantly begins protesting, ruining their moment. “Put me down, Duncan!” He rolls his eyes, but gently sets her down. “Where is my towel?” She asks, furious.
The teenagers glance around the cabin porch before Geoff spots it laying on the ground next to the cabin. “Uh, Mocha, you’re not going to like this,” Geoff says. Everybody rushes to peer over the railing to look at the once pink towel, now a muddy brown color, after being covered in dirt, grass, and an indistinguishable array of bugs. Courtney had accidentally let go of the towel during her fall.
“That was my only towel! Ugh! Duncan, this is all your fault!” Courtney puts her face into her hands and storms back into the girl’s side of the cabin. Bridgette glares at him before running after her.
“Hey, she got close to you, at least,” Geoff and DJ come up behind Duncan, snickering at the turn of events.
After some time has passed, Duncan finds himself holding his own navy bath towel, standing in front of the girl’s side of their cabin. He knocks lightly on the screen door. After a few moments, it swings open to an enraged Courtney, probably still furious about what had happened earlier. She still looked cute, even when she was angry.
“You can never leave me alone, can you? Haven’t you tortured me enough today?” Courtney says through gritted teeth.
Duncan hands her his navy towel before she can throw any more insults his way. “I know you said that you’d never share a towel with me, but I thought you could use one while you wait for your towel to dry.” He gestures behind him, where her towel, now clean from all the dirt and muck, is drying on the cabin railing.
She warily takes his towel from him. “You washed my towel?”
“Yeah, I, uh, rinsed it off in the lake a couple of times. You should be able to use it again tomorrow when it’s dry,” Duncan explains.
“That’s actually pretty sweet of you.” Courtney examines his towel. “Just don’t get any perverted thoughts about me using yours,” she smiles, placing a soft kiss on his cheek to thank him for washing hers. She picks her discarded shower caddy off the porch floor and makes her way over to the communal bathrooms.
Duncan holds his cheek and grins as he watches her walk away. Yeah right, like he could stop himself from thinking about her perfect body wrapped in his towel. He’d cherish that towel forever.