We Could Be Enough - Lams

II.

"C'mon, let's get to our cabins! I'm so excited!" Alex said, bouncing down the path from the Lodge to wherever the cabins are.

Some things have changed at this camp since I was here last, but it still has the old charm it was known for. The looming pine trees cast shadows over a large portion of the campgrounds, minus the meadow.

The meadow was probably one of my favorite parts of this camp. The cafeteria, the Lodge, and the Inn all looked out onto it. Tall yellow grasses were swept aside by a breeze most of the time; A small hill in the middle of the meadow was the only place with any other plants. I remember there being a small creek nearby. I wonder if it's still there.

"Yo, Laurens!" I hear Alexander shout from far away. I look down the path to see that he's already close to the cabins. Lafayette isn't in sight so I assume he kept going.

"I'm coming!" I yell back. I pick up my suitcase and start sprinting/tumbling down the sloping hill towards Alexander.

Once I catch up, we keep walking towards the cabins.

"Oh, shoot. I forgot, we have to grab our radios." Alex says, backpedaling to the Lodge again.

"What?" I ask.

"Everyone gets a radio so if we need anything we could ask anyone from anywhere at camp. Mostly for safety, but if we need, say, you to go to the nurse and pick something up, they would just radio you and you would come, instead of someone having to go find you and bring you back."

"Oh. That seems reasonable." I say, following him.

"I know, right?" Alex shrugs, then keeps heading up the path.

We run into the guy who was speaking in the auditorium earlier, and Alex asks where to pick up the radios.

"They're all down at HQ, so you're going the wrong way. Just ask Eliza when you walk in, she'll give them to you." He said helpfully.

Once he walks away I mutter, "Great."

"Back down the hill! Away we go!" Alexander says, promptly hurling himself down the hill. I'm surprised he isn't even tired, despite lugging a large suitcase up and down the hill multiple times, or hurt from tripping and falling while running down the hill. I know I just want to get to the cabin and take a nap as soon as possible.

I stumble down the hill once more, and walk into HQ.

A three story building with the nurse and secretary of the camp on the first floor, meeting rooms on the second, and the place where the owner guy lives or something. I should probably learn his name sometime soon.

The moment we walk in, a bullet of blue shoots out from behind the desk.

"Oh, hi! It's so good to see you again, Alex!" The girl cheered.

"Nice to see you too, Eliza." Alex said quietly.

"So! How ya been, what've you been doing, why haven't we talked since last summer?" She asks.

"I've been fine. I've been going to school like always." He says. He didn't exactly answer her last question, which I found suspicious. Eliza talks as if they're good friends. I wonder if they really are though.

"Is that all? Are you sure? Surely something good must have happened since I saw you!" She puts a hand on his shoulder.

He shrugs it off and says, "I met John! And since that happened before now that means it happened in the time between when you saw me last, so yeah. Something good did happen to me." He moves sideways closer to me, kinda showing me off to Eliza. Her face darkens, but in a split second her face is happy and lighthearted.

Alexander considers meeting me a good thing?

"Hi." I say with a small wave.

"Well... nice to meet you." Eliza says slowly. Her eyes narrow.

Alex is still standing next to me, slightly behind my shoulder. It kinda feels like he's hiding from her.

"Well, anyway, the reason we came down here was for radios, so if you could kindly hand those over without throwing them at us, that would be preferred." I say. Really stupid of me to say, but it happened.

She resumed her sweet-girl persona and walked behind her desk, procuring two working walkie-talkie looking things, which I assumed were the radios Alex was talking about. She handed them over.

"If that's all you need, I have work to do." She said. Her obviously fake smile was plastered on her face until we backed out the door.

I sit on one of the benches outside the building."Wow. She was... something." I say.

"No kidding." Alex says, sitting next to me. I had him one of the walkie-talkies, which he secured to his belt.

"Sooo... cabins?" He says after a few moments of silence between us.

"Hell yeah."

///

We walk in comfortable silence for a few hundred yards.

I wonder what happened between Eliza and Alex last year. I shouldn't ask. If he feels the need to explain, he will. Between now and then, all I can do is piece together clues and such.

"So you're gay?" Alex blurts out.

"What?" I ask. Where did that come from?

"As far as I can tell, I'm one of the only queer guys working here this year. If you were gay, that would just be better for me." He says.

"Wait." I say, processing his words. "You're queer too?" I push a strand of my curly hair out of my face. Somehow it had gotten out of my ponytail.

"Bisexual. Though to be honest, I like boys better than girls." He says.

"I can't believe what I'm hearing. This is a miracle." I mutter under my breath. Alex chuckles. I hope he didn't hear what I'd just said.

We continue walking towards the cabins. I think I can see ours from here. #21 and #22. I can see Alexander's friend from earlier stringing up a hammock between his cabin and a nearby tree. The French one. I never caught his name.

"So are you?"

"What? Oh sorry, I forgot our previous conversation. Yes. I am." I say, gesturing to myself. "Gay as can be."

"I overheard part of your conversation between you and Peggy. Peggy is Eliza's younger sister, though they are almost nothing alike. The only thing they have in common are their parents."

"Oh really? They look nothing alike." I recall that Peggy had curlier hair and tanner skin than Eliza, though it might have just been the dim lighting of the auditorium, and the bright fluorescent lights of the office.

"Yeah, Eliza looks nothing like Angelica, either."

"I'm assuming she's another sister?"

"Yep, she-"

"Where have you been! I had to set up my hammock all by myself! You said you'd help!" Alex's French friend says, bounding over to us. He had to be at least 3 inches taller than both Alex and me, plus the height of the bun on top of his head, and that made him slightly intimidating.

"We forgot to grab our radio's" He says.

"Still!" He threw his hands up, then walked back to his cabin, leaving us alone.

"So, I need to unpack, and I assume you do also, so I'm going to go do that. Maybe we'll do something later?" Alexander asks.

"Yeah, of corse!" I say. Maybe I said it too loud or excitedly. I should have said something different.

I re-adjust my backpack on my shoulder. "I'll see you later." He waves as I turn away and walk to cabin #22.

A.N. Heyy, how's it going? Part three of this fic should be up soon, and I hope you guys really enjoy it. I have big plans for this fanfiction, but that's a long way away. Anyway, Please vote and comment!

Byeee!