LT Day 11 - Not lost

You sit down, worriedly looking up at the gray sky. It better not start to rain again. After a few minutes you look around to check on Lotte. She’s on a fallen log, not too far away, her chin resting on her hand as she watches the river.

You know how to get back to camp, but it’ll take forever. You can just follow the river upstream—that will get you most of the way back the main camp. Then you just cut south until you hit the road, then follow the road to the Crystal Lake sign. So you aren’t really lost, it will just be a long walk that you aren’t looking forward to.

And Lotte? She didn’t plan this. In fact, she’s probably here right now because of you. If you’d left her alone earlier, Sherry and Jill would have gone in peace and you and Lotte would be eating grilled cheese sandwiches right now. And maybe you could be flirting with Claudette.

You turn toward her. She’s twenty feet away.

“I’m sorry,” you say, loudly enough that she can hear you over the water.

“What?”

“I’m sorry,” you repeat. “I shouldn’t have bothered you this morning. I should’ve let you be.”

She just shrugs. After a minute, she replies. “It is the losers camp. I have nowhere to be. Nothing to do.”

Good point. It pops into your mind without you looking for it: the memory of her naked body, and your frenzied lovemaking here in this place. Her soft form underneath you, and her cries as you pushed inside her. You can think of something to do in a place like this, but not with her. You need to snap out of it.

You stand up.

“I know the way back. Let’s go. Unless you want to stay,” you say.

“OK,” she replies. There’s no fight in her.

But you refuse to feel bad. After everything she did, even if you have somehow hurt her feelings or messed her up by striking back, you are not the bad guy here. But… you would become the bad guy if you’re still and asshole to her when she’s not doing anything wrong. You have to try to put it behind you. If only you’d just minded your own business today.

It takes twice as long to get back to camp as it did to get lost in the first place, but you get there, and nobody even noticed you were gone.

Lotte goes straight to her team’s cabin and disappears inside. You go to the dining hall. You’re hungry, but you’ve missed dinner. The light is on in the kitchen, and you hear someone in there. You go and take a peek. It’s Claudette, washing dishes.

Today has left you with a lot to think about. You don’t want to think.

There’s an apron hanging on a hook beside you. You think for a moment, then lean around the corner so she can see your face in the doorway.

“Pssst,” you say.

Claudette looks up from what she’s doing. She smiles. “Hi,” she says.

“Want some help?”

“You don’t have to.”

“What if I want to?”

She hesitates. “OK,” she says, looking pleased.

Nice. You pull back around the corner and you better just hope that nobody comes in here. It’s after dinner, after all. Why would they? You pull your shirt over your head, then push down your shorts and underwear and step out of your flip flops. Naked, you take the apron down and tie it on, then go into the kitchen.

Claudette sees you and almost drops a plate.

“Oh god,” she says, trying not to laugh.

“I’m helping,” you say, taking your place beside her.