Camp Closeted

Chapter 11: Fueled Ego and Peer Pressure

"I really don't wanna mess your pictures up." I let out, breaking the awkward silence as I walked

through the forest with Andrew.

He glanced at me, moving his wide lensed glasses closer to his face as he smiled. "Don't even worry

about how the pictures will turn out. Just look around and I'll take pictures of you."

"J-just look around?" I raised an eyebrow as he nodded. "Anywhere?"

He chuckled softly. "Yes, anywhere." Andrew all of a sudden stopped walking, birds chirping around us

as wind gently brushed against our bodies. "This looks like an ideal place."

When we turned towards each other, I finally noticed how tall he was compared to me. "O-okay." I

replied, trying my best to not look awkward. "Do you think you can talk to me while you take pictures,

you know, just to not make it awkward." I added, anxiously biting my lip.

"Yea, sure." He nodded with a smirk, moving his camera closer to his eye as it pointed towards me. Còntens bel0ngs to Nô(v)elDr/a/ma.Org

"Say, wenis." I rapidly choked on air.

"What?" I laughed loudly, hearing the camera click.

"Aww, look at your smile." He grinned widely as he showed me the picture, making me playfully nudge

him. "You have such a baby face."

"I hate my smile." I threw the picture a dirty look, proceeding to focus on something else.

"You shouldn't, I think it's adorable." Andrew let out, preparing to take another picture as I felt my

cheeks begin to slightly burn up.

After taking countless pictures, Andrew and I finally decided to go back to the camp as we watched the

sun start to set.

"I really appreciate you letting me take pictures of you." Andrew spoke beside me as I looked down,

hearing branches and leaves break beneath my feet. "You were pretty good for your first time."

Just before I could've responded, another voice quickly appeared from the distance. "Almost thought

you were gonna take all day!" A tall boy with brown hair smiled, his dimples showing off as he quickly

ran and kissed Andrew. "I missed you."

Oh.

The boy's hands snaked around Andrew as he responded. "Well I'm back. Just had to take pictures of

one of the new guys for the camp year book." Andrew smiled, turning towards me. "Micah meet Leo,

Leo meet Micah."

"What's up dude." Leo threw me a nod.

"H-hey." My voice came out quietly. "Well this was fun, thanks Andrew." I let out, rapidly turning away

and proceeding to walk away as fast as possible.

I couldn't decide if I was bothered at all. My emotions were very conflicting to determine. Clearly I'm

very inexperienced in human interactions because the way Andrew acted towards me made me think

he was single.

Not that I'm not happy for him being with someone, but wow, I'm just shocked for some reason.

As I prepared to walk back to the cafeteria to check if Benny and Logan were there, sharp whispers

being made in an alley slowly caught my attention.

"It's not bad I swear, just hit the fucking pen." Cadence deeply chuckled, another voice appearing.

"I-I really don't wanna do it." They spoke sullenly, my eyes revealing that it was Sascha.

Sascha looked genuinely scared as Cadence's arm caged him against the wall. "Maybe that's why no

one talks to you, you're so boring." Cadence's eyes met mine, only for a second as I quickly looked

away, heading towards the cafeteria.

Something in me told me to freeze, which probably looked awkward if someone was staring at me right

now, but I still did.

Cadence's voice continued to emit from an audible distance as my head slowly turned towards him and

Sascha.

"Um guys, is there a problem here or something?" God I sound so stupid, why did I say what I just said

sounding like that.

Cadence's eyes pierced through me as his arms let Sascha go. I could tell he didn't take me seriously

as he let out a quiet chuckle to himself as Sascha took advantage of the situation by rapidly walking off.

"Why no." Cadence began to slowly pace towards me and I couldn't help but back up which fueled his

ego even further. His cloudy hair bounced perfectly on his chiseled face as he finally got up a feet from

me "Life is too short to have problems." He devilishly smirked, proceeding to smoke again as I wasn't

quite aware of where this was going. With quick thought and unsteady breathing, I turned and

proceeded to walk away before anything else happened.

"Micah I wanna cry." Benny let out, crinkling his face as his head fell onto both of his hands.

"What happened?" I pursed my lips at him as he began to cry without tears coming out. I couldn't tell if

he was pretending or actually about to cry.

"Okay don't turn around yet because it's gonna be obvious we're talking about them. But the reason

why I wanna cry is because the group of boys behind you are so fine ass that it makes me so mad!" He

whined.

I turned around to see the group he was inner crying about, Benny immediately hissing behind me

because of my stubbornness. "Are you for real? What did I ever do to deserve this betrayal." He gave

up, flailing his arms in the air.

I quickly realized the group he was looking at included Jesse. He was wearing a loose navy blue shirt

that had no sleeves, his defined biceps visibly commanding attention as Benny spoke out again.

"Damn bitch you want binoculars!? You're making it so obvious!" Benny smacked the back of my head

as I cackled out loud.

"Why don't you just go up to them and talk to them?" I slowly looked back towards Benny.

"Oh because you would right? Plus what would I even say? All they talk about is sports and what type

of protein shake they drink." Benny sighed.

What he said quickly lit up an unknown part in my brain.

I'm done.

My mom was right.

I'm so fucking exhausted of always keeping to myself and being so scared to talk to anyone. I'm so

done with doubting myself and always bringing my confidence down.

"I'd go over there and talk to them." I grinned slowly, Benny snapping his neck back and raising both of

his eyebrows at me.