Camp Payback by J. K. Rock

Alex?
    “Maybe.” She kept a hand on my wrist and tipped her head sideways as if trying to see me from a different angle. Her long, silky hair grazed my fingers. “But school won’t have you. That’s why I wish we could be together this summer. It’s all the time we’ll have.”
    My heart exploded. I wished this stolen moment could be more than that—a point in my life I could shout about from the rooftops and celebrate in public. Alex didn’t make me feel like I was any of the things written in my foster record. She made me feel like none of that mattered—that she saw who I really was and liked me for it. Ironic it took coming to a camp full of entitled kids to make me feel that I might be worthy, too.
    Down below us, the campers clapped and cheered for the finale. The flashlights that had been darting around the woods bobbed in the dark, back toward the rest of the group. We’d have to walk back to our cabins in another minute before someone caught us. But right now, Alex shifted closer.
    “Camp is turning out better than I expected, too.” I cupped her cheek and held her still, memorizing her face. I wasn’t sure when I’d get to look at her so openly again.
    She studied me before closing her eyes, her mouth curving. We kissed, and I forgot everything else. I didn’t think about foster homes or the fact that my mom was in jail. I didn’t worry about not having any money and no place to turn if I screwed up at camp. All of it evaporated with Alex. For a few seconds at least, I felt like a guy in control of himself and his future.
    Happy.
    Inhaling the scent of her, stroking her soft hair, I heard movement in the brush behind us.
    A flashlight swung in our direction. It landed on Alex’s wide eyes as she pulled away from me.
    “What the hell, Alex?” Her ex-boyfriend’s voice was as irritating as the blinding light flashing in our faces. I tensed. Fists clenched. So much for that control I was working on. I shot to my feet, ready to break every anger management rule in the book.
    Vijay sneered. “Do you drag all of your boyfriends to the same spot to swap spit?”
    I froze, and my eyes went to her. She looked away fast but not before I caught her guilty expression.
    The jerk-off lowered his flashlight as he swaggered closer.
    “You’re trying to rub my face in it that we’re not together anymore, aren’t you?” He shook his head, his features twisted in a snarl. “Is this how you get me back for sending you that text?”
    “Is that true?” I asked her in a low voice, sitting up to shield her.
    “No.” She shook her head fast and inched up beside me.
    I wanted to believe her. I really, really did. But a part of me wondered if her kiss on the first day of camp and now here, at her old spot with Vijay, was her way of using me to get back at him. Maybe her parents, too. What better way to piss them off than a good girl like Alex hooking up with a low-life like me?
    Nauseous, I stood and held my stomach. Helena was right. Whether Alex meant to or not, she brought a lot of trouble I couldn’t afford to get into.
    “Give the bastard a break, Alex.” Vijay crossed his arms and glared at us. “He deserves to know how much you like to mess with guys’ minds. And I’d tell Gollum, too, if you didn’t have those texts.”
    “Shut up!” She leaped to her feet, ready to do battle.
    But it was too late. I’d already been cut deep. “Forget it,” I told her. “We’ll talk another time.”
    Her friends—and his—were already running up the hill toward us. Alex had other people to protect her. Besides, I needed to follow one anger management rule: walk the hell away. And that meant from Alex, too.
    “I’ve got to go.” I strode off, wishing like hell I’d listened to Helena in the first place and returned to the kitchen after dropping off Alex.
    “Javier!” Alex called after me, but I could hear the quieter voices of her friends around her, settling her down. She didn’t need me. She had