there's a big old moon shining down at night

Chapter 6

The first full weekend of August comes far too fast, with something that Lauren calls a corn roast. The name is fairly self-explanatory – people come over, corn is roasted and presumably eaten – but what she didn't expect is the scale of the endeavour. Half the town seems to flock to Lauren's huge backyard, setting up lawnchairs and hauling in picnic tables borrowed from the park, and no less than 3 barbecues are fired up on the porch – one for meat, one for veggie options, and one entirely dedicated to corn on the cob.

It's like Canada Day all over again, except this time it's Lauren's home that's open to the entire municipality.

"Don't you worry about people breaking your things?" Camila says, as yet another person heads inside to use the bathroom.

"Why would I?"

"Because there's over 200 people here?"

Lauren laughs, flipping a row of burgers and putting the barbecue lid down again. "If they haven't broken anything for the last 8 years, I doubt they will now."

"You do this every year?"

"It's the August long weekend, Camz!" Lauren says, as if that explains all.

If she's being honest, stat holidays have never been a part of Camila's life before this summer. She acknowledged them only as days when the rest of her employees wouldn't be at work, but they didn't stop her from coming in, and most major holidays were spent eating dinner at her desk.

"What is this holiday even for?" Camila asks, and Lauren shrugs happily.

"No idea!"

Despite it being an apparently baseless holiday, everyone seems determined to have a good time. The drinking and food continues throughout the day, and when Taylor hands her a plate with a burger and an un-shucked ear of corn on it, Camila blanches.

"What am I supposed to do with this?" she asks, knowing she sounds like a whiny tourist but genuinely confused as to how she's expected to eat this charred, furry vegetable.

"Are you kidding?" Taylor asks, laughing, but Lauren elbows her way past her sister to perch on Camila's picnic table. Her seat dislodges Normani's drink, but the other woman's noise of disapproval is ignored.

"I'll show you," Lauren says eagerly, picking up the still-steaming piece of corn and pulling the husk back with her bare fingers. "You just pull this off, see? And the corn underneath is cooked."

"How do you do that without...I don't know, gloves or something?" Camila asks, looking down at her own soft hands. Lauren shrugs, finishing with her peeling and putting the corn down.

"I've handled hotter things."

She says it with a wink, and despite the cheesiness of the joke, Camila flushes all over at the memories of exactly that.

"Anyways, enough corny jokes," Lauren continues, grinning like a moron as she holds up the ear of corn, and Camila rolls her eyes so hard she's surprised that they don't leave her head entirely.

"Oh my god, give me that –"

She swats at Lauren after grabbing her food back, and Lauren seems to accept it, falling off the table and laughing all the way at her own terrible joke.

As soon as dusk falls Taylor sets up a huge bonfire, and the parts seems to shift into a lower gear. There's s'mores and roasting hot dogs, and Camila curls happily into Lauren's side as she plays country songs on her guitar. Like everything else she does, Lauren's fingers are deft on the strings, and her voice is soft and sweet. Camila can feel the vibration of it against her skin as she rests her head on Lauren's shoulder, and along with the beer she's had and crackle of the fire it's almost enough to lull her into a very pleasant doze.