camp triple pine//lawrusso

25.) showtime, & a potential grand finale

Maybe Bobby was right. Maybe he should have talked to Johnny. It's Friday night, after all, the night of the big show. Then there was the leaving dance on Saturday, according to what Jess had told him. Then they were all leaving on Sunday morning. The end.

He could talk to people just fine. He'd fessed up to Jessica the other day, explaining he'd tried to claim he was hooking up with her as a cover for him and Johnny. After an appropriate amount of anger (with some death threats thrown into the mix), she eventually calmed down and talked things out with him. Apparently, as much as Daniel found it to Not be amusing, the idea of him hooking up with Jessica (or any girl) on the down-low was too funny to be believable.

"I do like girls, too, you know," Daniel muttered to Jessica as they made their way to the stage. Being outside, the backstage area was not very big, so kids were bumping and cramping altogether to get into their places.

"I know you do, sweetie," Jessica reassured him with a smile. "It's just, you're not the kind to keep a girl hidden, that's all. You'd wanna show her off, hold her hand and all that. You know?"

Daniel nodded, frowning and avoiding Jess's eye, which was easy to do as a group of rabid kids ran past them, scripts flying about in the process.

Jess stopped short, a hand on Daniel's arm, her voice hushed but Daniel could still hear it over the children. "Is that...Is that something you want with Johnny, Daniel?"

Daniel found himself tempted to nod, but instead he scoffed. "Please. Even if I wanted to, we can't just be like that in public. Johnny would never be like that. And I don't want that." Then, as an afterthought: "I think he'd make a horrible boyfriend, Jess. Just ask Ali."

Jessica was silent for a while. Contemplative. She squeezed Daniel's arm thoughtfully, hesitated for only a moment, then pulled him into a hug. A lingering one, with her arms around his neck and his head resting on his shoulder. She smelled like strawberries, which was nice because the only person he'd been close enough to smell was Johnny, who just smelled like a boy. Not in a bad way, though. Daniel wished he could stop thinking about how all his senses tingled when his head rested on Johnny's chest.

Then, Jess pulled away, smiling a little sadly, head cocked to the side curiously. "You're a horrible liar, you know that, don't you?"

Daniel, to his own surprise, grinned as a laugh escaped him. "I'm not lying!" he insisted, and he really wasn't sure what parts were the truth and what wasn't. He was confident Johnny would be a shitty boyfriend, though. He'd forget important dates, would probably consider a beer from his six-pack a "heartfelt gift", and would probably show off his karate moves to get Daniel "in the mood", as ridiculous a concept as that was.

(It would work.)

Or they could go for a nighttime drive. Johnny could make him a mixtape. Daniel could take him to that special clearing cliff and study the stars with him. He imagined Johnny would come up with random constellations and insist "They're real, the other astrologists just don't know about them, Larusso."

And then Daniel pictured that realistically, Johnny wouldn't be present for any of that at all.

If Daniel had taken his apology, had clutched it close and really cared for it, really forgiven him, what would have come from it? Would they be closer now? Less confused? Less connected, drifting apart?

Daniel remembered the days, the five months between January and the start of camp, when Johnny had deterred at every turn to get away from Daniel. The thought settled like a heavy anchor on his heart, and he thought that that was how things would be when camp was over. That they were only so undeniably close because they shared the same space for so long.