Camp Canoa // Luke Hemmings

The One With The BAMF-Mobile

[Day +20]

"That's not even the biggest news I have though..." I say, finishing telling Nora the story of how Albert was hit in the face by the Frisbee.

"Yeah?" She rests her mop and bucket on the sidewalk by her feet, settling in for a story.

I ball my hands into fists to keep myself from flailing them all around the place and I hold her eyes. "Guess who got a text from Sam freaking Peters?"

For some reason, Nora doesn't seem wildly excited by this revelation.

"Miranda Birch, probably?" she says sarcastically.

I scowl. "No, dumbass – me! I got a text from Sam Peters. He invited me to a party this Saturday! I mean, obviously I can't go, because I'm practically in the Southern Hemisphere right now, but just think about it, okay?" I roll onto the ball of my feet. 

This is the exciting part; I've spent a long time working out the logic of this. "That party is basically going to be full of hot guys and girls, none of whom I know or have ever spoken to, for the most part. I don't get invited to this kind of shit. There is literally no reason for me to be invited, right – unless Sam specifically wanted me there himself!"

"O-kay?" Nora says slowly. "What's your point?"

Rolling my eyes, I take a deep breath. "Okay – my point is that he not only knows who I am, he is also interested in who I am, and he wants to put his dick in who I am, probably!" I blurt out, failing to comprehend what part of this isn't the best thing to have ever happened. "Like I've spent this whole summer getting money and stuff so that I can win him over when we go back to school, but what if I never needed to? What if he already likes me – and – and I'm just sitting in Texas wasting time when I could be back in Sheffield having sex with him?! God damn – I mean, I don't think he'll move on before I get home – I hope not – but you know, it's just..." I can't contain myself; I hop up and down on the spot a little, feeling like a hyperactive little kid. "It's happening! It's really happening!"

"Right." To say that Nora sounds less than delighted would be an enormous understatement. She leans on her mop, frowning.

"What's wrong?" I ask. "Are you not feeling great or something? Because, you know, this is the best thing to ever happen in my entire life so far and you're kind of being a downer on it right now."

"Well, I already knew all this so-"

I wasn't expecting that. I jerk back, blinking hard, bewildered. "What? How?"

Nora sighs exasperatedly. "How do you think he got your number in the first place? He texted me asking for it – and don't ask me how he got my number, I have no idea. There's probably some secret global guy network in place that we don't know about – and so I knew he was going to text you and probably ask you out somewhere."

"Why didn't you tell me?" I am totally unable to wrap my mind around the idea that Nora had known in advance that the single hottest guy on the planet was going to ask me out and yet somehow hadn't felt the need to let me know.

"I figured that you would find out when he texted, and you would realise that you're worth more than just some guy who wants you fuck you and chuck you." She trails off. She shifts awkwardly, nudging at her bucket with her foot so that the products inside it rattle. "I wanted a chance to try and ground you in reality before it got to that point so I wouldn't get all this dreamy-eyed bullshit I'm getting right now, so clearly it hasn't worked."

I recoil, offended. "What dreamy-eyed bullshit?" I demand, realising even as I speak what the answer will be – and therefore why everyone was so insistent on me and Luke getting together.