Delinquent Camp

Chapter Ten

Ten

“Maybe there’s a reason we have life jackets,” I mutter, holding mine tightly to me as Danny and I bob up and down over a few small waves. Suddenly, I start coughing, having swallowed the disgusting lake water when I went under by surprise. “What happened?”

“We hit that,” Danny replies, holding his arm up and pointing behind me. I turn around to find myself only a few feet away from a small rock island that’s jutting out of the water. “Are you okay?” He swims over to me, holding onto the canoe by a rope.

“Fine.” I push my hair up over my forehead so I can see better and cough a few times. “Can we, uh, get out of the water?”

“Sure.” With the moment ruined, we climb up onto the small rock and flip the canoe over, dumping a small amount of water out. “At least we were in our bathing suits,” Danny mutters, gesturing for me to climb into the boat. He’s clearly ticked off about what happened. Once were both in, we paddle across the lake again until we reach a much larger island. The whole time neither of us speaks. I guess with the almost-kiss ruined, we’re both finding things rather awkward.

Once we reach the shore, Danny climbs out of the canoe and pulls it towards the sandy beach. I follow in suit and help him drag it up until we’re sure it’s not going to be carried away by the tide. Afterwards we both stand there, looking around. The island is mostly covered in tall trees, much like everywhere in Safe Haven. However, the one closest to the shore has a branch which is dipped over the water, looking like it’s going to fall but never even moving.

“What are we doing here?” I ask curiously. Danny smirks before heading towards the dipping tree and gesturing to the trunk.

“There was a map drawn on the underneath of my bed,” he laughs. “Look.” He points to the tree and I see that there’s a bunch of logs nailed to it, making a ladder all the way up until the branch dips. On the branch there’s a large rope hanging with a few knots it in, making a makeshift rope swing.

“Who made this place?” Walking towards the tree, I grab onto one of the ‘ladder’ steps and shake it, seeing if it’s sturdy. In my opinion, it doesn’t seem very safe.

“I guess bad kids before us,” Danny shrugs, stripping off his clothes. “Who else would come out here?” He starts climbing up the tree, some of the branch steps shaking under his weight. I stay down at the bottom with my arms folded across my chest, watching to see if he’s going to fall.

“Have you done this before?” I ask, watching as he sits down on the dipping branch. He starts scooting over towards where the rope is hanging and starts pulling it up.

“Only a few times.”

“By yourself?” I raise my eyebrows and then look down where the rope swing hangs above. A bunch of rock makes up the base of the island. If anyone were to fall, they’d crack their head open. Instantly, a mental picture of Mellissa appears in my head and I shake it away, not wanting to think about it.

“Yeah,” he laughs, adjusting his grip on the rope. He grins down at me, watching my worried expression. “What’s wrong?”

“Just don’t come here by yourself anymore…” I mumble, meeting his gaze. “Alright?”

“Gemma, I’m fine-“

“No.” I raise my voice as I shake my head. “If you want to come here, take me with you, okay?” He opens his mouth to protest again but I shoot him a look and he nods.

“Okay, Gemma, I promise.”

I give him a small smile. “Good.”

He smiles back before slowly sliding off the branch. He screams as he flies down off the branch, the rope catching him mid-fall and swinging him out over the water. He lets go just as he the rope swings back and he falls into the water, creating a giant splash. For a few moments I watch worriedly and then I see his head poke out of the water, a grin on his lips.