My Girl

Four gays at a waterfall

I think I may have forgot to mention that Luke Bennet is my neighbour. Like right-across-the-street neighbour. Can-look-into-my-window neighbour. He doesn't. He's got the decency to not look into my window, but that doesn't mean he leaves me alone. 

Anyway, Lucy can't get enough of him. She has this thing were she always calls me to go for a hike when she wants to to talk about boys, or drama, or drama with boys (usually it's the last one). 

It's funny because I like hiking even more than she does. There are a bunch of mountains just out of town, and every summer I see how many I can climb. 

But whenever Lucy needs to let off steam, which is often, I get a text saying "let's hike" with about fifty exclamation points.

So it's no surprise when Saturday rolls around and Lucy is blowing up my phone. We arrange to meet at the trailhead by the creek and walk up to the waterfall. That's about two hours each way, which is plenty of time for Lucy to give me a full report on her love life and for me to give her a full report on what she should do. 

I don't know why Lucy comes to me for love advice. Sure, I have a big brother, but that doesn't mean I understand boys. I'm kind of very gay. 

We're walking up the dirt trail. It's a pretty day, not too chilly. 

"So do you want to know one more reason why Luke and I are meant to be?"

"Not...really?" I reply to Lucy.

Her smile doesn't falter for a second. "His profile picture on Instagram? It's of Steven Universe." Steven Universe is her favourite show. It's about this kid who is half alien and has to save his washed-up tourist town from aliens, or something. I don't really get it. 

"That'll give you something to talk about!" I'm trying to be happy for her. I have to try to be happy for her. Even if it means slowly dying from heartache.

Calm down, Cameron, you're being dramatic. 

Lucy goes on and on about how perfect Luke is, and I ask her if she's even talked to him, and she says, "I've talked...about him?

I roll my eyes and scoff. "When?"

"...Now?"

I can't help but laugh at that. She's so cute when she's sheepish.

"But, I was thinking you could help with that," she says with a little smile. She knows I can't say no to the smile!

"Lemme guess," I say, "you want me to set you up with Luke."

"Could you could you could you?"

"If it means you'll stop talking about him constantly, then yeah, sure."

We get to the waterfall then. To get down to it, you have to climb down this mini cliff thing and up the creek a little. We're hardcore in the Northwest!

We're sitting on rocks in the creek, eating our lunches. There's two guys sitting on a log a bit away from us, and I point over at them to Lucy.

"They probably aren't a couple," I say with a smile, "but I really hope they're a couple."

She laughs. I don't know how to describe her laugh besides saying it tastes like caramel. "You're so gay," she says with a silly smile.

"You're so gay!" I say back.

She pauses. "Cameron?"

"Yeah?"

"Have you ever wanted to kiss someone so much, you think there's something wrong with you?"

She sounds so serious. It takes me by surprise, since she's normally all giggly and goofy when she's talking about guys. 

She looks up at me, blushing. "Cameron?"

"...Yes."

I know in that moment I have to set Lucy up with Luke. I have to do it because I am going to die a slow and painful death if she keeps on talking about him, if she keeps on looking at me with her cute little eyes and—I don't know. But I know I need to set up her since then at least she won't be available. Then maybe I'll feel guilty for being in love with her, and that will make me stop.

You don't need to say "haha, Cameron, that makes no sense at all and definitely won't work," since I already know that. But I'm doing it anyway. I guess I love getting myself in bad situations. You know what else I love? My best friend. And if there's one thing I know about love, it's that it screws you up big-time. 

I check my phone when I get home. I'm surprised to see a couple of missed calls from Luke Bennet. I don't even know why we have each other's numbers, since we are only the sort of friends that are friends because our moms are friends. We aren't texting-friends, and we definitely aren't calling-friends.

I figure it's only polite to call him back, though. He picks up on the third ring, which I give him some credit for because that's obviously the best ring to pick up on.

"Hey, Luke, why did you try to call me?" I try not to sound anything but curious.

"Cameron! Can we talk?"