Sunkissed Kasie West (best free novels .TXT) 📖

“Yes. Too young for Kai.”

“Too young for…” His eyes got wide. “No, Kai would never. You guys are guests here. He’s just really friendly.”

I paused, wanting to correct him for lumping me and my sister into the same category. Wanting to remind him that I was two years older. But he was right, of course. He wasn’t hanging out with me because he was interested. We hung out because we were helping each other. We might have been breaking the basic rule, but he was telling me now, in not so many words, that anything more than that was too big of a risk. And, of course, I agreed. We’d just gotten through saying we needed to be more careful. “Okay, good.”

I moved toward the curtain of water.

“Wait,” Brooks said, stopping me this time. “She’s not into him, is she?”

“I don’t know. She’s very intense about a lot of things. I’m hoping this time her enthusiasm is about the documentary.”

Brooks held my gaze, trying to read into what I wasn’t saying, but I was telling the truth. “I’ll talk to him,” he said.

“Thank you.” I forced myself to look away from his stare to where Lauren had disappeared. “Let’s go.”

Behind the falling water was a shallow cave. Before I had time to move onto the rock with Kai and Lauren, Brooks broke through the curtain behind me. His momentum pushed me forward, my knees scraping rock.

He swore. “Sorry. Are you okay?”

“Yes, no big deal.” I climbed the rest of the way into the cave and he followed.

“Cool, right?” Kai said.

“A bit coffin-like,” I said. Not because it was small or anything. It easily fit all four of us and would easily fit several more. But the ceiling was low, and being surrounded by stone and water felt constricting. Plus it was at least twenty degrees cooler in here.

“I think it’s awesome!” Lauren said, and her voice echoed off the walls along with the water.

“Check it out,” Kai said, and he sang. “La la la la la!” His voice bounced around the space.

He held a fake microphone to Lauren.

“Twinkle, twinkle little star,” she belted out.

Then his fake microphone was in front of me. I stared at his fisted hand for a moment, the familiar tension I always felt when being put on the spot tightening my chest.

Maricela’s head appeared through the curtain of water, saving me. She let out a loud growl. Lauren screamed and I covered my ears.

Mari climbed in, pulling Ian along with her. “Are you giving voice lessons in here?”

Ian settled in next to Mari and pushed his sopping wet hair off his forehead. “Kai is giving voice lessons?” he asked.

“What are you trying to say?” Kai asked. “You know, if you weren’t the lead singer, I would be next in line for sure.”

Both Brooks and Ian scoffed.

“Pretty sure you’re tone-deaf,” Maricela said.

“All the years of pounding on drums has made me lose a bit of hearing.” Kai stuck his pinky in his ear and wiggled it.

“Is that the excuse you’re going with?” Brooks asked.

Kai took Ian into a headlock and rubbed his head with his fist a few times. “Are you saying I don’t have the voice of this songbird right here? Sing for us, our pretty little songbird.”

Ian pinched Kai’s side and he yelped and released him.

“Yes, sing for us!” Lauren said.

“Any requests?” he asked.

“Something from Dirty Dancing,” I said, rubbing at the goose bumps on my arms. “I’ve been getting Dirty Dancing vibes since we got to camp.”

“Is that the name of a band?” Ian asked. “I don’t know them.”

Everyone in the cave made some sort of shocked noise.

“It’s a movie!” Lauren said.

“Never seen it,” Ian said.

“Come on,” I said. “You had to have at least heard of it.” I held up the fake microphone this time and sang, “ ‘I…had the time of my life.’ ”

I was staring at Ian, who was still very lost, and it took a second to realize everyone had gone quiet. I looked from Kai to Maricela and finally to Brooks, whose expression was once again unreadable.

“What?” I said.

“You can sing,” he responded in a low voice.

I rolled my eyes, feeling my cheeks heat up. “This cave is like a shower. Everyone sounds better in the shower.”

“Not everyone.” He shoved Kai’s arm, and Kai responded with something about Brooks’s mother in the shower.

Brooks punched his arm this time and Kai let out a hooting laugh, then yelled, “Last one down all three slides is on bathroom duty tomorrow!” He burst out of the curtain of water, followed closely by Maricela, Ian, and Lauren. That left me and Brooks, who didn’t move, alone behind the waterfall.

My heart seemed to jump to my throat. “We should probably…D might…”

He was quiet for a moment before his eyes went to mine. “You keep surprising me.”

“Considering your initial impression of me, it hasn’t been that hard.”

“My initial impression of you? Standing in that theater in a staff T-shirt?”

“No, I guess I meant starting the next day in the dining hall.” Wait, why had I said that? Why hadn’t I asked what his initial impression of me in that theater was?

It was too late; the moment was past and he was moving toward the curtain of water and saying, “Ready to finish this circuit?”

I nodded and followed him out of the cave. It was eerily quiet as we waded through the pool. We were about to go down the second slide when Brooks pointed to our group on a lower bank, out of the water and gathered off to the side.

“Avery!” My sister’s high-pitched scream filled the air, making my face go numb. I crawled to the shore and took off down the hill faster than I had time to process. My heart raced in panic. I felt Brooks at my heels. Rocks and twigs dug into the bottom of my feet as I went, but I didn’t slow down until I reached the group, which I could now see was surrounding