Sunkissed, Kasie West [best authors to read TXT] 📗

smile took over my face. “You had? You were just helping me discover myself to be nice?”

“Well, I mean, it seems like all the employees in camp are helping you now. They’ve taken over my gig, but whatever.” His magic smile that I had missed so much made an appearance.

I laughed. “Nobody else is helping me, dork.”

“Uh-huh, sure.”

The fireworks finale halted our conversation as it rumbled through the sky and vibrated in my chest. I watched them light up the dark night and then I watched them color Brooks’s eyes purple and green and orange. He wanted to help me just because. Even without our deal. My heart seemed to triple its speed and my lungs filled to capacity.

“I’ll sing,” I said.

Brooks turned a questioning gaze on me, his eyes still reflecting the colors. He hadn’t heard me. I waited until the night went quiet, until his eyes were back to just one color—their intense blue—and I said again, “I’ll sing.”

“What?” Brooks had gone still, like he thought that if he moved too fast, I would change my mind.

The rock we sat on was digging into my tailbone and I adjusted my position. “There’s still two weeks until tryouts, right?”

He stared at me for a long moment. “You don’t have to do this.”

“Did you find someone else?”

“Yes, I mean, no…”

“You just don’t want me to do it?”

“I just thought you didn’t…Can you sing?”

“You heard me sing.”

He leaned back onto his palms. “Yes, but only one line in a cave with killer acoustics.”

“Fair enough. Well, I can sing. I just hope I will.”

“What do you mean?”

“I have major stage fright, so if you can help me figure that out, I’ll probably be decent.”

“Decent? That’s the adjective you’re going with?”

“I’m not you. I’m not a prodigy or anything, but I’ll do my best.”

He rolled his eyes. “I’m not a prodigy. I just practice a lot.”

“Then I should start practicing…a lot.”

His expression became serious, sincere. “Avery, I don’t know what to say.”

“Say Thank you, you’re the best, and if we win, I owe you all my future children.”

He raised one eyebrow and one corner of his mouth. “You want to have all my future children?”

I laughed and blushed. “That’s what it sounded like, didn’t it? I say dumb things sometimes.” My attention was drawn back to the dark sky. “I need to find my sister. My parents are expecting us right after fireworks.”

“Tomorrow night practice? Nine p.m. on the stage?”

Nine was going to be hard to justify to my parents but half the time they were in their room for the night at nine anyway. Having no television had aged us all thirty years in our sleeping habits. “Okay, I’ll see you then.” I stood and started to walk away.

“I owe you all my future children!” Brooks called after me.

I spun, walking backward for two steps, and said, “Yeah, you do,” before I turned and left in search of my sister. As I went from group to group with no luck, I realized I couldn’t stop smiling. It was Brooks’s fault.

I saw Kai disappear behind a tree on the far side of the clearing and I wondered if Lauren was with him. They were probably about to do his bear prank again on someone, with Lauren recording it this time.

I smiled and as quietly as possible made my way over to the tree I’d seen him duck behind. When I made it, I rounded it with a big “Roar!”

Kai jumped back but not before I saw his lips smashed against someone else’s. That person let out a sharp scream with my imitation bear sound. At first, I thought it was Lauren because that’s who I had expected to see. But as my brain caught up with the scene in front of me, I saw it was Maricela.

A panicked look took over her face. “Avery,” she hissed in a low whisper. “You scared me.”

Kai was her mystery boy? A huge amount of relief and happiness poured through me. “I didn’t mean to scare you. I’m sorry.”

Kai looked over my shoulder, obviously checking to make sure nobody else had followed me. “You won’t talk, right?” he asked.

“Please,” Maricela said. “You can’t tell anyone about this. If people start spreading this and Janelle finds out, we’ll both be fired.”

I looked over my shoulder too, but nobody else had seen or followed me. People were hanging out in different groups, each group having been drawn to a lantern and now lit by a hazy glow. And that’s when I finally saw Lauren. She was talking and laughing with Levi. Was she really just friends with the band? Kai’s feelings were apparent now, but would Lauren be sad to learn about this? “No,” I said back to Kai and Maricela. “Of course not. I won’t tell anyone.”

Maricela gave me a hug. “Thank you. You’re awesome.”

“I’ll see you soon,” I said, backing away. “And be more careful.”

Lauren was in the middle of explaining some editing software to Levi when I joined them. “Hey, you know Dad will search the whole camp if we’re not back soon.”

She gave a drawn-out sigh. “Fine.”

“Hi, Avery,” Levi said. Last time I’d seen him, he was storming out of band practice.

“Hi,” I said. “How are you?”

For a second I thought about telling him and Lauren right there that I was going to fill in for Ian. That the audition was still happening. But something stopped me. I wasn’t even sure if I could pull this off yet. I hadn’t had a single practice. I didn’t need the added pressure of my sister recording and the guys fighting.

“So much better,” Levi answered. “It feels more like a vacation here now that I’m not dealing with band practice.”

Oh, right. Levi had quit the band. He wasn’t coming back just because I was a part of it now. Brooks and I would have to make this work on our own. And I was perfectly fine with that.

“What?”