Reclaim - Aly Martinez Page 0,19

Five. Most of which had never even gotten close to my body.

It worked out well, because come to find out, Camden was terrified of frogs and I had to rescue him a few times too. The first time one crossed his path, I was down at the other end of the creek and he screamed so loudly that it sounded like someone was torturing a cat. Being the good friend that I was, I never let him live it down and would occasionally just shriek at the top of my lungs mid-conversation to remind him what it sounded like. He glared at me a lot, but when he’d look away, a huge smile would break across his face.

I wasn’t sure why Camden enjoyed hanging out with me. But for me, it was the fact that I finally had something of my own.

A place I belonged.

A friend who was always waiting for me.

A boy I caught staring at me out of the corner of his eye more often than not.

Since we only “worked” Monday through Friday, the weekends were long without him. I did my best to keep busy and away from my dad by hanging out with my brother, but it wasn’t the same.

Mondays quickly became my favorite day of the week.

I laughed more that summer than I ever knew possible. It was usually at Camden’s expense, but he got his fair share of practical jokes in too. Like the time he pretended to be allergic to peanuts when I’d slipped a few in his Coke. I thought I’d killed him for sure until he couldn’t hold back his giggles. A few weeks later, he pulled the exact same peanut prank with a Snickers I’d brought us for dessert. He collapsed all dramatic, clutching his heart. He played dead for so long he fell asleep, and then when he didn’t give up the act after I pretended to leave, I panicked, questioning whether I really had killed him that time. He woke up when I poked him with a stick and then laughed about it for weeks. And because it was so ridiculous, watching him laugh made me laugh too.

After all the ham, pickle, and mustard sandwiches, Cokes, and gum for Ramsey every few days, I’d managed to save up over a hundred dollars. But learning how to truly laugh again might have been my greatest accomplishment that summer.

Camden made it easy though.

I knew it would end. Much like our job pretending to collect worms, my relationship with Camden was temporary. By the middle of August, I was painfully aware of how September would bring more than just cooler temperatures.

A few more weeks and Camden would be gone, leaving me alone all over again. School would help. Who knew? Maybe this would be the year I allowed someone to get close enough to be my friend.

But they wouldn’t know my favorite candy or come up with any genius money-making cons or even have his boisterous laugh and bright-blue eyes. Most of all, they simply wouldn’t be him.

I told myself it was okay. We’d spent the most incredible summer of my entire life under the trees at that creek. I should have just accepted it and been grateful I’d met him at all.

My body didn’t understand that though.

About two weeks before Camden was supposed to leave, I woke up with knot in my stomach. At first, I’d thought I was coming down with a stomach bug, but as the days passed, it wouldn’t go away. The constant ache made it impossible for me to sleep or eat, and sometimes, it felt like I couldn’t breathe. It went on for days, and without any way to get me to a doctor, it scared the hell out of Ramsey. Eventually, I couldn’t take his nervous glances and constant checking up on me anymore, so I faked feeling better.

He bought it. At least I think he did, but around the same time, Camden started to worry about me too. There were only so many excuses I could come up with every day for why I wasn’t eating lunch.

Yes, they were both right to be concerned. Something was seriously wrong with me, and as the summer drew to a close, the knot in my stomach had become a boulder that was too heavy to carry.

I was always tired.

I was always irritable.

I was always just one comment away from tearing apart at the seams.

But I didn’t know what else to do. So I started lying to