*****************

I stumbled over my own feet but followed him through the darkness. My mind was drifting off about Teddy as I further pieced together evidence to support Carter's claim. I made a mental note to talk to Poppy alone immediately, and then felt a twinge of hurt when I realized she knew about Teddy but didn't tell me.

The only reason why I wasn't on the ground from tripping over tree roots and rocks was the grip Carter held on my hand. His fingers were intwined with mine, and I couldn't tell if the tingly feeling in my chest was because of him or the booze, but I ignored it and wrote it off to the alcohol.

Carter walked us to his cabin, and then held up a finger as if to tell me to wait outside. Hesitantly, I nodded, and wrapped my arms around myself when a breeze rolled by. After a few minutes of standing outside, Carter came back outside with a big case in his hand.

"Carter," I start with a smile when I realize what he's planning.

He tosses me a boyish smile and recaptures my hand with his free one, then drags me behind the cabins, toward the lake. The water glistened in the moonlight, small ripples lapping against each other from the wind. A clearing in the trees allowed the moon to illuminate the ground, so instead of pitch darkness, I could actually see.

Carter pulled a log over by the water and sat on one end. I sat on the other as he unstrapped his case, and couldn't contain my excited smile when I see him pull out a beautiful acoustic guitar with a leather strap. He ignores the strap and sets the guitar on his knee, his fingers tuning the strings momentarily.

"Mina, before I start," Carter says suddenly, changing his gaze from the strings to settle on me instead. "You can't tell anyone about this."

My brow pinches together when I see his serious expression. "Why?"

He hesitates before answering quietly, "I don't want anyone to know I play guitar. It's just for me, not for anyone else."

"Except me," I say with a cheeky grin.

Carter fights the smile on his lips as he excuses, "You're the exception."

"But what about the guitar being a chick magnet?" I question suddenly, and for some reason, the words taste bad in my mouth. "Don't you want all the camp girls to love you?"

I couldn't tell if Carter caught onto the hint of jealousy behind my words, but his lips finally curled up into a half smirk as he looked at me thoughtfully. Thankfully for me, he didn't comment on my tone, but instead brushed it off with his usual arrogant comment.

"Babe, do you really think I need my guitar to get girls when I look like this?" Carter wiggles his eyebrows suggestively.

I can't help but laugh, throwing my head back in wild laughter. A few weeks ago, I would've fought the urge to slap him for being so arrogant. Now, it was almost endearing. Almost. When I looked back at him, my eyes were sparkling in laughter, there was a smile on my lips, and for some reason I felt happy.

"Good, I was worried you forgot how to inflate your own ego for a second," I joked, and then sobered up slightly to promise, "I won't tell anyone. Pinky promise."

I held out my pinky, and Carter just stared at it for a moment with a small smile on his lips before he lifted his pinky too. We swore over our sacred pinkies that I wouldn't tell anyone he played guitar, and then I sat back and watched him as he returned his attention to the guitar. He set his fingers over the strings carefully, took a deep breath, and started to play.

A large grin grew on my lips when I realized what song it was. And, seeing as he wasn't singing along to the lyrics, I took the responsibility myself.

"...I don't need to fight to prove I'm right; I don't need to be forgiven. Don't cry, don't raise your eye, it's only teenage wasteland..." I sing along softly, not caring that Carter was the first person to ever hear me sing. "...The exodus is here, the happy ones are near. Let's get together, before we get much older..."

And for some reason, it didn't matter that I have only ever sung to myself, or that Carter was staring at me in wonder while I did. All that mattered was that I was happy, singing by the lake with Carter playing guitar beside me, the moonlight reflecting against the water and the lightness in his eyes. Halfway through the song, he joined me in singing, his voice deep and rough and undeniably sexy.

I felt light, sitting on the log beside him. Here I was, the only person at camp who got to hear Carter play guitar, sitting next to him as we laughed and sang along to Teenage Wasteland, the song he had told me was the first he learned how to play. If you could pause a moment to live in forever, I decided, this would definitely be it.

When the song drew to an end, and Carter strung the last few strings on his guitar, I smiled. We sat in silence for a second, and when I gained the courage to look up at Carter, I saw he was smiling back at me. And again, instead of seeing the bad boy embodies an 'I don't give a shit' attitude, all I could see was the misunderstood boy that was sweet to me.

And, because of that, I couldn't help but lean forward and close the distance between us. I took him by surprise, and the guitar rested awkwardly between us, but I reached my hands up to cup his neck and pulled his head down to mine until my lips pressed against his. Carter responded quickly, his hands leaving his guitar and instead grabbing my cheeks to pull me closer.

Once the fire spread all over my body and my stomach was tangled in knots and I needed to breathe, I pulled away, and Carter smiled crookedly at me. "See, I told you the guitar was a chick magnet."

I rolled my eyes, trying to hide my smile, but it was impossible not to grin. "Oh, shut up."

"I like it when you smile," Carter admits, clearly surprising himself as the words tumbled out of his mouth, but he doesn't take them back.

"Aw, you're not the big bad boy everyone thinks you are," I counter with a cheeky grin.

His lips curl into a half smirk half smile. "Babe, I'm still bad."

"Yeah right," I wave him off, the teasing smile still on my lips as I lean closer to him. "You're just a big sweetheart, aren't you? Serenading me-"

"You sang to yourself," Carter points out.

"-with your guitar," I finish, ignoring his comment. "and giving me compliments."

Despite the fact I was undermining his manliness, Carter just watched me dramatically bat my eyelashes at him with a boyish smile on his lips. He leaned closer until his lips barely brushed mine, sending a jolt of electricity through my body, and I watched his hazel eyes as they looked at me carefully.

"Like I said," Carter says lowly, his gaze boring into mine. "You're the exception."

+ + +

I woke up to the sound of water lapping against the shoreline and wondered if I had fallen asleep with a soothing CD on. When I slipped into a fuller state of consciousness, I realized that my back was stiff, and I was lying on something uncomfortable. Finally, I forced my eyes open, and the first thing I saw was the lake glimmering in the morning sun.

I blinked in confusion before taking in my surroundings, my hand resting on something- rather, someone- beside me. I suddenly felt the weight of Carter's arm around my waist, and his head in the crook of my shoulder, breathing deeply into my neck. At first, I wanted to laugh at the situation I was in, but then reality set in, and I realized what was happening.

"Shit," I threw Carter's arm off of me and stood up, not caring if I woke him up. "Oh, shit. This is bad, very bad."

As I muttered to myself, I heard Carter shift and groan behind me, making noises of disproval. My hands frantically searched my shorts, looking for my phone, before I saw it discarded on the ground beside Carter's guitar case. Quickly, I reached for it, and turned it on to see the time.

Eight fifty three.

"Mina, what's wrong?" Carter mumbled from behind me, his voice husky with sleep.

I turned around, panic clearly written all over my face, and cried, "I missed piano practice!"

As my mind began reeling with all the possible outcomes of how this might turn out, I felt my stomach twist in an uncomfortable knot. Unable to stand still, I began pacing, thinking about what I was going to tell my mom.

"So?" Carter responded gruffly, sitting up on the ground.

I stopped pacing and whipped around to narrow my eyes at him. "So? So? My parents are going to kill me, that's what's 'so'!"

Maybe that was a little dramatic, but not by much. When Mrs. Brady called my mom to tell her that I missed practice, the second practice I have missed, then I had no doubt that she was going to drive up to Camp Wisahickon just to make me pack my bags and drag me back home.

Even though I was clearly panicking just feet away from Carter, the messy-haired boy with tired brown eyes just shrugged. "Just tell them you slept in. It's not a big deal."

It was in that exact moment that I felt stupid for ever believing that someone like Carter Miller would understand the life I lived. Someone so reckless, who does what he wants when he wants without caring about the consequences, could never understand that I had to walk on eggshells around my parents just to make sure I didn't upset them. Carter was just staring at me with a bored expression, like he didn't know what the problem was, and I knew then that whatever we were trying to do before would never work.

I shook my head and began gathering my things, which wasn't much. I grabbed my phone and shoved it in my pocket, trying to think that if I went straight to the auditorium, maybe I could catch Mrs. Brady there. Or maybe I could stop by her cabin and apologize for over sleeping, then beg her to let me extend our practice so she wouldn't have to call my parents to tell them about what happened. Either way, in my frantic move to leave, I stopped for a second to look at Carter, who was watching me with a furrowed brow.

"I have to go," I say, and then feel the weight of my next words come full force. "Goodbye, Carter."

His frown deepened and he opened his mouth, perhaps to ask why my words seemed as harsh as they did, but I was already gone. With a heavy heart, I made my way to the auditorium as quickly as possible to salvage my time at camp, praying that Mrs. Brady would take mercy on me and wouldn't call my parents to tell them that I missed practice. Luckily, when I got into the auditorium, I found her playing a complex melody herself.

Within minutes I was able to convince her to let me practice with her for at least an hour, and she agreed to not tell my parents about the mishap. I think she understood well enough that my parents were more strict than usual, and that it would be the end of camp for me if she told them what had happened. So, although my mind was flooded with thoughts about Carter, I sat down on the bench and continued to learn the strenuous composition my mom picked out a few days ago.

By the time my hour was up, I had messed up more than I had done right, and Mrs. Brady told me to get some rest. In my flustered and embarrassed state, I just agreed, and trudged back to my cabin. It wasn't until I was walking back that I remembered everything about Teddy, and I felt my stomach churn all over again. My mind was spinning with thoughts about how incompatible Carter and I are, how horribly I had screwed up with piano, how careful I needed to be so my mom didn't send me home, and how the hell I was going to handle Teddy.

Lightheaded and a little nauseous, I stumbled into my cabin and promptly collapsed on my bed. I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to listen to my uneven heartbeat, hoping my deep breaths would even the thumping in my chest. All the thoughts were reeling in my mind, reminding me of what a mess my life had become in a matter of hours. It could be worse, I tried telling myself, but in the end, my mind wandered to my current misfortune.

"Amelia, are you okay?"

At the sound of Poppy's voice, I felt my bed dip, and I forced myself to open my eyes. The simple question made me want to give in to my problems, maybe to even cry, but I refused. I haven't cried in months, not since I found out about Jake cheating on me, and I promised myself then that I wouldn't cry over a boy again.

"I'm fine," I croak, but even I can hear how broken my voice sounds.

Poppy furrows her brow and puts her hand on my knee for comfort. "Mina, seriously. You know you can talk to me. What happened? Where were you last night?"

I sit up in my bed slowly, my head still spinning, and it just takes one look at my best friend before I spilled everything. I told her about that Carter and I were a thing before, and how we fell asleep together last night, and how terribly this morning went from the way he didn't care that I missed piano to how badly I had messed up in practice. I didn't tell her about him playing me guitar because, even if we were no longer anything, I wanted to keep that memory to myself.

In the end, Poppy let out a defeated sigh, and wrapped me in a hug. "Oh, Mina, I'm so sorry that it didn't work out. I know you really liked him."

"Says who?" I couldn't help but fire back.

She backed away and gave me a look that told me she could see right through me. "I see how happy you are when you're with him, Mina. I can tell he makes you forget about what's going on at home, and you deserve someone who can make you feel that way."

My heart hurt at her words, but I just looked away and muttered, "We're too different."

"They say opposites attract," Poppy tries.

I shake my head, unable to continue talking about Carter, so I meet her gaze and ask evenly, "Why didn't you tell me about Teddy?"

Her face pales, but she quickly recovers as she drawls, "What do you mean?"

"He likes me, doesn't he?" I ask, just in case that I was wrong, and she tells me that of course he doesn't, which I was really hoping for.

Instead, her face darkens, and she blows out a breath. "So you do know."

Her confirmation made my head spin even more, if possible. I had hoped that Carter was wrong, that I had misunderstood everything that happened up until that point. I looked down at my hands, which were gripping my bed sheets, and sighed.

"Carter said he was jealous last night," I mutter, then meet her gaze again. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Guilt flashed in Poppy's eyes immediately. "I wanted to, Mina, but Teddy made me promise not to tell you. He said that he wanted to tell you when the time was right." She paused. "You don't like him, do you?"

"Not like that," I supplement immediately. "Just as a friend."

She nods once, her wild curls bouncing as she did so. "Thats what I thought, but I didn't know how to tell him that. I mean, you guys are friends, and I'm scared this whole thing will ruin your friendship."

"You're telling me," I groan. "I love Teddy. He's been there for me, you know? He's a good friend. I don't want to lose him."

My voice started to shake, but no tears sprung to my eyes. I wondered for a second if I was incapable of crying now, after Jake. Poppy frowned at me and reached forward, wrapping me up in a hug, letting out a discouraged breath. I wrapped my arms loosely around her and shut my eyes, taking a deep breath.

When she pulled away, she had an encouraging smile on her lips. "Don't worry, Mina. He will understand. You can't expect someone to like you, and you can't force someone to, either."

"I wish you could, because Teddy is a way better guy than Carter," I mutter.

Poppy gives me a sad smile. "I know. But you're going to have to tell Teddy you don't see him like that."

I frown, my brow creasing deeply in my forehead as I whine, "Do I have to?"

"Unless you want to string the poor guy along," She says, and I know she's right. "It's not going to be easy, but you're going to feel better when you're done. Promise." I nod mutely, and she gives me a small smile. "How about you get some rest in a real bed? I doubt the ground by the lake could've been comfortable last night."

With a sigh, I take her advice, and snuggle back under the covers of my bunk bed. Poppy leaves me be in the cabin and turns the lights off behind her, promising to wake me up before dinner. Even though my eyes are shut and my mind is finally calming down, there's only one person that keeps playing in my mind. The image of his eyes shining in the moonlight, the smile on his lips, the guitar in his hands, and the laughter in the air.

And eventually, I fall asleep thinking about Carter.