The Lakeside Friendship

"I swear I'll kill you!" Kayla was fuming. Aiden, the biggest prankster at camp, had just launched a spoonful of mashed potatoes on her favorite shirt. He had been going to camp here almost as long as Kayla had. And every year it was the same thing: Pranks.

Kayla walked over to where Aiden was sitting, laughing with some friends, and smacked him across the back of his head.

"Ow! That hurt!" Aiden cried as Kayla walked away. She had already smacked him, and she wasn't going to waste any more of her time and energy on that jerk. It might've not been a big spectacle but that wasn't her style anyway.

It was late at night when Kayla left the cabin. She liked it most of the time, but there were days when she needed to get away from the craziness.

Most campers weren't allowed outside their cabins at this time of night. But since Kayla was a head counselor and was well behaved she was allowed to go outside for a while to clear her head.

The camp was like home to her. She had been going here every summer since she was 11. This was her 7th time coming here.

She walked her normal rounds around camp. While she was heading back to her cabin, she saw a silhouette walking down to the lake. She found it odd that another camper was going to the lake this time of night.

Against her better judgement she decided to follow the camper from a distance. The camper stopped at the end of the doc and sat down.

Her plan was to walk up behind the camper and ask them what they were doing at the docs this time in the night. Her plan was working until she tripped. She fell right on top of the camper.

"Ow! Why'd you do that?" The camper exclaimed, while shoving Kayla off of him.

"I didn't mean to! You think I wanted to fall! That kinda hurt me too." She looked up at the camper. She immediately knew who it was. The dark curly brown hair, the freckles dotted all over his face, the blue eyes that always had that flicker of mischief. "Aiden?"

"Yeah it's me, Sherlock. And might I ask why you were sneaking up on me, Kayla?" He said this in a restrained tone, as though he was trying to force his usual charm back to the surface to cover up something else.

"Well, I was planning on asking you why you were out here," Kayla responded a little embarrassed because she had failed so terribly at that.

His eyes seemed to pierce deep into mine, like he was searching for something. "I needed to clear my head. What about you?"

"I come out here just about every-other day to do the same."

He didn't respond. His eyes drifted to the lake in front of them. Aiden noticed from the corner of his eyes that Kayla was still standing.

"You can sit, I won't bite."

Kayla saw how the ripples in the lake seemed to reflect in Aiden's eyes giving them a twinkle. Although, it wasn't the kind of twinkle she was used to seeing. It was a sad, mournful look.

Kayla had always been emphatic, she could see that Aiden wasn't acting normal, but she could also feel that something was wrong.

"Aiden... Is everything okay? Are you okay?"

His gaze seemed to harden, still not meeting her eyes. "I'm fine." He whispered.

Things clearly weren't fine. Kayla could see tears coming to his eyes.

"Look, I won't force you to talk but if you want I'm here for you, okay?" She felt bad saying this since this is the same way she deals with her problems, not telling people and working through it herself.

Aiden studied her face for a moment before finally saying, "I don't get you. I prank you and make you mad all the time, and yet, you're still trying to help me. Why?"

Kayla was hoping to say something like: "I'm your friend, it's what friends do!" But they weren't friends. Kayla told herself it's the thought that counts.

"I honestly don't know. Maybe it's because I can feel something is wrong, or maybe it's because I want to understand you, or something else entirely."

"I appreciate the honesty." They sat in silence for a few minutes before Kayla noticed tears were streaming down his cheeks.

She reached to wipe them away and Aiden surprisingly didn't jerk his head away. With her hand on his warm cheek, his blue eyes staring into hers, she had the impulse to kiss him.

What! NO! This is Aiden of all people! He is not your type, he's a jerk! Kayla started scolding herself for having such silly thoughts. Before Kayla had pulled away from Aiden, she felt a pair of smooth, cold lips touching hers.

She pulled away. Had it been day time, Kayla's face would've been brighter than a tomato.

Aiden was genuinely shocked with himself. His face flushed as the two campers stared into each other's shocked eyes. Both of them were confused about why in the world they did that.

Aiden broke the silence by saying, "Oh my God, I totally read that wrong! I don't know what came over me!"

Kayla didn't respond, instead she surprised him by bursting out laughing.

"I'm sorry, it's just your reaction was just like this character in a book I read. And, um, I was also laughing because before you kissed me," he seemed to cringe at those words, "I had the same impulse, except I obviously didn't go through with it."

The sadness in his eyes seemed to flee in those following minutes. The campers sat at the doc talking for a little bit. There was a lot of blushing involved.

"Okay but can we maybe not mention this to anyone else?" Aiden asked Kayla.

"Trust me when I say, if you did I would've seriously injured you."

"Two threats in one day, I'm on a roll."

"Shut up." Kayla laughed playfully, punching his shoulder.

"But, um, does this make us friends or something?" Kayla asked.

"I think that would be nice, and who knows, maybe one day we'll kiss again." Kayla knew Aiden added those last few words to annoy her.

"Maybe..." Her voice trailed as she looked at the lake. The waters were beautiful, the moon was reflected in the lake. Only now starting into the peacefulness of the area did she realize just how sleepy she was.

"I'm going to go to bed now." Kayla told Aiden as she stood up.

"Good idea."

Towards the end of lunch the next day. Kayla walked over to Aiden and his friends with a smile on her face. She tapped Aiden on the shoulder.

"Hey, could we talk for a minute? Alone please." She asked.

One of Aiden's friends said, "Go on, Aiden."

Kayla and Aiden walked over to an empty table.

"So, I was wondering if you wanted to meet at the docs again tonight."

"Yeah, that'd be nice."

Kayla glanced over his shoulder to see Aiden's friends eyeing them and exchanging smirks.

"Did you tell them?" She was whisper yelling.

"They know." He replied guilty.

"So you told them."

"No. They saw the whole ordeal through the cabin windows. As soon as I stepped in and closed the doors they surrounded me asking how in the world I got you to kiss me and not die in the process."

"Shh! Not so loud. I don't want my friends to find out. I'd never hear the end of it."

"Uh, I think they know now." He pointed over to where Kayla's friends were sitting. One of Aiden's friends was standing over there with the wide eyed girls staring at him.

"I'm getting out here before they overwhelm me with questions."

They walked out of the mess hall together. They had a feeling that this would be the start of a very good friendship, or maybe if they played their cards right, the start of a good relationship.