Camp Confidential 05 - TTYL by Melissa J. Morgan

“don’t walk” signal changed, they stepped into the street. “Yeah. And now that I think about it, Jenna did tell me that her brother talked to Simon—they were in the same bunk—after we got back from camp, and he said that he misses me. Which just makes this more confusing, really, right? If he misses me, why doesn’t he call? And if he doesn’t miss me, why did he say that he did?”
    “Why don’t you just call him?” Hannah asked. “Oooh, let’s get ice cream!” She stopped outside the ice cream store’s window. “They have coconut today! Our favorite!”
    “Okay!” Natalie exclaimed.
    They went into the shop and ordered two small cones of coconut—with chocolate sprinkles, of course—from the man standing behind the counter. While they waited for him to scoop their ice cream, Hannah said, “I didn’t even ask you how the rest of the dance went on Friday.”
    Natalie looked at her. “Uh . . . I left right after you did, Hannah,” she said slowly.
    “You did? Why?”
    “After we had that talk, I didn’t feel like staying,” Natalie admitted. She looked down at the floor.
    “Okay, girls, two coconut cones, chocolate sprinkles. That’ll be four dollars,” the old man behind the counter said. He smiled at them.
    Natalie pulled a five-dollar bill out of her purse. “You can pay me back later,” she said to Hannah. She handed over the bill and got a dollar in return, which she shoved into the man’s tip jar.
    “Good-bye, ladies!” he said.
    They left, and the bell over the door jingled as the door swung shut.
    In the street, they paused to take bites of their ice cream before continuing to walk uptown along the avenue. “So . . . why’d you leave, Nat?” Hannah said tentatively. “The dance, I mean.”
    “Because my best friend left!” Natalie exclaimed.
    “Right,” Hannah replied sheepishly. She licked her ice cream. “I guess it was pretty silly of me to get so upset that you were going to ditch me for a boy.”
    “It was,” Natalie said, mock-sternly. “And anyway, it was two boys.”

    Natalie was home that evening relaxing when her cell phone rang. She didn’t recognize the number on the caller ID.
    “Hello?” Natalie said.
    “Hi, Nat,” a boy’s voice said on the other end.
    “Hi . . . who’s this?”
    “It’s Kyle,” he said. “I’m calling from my mom’s phone since mine is out of batteries.”
    “Hey, Kyle, what’s up?” Natalie said, feeling nervous and excited. A phone call from a boy! This was huge!
    “Uh,” Kyle paused. “I was calling to ask if you want to go Rollerblading in the park tomorrow, but if you have plans or you don’t want to, it’s okay, and maybe I’ll just see you at school then,” he continued, not taking a breath as he rattled off his words.
    Natalie laughed. “I’d love to go Rollerblading tomorrow!”
    “You would?” Kyle said, surprised.
    “Definitely!” Nat replied. “I love Rollerblading.”
    “You do?” Kyle stammered. “Um . . . cool! So, I was thinking we could just go after school, and maybe we could get ice cream or something, and then since I live near you I would walk you home.”
    “Sounds great, Kyle . . . I’ll see you at school tomorrow!” Natalie was excited already.
    “Cool. Bye, Nat,” Kyle said.
    “Bye!”
    I can’t believe it! A date with Kyle! she thought excitedly. Better call Hannah to plan my outfit! But as she picked up her cell phone to punch in Hannah’s number, she started to have second thoughts. She and Hannah had just made up that afternoon—the whole dating thing might still be a sore topic. The idea of having to keep her first date—her first date!—to herself was totally depressing, but she knew it was the right thing to do for now.
    I’m still waiting from the phone call from Simon, Natalie realized. Was it really worth it?
    To: MarissaRox
From: NatalieNYC
Subject: help . . .
     
    hey, marissa—
    i am desperate for some advice from someone older and wiser (and