“Kai, Owen, Ty”—Maddy nods at Dani who blushes right away—“Kristen, Maddy, Mia, Santino, Jeok, Ya-ya. Maybe a couple more. Others will stay here. We never leave the camp without at least several people on guard.”
I’m in.
And in about twenty minutes, a bunch of us are walking up the hill and the path that leads through the jungle.
Katura might be right. There is a sense of adventure when we hike up. We chat and fool around. Ty goofs around as we walk. Jeok finds a long bamboo stick and sharpens it into a spear. Kristen laughs too obnoxiously with Ya-Ya and has her arm wrapped around Kai, which makes me wanna slap it away.
The knowledge of him being just ten feet behind makes me giddy and makes the day so much better. But I remember how he shook on the boat. How his body tenses when I am around. We might have cleared the misunderstandings, but he must still despise me.
The jungle finally opens up onto a rock platform.
I gasp in awe.
“Holy hell,” Katura whispers.
We are on one side of a river that is about forty feet wide and surrounded by stony banks. Up ahead are the falls. They are glorious, falling down about forty feet, the water cascading in mesmerizing waves, the mist like magical fog rising around it.
“Follow me, bitches,” Ty shouts and dives from one of the rocks into the water.
“Is it deep?” I ask.
Maddy shakes her head. “Not here, no. Up to your waist. But closer to the falls, the bottom is caved in about ten feet deep. These guys know all the spots.”
Everyone disperses down the bank and into the water. There are shouts and squeals and goofy screams and splashes that are mixed into the humming of the falling water. Birds fleet above.
It’s paradise.
I don’t care what they say—this place is magical. And for the next two hours, we all sink into a state of carelessness.
I stick to Maddy.
Dani sits on one of the flat rocks just a short distance away, feet dangling in the water as she stares up at the waterfall.
Kristen and Ya-Ya goof around with the boys. I can’t help watching Kristen. She is tall, slender, cute, and too nonchalant about what she says or does. I know the type—everyone’s friend, everyone’s girlfriend.
I sit halfway in the water that is cool and rushing past me as I lean back on the hot stone. Maddy is bobbing in the water in front of me.
Maddy tells me about her when I ask.
I study Kristen talking to Kai, who laughs loudly at something she says.
It startles me. I love hearing him laugh.
I never judged girls like Kristen. We all have habits and things we enjoy. But I think of Kristen and Kai together, and I am so freaking jealous that I want to drag her away from him by her hair.
“So, Kristen slept with Kai then, too?” I ask as I watch them.
“I wouldn’t worry about it.” Maddy swirls in the water and spits out a little trickle of it. “She likes men. Men like sex. It’s what they do. It’s a win-win for everyone.”
“So he did sleep with her.”
Maddy turns to look at me. I can see her smiling gaze but can’t hold back my frustration.
“Well, I shouldn’t be saying this, because the details are none of anyone’s business.” Maddy smiles coyly as she pushes off the river bottom and takes a swim toward me, reaching me in several powerful strokes. “Kai doesn’t fuck anyone. At least here, in the village. He prefers blowjobs. And no kissing. He is simple.”
The words make me uncomfortable and excited all at once. I’d seen the girls at Deene that he hung out with. Pretty. Popular. In and out. I saw him with Julie at the Block Party and the way she sucked his face.
And now the raunchy details…