Archive of Our Own

Summer at Hackett’s Quarry was finally coming to an end and Kaitlyn couldn’t have felt more bittersweet about it.

Sure, she was going back to the modern world and freed from the sometimes (actually all the time) spooky woods, but that also meant she was leaving all the people she met behind. Kaitlyn has experienced many once in a lifetime experiences with these guys and it was just sad to think that they’re all going their separate ways so soon. It just makes Kaitlyn a little more reluctant to leave.

Everything from the seemingly never-ending forests to the small, dinky cabins were things that Kaitlyn knew she was gonna miss. It’s a shame Mr. Hackett took their phones once camp started because Kaitlyn knew she, alongside other counselors, would’ve taken a bunch of pictures and videos at camp for memory-sake. Of course, there was a singular counselor that immediately came to mind.

And that person happened to be Kaitlyn’s unfortunate summer crush.

Emma was a social media influencer, so it was only natural that she’d be attached to her phone almost all the time. Kaitlyn wasn’t sure what sort of “influencing” she did exactly, but she knew that Emma had quite the following online. Either way, she didn’t care about that in the first place. Emma was no doubt an absolute beauty, but there was more to her than her looks. She loved making other people happy, or seeing them have a smile on their faces. It was clear that she just wanted people to have a good time. Maybe that’s why she became an influencer.

There’s been multiple times where Kaitlyn would see Emma doing something childish to get the kids to laugh. Whether it be putting on stupid costumes and masks while pretending to be a bad guy in a superhero movie or doing horrible cartoon character impressions, Emma did it all. Whatever she could to make the kids happy.

And of course, it made Kaitlyn happy too. 

The counselors waved goodbye to the kids on the bus. The farther the bus got, the more it hit Kaitlyn that summer was truly ending. She ignored the heavy feeling in her heart. There was always next year, right?

Once the bus was completely out of sight, the teens went back to doing what they needed to do: pack up their bags so they could hit the road too.

“You know how many hearts are broken on the last day of summer camp? It’s like a romanci-pocalypse,” Kaitlyn jokes with Jacob as they both walk down the lodge stairs. It might’ve been a low-blow considering what she learned during the last week of camp. Word spread fast about Emma breaking up with Jacob and Kaitlyn didn’t know if she should feel bad or happy about the whole situation. Sure, she was friends with Jacob and totally understands the feelings of rejection, but there was another part of her—a more selfish part—that felt relieved over their breakup.

“Ah… I mean you never know… the universe has a kinda way of, er, working these things out,” the jock explains. Kaitlyn stops and raises a brow at him.

She bites back the urge to scoff. “The universe?”

“Yeah, like the er, the… cosmic… space… gods,” he stuttered out, vaguely motioning to the sky.

Kaitlyn narrowed her gaze. “Space gods.”

“You heard me,” he nodded confidently.

“Okay, spill it,” she sighed.

“Nothing to spill, you know, we’re cool.”

“Oh, so cool.”

“We are ‘super’ cool…”

A moment of silence passed between them. Kaitlyn couldn’t help it anymore, it was already so obvious. “So she dumped your ass, huh.”

When Jacob didn’t say anything back, Kaitlyn felt her heart momentarily stop at the silent answer. I guess they really did break up, huh.

Jacob rolled his eyes as they kept walking to the van. He points at Kaitlyn. “Quit it.”

Just as they made it to the trunk of the van, Emma was already walking past them. Kaitlyn could feel her heart thumping louder as the girl walked closer.

“Hi Emma,” Kaitlyn greets. Unfortunately, her feelings got the best of her and she sounded a little more excited than she intended to, but the girl didn’t seem to notice. Maybe she could play it off as teasing Jacob and neither would even notice.

Emma briefly turned to her and smiled. “Hey!”

Just like that, she kept walking, but it was enough to make Kaitlyn feel giddy inside. She felt like a schoolgirl all over again, experiencing love for the first time. But in reality, this “love” was a hopeless crush that began in the beginning of summer camp and one that she hasn’t been able to get over since she sees her every single day and she’s just so pretty and caring—

Kaitlyn pushed the thoughts out of her head. Right. They were packing up to leave.

“Okay this is, um… you’ve heard of spatial awareness before, right?” he asks as he motions to the trunk. Well, absolutely not, but Kaitlyn didn’t care. As long as the bags fit, why bother?

Kaitlyn shakes her head. “Nah, spatial awareness is for nerds.”

She mentally counted the bags currently in the trunk. Not everyone’s bags are here . She turns to Jacob. “Ah, be a lamb and grab the last couple of bags, will ya?”

“Yes boss,” he sighs as she begins reorganizing the bags, ironically enough.

“Say hi to Emma for me!” she calls out without looking.

“You’re a bad person,” he says back. Kaitlyn could practically hear the frown on his face as he said that.

“Yes I am!”

It wasn't long before Jacob came back, holding Nick and Dylan’s bags in each hand. Kaitlyn watched as he struggled to get down the stairs, not even bothering to help him. “Alright. Got the bags.”

“Great. All by yourself, huh?”

“Yup,” Jacob tosses the bags down in front of the trunk.

Kaitlyn grabs one bag after the other and shoves it against the others. “Guess you’re gonna have to get used to that.”

“Oh my god- You are so mean.”

“At least I’m honest.”

“Oh- Okay, here we go.”

She stops what she’s doing and looks at him. “Okay, you’re not tellin’ me the whole truth ‘bout you’n’ Emma, are ya son?” 

“Oh, okay, so now I’m the one who’s not telling the whole story, huh.”

Kaitlyn froze. Her sexuality wasn’t new information to Jacob, but she was sure that she hid the fact that she liked Emma pretty well. Even during the times she spent learning about the girl and talking to her in Jacob’s place, she thought she came off pretty normal.

When Kaitlyn came out to Jacob, she kept it pretty vague, only saying that she liked girls, but what she didn’t expect was Jacob to still think she liked boys. Maybe it’s a little fucked up of her to use it as a means of defense when it comes to hiding her crush on Emma, but she also never had the time to tell him the truth, it would just be awkward.

“You were telling me how you totally have a thing for Ryan.”

Oh. That’s what he meant.

“He’s… a guy,” Kaitlyn manages out, too shocked from her own thoughts. Wait.

She clears his throat. “I mean… he doesn’t do anything for me, like, at all.”

Jacob scoffs, by the looks of it, he doesn’t notice what she says. “Right, right. Keep telling yourself that.”

Kaitlyn ignores him and continues messing with the bags until they’re secure. Jacob left her alone and went to check on the car engine. 

The realization that she was still in love with Emma was finally setting in, but so was the guilt. 

How is she able to act so normal in front of her friend who was also her crush’s summer fling throughout the duration of camp? It just doesn’t feel right. Summer was about to end, yet Kaitlyn was still mulling over these godawful feelings with no means of escape. Now, she’s going back home lovesick over a straight girl who dated her closest friend at camp. The more she thought about it, the more frustrated she got toward herself. 

To make a long story short, Kaitlyn was royally fucked.

—

After the counselors settled that they were going to have one final party (though Ryan was seriously against it), they all split into their own groups to get stuff for it. Nick and Abi were getting sticks out in the forests, Emma and Jacob went to find beer or some kind of alcohol (because of course they needed alcohol), while the remaining three decided to stay at the campfire place and set things up. Dylan was occupied with making a playlist while Ryan and Kaitlyn were sitting around. Ryan was on the log next to Dylan and Kaitlyn was chilling on the ground (yes, even though there were perfectly good logs around her). 

Since there wasn’t much happening around them, what better way to spend your time than by thinking?

The moment it happened, Kaitlyn knew. She knew that Jacob had something to do with the car breaking down. There was no way it suddenly stopped working, especially not after Mr. Hackett made Kaitlyn double—no, triple —check everything to make sure everything was functioning.

She takes partial blame for going on that tangent about car parts, considering that if she hadn’t, Jacob wouldn’t have messed with the car and they could’ve been making their way back home, free from the wilderness. Now they have to stay an extra night at Hackett’s Quarry because someone wanted another chance at getting back with his crush. Embarrassing.

Kaitlyn facepalms. I should’ve done something.

“Yo, Kaitlyn,” a deep voice calls out to her. Ryan was looking at her with a puzzled expression on his face. He raises a brow at her. “You good?”

“Oh. Yeah, I’m fine,” she replies, removing her hand from her face and dropping it to her side. Obviously, he didn’t believe her.

“We can hear your thoughts,” Dylan chimes in playfully. Kaitlyn rolls her eyes and audibly groans at his stupid comments as he kept laughing.

“No, but seriously, what’s going on?” he asks, concerned. 

Kaitlyn waves him off. It wasn’t like she could just tell them about how the whole car hijacking thing was one-hundred-percent Jacob’s fault and she just didn't do anything about it. Nor could she talk about her miserable lesbian feelings since that was also on her mind. Neither are worth telling.

“Yes, it’s totally worth telling us,” Dylan says jokingly. Kaitlyn stopped for a moment and stared at him, thinking she spoke out loud until he shook his head. “I was just messing with you, but hey, I’m just saying, it's the end of camp! So… y’know your secret’s safe with us… c’mon, c’mon!”

Ryan lightly hit him. “Stop, maybe she doesn’t want to.”

“It’s okay. Dylan’s right, might as well tell,” Kaitlyn raises both her hands in defeat. Maybe she could tell them about the minivan problem later . For now, it wouldn’t hurt to vent about her tragic crush, would it?

“I don’t think it’s a surprise to you guys that I like Emma,” Kaitlyn begins, looking at the two. Immediately, Dylan looked excited at the topic while Ryan looked mildly shocked.

“This is a surprise to me,” Ryan chuckles. Dylan had the biggest smile Kaitlyn has ever seen.

“Oh man, Ryan, you better buckle the fuck up because you get to see the Kaitlyn Ka become a pathetic, lesbian mess over a straight girl!” Dylan hysterically announces with his radio guy voice. 

And the most punchable.

Ryan, who was trying to hold his laughter once Dylan started talking, began laughing like no tomorrow at the guy’s antics. Kaitlyn only stared at the guys in front of her, jaw dropped at the absolute betrayal she just experienced. “What the fuck, Dylan!”

He throws his hands up in defense. “Hey, I’m just telling the truth.”

Kaitlyn rolled her eyes. She knew she couldn’t be mad for long. Dylan always loved making jokes and Ryan loved coming along for the ride.

“Okay, okay, but in all seriousness, do tell,” Dylan motions his hand towards her, giving her the spotlight. 

Kaitlyn then proceeds to ramble about how shit she feels every time she thinks about Jacob liking Emma and how she was somewhat happy when they broke up. That part was met with a shocked look from Ryan and an all-too-familiar look of excitement from Dylan, who loved drama (was this even considered drama?). After that, she talks about all the things she liked about Emma and that was met with teasing looks and stupid “ooh’s” and “ahh’s” coming out of their mouths. She ignores it.

“But I know, I know. She’s straight and that just makes it ten times worse,” Kaitlyn groans.

“Wow, that really did sound pathetic,” Ryan finally says. Dylan bursts into laughter as Kaitlyn turns to them, offended.

“Wow, very helpful,” she deadpans.

Ryan shrugs, still smiling. “Hey, man. What can I say? It’s true!”

She flips them off.

“Love and peace,” Dylan does a hand heart in return.

“Ugh, you are so annoying,” Kaitlyn grumbles. “Okay, can you at least help me, like, get over her, or something?”

Dylan takes a moment to think about it. “Maybe we can do something during the party that kinda sets up Jacob and Emma? I don’t know how to explain it—”

“What?” Kaitlyn looks at him incredulously. “What are you even saying?”

“I think what he’s saying is,” Ryan interjects. “Is that we have Jacob and Emma do something that would make you realize that you have no chance, therefore helping you get over her at the same time.”

Kaitlyn tilts her head. “But they literally dated the entire summer camp and I still liked her. No matter how much PDA they did in the halls or acted all couple-y, it wasn’t enough to make me, y’know, get over her, clearly.”

“But that’s the thing, they were already dating and because of that you never, like, had a chance, but they aren’t dating anymore, and maybe that’s what we need,” Dylan explains. Kaitlyn and Ryan both looked at him like he was insane.

“Dude, what are you even talking about?” Ryan asks.

“Okay, okay, let me rephrase that,” Dylan breathes out, shaking his head. He stops for a moment and looks at Kaitlyn right in the eyes. “Make Emma choose between you and Jacob.”

Kaitlyn gave him a disappointed look. “Seriously? That’s the best thing you can think of? That sounds so childish, dude.”

“Hey, I’m just saying whatever comes to mind,” Dylan throws his hands up defensively. “You asked, I delivered.”

“Maybe it won’t hurt,” Ryan starts. “Dylan kinda has a point.”

She rolls her eyes. “As if that’s gonna help. In what situation would she need to choose between me or Jacob?”

Dylan and Ryan shared a look before turning to look at Kaitlyn. “Kissing.”

Silence.

She looked at both of them in disbelief. “You’re joking.”

“Hey, if it works, it works,” Dylan defends.

Kaitlyn groans and buries her head into her hands. Asking these guys for advice has got to be one of the worst things she’s ever done in her life.

After today, she is officially never asking Ryan Erzahler or Dylan Lenivy especially for any advice.

—

The moon was shining brightly above the camp as the counselors sat around the fire pit. Jacob and Emma successfully got their hands on the beer, Nick and Abi got them a fair amount of sticks to keep the fire going, and Dylan chose what could be the gayest playlist he’s ever made. It didn’t have explicitly gay songs in it, but it had an unhealthy amount of Weezer and The Neighbourhood songs instead. 

Kaitlyn harshly elbows Dylan, who almost spilled the beer he was drinking. Quickly recovering, he glared at her. “What the fuck?”

“You truly have a fascinating music taste,” she states stoically. 

Any sign of irritation was wiped from Dylan’s face and replaced with mischief. “Aw, was that a compliment, Kaitlyn?”

The girl made the same face back to him, but mockingly. “Aw, no it wasn’t, Dylan.”

He only chuckled as he turned to the rest of the group. “Okay! New idea! Party game!”

Hilariously enough, he was met with groans.

“C’mon people, we might never see each other after tonight! Let’s make some memories!” he continued with enthusiasm.

“Well, what do you have in mind?” Kaitlyn asks.

“How about the ultimate game of secrets and lies… Truth or Dare, but Dylan style,” he begins. “Okay, house rules are… someone asks you truth or dare… Then you choose, and then you do. And there’s no ifs, ands or buts.”. 

“So like, normal truth or dare?”

He blinks. “Yes.”

“So we can like, make people kiss.”

“If they choose dare, yeah. As long as everyone consents… of course.”

Kaitlyn nods slowly. “Cool beans.”

“I mean keep it in your pants until it’s your turn, but…” Dylan’s voice trails off teasingly. 

He’s met with a very judgmental eye roll. “Well, who does get to go first?”

“Well, it’s House deals, so…”

Dylan looks at Abigail and points at her. “Abigail! Truth or dare?”

—

It took some time, but eventually everyone eased into the groove of truth or dare. Abigail was asked by Dylan if she’s slept with anyone… in camp, which sound fucked up to ask until he said the second part (Ryan even intervened because she looked really uncomfortable then). Jacob got dared to chug an entire bottle of beer (super irresponsible, Nick. Super .), but then failed after two gulps. Ryan got dared to kiss either Kaitlyn or Dylan (which, c’mon… pretty obvious who he chose). 

Now, it was Kaitlyn’s turn to ask someone truth or dare. Everyone has gone at least once during the game, so it was just a matter of who Kaitlyn wanted to be the biggest menace to.

Dylan nudged her and leaned in to whisper something in her ear. “Ask Emma.”

Oh, how badly she wanted to punch him in the face right then and there.

But she didn’t really have any reason to not ask Emma. Might as well, right?

She breathes, looking at the girl sitting across from her. “Emma—”

“Dare.”

She didn’t even have time to think of a dare.

“Emma, so you have to kiss…” Kaitlyn begins thoughtlessly. What the fuck am I saying? What the fuck are you saying, Kaitlyn? Shut the fuck up! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!

She could see both Dylan and Ryan turn to look at her, jaw dropped. She doesn’t pay attention to them. I’m in too deep already. Ugh, fuck it. 

Kaitlyn is reminded of her conversation with them from earlier.

She rolls her eyes. “As if that’s gonna help. In what situation would she need to choose between me or Jacob?”

Dylan and Ryan shared a look before turning to look at Kaitlyn. “Kissing.”

Fuck it.

“Jacob… or…” The jock looks mildly surprised at the mention of his name.

“No way,” Kaitlyn hears Dylan whisper.

“...Me.”

Emma looks amused. “Well then…”

Jacob chuckles nervously as he turns to Emma, about to rise from his seat. “Um, uh… Sorry Kaitlyn, this is not even a dare, obviously I got this—”

“I choose Kaitlyn.”

Wait.

.

.

.

What.

Silence filled the air as Jacob gaped at his ex. Emma had a mischievous smile on her lips as she made eye contact with Kaitlyn, who felt her heart beating louder than ever before. Dylan and Ryan—more so Dylan—were doing a horrible job in hiding their excitement.

Emma rose from her seat as she maintained eye contact with Kaitlyn, slowly making her way to the girl. Kaitlyn could see a slight sway of her hips the closer she got. Dylan started loudly cheering and eventually everyone else, with the exception of Jacob, joined in, hyping them up. 

“Em? Seriously?” is the only thing Jacob can ask as he watches his ex about to kiss his friend. Hearing the disappointed tone in his voice made Kaitlyn realize the situation she put herself in. This was not supposed to happen. Emma was not supposed to choose her. Why did she choose her?

All thoughts left her brain the moment Emma sat down on her lap. Kaitlyn’s breath hitches as the girl propped her arms around her neck, smiling sweetly at her. Naturally, Kaitlyn held onto her too, letting her hands rest on Emma’s waist. It wasn’t her first time making out with someone, but it felt like she was learning all over again.

Because it was Emma.

Without a warning, Emma went straight in for the kiss.

And god , what did Kaitlyn do to deserve these soft lips on hers?

All feelings of doubt and guilt were washed away as Kaitlyn eased into the kiss. She could faintly hear the continued cheers from everyone the longer they kissed, but it didn’t take long for her to tune them out. Why bother listening when Emma, her crush, was kissing her?

Emma’s hand lifts from its spot on Kaitlyn's neck and caresses her cheek, thumb brushing lightly over the soft skin. Kaitlyn’s heart was beating faster and faster.

“Guys,” Jacob starts. 

But Kaitlyn didn’t want to listen. She wanted this to continue. This was her one chance at having something during summer and it was with the girl she’s liked ever since they came here. She was not going to let some… guy stop her and—

“GUYS!”

Kaitlyn jolts, pulling away from the kiss. Emma makes a small noise of protest as she pulls away and wow, Kaitlyn wished she could just kiss her again.

But unfortunately, it looked like some people were not happy with that.

Emma slowly rises from her lap, letting her hands linger on her shoulders a bit before fully getting up from her. She leans down close to her ear.

“Thank you, Kaitlyn,” she whispers before walking back to her seat. Kaitlyn could practically hear the smile in her voice as she said that. 

What the fuck.

Dylan pats her on the back and laughs. “Holy shit, Kaitlyn, you’re fucking insane.”

“That was crazy,” Abigail lets out a breath. She turns to her friend, who sat down next to her. “ You’re crazy!”

“It’s so weird seeing Kaitlyn this red,” Ryan laughs. Kaitlyn grimaced, the realization that she just kissed her crush in front of all her work friends finally set in for her. The temptation to just jump into the lake and drown was way too strong.

“Kudos to you, mate,” Nick joins in, lifting his bottle up in a solo cheer. “Happy for you two.”

“Literally!” Dylan agrees, still amazed at what just happened. He turns to Kaitlyn. “Where’s my ‘thank you, Dylan, you are so awesome and smart,’ hm?”

Kaitlyn’s mind was so clouded by the kiss that she couldn’t even bother responding. Her eyes were only focused on the girl in front of her, who was smiling back at her like nothing happened, almost like she knew what she was doing to her. Kaitlyn didn’t care, Emma could do whatever she wanted.

Before she knew it, Jacob was getting up from his seat and making his way towards her. The group grew silent as they watched him. Dylan scooted closer to Kaitlyn, sending glares to the approaching male. He predicted something like this was going to happen. I mean, what else would’ve happened in these situations?

“You think it’s funny kissing my girlfriend?” Jacob grits his teeth, stopping right in front of her. Kaitlyn’s first mistake was looking up and making eye contact. The moment their eyes met, a chill ran down her spine. Throughout their years of friendship, this was the first time Kaitlyn’s seen Jacob so… pissed. But she only stared back at him with a hardened gaze.

“I’m nobody’s girlfriend!” Kaitlyn could hear Emma say from behind him, but she wasn’t focused on that right now. A six-foot something male was right in front of her, looking like he wanted to beat her up because she just kissed his ex-slash-crush.

He ignores Emma’s comment. “Fuck you, dude. Seriously.”

“Just like she said, Emma is not your girlfriend, Jake. You need to accept that,” Kaitlyn sighs, trying her best to stay calm. She knew something would happen during the game, but she didn’t expect it to happen to her. The best thing she can do is keep a cool head and just take it.

“Don’t pull the ‘Jake’ card on me, right now, dude. It’s not gonna work,” he points at Kaitlyn.

She smacked Jacob’s hand away from her face, standing up and glaring right back at him. The jock took a step back in surprise, it’s safe to say he was not expecting that.

Okay, maybe “taking it” is not an option anymore.

“Woah, woah, woah! Hey, stop!” Dylan yells. He drops his beer to the ground and puts his hand out between the two, separating them. Ryan and Nick quickly get up too, holding them back from each other.

“Guys… let’s all chill out here,” Nick suggests as he tightens his grip on Jacob, holding him back.

“Yeah, I think that’s a great idea,” Dylan nervously agrees. He looks back and forth between Jacob and Kaitlyn, neither of them saying anything.

It wasn’t until a few seconds passed when Jacob finally mumbled something under his breath.

“What was that?” Kaitlyn asks. Ryan keeps his hand out in front of her. Jacob glares at Kaitlyn as he sends her the dirtiest look she’s ever seen. 

“She’s not like you, y’know. Stop trying to make her like that .”

Kaitlyn was a patient person. She really was. It’s something she had pride in. Being a counselor at a summer camp filled with a bunch of snotty, loud, and annoying kids, you learn to have patience with everyone, even other camp counselors.

But this? This is where she draws the line.

It felt like a switch was flipped inside of her and all her rational thinking was thrown out the window. Kaitlyn’s expression changed from one of mild annoyance to full-on rage .

“What the fuck did you just say?” Kaitlyn starts slowly, moving closer, not caring about Ryan’s arm in front of her. 

There was absolutely no way Kaitlyn’s childhood friend since, what, kindergarten(?), would have the fucking audacity to say that. The first person she came out to, the person she trusted, using her sexuality against her. 

He doesn’t even care, doesn’t even look like he cares. “Don’t make me spell it out for you.”

“Woah,” Abigail says in shock. 

Dylan’s arms lower as he turns to Jacob. “What do you mean…”

“Yeah, what the fuck did you mean by that?” Ryan steps forward, looking just as pissed as Kaitlyn. He didn’t even care about holding Kaitlyn back anymore.

“What? I’m sure you guys already know what I mean,” Jacob says. Ryan walks closer and shoves him, but not hard enough for him to fall. However, without noticing, he almost pushed him into the fire. 

Jacob yelps as he and Nick move to avoid the fire. Recovering, he turns to Ryan. 

“What the fuck, man?!” he curses at him, walking towards Ryan before getting held back by Nick once again.

Dylan smacks Ryan’s arm. “Why the fuck did you do that?”

Trying to calm himself down, Ryan deeply inhaled. “Yeah, yeah. My bad, fuck I wasn’t thinking.”

“Oh, really? You realize that after trying to push me into a fire?”

“Did you not hear yourself?” Ryan motions at Kaitlyn. “What you just said to Kaitlyn?”

“I meant it,” Jacob continues. “I don’t know why you guys are acting like this. Emma isn’t like that.”

“What the actual fuck…” Dylan murmurs, feeling himself get anxious the longer they fight.

Jacob turns to the girl behind him. “Emma, c’mon.”

Emma’s eyes widened in surprise. “What?”

He points at Kaitlyn. “Tell her I’m right.”

“Dude, are you seriously doing this right now?” Kaitlyn asks, exasperated. She looks at Emma, whose eyes are still focused on the guy in front of her. “Emma, you don’t have to respond or—”

“But you’re not,” she simply says.

Everyone stops.

If this was happening under other circumstances, Kaitlyn would not hesitate to laugh at the dumbfounded expression on Jacob’s face, but considering what was happening, she could only stand still. 

“Em, are you serious?” Jacob asked quietly, looking at Emma. He didn’t look mad anymore, just shocked. 

Emma lets out a heavy exhale. “You’re wrong, about like, everything you just said about me.”

Jacob is speechless. Everyone’s speechless. 

“Abi was the only one who knew, but well, now all of you know now,” she bitterly explains. “Not the ideal way to come out, but yes, I like girls too, actually.”

Jacob could only stare at his ex as he felt the tears form in his eyes. “What…?”

“I like girls, Jacob,” Emma repeats.

It seems like he didn’t hear her since he only stares and mutters it once more. “What?”

Emma rolls her eyes and now it looks like the anger finally got to her too. “Do you need ME to spell it out for YOU, Jacob?! I’m bisexual! I like girls! Kaitlyn didn’t do anything to ‘make me’ this way. I’ve already been like this! And I’m sick of you treating this like it’s something bad or horrible just because you like me!”

A sniffle escapes Jacob as he shakily inhales. Nick, who was holding onto him, loosened his grip in shock from everything that was happening, allowing the tall jock to easily leave his grasp and start walking away.

Just as he passes by her, Kaitlyn hears him muttering something through his tears.

“Fucking bitch.” 

Her fight or flight kicks in. Kaitlyn attempts to jump at him and clock him, but Dylan and Ryan quickly take hold of her before she can do anything.

“What the fuck did you say?!” she screams at him, but he only looks back for a moment before fully running away from the group.

“Hey, hey, it’s not worth it!” Dylan says, trying to calm her down. She struggles in her friends’ grasp for a bit before tiring herself out and coming to a full stop.

They slowly let her go, making sure that she was calmed down. She wasn’t making a move to chase after him, but she was still enraged. “He would’ve deserved it.”

“I don’t doubt that,” Ryan agrees.

Kaitlyn turns back and fuck , she can’t even imagine what everyone else was feeling right now, especially Emma.

She can’t believe she and Jacob had that whole argument in front of Emma. What the hell was wrong with them?

“I’m sorry, I need to get out of here,” Kaitlyn quickly says, turning her back and running off to god knows where. She ignores the protests and screams for her to come back, only focused on running away. There was no way she could handle being there at the moment. What she was feeling was too much and she didn’t want to risk lashing out on anyone.

And when Kaitlyn hears Emma also call out to her to come back, she only runs faster.

—

Kaitlyn didn’t know where she was going, but she didn’t care. She just needed to get away from everything.

She stopped for a moment to catch her breath and get a sense of her surroundings. The trees all looked the same, tall with barely any leaves on the branches, she could barely see with the light fog in front of her. She groaned in frustration. She was definitely lost.

Well, at least she was alone and she could just freely talk about her emotions to herself out in the woods.

“Fuck, okay. It’s not like it was my choice exactly, but I dared her. But she kissed me, and it was good ,” the girl mumbles to herself, trying to get her mind off of the eerie woods. “Am I even allowed to be mad at Jacob? He was being a weird… freak about Emma, but… maybe it is my fault.”

“Kaitlyn…” a voice whispers hollowly. She instantly froze. It didn’t sound like anyone she knew. Maybe it was the wind?

“Someone is near,” it continues. Oh hell no. This was not the fucking wind.

She doesn’t move a single limb, but she keeps her eyes peeled. Whispers come from all around her, the same voice repeating a certain phrase (or name?) over and over. Kaitlyn doesn’t dare to call out. She knew these woods were a bit creepy. She’d overheard a bunch of kids telling Chris that they heard something weird or saw something walking around the woods, but of course, he always brushed it off and just scolded the kids from going too far off the trails.

Well, maybe those kids were right and Chris was… well, being Chris.

“Kaitlyn!” someone shouts from a distance. Unlike the weird whispers around her, this was a familiar voice.

Emma Mountebank.

What the hell was she doing here?

Kaitlyn didn’t have time to even relish the thought of Emma choosing to run after her instead of Jacob solely because she was too focused on how fucking creepy these woods were.

There’s two possible options: 1) staying quiet so Emma could leave her alone, or 2) shout back and deal with confrontation.

“Kaitlyn, where are you?” Emma continued calling out. Kaitlyn could hear her voice grow closer. The longer she contemplated her two options, the more she began to feel guilty about not saying anything.

Well, here goes nothing.

“Emma!” Kaitlyn calls out, moving toward her voice. After a few more shouts of the other’s name, they finally saw each other and felt relief. However, that feeling didn’t last long for Kaitlyn, who was instantly reminded of the events from earlier. Her delighted expression quickly changed into something similar to embarrassment as she looked away from Emma.

A lone overturned log catches Kaitlyn’s attention and she moves to take a seat on it, needing to find something small to distract her. She could hear Emma moving to sit next to her, but facing the opposite direction. 

Kaitlyn lets out a heavy breath. “I’m sorry.”

Emma simply stares at her. “For what?”

Just being around her was enough to make Kaitlyn nervous, especially when she was just looking at her. She wasn’t even giving her any sort of look, she was simply just staring. It made Kaitlyn feel conscious about every single move she made.

“For what, Kaitlyn?” Emma repeats gently.

“For kissing you and making you choose between me and Jacob, and like, I don’t know, the fight?” Kaitlyn mutters, almost flinching when she feels one of Emma’s hands rest atop hers. 

Kaitlyn looks up and sees the girl staring at her with a pained smile on her lips. “You shouldn’t be sorry for any of that.”

“Why shouldn’t I?” she asks, tilting her head. “Isn’t it a dick move to make you choose between us like that? Like, I don’t know. I’m just confused why you chose me since you… like, dated Jacob, but you guys broke up so… I-I don’t know…”

“I want you to think about it,” Emma replied. Honestly, Kaitlyn was probably in the worst state of mind to even try to do some extra thinking. She was tired, mad, and embarrassed—but sort of happy—so her mind was all over the place.

“Dude, I’ve had a shit night already, I don’t think I can,” Kaitlyn huffs tiredly. She would totally go for a nap right now, but hearing Emma crack up at her was enough to keep her awake.

“I chose you for a reason,” Emma continues, still laughing a bit. Kaitlyn was sure she had an idea as to what she was talking about, but she didn’t want to believe it.

“Because you wanted to make Jacob jealous?” Kaitlyn questions.

Emma shakes her head. “I mean, maybe a little, but not the only reason.”

Kaitlyn looks at her, not believing a single word she’s saying. “Then what other reason is there?”

“Simple,” Emma exhales. “I chose you because…”

Kaitlyn stares at her, anticipating her next words. The two girls stared at each other, trying to read each other’s face before the words were said.

“I kinda, sorta like you.”

Silence.

Kaitlyn looked at her with a slightly pained expression. Those were the words she always hoped to hear, but right now, it just didn’t feel right. It felt too much like one of those dramas Abigail always talked about, the ones where all of the sudden everything was working out for the main character and everything is sunshines and rainbows. But this wasn’t a drama or movie or whatever romanticized version of love there was out there in the world. Emma didn’t like her, she only chose her to spite Jacob. That’s that.

“I know what you’re thinking,” Emma begins. “You think this is all a cruel joke or something, huh.”

Kaitlyn tilts her head, pretending to think about it. “Well… yeah kinda. What, are you trying to tell me you’re a mind reader or something?”

Emma laughs and Kaitlyn finds herself smiling again. Maybe they could continue this conversation of light jokes and teasing and avoid what they truly need to talk about. Of course, that doesn’t seem like the best idea either way.

Her laughter stops, but her gaze is still on the girl. “You’re truly an enigma, Kaitlyn.”

The girl shrugs with a small smile on her lips. “What can I say? Maybe I can become just as mysterious and brooding as Ryan to rival him someday, who knows?”

Emma doesn’t laugh this time, but her smile doesn’t leave. “I’m serious, Kaitlyn. I really like you.”

Kaitlyn breaks eye contact and shakes her head, averting her eyes to the ground. “Sorry, I just can’t believe it. You broke up with Jacob like a week ago. It’s fine to reject me, Emma, I promise.”

“Maybe that’s the reason why I broke up with him.”

“What?” she turns to her.

“Maybe there was someone else I had my eye on this whole time without knowing.”

Kaitlyn couldn’t process anything that was leaving Emma’s lips.

“But Jacob…”

“I know, I know. I had a thing with him all summer, but it was just a fling,” she begins explaining. “I don’t think I would’ve ever pursued anything serious with him. He was just a guy to have fun with, and he knew that too.”

Kaitlyn stays silent as she listens to the girl in front of her.

“I guess, it’s hard to not fall for people you’re not supposed to fall for,” she continues. “But it happened anyway.”

She looks up and makes eye contact with Kaitlyn, who, for once, didn’t look away.

“Jacob wasn’t supposed to fall for me,” she could see Emma glance at her lips for a moment, moving closer. Kaitlyn found herself unconsciously doing the same. “And I wasn’t supposed to fall for you.”

Neither knew who went in first, but before they knew it, they were kissing again. Second one for the night.

Kissing Emma was something she could get used to. Maybe with the exception of the whole “she’s kissing her friend’s ex” thing, but that’s something to worry about later. She didn’t want to think about Jacob at all while kissing Emma. 

Does this make them girlfriends? Kaitlyn doesn’t know the answer to that, but she knew that their feelings for each other were mutual. That was enough for her. 

A rustle in the bushes made the two girls pull away from each other, but with a few inches still between them. Kaitlyn stops for a moment and strains her ears to listen to whatever she just heard. It continued, now changing to a low rumble noise.

“Do you hear that?” Kaitlyn asks quietly, not wanting to startle whoever—or whatever —was in the bushes. She looked more alert now. 

Emma makes a noise of agreement. “Mm-hm.”

“Should we check it out?” Kaitlyn asks as she gets up from the log. Emma hums once more before following after her.

Slowly, they walked towards the sound, which was getting louder the closer they got. They stayed close enough to where they could at least feel the other’s touch as they walked.

Kaitlyn stops near the bush and looks into it, checking if there was anything there. There was definitely something in the bushes, but because of the lack of light, she couldn’t properly make out what it was.

“Maybe it was a boar? Didn’t Nick get trampled by one earlier, here?” Emma asked quietly. That was true, Nick did get “attacked” by one, but this doesn’t sound like a boar at all.

“I don’t think it’s a boar,” Kaitlyn shook her head, moving in a little closer. A low growl noise came from the bushes, almost like a feral dog or some animal. At this point, Kaitlyn and Emma should’ve just left the woods and went back to the camp, but curiosity got the best of them.

Then Kaitlyn saw it.

Bright yellow eyes staring right back at her.

“What the fuck?” she mumbles, eyes growing wide.

At that moment, Kaitlyn felt someone—or something —tackle her to the ground, letting out a loud howl and trying to bite at her. 

“AHH!! What the fuck is this?! What the fuck?! Get this shit off me!” She screamed loudly. The creature kept growling and barking, almost like a dog, but this definitely was not a dog. It kept trying to bite at Kaitlyn, but thanks to her reflexes (or just pure luck) she was able to at least avoid the creature’s mouth and abnormally sharp teeth. 

“Kaitlyn!” Emma shouted fearfully. She was frozen in place, not knowing what to do. She didn’t have anything on her that could be a weapon. The only things around her were sticks and twigs and those definitely wouldn’t work against this thing .

“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Get the fuck off me!” Kaitlyn could only keep screaming. She kept pushing the creature away from her, and soon enough it stood back up, howling to the air. She could see Emma move to try and help her, but she quickly shakes her head, making the girl stop in place. 

“Emma, just fucking RUN!” she cried out as loud as she could. Emma hesitated as she started stepping back away from Kaitlyn and the animal. Once she got far enough, she made a run for it.

Kaitlyn felt her heart stop once the weird dog-like beast looked back at her. It let out one more howl before taking hold of Kaitlyn by her neck, lifting her up from the ground. She struggled in its hold, but it was too strong. The moonlight was enough to finally give her a glance at what it looked like, but Kaitlyn only felt more fear upon seeing it. It was almost like a human. 

Then, she felt herself get flung across the air.

—

The next time Kaitlyn and Emma saw each other, it was a bit of a mess.

It’s probably been around an hour or two since they last saw each other and it was when Kaitlyn was getting attacked by what seemed like a feral, beast-like creature with inhumane limbs. Thankfully, she made it out without getting bit and was still in one piece, but that didn’t mean she was unscathed from the werewolf either.

After Nick transformed into a werewolf and escaped the pool house, Ryan and Laura left to go to the Hackett house. That left Dylan, Kaitlyn, and Abigail, who decided to go back to the lodge to see if they could fix the minivan. 

When the trio made it to the minivan, it was shaking like there was someone inside. They shared a nervous look with each other as they slowly approached the driver’s door.

“Dylan, open it,” Kaitlyn lightly pushes him towards it. Abigail hums a noise of agreement as she nods. He gave them a look that screamed, “what the fuck?” as he stood in front of the door.

“Why me?” he whispers, keeping quiet in case whatever was in the minivan came out and attacked them.

“I’ll be aiming at the door with the gun,” Kaitlyn explains, lifting the shotgun in her hands slightly. She was grateful that Mr. Hackett left some form of defense for them, though unintentionally.

“But why not Abigail?” Dylan motions to the artist. Abigail backs up.

“Dylan, just fucking open the door!” Kaitlyn hisses, getting more annoyed.

“Fine, fine!” he gives up.

He cautiously approaches the door and grabs the handle with his good hand—only hand, and pulls.

The silence was broken by a feminine scream and a spray going off right at Dylan’s face. “AHHH!”

“AHHHHH!” Dylan screams as he falls back on the ground. Alarmed, Kaitlyn and Abigail rush to the offender, only to see a very familiar face. Emma .

“She maced me! She maced me! AHHHH!” he continued screaming in agony. He was rolling all over the floor and covering his face with his only hand.

“Hey! Hey! It’s us!” Kaitlyn reassures, slowly moving closer to Emma. 

“Oh shit,” Emma mutters, realizing what she’s just done. She lowered the spray down as she kept her eyes on the suffering boy.

“AHH! It burns…Ah-” Dylan continues groaning. Kaitlyn takes a close look at what was in Emma’s hand. That did not look like mace.

“Oh my god! Um-” Emma was beginning to feel really guilty. “I-I’m so sorry- Dylan, I’m so so so sorry!”

“Wait- wait- Dylan-” Kaitlyn starts.

“AHH! Fuck, I’m going blind!” he wails. 

“DYLAN!”

Everyone stops. Kaitlyn points to the bottle. “It’s not mace!”

Dylan stares. “...What?”

She takes the bottle out of Emma’s hand, waving it in front of Dylan, who flinches. “Air freshener.”

Silence once again.

He slowly gets up. “Oh… yeah…”

Emma makes an apologetic face. “It’s all I could find in the van…”

“Well… I guess I’m fine then,” Dylan chuckles slowly. Kaitlyn rolls her eyes and smacks him on the shoulder. She puts the air freshener back in the car. Once everything calms down, Emma finally takes notice of who’s here with her.

“Wait- Abi, Kaitlyn!” she says excitedly, hurriedly getting out of the car to properly greet both of them.

“Hey, Emma,” Abigail smiles.

“Where have you been?” Emma pulls her into a hug.

Abigail sighs. “We’ve been all over the place. It’s a long story.”

Kaitlyn chimes in. “Yeah. We were just at the pool house, though. Remember that nurse girl that I filled in for? Yeah, well, she came out of nowhere and she had an eyepatch and was like saying she needed to kill Chris Hackett.”

“Honestly, it was weird, but Ryan went with her to find Chris,” Dylan continues.

Emma’s gaze was fixed on Kaitlyn. “Kaitlyn…”

“Yeah?” Kaitlyn stared back at her.

Emma moved closer and brought her hand up to touch at a bloody patch on Kaitlyn’s yellow cropped hoodie. Then her hand roamed around anywhere she could find a scratch or bruise. “What happened…?”

Kaitlyn sighed, ignoring the fluttering feelings in her chest. It was not the time for that. “That thing in the forest? Yeah, those are werewolves. I know, crazy, I didn’t believe it either but Laura told us all about them.”

“A werewolf did that to you?” Emma was in complete disbelief. Understandably so, considering that she now has to live with the fact that werewolves are real. 

Kaitlyn nods. “Yeah, back in the woods. It tossed me a few feet, but I’m way better now.”

Emma still looked worried. Something is telling Kaitlyn that saying that did not help her case at all, in fact, it made it worse. “A-Are you sure you’re fine? I mean you have a bunch of cuts and stuff on your arms—”

“Hey,” Kaitlyn interrupts her, putting her hand over hers. “I’m alright. Don’t worry so much.”

“It’s kinda hard not to, Kaitlyn,” Emma continued. “And I shouldn’t have left you! I probably—”

“Nope, don’t even start,” she shakes her head. “Don’t blame yourself for anything. I’m just happy you were able to run to get out of there.”

Emma opens her mouth, about to say something, but she doesn’t.

Dylan nudges Abigail, who was watching the scene in front of her. “Is it just me or is there something between them?” he whispers.

Abigail nods, whispering back. “Yeah, I think there’s something too.”

Kaitlyn doesn’t even notice their little conversation as she moves to the front of the car, opening the hood up.

“Aha… Um… Dylan,” Emma chuckles nervously, finally taking notice. Kaitlyn could see Emma looking at her and at his bandaged… well, not -hand, begging for an explanation. Kaitlyn shakes her head and makes a cut-it-out motion. They were not gonna deal with this right now.

She could see the disappointment on Dylan’s face once she said that.

Poor Dylan.  

As she’s checking inside, the other three busied themselves by catching up with each other and updating each other on anything that has happened. Apparently after Emma went back to camp, she thought about swimming to the island to see if she could find some help since there was smoke coming from near the treehouse before the party started. However, when she arrived, there was something weird banging at the trapdoor. After putting on some new clothes that were in a random duffel bag, Emma opened the trapdoor only to see another werewolf staring back down at her.

“Oh, that’s where the new clothes came from,” Kaitlyn comments. The three turned to her. “You look good.”

“I- I- Ok- Anyway,” Emma looks away, blushing. Abigail laughs at her friend while Dylan gives Kaitlyn a “what the hell is wrong with you?” look. Kaitlyn only grins and goes back to searching.

Emma continues talking about the chase and how she was able to get a picture of the werewolf before escaping off the island. She shows them the picture on her phone. Though it was blurry, it was no doubt a werewolf. It resembled the one they saw near the radio hut, having similar yellow eyes and weird humanoid features. 

“After that I came back to the woods, but you know what else I saw?”

“What?” Dylan asks.

Emma swipes away from the werewolf picture and shows the two of them another picture. A picture of two very familiar figures, hanging upside down on ropes with two unfamiliar bodies standing in front of them.

“What the fuck?” Dylan murmurs.

Abigail gasps. “Is that Jacob and Nick?”

Emma nods. “Yeah. I guess they’ve been together the entire night. But they got caught by those… weird hunter guys.”

“Shit,” Dylan curses under his breath. “Any clue where they’re at?”

Emma shakes her head. “I don’t know. It’s not the lodge, but I haven’t gone anywhere else.”

It’s like a lightbulb went off on top of Abigail’s head. “Dylan! The Hackett house!”

Emma looks at them quizzically. “The Hackett house?”

“Oh shit, that’s right! They might be there!” Dylan realizes.

“Okay, Emma,” Abigail starts. “There’s a… a house near the pool house, Kaitlyn said it was the house where the Hacketts live in and earlier Ryan and Laura left us to go there.”

“Yeah, so Nick and Jacob should be fine,” Dylan reassures. “I don’t think they’re hunting us.”

Emma lets out a breath of relief. “Oh, thank god.”

Of course it’s gone. Kaitlyn thinks to herself as she closes the hood. It seemed like Jacob really did just take the rotor arm. The other three stopped talking and turned to her once they heard the hood close.

“So, what do we need?” Dylan asked. 

“A rotor arm, without it we can’t start,” Kaitlyn explained. The next part she mumbled to herself. “Thankfully, the engine is not broken.”

“What’s it look like?” Abigail questions. 

Kaitlyn scrunches up her face, trying to make hand comparisons of the size. “Well, it’s pretty small, probably about this big. But um… I actually don’t know how to describe it, but I know what it looks like.”

Abigail slowly nods. “Alright… I trust you.”

Sighing, she starts pacing around, thinking of what she could possibly do. Then suddenly, a thought pops up in her head.

She claps her hands together. “There’s a scrapyard not too far from here. I could probably find something there and come back and see if I could get the minivan running.”

Finding another one was gonna be difficult since it’s such a small part and it’s likely most of the cars in the scrapyard have already been stripped of parts, but that doesn’t mean they won’t try. There has to be at least like one car that still has one.

“Are you crazy?” Dylan takes a step forward. “You’re gonna get yourself killed, you know?”

“I agree,” Abigail jumps in. “You don’t know what’s out there. What if a werewolf or something attacks you?”

Kaitlyn heavily sighs. “Well, I gotta take that risk. It’s better to try than not.”

She feels Emma’s eyes on her, but she doesn’t look over, fearing that her gaze alone would be enough to convince her otherwise about going. They really needed to check out the scrapyard and at least try to find something.

“Wait, are you thinking of going by yourself?” Emma finally questions. Kaitlyn shrugs and nods.

“Oh, hell no,” She shakes her head. “I’ll go with you.”

“What? No, don’t, I’ll be fine,” Kaitlyn protests. 

“Kaitlyn, I’m not letting you go out there by yourself,” Emma looks at her. “You’ll literally die.”

“But you guys need to be safe,” Kaitlyn weakly fights back. “Just stay in the weird bunker place, okay? I can handle myself. Trust me, I have the gun.”

Emma was starting to look desperate. Dylan and Abigail were starting to think they should intervene, scared that they’ll have a full-blown argument over this.

“I don’t doubt that you can handle yourself, Kaitlyn. But we’re going up against werewolves . That’s not exactly normal. I say you don’t go and just stay with us in the bunker,” Emma suggests. Dylan could already see the annoyed look on Kaitlyn’s face, he didn’t want them to start fighting over something like this. He’s already had enough fights for the night.

“I’ll go with her,” he finally says. The three girls look at him with surprise, not expecting him to speak up.

“Really? But Dylan…” Abigail begins cautiously. Dylan already knew what she was about to say, so he shakes his head.

“I know, I know, but that doesn’t mean I can’t still be there physically, y’know?” he sighed. “I’ll go with you, Kaitlyn, and you cannot tell me otherwise.”

The girl gives in. “Fine, you can come.”

Kaitlyn feels Emma tap her shoulder. “Hey.”

“Hey,” Kaitlyn says back.

“Be careful, okay? I know you said you’re fine from before, but I still worry. You’ll need serious medical attention for that,” Emma sighs, referring to her earlier injury. She wasn’t wrong, Kaitlyn was bleeding a shit ton earlier because of that werewolf, she’s lucky she was able to kinda treat it on time.

Kaitlyn nods. “Yeah, don’t worry so much. I’ll manage and I have Dylan with me.”

Emma smiles and leans in, placing a quick kiss on Kaitlyn’s cheek. She doesn’t immediately pull back, instead she lingers close to the girl’s ear.

“Promise you’ll come back,” she whispers. 

Kaitlyn is breathless. “Yeah… I’ll come back. Promise.”

Emma’s face changes to one of content as she gives Kaitlyn a quick hug before pulling away and walking to the bunker with Abigail.

Dylan taps her shoulder. “You ready?”

“Yeah,” she smiles.

They spend the next thirty minutes or so following the supposed trail to the scrapyard. In actuality, neither counselors have ever been to the scrapyard, only hearing stories from Caleb, who works there. Well, who is also now a werewolf.

After walking on the trail a bit, Dylan cleared his throat.

“So… you and Emma…” he wiggles his eyebrows. Kaitlyn lets out a loud groan and shoves her friend, who only laughs in return.

“You really aren’t gonna give that up,” Kaitlyn glared at him.

“Of course not! This is like a huge ego boost for me. I remember you thought my idea was stupid, but you tried it out anyway, and look! You finally have a girlfriend,” Dylan grins. If there’s one thing this guy was gonna do, it’s to annoy the shit out of Kaitlyn. And he does a damn good job at it too.

When she doesn’t say anything, he teasingly nudges her. “I’m still waiting for my thank you.”

Kaitlyn punches him right in the gut.

—

It was fairly dark in the bunker.

Boxes and shelves took up a small portion of the place, making it still spacious and walkable around, but it didn’t take away the chilling atmosphere. If it wasn’t for Emma’s phone flashlight, both girls would’ve easily gotten lost.

Speaking of Emma, the girl looked nervous. Abigail seemed to take notice and she called out to her. “Hey, they’ll be fine. Kaitlyn is strong and she’s got Dylan to back her up. They’ll come back.”

Emma slowly nods. “Yeah, I know… but… I’m worried about her.”

Abigail laughs quietly. “I can tell.”

She turns to her friend with a joking glare. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

The red-haired raised her hands in defense. “Nothing. Nothing at all.”

Emma rolls her eyes and shakes her head. “God, I know, okay, I know. I like her a lot.”

“Again, I can tell,” Abigail teases, smiling.

This time, Emma doesn’t even argue back, only looking at the concrete floor beneath them. “She’s just… so reckless sometimes. I wished that she was more careful, but I don’t know. Her recklessness is funny sometimes. Obviously when it’s not a life or death situation.”

Abigail doesn’t say anything, letting Emma continue with spilling her feelings out.

“She just has to be so cool, huh?” Abigail can see a smile on her face. “Just… god, she knows what she’s doing and she’s so skilled in so many things. Like, c’mon, how many people do you know that actually knows about cars and guns like that? Well—other than Kaitlyn.”

“Not that many,” Abigail responds.

Her best friend brightens up at that. “Exactly! She’s one of a kind, really.”

It was nice hearing Emma talk about someone she liked. During camp, Abigail would always listen to her complain about something stupid Jacob did or how he didn’t understand their relationship and how frustrating it was to her. In those moments, Abigail didn’t really know how to help since she hasn’t had much experience in relationships so she always felt bad for not being able to do much.

And Emma’s crush on Kaitlyn wasn’t complete news to her either. She knew about it a few weeks back when Emma was freaking out in their cabins, pacing back and forth like she was insane. Abigail asked her about it and the girl didn’t even hesitate in telling her. 

Either way, this was a nice change of pace.

Emma suddenly gets up from her seat and stretches out her limbs. “Well, that’s that. Let’s look around this freakish place, shall we?”

Abigail cracks a smile. “Let’s do it.”

—

The scrapyard was an absolute bust and now there’s totally a werewolf chasing after them. Luckily, Kaitlyn and Dylan made it back to the lodge in one piece, but with the exception of having almost no bullets in the shotgun and well, no means of escape from this place. 

It’s just them two versus the werewolf.

“Kaitlyn, over here!” There were voices behind a banging door. That sounded like it was from… Chris’s office? Kaitlyn listened closer, the voices were familiar.

Emma and Abigail.

“Kaitlyn, Kaitlyn!” she didn’t waste a single moment second-guessing herself, just letting her legs move on their own towards them. As she turns the corner, a silver bullet rolls out from under the door. Thank god.

“It’s silver!” Emma shouts from behind the door. 

“Hey, I’m here!”

Kaitlyn picked up the bullet and quickly reloaded the gun. She began running towards the kitchen where Dylan was, only to find the werewolf right in front of her, letting out low growls as it stared at her.

She didn’t even need to think twice about pulling the trigger.

The moment the creature began racing towards her, Kaitlyn took aim, and immediately shot. A loud bang sounded out as she shot the bullet into its shoulder. For a second, the girl was worried that she missed her shot and was about to die, but all was well when the werewolf slowly descended to the floor, low screeches leaving its mouth.

“Fuck you! I got you motherfucker!” Kaitlyn huffs out, lowering the gun.

A few seconds later, Dylan bursts out of the kitchen with a frying pan in his one hand, looking ready to fight, but stops once he sees the creature on the floor, dead. He lowers his arms and walks towards his friend, cautious of the werewolf. 

“You got it?”

She nods. “Yeah, I got it.”

Kaitlyn looked at the grotesque sight in front of her, the adrenaline still running through her veins. She eventually found herself sat on the floor, putting the gun down and finally catching her breath. Dylan moves to join her.

“I guess I didn’t need this, huh?” he attempts to joke. Appreciating his efforts, Kaitlyn lets out an airless laugh.

“Guess not,” she mutters back. He sets down the pan and relaxes in the silence. It felt good to finally be in peace and quiet after such a hectic night. Kaitlyn could only wonder what everyone else went through since they were all separated. She’s thankful that she didn’t have to fall to the same fate that Dylan had with his hand. The mere thought of having to cut off a body part with a chainsaw made the girl want to puke.

(As if she didn’t just shoot a supernatural creature with a shotgun and let its body rot right in front of them.)

The door to Chris’s office slowly opens up, revealing both Emma and Abigail, who were cautiously looking out from it. They’re immediately relieved when they see Kaitlyn and Dylan on the floor, next to the dead werewolf.

“Kaitlyn!” Emma calls out, running out the door and towards the girl. Before Kaitlyn could even react, she felt Emma throw her arms around her, knocking her to the ground. Kaitlyn immediately hugged her back as she buried her head into the crook of the other girl’s neck. She could hear Abigail rushing towards them as well.

“I was so scared,” Emma admits, letting out a shaky sigh.

“It’s okay, it’s okay. We’re alive,” she reassured, patting the other girl’s back. Kaitlyn could feel the tears also forming in her own eyes, but she rapidly blinked them away. She needed to be strong.

“That bullet saved my life,” Kaitlyn admits. As she says that, she could feel the other girl’s arms tighten around her.

“That was all thanks to Abi,” Emma chuckles, pulling away and looking at their friend, who only looked away and smiled. “If she didn’t find that, who knows what would’ve happened to you.”

Kaitlyn shook her head as she sat up, hands moving to rest on top of Emma’s. “I’d probably figure something out. Y’know the last resort was the kitchen, there’s a bunch of knives ‘n silver stuff in there, definitely stuff that can take down a creep-ass werewolf.”

Emma looked at her like she just told the stupidest joke in the world. “Oh, really now?”

“Yeah, totally,” Kaitlyn replied, smiling back.

Emma rolled her eyes as the two shared a laugh. It felt like it was just them in their own little world. With the other around, there were no werewolves or weird hillbillies chasing after them. It was just the two of them in each other’s loving presence.

Kaitlyn’s eyes roamed back and forth between the other girl’s eyes and lips. Emma knew exactly what she wanted. Without any hesitation, she connected their lips as she moved her hand to caress Kaitlyn’s cheek.

Third kiss of the night, I guess? Kaitlyn thinks to herself.

A loud, obvious cough from Dylan was enough to make the two girls pull away from each other and realize they were not actually alone. The boy was looking at them, impressed. Abigail only shook her head in fake disappointment, clearly teasing them.

“Wow, really feeling loved here,” Dylan dramatically voices, clearly joking.

Kaitlyn narrowed her eyes at him. “You weren’t even the one who shot the werewolf!”

“Dude, maybe if I had my—y’know, other hand, I would’ve—”

“Dylan, hand or no hand, I would not let you near the gun,” Kaitlyn affirms. 

The two friends stared at each other, almost as if they were having an intense staring contest. Emma and Abigail looked between the two of them, confused at what they were doing. It wasn’t until Dylan cracked and started laughing hysterically when everyone broke out into laughter too.

It was weird, really. After this hellish night, the counselors still found it in themselves to laugh. It’s almost like all this werewolf business never happened and they were just sitting around the campfire again, cracking stupid jokes and daring each other to do stupid things. Kaitlyn sighed. That felt like forever ago, but in reality, it was only a few hours ago.

But that didn’t matter too much. The sun was finally peeking through the blinds, it was finally morning. The laughter stopped and the four of them just looked around at each other, the realization that they’re all alive finally setting in.

Kaitlyn could feel tears from earlier finally run down her face. She brings a piece of her cropped hoodie up to wipe at her eyes, sniffling while doing so. Alarmed, Emma immediately is at her side.

“What happened? Does something hurt?” Emma frantically asks. Dylan and Abigail also move next to her.

Kaitlyn shakes her head while she brings her arm over to cover her face, crying into the fold of it. “Just… everything is hitting right now.”

Dylan scoots closer and rubs at her shoulder, comforting her. “Yeah… fuck, man. It’ll be okay.”

Abigail lets out a few sniffles as she also wipes at her eyes. Honestly, using their current clothes as tissues was probably not the smartest idea, but they could care less about that. 

They were alive and that’s all that mattered.

—

Almost getting arrested is definitely something that’s going into Kaitlyn’s collection of stories for the kids. Oh, and so is almost getting mauled by an actual werewolf. Multiple times.

She’s forever thankful that everyone kept record of anything strange throughout the night. The counselors were able to find ten different pieces of “evidence” that proved they weren’t murderers and that everything that happened was actually supernatural. Well, alongside the supernatural mess, the Hackett family are getting arrested, which is to be expected. Either way, the teens are off the hook and are able to return to their normal lives.

If they can, that is.

All of Kaitlyn’s dreams, or nightmares rather, are all of that night. Things that could’ve happened, but didn’t, thankfully. She’s grateful for how the night turned out, no one got bit (at least not to her knowledge), and everyone made it out alive.

Sighing, Kaitlyn flops back on her hospital bed. Honestly, she didn’t really need to be in the hospital, but the doctors wanted to be extra careful after hearing she jumped out from a crane-lifted car onto wheels. That was probably her worst idea that night, but hey, as long as she’s alive, it doesn’t even matter.

Everyone else seemed fine. Nick and Jacob were apparently kept in cages at the Hackett house basement. Kaitlyn learned that after eavesdropping on Ryan and Laura while they told the cops what they saw. Max, who Kaitlyn learned was Laura’s boyfriend, was left on the island and was in fact the werewolf that chased after Emma.

The one that suffered the most physical injuries was probably Dylan, who obviously got his entire hand cut off, but even he’s doing pretty good for himself. He’s been taking Kaitlyn’s suggestion to get hand attachments pretty seriously. She swore she overheard him talking about it with Ryan, who was dying of laughter at some of the things he’s shown. Happy for them.

The door to Kaitlyn’s hospital room opens and she could already tell who the visitor was.

“Hey, Emma,” she greets, not moving up from her bed. The light laughter from the girl was enough to make her feel like shoving her head into her pillow and scream. It’s crazy how even after surviving an entire night against werewolves and almost dying, the laughter of a beautiful girl is what almost kills Kaitlyn Ka.

How pathetic of her.

“Hey,” Emma greets back, taking a seat on the hospital bed. Kaitlyn wasn’t even laying on it properly, instead laying as if it was her own bed at home.

“What’s up?” Kaitlyn asks with a smile.

“Just wanted to see you,” Emma shrugs.

“Well, you definitely know how to charm a girl,” Kaitlyn comments. 

She felt herself get lightly shoved by the other girl, who still had a smile on her face.

“Actually, I wanted to ask you something,” Emma slowly begins. Just like when they were in the woods, Kaitlyn had a feeling she knew what she was about to say. 

“What’s up?”

The next few seconds were silent as Kaitlyn watched Emma open and close her mouth, thinking of what to say. It was odd to see someone so open and sociable like Emma get so quiet. Well, Kaitlyn wasn’t surprised, everyone had other sides to them and it was pretty normal, but these days, she feels like she’s seeing this side of Emma’s more often. 

Then, Emma finally spoke. “This… thing that we have, what is it exactly?”

Ah, yes . The moment when the people in the ambiguous relationship start questioning their said relationship. Kaitlyn knew this was coming, but she was a patient person, always wanting to wait for the other person.

Kaitlyn exhaled a breath. “Honestly, I do want to be your girlfriend. I really do like you, Emma, but if you’re not thinking about relationships or if it’s too soon or whatever, I’m fine with that.”

Emma slowly nods. “Okay…”

A few seconds of silence pass between them.

“So what’s the verdict, Ms. Mountebank?” Kaitlyn asks after a bit, teasingly sounding out the other girl’s last name.

“This is so embarrassing,” Emma groans. Kaitlyn only smiles at her, waiting for her to say it. Finally, she turns to Kaitlyn, looking her straight in the eyes.

“Do you want to be my girlfriend?”

Kaitlyn breaks out into a stupid grin and leans in closer to the other girl.

“I thought you’d never ask,” she smiles.

Kissing Emma was something she could get used to. Well, it’s something she’s been getting used to. And Kaitlyn wouldn’t want to trade it for the world.

Summer at Hackett’s Quarry was finally over, but instead of feeling bittersweet, Kaitlyn Ka is fucking glad summer’s over.