Serenaded with Melodies
“Oh my god! No please!” Vi shouted in her sleep from her bed.
Caitlyn instantly woke up in shock, looking frantically around the room. She sat up to look across the cabin and see Vi rustling in her bed.
“Please no!” Vi shouted again.
Without thinking, Caitlyn ran over to Vi’s bed, put her arms on Vi’s shoulders, and started shaking Vi to wake her up.
“Vi, are you okay? It’s just a bad dream.” Caitlyn said, filled with worry.
Vi’s eyes shot open and she started hyperventilating with Caitlyn right next to her. Caitlyn then slowly put her hand on Vi’s chest, trying to control Vi’s breathing, and said softly
“Look at me, it was just a bad dream. You’re okay. Here, breathe with me. In and out. In and out.”
Vi started to copy Caitlyn’s motions, slowing her heartrate down. She then realized they were so close that she could feel Caitlyn’s breath on her cheek.
After Vi’s breathing had settled, the girls just stared at eachother for a moment in silence. When Caitlyn awkwardly cleared her throat and got up to return to her bed, Vi grabbed her hand and gave it a squeeze.
“Thank you.” Vi said with a vulnerable smile.
“Anytime, Vi. Are you sure you’re good to go back to sleep?”
Vi just nodded, pulled the blankets over her body, and let her head rest on the pillow.
Caitlyn stayed up for a bit, hoping that Vi didn’t wake up from a nightmare again. The hours passed as she watched Vi sleep in her bed, her breathing becoming a rhythm Caitlyn seemed to want to follow. Soon, her eyelids betrayed her and she fell asleep.
……
5 AM rolled down and Caitlyn woke up with a jolt. She didn’t know why she always woke up early. I mean, she liked starting her day early, but it was like clockwork. She never needed an alarm. Even if she stayed up all night reading, or doing homework, her brain always knew when to wake up.
She then started her camp morning routine. Don’t wake up Vi, run, watch the sunrise on the loop trial, and get back in time for breakfast.
Breakfast was a beautiful spread of french crepes filled with different fruits, nutella, and cream cheese. After gulping down a strawberry-nutella crepe, Caitlyn drifted off in her thoughts, idling scraping her fork against the plate.
“You good, Cait?.” Vi said as she lightly nudged her shoulder.
The nudge breaking her from her zone-out, she quickly glanced around the table to see Viktor laughing at Jayce’s nutella mustache on his lips, and then softly responded to Vi,
“Yes. I’m just tired. Didn’t get much sleep.”
“Want some coffee? I’m sure Viktor has some.”
Caitlyn nodded at Vi and then Vi got up to grab her some caffeine.
Caitlyn had liked that she and Vi had become friends. It was…nice. She hadn’t had lots of friendships before but with Vi every just seemed..easy. She was easy to talk to, she was extremely funny, and she always lightened up whatever room she walked into. Caitlyn enjoyed her presence.
When Vi returned and set a cup filled with steaming hot coffee down next to Caitlyn, she asked,
“Why didn’t you sleep well? … It wasn’t because I had a nightmare, right?” Vi said softly, seeming to be embarrassed about the topic.
“No!.. I mean, well, I did stay up a bit to see if you woke up again.”
“Cait, you didn’t have to do that.” Vi said with a look of concern. “But.. thank you again, you’re a lifesaver, Cupcake.” Vi said with a smirk.
Caitlyn’s ear’s flushed pink and she blinked at Vi. “Cupcake?”
Vi then shrugged and said with a grin, “Because you’re so sweet. Like a cupcake.”
Hoping Vi couldn’t see the amount of pink on her cheeks, Cait quickly threw a playful punch to Vi’s shoulder and sipped her coffee.
…..
After collecting different species of grass and a long hike, the four of them were all sweaty, so Jayce yelled,
“Last one to the lake is a rotten egg!”
All of them quickly went to their cabins, put on their swimsuits, grabbed a towel, and sprinted to the lake deck.
Vi, out of breath, stopped on the lake deck, to see Viktor and Jayce already swimming and splashing eachother with roaring laughter. She then stepped back a bit to get a good headstart on her jump, and cannonballed into the lake next to Jayce and Viktor with a big splash.
The water was very cool and refreshing. When she swam up to the surface, Jayce instantly splashed her face and started attacking her with the lake water,
“Hey! What the fuck!”
But his victory wasn’t held for long when she retaliated so fiercely he eventually backed down. Realizing Cait wasn’t in the water yet, Vi turned her head, looking for her because she was definitely the rotten egg.
Her jaw dropped when her eyes glared in awe as she found Caitlyn slowly walking across the lake deck. She was in a blue bikini, matching her hair and her eyes. Her body, reflecting in the sun, was very fit and toned with muscles. She flashed a quick smile to Vi, showing her cute gap in between her teeth. Vi almost died right there.
Realizing she was staring too much, she quickly swam over to the edge of the lake deck, and pushed herself upwards onto the deck, then flipped her pink hair over her head with a hand.
When Vi did this, Caitlyn stopped walking for a moment, as Vi pushed herself upwards, flexing her very big biceps and washboard abs. Vi was just wearing a simple sports bra and shorts, her whole muscled figure for Caitlyn to see. The image replayed over in her head in slow-motion when Vi realized she was staring and said,
“You know what happens if you are the rotten egg, right?”
“Um.. what? No I don’t..” Caitlyn said, utterly confused.
Vi instantly rushed and grabbed Caitlyn by the waist, pulling her over her muscled back. She then walked over to the edge of the lake deck as Jayce and Viktor were chanting,
“Throw her in! Throw her in!”
Trying so hard to get out of Vi’s tight grasp, Caitlyn shouted nervously,
“Vi! Let me down! Please! Stop it!”
A smirk crept on Vi’s face when she said,
“If you say so, Cupcake”, and threw her into the clear lake water.
With a big flailing splash that looked like it hurt, Caitlyn came up from the water with a scowl on her face. She didn’t say anything, just looked at Vi with a glare. Vi just gulped and wondered what she would do next. She then held her shoulder, and grimaced like it hurt. When she got herself up to the edge of the lake deck, Vi shuffled over her with a concerned look on her face, and said,
“All good, Cait?”
“No… I think I hurt my shoulder real bad.” Caitlyn winced.
But when Vi went up to check if her shoulder was alright, Cait turned her body and gave Vi a large shove in the clear lake water with a smile.
When Vi came up sputtering water with a pout on her face all Caitlyn said was,
“Karma’s a bitch, I suppose.”
After playing lots of rounds of chicken with Jayce and Vi, Caitlyn then saw a cliff about 12 feet up that was above some pretty deep waters.
“Jayce, you see that cliff? Let's jump off it!” Caitlyn said with amusement. Jayce then followed her as they hiked up the hill, but Vi stayed behind.
Caitlyn walked up to the tiny cliff overlooking the beautiful clear lake water reflecting in the sun. She looked down at the water below her, then at Vi who was waving at her, then took a big breath and jumped right off the cliff.
“Geronimo!” Cait yelled before hiting the water with a large SPLASH.
When her and Jayce had jumped off the cliff a numerous amount of times, Caitlyn then swam over to Vi, who was chatting with Viktor, and said
“Vi, wanna jump off the cliff with me?”
“Um.. I don’t really like heights… I’m good, Cait”, Vi said as she scratched the back of her neck awkwardly.
Caitlyn then looked at her with those dark blue eyes. Those damn blue eyes. It was almost like she knew what she was doing. She held out her hand to Vi and said with a smile,
“Vi, I promise it will be fun. Please? Do it for me?”
Vi found herself starting to grin just watching Caitlyn in that damn blue bikini with those damn blue eyes, her good-looking dark blue hair, and that damn smile with that little gap in her teeth. A smile that made her almost want to do anything she said.
After shaking off her thoughts about Caitlyn, Vi reluctantly takes her hand and they start walking to the jumping point. But when Caitlyn and Vi got to the edge of the cliff still holding hands, Vi instantly shivered and froze looking down at that clear lake water.
Realizing Vi was a little scared, Caitlyn placed her free hand on Vi’s cheek, tilting her chin to lock their gaze. Vi felt her body feel a wave of instant calm, and Vi’s cheeks instantly flushed as Caitlyn whispered,
“It’ll be okay I promise. On 3, okay?”
Vi nodded and they both screamed,
“1, 2, 3!!”
Letting go of eachother’s hands as they hit the water, Vi then dived into the lake and slowly swam up with a smile on her face. Emerging from the water to see Caitlyn watching her, she ran a hand through her pink smile and whispered to Cait,
“Thanks. I needed that, Cupcake.”
Caitlyn’s ears then got pink and she decided to playfully splash Vi with all her might and hide underwater before Vi could splash back.
Stop getting embarrassed Caitlyn, its just Vi.
…
After a fun bonding activity of Twister, which to no surprise Caitlyn won with ease because she was so flexible, Caitlyn began walking back to the cabin alone. Vi had wandered off with Jayce after they decided to play tag, and Viktor had quietly slipped away to return to his cabin.
As Caitlyn was walking back to the cabin, she saw a light on from a building she hadn’t seen before. When she sneakily went to the back of the grey building to explore, she found a vending machine, Her eyes grew large when she saw tons of Coca Colas, Dr. Peppers, Sprite, and Fantas.
“Jayce is gonna explode when he hears about this,” She muttered to herself.
Remembering that she owed Vi a coke because of a one-sided bet Vi made with her about the science test, she put a dollar in the machine, and slowly, it popped out a cold Coca Cola that looked like it was from the 1950s.
With a grin on her face she jogged back to the cabin, soda in hand, hoping to find Vi only to find that no one was there.
With a disappointed look on her face, she then started walking around the dark camp, seeking out Vi.
After 10 minutes of searching and on the brink of defeat, Caitlyn stopped in her tracks to see a strange sound. Was that.. Strumming? Full of curiosity, she followed the sound, and with each step it became more pleasing to her ears. The pleasing music led her to a flickering campfire in the west corner of camp, a place where only the old abandoned buildings were.
And there she was. Vi Lane. In her own little astounding world, sitting on a log, strumming the guitar, and humming along to a melody. Caitlyn held her breath as she watched Vi and her calloused fingers slide up and down the frets and strum the strings with ease. When whatever melody Vi was playing ended, Caitlyn hesitantly walked toward her, purposefully making some sound.
Vi turned her neck and instantly smiled when she saw Cait grinning at her with a soda in her hand.
The two just stared at eachother with the unpredictable flicker of the campfire with what feel like hours, or seconds, when finally Caitlyn said playfully,
“You didn’t tell me you played guitar.”
“You didn’t ask.” Vi shrugged as she set down the guitar on the log beside her.
“Where did you–”
“I borrowed the guitar from the mess hall. I don’t think anyone needs it right now.” Vi said, not meaning to interrupt her.
Caitlyn hummed in acknowledgement then sat down on the log across from Vi. Vi then pointed at the soda in her hand and asked,
“Donde esta you get that?”
Cackling at the stupid Spanglish sentence Vi had just blurted that didn’t even make sense, Caitlyn said softly,
“Found a vending machine. It’s yours. For that silly one-sided bet you made.” Caitlyn then reached out her hand with the soda but Vi reached out to grab it from her and she pulled it back with a grin.
“It’s only yours if you play me a song.” Caitlyn said, still smirking.
“Huh? What? No fair!” Vi huffed.
Caitlyn just shrugged and pointed at the guitar beside Vi.
After an intense staring match of silence her and Cait seemed to have, Vi knew she could not out-stubborn Caitlyn. No one is as stubborn as Caitlyn Kiramman. She just sighed and picked up the guitar, putting it in position.
“You better not judge, Kiramman.”
With a mock dramatic gasp Caitlyn exclaimed,
“Back to last name status. You have to play the song now.”
After shaking her head and taking a deep breath. Vi just strumming and swaying back and forth on the log, moving with the rhythm.
Hesitant at first to sing in front of Caitlyn, Vi just looked at her across from the campfire with a nervous grin. Caitlyn was looking right back at Vi, like there was something extraordinary about her, like she wouldn’t care if Vi messed up on all the notes, she would still compliment her. Vi quickly promised herself to never forget that look.
Not breaking eye contact with Caitlyn, Vi started to sing the song.
“You’re a part time lover and a part time friend,
The monkey on your back is the latest trend,
I don’t see what anyone can see,
In anyone else.. But you”
Completely bewildered by how beautiful yet rasp Vi’s singing voice was, she realized she knew the song, and it was a duet.
Vi continued into the next verse,
“I kiss you on the brain-”
Caitlyn then joined her as they sang together in perfect harmony,
“In the shadow of the train,
I kiss you all starry eyed, my body's swinging from side to side
I don’t see what anyone can see
In anyone else.. But youu”
Caitlyn’s ears turned pink as they sang these lyrics together, locking gaze, blue eyes meeting grey, dark hair meeting pink, and soft cheeks meeting freckled ones.
This girl is gonna be that death of me, Caitlyn thought.
“Here is the church and here is the steeple
We sure are cute for two ugly people
I don’t see what anyone can see
In anyone else but youu”
How can Vi, the one who was rude to you at that party, be so perfect? How can she just sit there, perfectly playing the guitar and singing in harmony with me, looking at me like that? She never noticed it until now but the fire brought out a scar across Vi’s eyebrow. Maybe it wasn’t the fire, maybe she just never looked close enough. Fuck. Caitlyn stop it focus on the song.
"The pebbles forgive me, the trees forgive me
So why can’t you forgive me?
I don’t see what anyone can see
In anyone else but youu”
After Vi finished strumming the outro, while never breaking eye contact with Caitlyn, and quietly set the guitar down, she saw Caitlyn giving her that same damn look again. The one who saw promised herself never to forget.
“You have a good singing voice, Cupcake”, Vi said with a wink.
Cait’s ears turned pink as she gently threw the soda can at Vi, which Vi caught with ease, and Caitlyn just got up and said,
“You’ve earned it. You are very excellent at guitar, Vi… Now, we should probably head back so we don’t miss curfew.” Caitlyn said with a soft huff.
After a walk to the cabin full of laughter because Vi was telling Caitlyn about a time Powder almost burned down the house trying to make toast, the girls slipped into bed with contentment for one of the first times at this camp.
Caitlyn closed her eyes, but lay restless on her pillow as she was thinking about Vi a lot, like how good Vi looked today at the lake, her biceps and abs fully out, and how good Vi was at guitar and how good her singing was and how.. Fuck, Caitlyn. You’re starting to catch feelings. For Vi. For your lab partner.