“Do you need anything?” Camila asks, sobering up a bit.
Valeria shakes her head. “No. I want to be this drunk, so I don’t think too hard about being in the tent all by myself, or I’ll climb into one of the girl’s inflatable beds. Can’t imagine Ella or Clara would be too happy about that.” Valeria laughs.
“Yeah, I’ve never stayed in a tent by myself, either.Maybe you can climb into one, and I’ll take the other. Ruin everyone’s plans.”
“Or,” Valeria says.
Camila’s eyes widen as the word hangs in the air. “Or?” she echoes, needing Valeria to finish the sentence.
“We could share a tent?”
Camila’s stomach bottoms out, and she feels herself blink rapidly, more than would be considered normal. “Share a tent,” she echoes again, because apparently, when she’s nervous, that’s all her brain is capable of around Valeria.
“Yeah, I mean, only if you’re comfortable. I figure it makes sense, since we’re both not looking forward to sleeping by ourselves.”
“Makes sense,” Camila says, trying to make sense of it herself.
“Perfect, do you want to stay in mine or yours?”
“Huh?”
“Do you want to stay in my tent or yours?” Valeria asks again, and that’s when Camila realizes her parroting Valeria’s words accidentally made her agree to share a tent.
“Mine,” Camila says, not wanting to seem more awkward than she’s sure she’s already being. “It’s bigger.”
“Perfect, I’ll leave mine up so I can still go in there and change.”
“Yeah,” Camila answers, feeling slightly out of her body.
A few seconds later, the girls came back with sticks and all the ingredients to make s’mores. Alejandra passes everything around, and everyone makes their own. Clara leaves hers in the fire a little too long, and it melts right off, sending tiny flames sputtering.
After they each have about thirty s’mores,they all say goodnight and retire to their tents. Valeria slips into her own to change while Camila does the same and moves her cot around a bit to make space for Valeria, trying not to obsess over the fact that Valeria will be sleeping right next to her. Her heart already hammered wildly when Valeria was in her living room; she can’t imagine the emotions having her an arm’s length away will do to her.
A few minutes later, Valeria whispers Camila’s name. Camila unzips the front of her tent, and Valeria walks through with her folded up cot in hand before she lays it right in the middle of the tent.
“Why is yours all the way in the corner?” Valeria asks.
“I figured they could be on the edges, leave enough room to walk in the middle.” Which is true, but what Camila doesn’t tell her is that she also did it to add as much space between them as possible to keep Camila from overthinking their closeness.
“Do you mind if we stay in the middle? I always worry an animal will walk through camp and tear the tent, and there we’ll be, right on the edge, ready to be eaten. At least in the middle we have a chance to make it out, you know?”
Camila wants to tell her that it makes absolutely no sense, but she finds it a tad bit too endearing to refute.
“You’re right,” she says instead.
Valeria stands taller, probably proud of her logic. Camila can’t help but smile.
Camila drags her cot closer until it rests right beside Valeria’s, and the two settle in. Valeria lies on her side, facing Camila, and Camila does her best to keep breathing through the nerves as she stares at the top of her tent, listening to the water outside as the current folds over itself in low murmurs, along with leaves brushing against each other in a dry, papery shuffle.
A twig snaps, and Valeria jolts upright. “You think that’s a bear?” she asks in a whisper.
Camila turns to look at her and shakes her head. “Sounds too small. Maybe a bird or a squirrel.”
Valeria visibly relaxes, lying back on her cot, but not before inching closer to Camila. “Do you go camping a lot?”
“I used to go with Eileen often. Haven’t been since we broke up. Which was three years ago now.”
“How come?”
