Camp Foxfire Chronicles

I'm drowning. Not the fun kind where you're swimming laps at the YMCA and your lungs burn but it feels earned. No, I'm swimming in a sea of my own awkward.

Camp Wabanaki. Three weeks of mosquito bites, cafeteria mystery meat, and—most importantly—Fox.

Fox Chen, who sits two tables away at meals and has this smile that could end wars. Fox, who I've been crushing on since orientation day when they accidentally called me 'fam' and I nearly choked on my own tongue.

"You good, bro?" Fox had asked, and I'd managed something that was definitely not English.

Now I'm here, at the nightly campfire, wearing this ridiculous bear costume because I lost a bet to my bunkmate Tyler. (Pro tip: never bet against Tyler at Uno. The man's a shark.)

So I'm literally a bear. A sweaty, polyester-covered bear watching Fox laugh at something across the fire pit, their face illuminated by flickering orange light, and I'm just—bearing it.

Get it? Bear-ing it? I'll see myself out.

"Hey, Big Brown!" Fox calls, and my stomach does that thing where it forgets how to organ. They're walking over. Fox Chen is walking over to talk to Bear Me. This is fine. Everything is fine.

"Nice fit," Fox says, gesturing to my costume. "Very distinguished."

"It's... cozy," I manage. Inside the bear head, I'm sweating like I've never sweat before. " venti? Get it? Like venti bear?"

Fox stares at me.

I've ruined it. I've absolutely ruined it.

But then Fox's lips twitch, and they crack up. Not a polite laugh either—they're genuinely losing it, shoulders shaking, hand over their mouth.

"Oh my god, that was terrible," Fox says, wiping their eyes. "I love it. You're funny, Marcus."

They know my name.

We end up talking for hours, me sweating through my bear suit, Fox occasionally leaning in to whisper something sarcastic about the camp counselors' attempt at leading camp songs. At some point, someone suggests a late-night swim in the lake, and Fox turns to me.

"Coming?"

I unzip the bear head. My hair is plastered to my forehead. I probably look awful.

Fox is still smiling at me like I'm not a disaster.

"Yeah," I say, and for the first time all summer, I'm not drowning at all. "Yeah, I'm coming."

The lake water is shockingly cold, but under the moonlight, everything feels possible. Even starting something new while literally bare-ass in a lake with someone who makes you feel like you could be brave.

Okay, maybe not literally bare-ass—we kept our swimsuits on. But still.