2. Chapter Two

Chapter Two

The fisherman was gone by the time he took a break from unboxing craft paper, markers, crayons and round ended scissors. Disappointed, Prince took a stroll that way to see if the guy had left anything behind to give Prince a hint who he might be.

The shore was soft and sandy, almost like a real beach, and his white sneakers would be a mess by the time he got back to his cabin. No matter, he'd be throwing them away when he got home, anyway. The new styles for fall would drop soon after that, and he'd replace most of his wardrobe.

There was a prefect circle in the sand where the man had set his beer, and his shoe treads were all over the area. Other than those prints that hinted that someone had been there, there were no other signs. Nothing to tell Prince a name or where he might stay around the lake.

After he walked back to his cabin, he got on his bed and pulled his suitcase onto it next to him. In it were the clothes his maid had packed, his toiletries, including the best sunscreen money could buy. He spread some on his face as Silvio came in, huffing and stomping his feet over the wood planks of the floor. "That asshole!"

Prince guessed, "Toby?"

"Of course! Who else in this place is as big an ass?"

"What did he do?"

Silvio waved a hand in the air and mumbled, "Never mind, it's no use."

There were a few things about Prince that he rarely wanted anyone to know about him. One was that he was very lonely. It wasn't easy to make friends in the circles where he usually ran. Oh, fake friends abound, a kiss-kiss on each cheek, veiled criticism made to sound like compliments and the ever-present competition about what one had that the other did not.

Silvio wasn't exactly his friend, but he hoped there was a potential there. He pushed away the worst parts of himself to have some empathy and maybe cement a friendship. It would be something good that came of the ordeal.

"If you need me to help, I can help. He likely hates me, and that's okay. I've been hated by guys like him all my life. I don't rise to the same levels as them as far as treating other people like they're beneath me. Or…I don't do that all the time."

Silvio gazed over his shoulder at Prince, laughing silently. "You're one of those good-hearted billionaires, is that what you're saying?"

Slamming his mouth shut, he felt tears well in his eyes, but he refused to let them fall. He blinked them away, turning his head to hide it.

When he felt the bed sagging at the end, he turned to see Silvio sitting near him, his dark eyes warm. "Sorry. I used to come here when I was a kid. The counselors were mostly like him, rich, doing this to pad their resumes for college or some fancy internship. One even had to do community service because they killed a guy driving too fast down some steep road."

He was going to ask about that, but it came to him quickly. "He had a very powerful lawyer, right?"

"Three, if the rumors were true. The point is, I came here to be someone these kids could look up to. I made it out of the barrio, made it past being hungry and never having new clothes. Guys like him only push it their faces that they're gonna have to work a hundred times harder to get half the life that he has without doing a thing."

"Like me."

With a whisper, he said, "Yeah."

"I get it. I'm one of them, but…I'm not. Not really. I have more money than he does, I'm pretty sure, and I enjoy it, sure. What these kids might never know, though, is that we don't know real people. We don't have real friends or real family lives. At least, I don't. Rich in one area usually makes a person poor in another."

"Poor little rich boy syndrome, right?"

"I guess," Prince said, laughing. "Sorry. I'm sure my problems seem stupid to you."

"No, vato , they don't. We have the same issues in my neighborhood. Our folks gotta work all the time just to keep the lights on, you feel me? So, we know that shit, but I get it, Prince. Things really are difficult for anyone."

"Thanks. And, you know," he said in a whisper, casting a glance around to assure they wouldn't be overheard. "I can make his life miserable. Just give me the word, and he'll have a lot of trouble."

"How?"

"Wharton, for starters. If I asked my dad to get me Toby's place there, he would."

A slow smile spread across Silvio's full lips. "You got evil in you. My grandmother would say Hail Mary's over you."

"I don't think it would work."

"Probably not. Listen, I can take the shit he throws my way. If he messes with the campers, then I'll turn you loose. Do your worst."

"Deal," Prince said, holding out a hand to seal the deal.

Silvio shook his hand and offered, "Want to come help me clean up the floats for the littler kids?"

"Is it gross?"

"Snob! No!"

He smiled happily and finally felt that way, too. Then he thought of Gadsden. He was right to send him to the camp. As much as Prince hated him for it, he was suddenly pretty grateful.

When Sabrina found him helping Silvio, she smiled at us both. "I was hoping the two of you would be friends."

"Why's that?" Prince asked, suddenly stressed that everything about the camp had been set up for him, as he was used to the rest of his life. He needn't worry, though. Sabrina was no fool and didn't suffer them either.

"Silvio is our best counselor. He was our best camper before that, and you're new to the entire thing. Why wouldn't I want you two to be friends instead of…others?"

Prince got the hint. Rich boys gravitated to rich boys. "No reason."

"Okay, well, since you're both here, I'll get you checked off together. You both can work Cabin C, that's the ten to twelve-year-old boys. You'll make sure they're awake by seven each morning. They get to breakfast, and they stay away from the lake except for group activities there. Which is not easy, Prince. Silvio likely has some stories for you on that front."

"You should feel honored. Cabin C is the hardest of all of them," Silvio said with a smile thrown to Sabrina.

"Why?"

Sabrina explained, "They're children transitioning into young men. They're mean and hate authority, all those new hormones kicking in gives them the feeling of invisibility. They will swim, take off, climb trees, pet bears, you name it."

"P-pet bears? You're joking, right?"

She didn't say a word but stared into his eyes until he blinked.

Silvio could only laugh.

"So…I'm never going to get a break, in other words."

"Nope! That'll teach you to not study," she said, then left with a flourish.

"She knows?"

A hand came down on his shoulder as Silvio warned, "She knows everything, vato . That woman has ESP or something. Eyes in the back of her melon, you feel me? Never try to get one over on her."

"Heard and heard," Prince said with awe.

Before the last meal of the day, they all met in the dining hall to go over procedure for safety and rules for the counselors, the interactions with each other and the kids that were coming. Prince watched Toby as each thing was listed and he laughed with his buddies about them, as if he fully planned to ignore the rules.

Silvio leaned over to whisper, "He's got the boys thirteen to fifteen this year. I really hate to see what he'll teach them."

"Like what?"

"Like how he treats girls. He is a complete ass with girls. He thinks they all want him, and he takes advantage of that."

Prince couldn't count the number of his peers in boarding school that had felt the same. They were gods of the civilized world; they thought. Money bought them whatever they wanted and bought them out of trouble, too.

He didn't have that problem. From the time he was a little kid, he knew he was into boys, but he hadn't told his father that. He'd listened too many times to his father dreaming about the day he'd have grandsons to keep the family name going, but what he really meant was the family blood. Adopting wouldn't be accepted. It had to be a true Rose child.

"Like I said, all you have to do is say the word."

Silvio stared at him with his lips twitching. He wanted to smile so badly. Still, he warned, "No, revenge isn't good, especially with people like that. They'll only keep it going. More revenge, more hate. It's better not to."

Prince read between all those lines. If Prince took some act of vengeance, it wouldn't be under Silvio's name.

Dinner was gruel much like breakfast and lunch had been, but Silvio noticed how Prince picked at his food. "The cook here sucks, but every Friday, even after the campers come, we do a big barbeque and Sabrina might let us do the cooking."

"Me? Cook? I've barely seen a kitchen!"

A roll of his eyes, and Anton busted up laughing. "God, could you be any more unaware of the shit you say?"

"I was just being truthful."

"Truth can hurt, my good man. Next time, leave it at you can't cook. Then poor guys like me won't plan to hang you from the flagpole."

He smiled shyly, and whispered, "I'll keep that in mind."

After dinner was free time for the counselors, so Anton, Silvio and Prince went to the end of the lake, almost the exact spot where he'd seen his mysterious fisherman with the tattoos and fine body.

As he scanned the area for him, Anton noticed. "Okay, what the hell are you looking for? I promise, there are no ax murderers lurking in the trees." He lost his smile and glanced over each shoulder in turn. "At least, I hope not. I'm a terrible runner."

"Then we won't have to worry. He'll get you while Prince and I get away."

"Nice! You'd leave your best buddy to die at the hands of some eighty's slasher?"

"You have issues with the eighties?" Prince asked him while laughing at the two of them.

"Right? It's the decade his folks are from, so he thinks he has to rebel against it."

Prince sighed, "Well, I've got a boomer dad and millennial stepmother. My mom was Gen X, but I never knew her. I'd have to rebel about everything."

He finally noticed them gaping at him. Silvio was the one to ask, "Your dad is married to a child, what? Thirty years younger?"

"Yes, well, actually thirty-five. My mom was twenty years younger than him. He's sixty-six."

Anton fell back on the sandy shore and Silvio snorted, "Old playa."

"Old rich player," Prince corrected. "My mom was really in love with him, though. Everyone's told me how happy they were. Tory, my stepmother, she's into his money. It's obvious. They vacation separately and everything, but she's okay, I guess. She doesn't boss me around or anything."

After he was done contemplating the love lives of the rich, Anton stripped off his shirt. "I say we get wet. Who's with me?"

"Me," Silvio said, but Prince crossed his arms over his chest. "No thanks! That water is just a degree or two above freezing!"

"Nah, it's summer. It's at least five degrees above freezing," Anton casually dropped.

"Climate change, my friend. At least ten degrees," Silvio said as he started for the water.

"Right, climate change. Come on, Prince. You look like you could use some baptism."

"It's…not clean! It's filthy and fish shit in there. You realize that, right?"

Silvio stopped when he was only ankle-deep and laughed at him. "Have you never dipped into a lake? Ocean?"

"The ocean? Are you serious? Jellyfish and sharks and more filth?"

Anton came out of the water, running right for Prince and once he reached him, started shaking his head like a dog, the water from his hair flying out around him.

The water was freezing on Prince, but he couldn't stop laughing, either, even when Anton and Silvio both pulled him toward the water.

"Unhand me! I'll sue," he yelled, but laughed even louder until he was hip-deep in the water, and the laughter was frozen right out of him. "It's freezing! I knew it!"

As his teeth chattered, Silvio soothed, "Don't get out. You'll get used to it, believe it or not."

He refused to believe that. There was no way it was true, but he was too cold to move, so he had little choice.

Then, in the trees not fifteen yards from the shore, he saw the shadow of a man standing, watching them. At least Prince thought he was watching. It was hard to tell in the dark, but he looked to be the same shape as the fisherman he'd seen earlier.

"Silvio," Prince whispered as he waded over to him.

"Look at you! Told you you'd get used to it."

Turning his back to the shore, Prince whispered as low as he could, "Do you see someone watching us?"

As Silvio took the time to see, Anton came over to them, wondering what the whispering was about. "See that guy, Anton?" Silvio asked his friend.

"Who is that?"

My dream man , Prince thought with a smile. It was truly pitiful and cliché, but that tattooed god would make Leonard Rose have a hissy fit that could be epic. The thing was, he was exactly the kind of guy Prince liked and he didn't know if it was because of the fact his dad's head would explode or not.

"Look it this," Anton said to Silvio. "I think our new friend is a member of the alphabet mafia."

"Oh, shit, I think you're right," Silvio agreed.

Prince side-eyed them. "And?"

"This ain't the Middle Ages," Anton said. "Or even the eighties. It's cool and better yet, that cute mysterious thing you got going would drive the women crazy, so keep on liking the vitamin D and leave those ladies to us."

Silvio groaned, "So gross, Anton!"

"It's true!"

The cold water was an afterthought. They accepted him. Prince felt for the first time in his life that someone liked him for him, and not his money or status. His father had been careful to keep him only around those of means. Even his nannies were paid so well, they'd left and bought million-dollar homes.

He'd longed for diversity, and after finding it, treasured it.

And for that night, it only lasted for a moment. Toby and his buddies strolled to the shore, cutting off the line of sight he had in seeing the man in the trees. "Hey, guys! You skinny dipping and jerking each other off in there?" Toby called, and his friend, Fabian, laughed like Toby was a true comedian.

"Really original, Toby," Silvio called, and the three started for the shore together. "And even more mature!"

"You all were literally all clustered together in the lake. What else would someone think?"

"Fuck off, frat boy," Anton said as he got out of the water.

Prince was so cold his teeth were chattering again. The light breeze hit his wet skin like liquid nitrogen was being poured over him. Unwilling to let Toby see him weakened that way, he forced his teeth to stop smacking together. "Why, Toby, do you ask? Wanting to join in?"

Toby's eyes narrowed hatefully, his body tensing as he stared at Prince. Fabian was watching Toby closely, obviously unsure of how to proceed without his friend's lead. "What was that, Rose?"

"Just asking. I don't know you. In fact, no one that I know has even heard of you, I'm sure."

Fuming, Toby gritted, "Funny, Rose."

"Thanks. I'll let my father know you think so."

When Fabian and Toby ran off, Silvio and Anton rolled around the shore laughing, then got up to pat Prince on the back and shake his hand excitedly. "He's gonna be out for blood, vato , but man, you got him. You got him good."

"You're right. He'll be after me now."

A noise came to Prince, a cracking sound in the forest to his left. He saw the back of a man as he walked off into the woods, and Prince felt a chill running down his spine.

"That him?" Anton asked.

"That's…him."

"A mystery and an adventure. Welcome to camp, Prince Rose," Silvio teased. "Come on. Let's go get a beer."

"Beer?"

Anton confessed, "We all bring a bunch up with us to have on the nights leading up to the kids coming. Then we stock up in town again for the week after the kids leave. Enjoy it while it lasts, we say."

"I've only ever had beer once, when we were in Germany."

Silvio groaned, "You're gonna really hate this cheap stuff we get here. Sorry ‘bout that, but we're all not rich."

"If I come next year, I'll bring the good stuff."

"I knew I was gonna like you," Anton sighed as he slung an arm loosely over Prince's shoulders. "This is gonna be a helluva summer."