Member-only story
Raw Resolution
The “Mr. Man” Event
“Did you remember to pack the flashlights, Jelly?” Angelica’s boyfriend, Derek, asked for the twentieth time.
Angelica’s body tensed as she tersely called back, “I told you I did.”
Her fingers pulled on the deceptively heavy, heart-shaped locket hanging from her neck.
“ ’K, Babe.” Derek went back to sorting through his backpack.
She hated it when he called her Jelly and Babe. She lost count of how many times she asked him to stop. Once again, she wondered why she agreed to go on this trip with his friends at all.
She remembered that argument vividly. Derek camped with his friends once a year. They set aside four days every summer to hang out in Branson, Missouri. Angelica hesitated to go with Derek because she felt like an outsider. He insisted she was being selfish by staying home. Like everything in their lives, his plans superseded hers.
Derek knew Mike and Jess from high school. Angelica only met them twice before at the bar for birthday parties. Angelica mused that Mike wasn’t too bad, but Jess acted like the stereotypical, small-town girl. Angelica found it hard to speak to them beyond the smallest of small talk. Their lives were too different from hers.
