Eden and Bea (LGBT+)

🌳 x 16

"Hey, you guys!" a voice called out to us, after Eden had managed to calm herself down. 

I had tried to calm her down, too, but I wasn't sure how successful that had been. 

My head tilted in the direction of where the sound had come from, to find that Owen was only a short distance away from us with Axel. 

"There's two more acorns down here! You just need to use the ladder," he said. 

Right. That was easy. 

"Eden, are you ready to go?" I asked her. 

She met my gaze with puffy eyes and blotchy cheeks, but no more tears were visible. 

"Yes," she said, a little more decisively this time around. 

I couldn't help but feel a little bad about having made her cross that bridge when she had a fear of heights. Maybe I had been too demanding...I could have been more patient with her, but now was not the time to dwell on what could have been. Ultimately, it had been my encouragement that had enabled the both of us to get this far. 

I could only hope that Eden thought that, too. 

Eden walked towards the ladder and then began to descend it. 

Once I saw that she had reached the bottom, I followed after her and met Owen at the bottom. 

"I'll swing up there and get one, so you two can take that one," he said. 

"Are you insane? That's so dangerous," Eden said, as her eyes followed where Owen was planning on going. 

"In life, you have to take risks," Owen said and sooner than Eden could respond to that, he jumped onto the nearby rope and swung upwards to collect an acorn that was attached to the trunk of a tree close by. He then swung back down to join the two of us. 

"Eden, you can get that one," I said, nodding to the acorn that was hidden in the box nearby. 

My eyes glanced around to find that there was a shiny object attached to the side of the ladder. I climbed up it to grab it but ended up slipping on my route back down the ladder, which led to a scratch on my leg. 

Nothing serious, thankfully, but it still stung. 

"Hey, are you alright?" Owen asked me. 

Eden watched on with some undeniable concern behind her gaze, but it only lasted a fraction of a moment before it dissipated again. 

"I'm all good," I said to Owen, as I met him with a reassuring smile. 

Shortly thereafter, the three of us made our way back down onto the ground and were helped out of our harnesses by the assistants. 

"Are you sure you're okay?" one of the assistants asked me, as her eyes glanced down to where my jeans had been scuffed during my descent. 

"Yeah," I said. I would examine the wound once I was sitting down, just to make sure that I wasn't bleeding. 

She smiled and nodded. 

"Good. Well done, Axel and Owen and Bea and Eden, you're the only two pairs who managed to find all the acorns! That means you get these medals," she informed us and then proceeded to hand out the golden medals to each one of us. 

We thanked her and then continued onwards, so we could join the others again. 

When we sat back down, I examined my leg to find that it was fine- just a scrape. 

Eden eyed it with some unease, but took a step back and redirected her attention, when she found me looking at her. 

"That was so much fun!" I overheard Owen say and couldn't help but smile. "I've never done anything like that before. I could do that all over again," he said, "And we won, too!" he said, as he hyped Axel up. 

"We all did pretty great today," Axel said, "I am hungry, now, though," he admitted. 

Owen chuckled a little, before he replied, "Same." 

We soon made our way back to the main camp site, where they were cooking up grilled chicken. I loved grilled chicken. 

I grabbed a serving as soon as I was able to do so, and then went to sit down with Axel, Ren, Owen and Eden. 

Axel looked as though he had a lot on his mind, so he spoke first. 

"Eden, I wanted to apologise for what I said earlier," he started to say, "But do you want to be stuck in this situation with Bea forever? Don't you ever get tired?" he inquired. 

Eden's eyes flickered with something I had never seen before- regret? I doubted it. She remained quiet, as she chewed the piece of chicken. 

"What happened between you two in the past doesn't even matter anymore," he said. 

Yes, it did. He knew that. He was just trying to extinguish the flames that had been between the two of us for far too long, now. I knew that he was trying to help, but I really wanted to tell him to shut up. 

"What happens next is more important," Axel went on to say and that much I could agree with. "This is temporary. This feud that you have with Bea is going to mean absolutely nothing after graduation. Think about that." 

He didn't say anything else after that, which I was thankful for. 

Ren looked between Eden and I, as though she didn't want to pick a side. Her expression was neutral for the most part, but her eyes did flicker with some sympathy when she met my gaze. 

Eden wasn't paying attention. She was too busy eating and after a day like today, it was understandable that she was hungry. She then got up to refill her water bottle at one of the fountains nearby. 

"This doesn't make any sense," Ren said then, taking me by surprise. Objectively, though, I knew she was right. "I don't understand why people can't just be kind to each other," she continued. 

Well, great. Now, I felt more than a little bad. 

I also realised, then and there, that I had been so wrong about Ren. I had also been mean, too, by not including her. Sometimes not doing anything at all counted as doing the wrong thing. 

Sure, Eden and I might not have got along and for the most part, I pinned that on her, but I realised that I wasn't entirely free of flaws myself. Then again, could anyone say that they were?