The Sweetest Thing

(14) The Sweetes Thing

The Sweetest Thing

Chapter Fourteen

Craig brought the minivan to a stop in front of the little building at the entrance and we all scrambled out. Everybody was paying for themselves so they all handed their bills to me. Kyle and I walked up to the little building and knocked on the door. The old man opened much quicker this time and greeted us with a smile. We paid him and then asked what activities there were that we could do today and where we had to go. The old man handed us a map of the resort and pointed out the various things we could do.

Once we were done talking to him we headed back to our group of friends standing in front of the minivan.

"What did he say?" Aiden asked, excitedly.

"Everything is open except for the pool, you guys can have a look at the map and decide what to do first." I answered, handing the map to him.

Everybody crowded around him, trying to get a look at the map. I didn't really care what they decided, if it was something I didn't want to do I just won't participate. They argued for a while and then finally decided that we should go hiking first and then mountain climbing. Olivia and Sophia wasn't happy about the mountain climbing idea but was overruled since everybody else wanted to.

"Come on, let's go!" Craig yelled as he got in behind the wheel of the minivan. We all squeezed in and Craig took off towards the hiking trail. It was only a five minute drive to get there and I was thankful for that. Sophia and Aiden had gotten into a fight over the mountain climbing and if the drive took any longer I might have slapped her.

There was a little wooden office at the starting point of the hiking trail. Kyle and I hung back while Craig and Oliver went inside to find out what we had to do next.

"Do you guys want a guide to lead us or are we going on our own?" Oliver shouted from the door.

"Were not five, we'll go on our own,' Aiden replied sarcastically. Oliver looked over at me but I couldn't really care so I just shrugged my shoulders. He disappeared back into the office for a minute or two and then reappeared with Craig by his side.

"What do we have to pay?" Sophia asked.

"It's for free since we're not making use of a guide but we are going to have to pay for the mountain climbing," Craig answered.

"Great! I hope we don't get lost," Olivia complained sarcastically causing Emma to glare at her. I had a feeling that Emma dislikes her just as much as I do.

"There's red markers all along the trail, as long as we follow them we'll be fine," Oliver informed.

"Yeah, just don't eat any of the berries, apparently they're poisonous," Craig said grinning. I wasn't sure if he was telling the truth or joking so I decided to just stay as far away from any berries as possible, just in case.

The hike took about three hours. It would have gone much faster if Sophia didn't want to rest every ten minutes but except for her complaining it was actually really fun. We stayed in a group not wanting to lose anybody but Kyle and I trailed a few feet behind. He held my hand all the way, keeping me calm and relaxed. At one point I saw Randy looking at our intertwined hands but I didn't let it bother me. He's seen us hold hands before, he shouldn't read anything into it.

I took a bunch of photos while we were on the hike. I even managed to get one of Sophia smiling, I think it was fake but it didn't matter.

When we were done we headed to a little shop not too far away from where we were. It didn't have much stock but we all bought us something light to eat for lunch. Kyle and both had an energy bar and a juice. I bought another two bottles of water and put them in my back pack since we finished the ones we had on the hike.

We all sat and ate on a little piece of open grass next to the shop. We waited about a half an hour for our food to settle and then we headed over to the mountain climbing. A person could see the mountain from just about anywhere on the resort but as we approached it, it seemed to grow larger. We all paid for our equipment except for Olivia and Sophia who decided that they would rather watch us then participate. I'm sure Olivia would have joined us if Sophia wasn't there but if she wanted her sister to ruin her fun it was her problem.

An experienced climbing instructor helped us put on our gear and then tied some ropes to us that was somehow tied to the mountain as well. He explained to us how to climb and what to do, giving us a little demonstration before allowing us to go ahead and try.

I was really nervous but I grabbed a hold of the mountain and started climbing very slowly. It took a lot of energy and my muscled were aching but I got the hang of it easily. Kyle was keeping a steady pace with me, I'm sure he could have gone much faster but chose to stick with me as he always does. Emma was also going at a slow pace but the rest of the guys were climbing so fast it looked like they were racing each other.

Kyle and I got about halfway up the mountain when I heard a pain filled scream. I looked up in the direction of the guys and saw Aiden tangling from his rope. As this happened I heard Sophia starting to freak out far down below on the ground. I watched in terror as Randy climbed over to where Aiden was hanging. I could see them talking but I couldn't hear what they were saying. The climbing instructor who was standing at the bottom watching us literally jumped onto the mountain and climbed up to where Aiden was. He reached him within in a few minutes. He wasn't wearing any gear which freaked me out a bit. If he fell he would surely die.

Aiden must have lost his grip or something and fell, luckily we were all tied up properly otherwise it would have been much worse. The instructor did something with the rope that was holding him up and lowered him to the ground. When Aiden reached the ground the instructor scaled down the mountain even faster than he had climbed up.

"We should go back down," I stated, looking over at Kyle. He nodded his head in agreement and we started making our way back down the mountain. I could feel myself getting more and more nervous with each step I took. I was doing fine until Aiden hurt himself, now I was in a complete panic.

Kyle and I were the last to reach the bottom. Everybody was standing in a little circle around Aiden.

"Is he ok?" I asked, walking over to them.

"Yeah, he just sprained his ankle," Randy answered, turning towards us.

"Oh, that's good, I think," I replied not really knowing what else to say. Randy stared at me for a second and then turned his attention back to Aiden.

The instructor gave Aiden some pain tablets and then bandaged his ankle. It was swollen pretty badly and from the look on Aiden's face I could tell that it hurt like hell. We stayed there for a while to make sure that Aiden was ok before we headed back to our cabin.

"I told you it was a bad idea," Sophia complained angrily. A person would have thought that she would be worried about her boyfriend but instead she was angry at him for getting hurt. It really didn't make any sense.

We didn't have anything to eat for dinner and since Aiden was hurt we decided not to go out to the diner we were planning on eating at. Instead Craig, Oliver and Randy headed up to the little shop to buy us some buns and meat. We were going to have a barbeque of sorts.