The Outside (#wattys2016)

The Change

The next hour was exhausting. My feet hurt like crazy and my shoulders burned with pain from carrying the tent. My shoes were coming apart, and I didn't pack a second pair. "We were unprepared for this." He said exactly what was on my mind. Even though it was winter back home we had reached an area exactly opposite. We were heading west now, in what seemed to be a desert. "3...2...1... Switch!" I said with the last breath I had and handed James the tent. We took turns carrying it. James and I had gotten close now, even more than friends. What were we then? I thought.

As we kept walking, my shoulders relieved to have the weight off of my back, the wind picked up. Finally, the wind was cooling us off. It picked up more until it was racing. My brown hair fell out of its braid and blew in the wind. "We should take shelter!" I yelled, the wind making it harder and harder to take the next step. "Where?!" He screamed back. The wind whipped our skin. I saw James almost drop the tent and I ran to help him. "There!" I said pointing to the first green thing I saw. More forest. We could take shelter there. We ran to it, and winding though the trees was a stream. We walked along it, the trees blocking the wind for us. Then it came to a complete stop. The stream came crashing down into a large pond. "Waterfall!" I warned James just as he was stepping over the edge. He fell back. "How did you not see that?!" I exclaimed. "I don't... I dunno."

We walked down until we came to the pond. I noticed little pathways going around, under the waterfall. "James, look!" I exclaimed pointing to them. "Maybe there's a cave inside." We walked on to the pathways and around into the cave as it started thundering. It was beautiful under the waterfall, and you could see the light coming through. "This... This is great." I said astonished. Then, he kissed me. Right then and there. I was almost going to fight it but I didn't. His cool lips felt good against my hot, sweaty ones. "Thank you." I told him. "Mia, your hair!?" He exclaimed. I looked at it. I had great big strands of highlights that were a light gold color. "What, what's wrong with it, James?!" I asked nervously. "It's, it's perfect. Don't worry, it probably just got like that because of all the sun you got." I calmed down. I looked at his hair. It was already the same light gold as mine, but had lots of beach waves. Even though he tried to slick it up, it never worked. We decided to pitch the tent. It was the last thing I remember before falling asleep.