Lonely Neighbor [H.S.]

xxii. I don't eat sugar.

"So, we're already here and we still haven't figured who's gonna bunk with who." Lenny announced as she purposely dropped her backpack and jug of water ton the grass. I loosened the straps on my backpack and also let it fall to the ground behind me.

"Obviously, it's you and me. George and Jasper. Meg and Harry." I replied. I looked back to see the three boys carry our medium-sized cooler and place it just a few meters ahead of Lenny.

We finally found a nice flat ground where we could set our campsite. It was a few feet up the terrain, surrounded by tall rainforest trees and overlooked the gorgeous view of George's hometown. What's even awesome is that there's a small lake a few meters down from our camp grounds. We decided to go there tomorrow morning.

After weeks of planning for this and days of postponing due to multiple reasons from each of us ranging from Meg's sore eyes, Aunt Flow's monthly visit to me, Lenny's toothache and Harry's sore eyes too (which I believed came from all the inappropriate touches Meg did to him), we were able to coordinate our day offs and instead of spending the weekend doing absolutely nothing or getting wasted (again), we went on a roadtrip and will be spending the next twenty-four hours trying to survive the wilderness without our phones.

Yes, without our phones.

Harry strictly ruled out using our phones as we spend the night and he even confiscated them. He was supposed to leave them in his car but we were all afraid the sun's heat will melt them or something so he begrudgingly followed us. All the phones now sit comfortably inside the small compartment in Harry's backpack.

All of us tried to explain to him the importance of taking pictures on this trip but he refused to accept it. He said that we'll all be busy with our gadgets to even enjoy the journey. Well, since he was a photographer, we opted to give him the burden of capturing candid shots of us and whenever we asked him to. He happily obliged.

"Alright. We'll set up the bonfire here and make a circle around it with the folding chairs." George said, pointing at the center of the clearing.

All of us got to work and started building each other's tents. I huffed, annoyed at the complicated steps on how to set a tent up. Lenny wasn't helping me either. She was busy watching me poke sticks through the tarp while eating a bag of chips.

"Lenny! Can you seriously help me with this?!" I shouted when the stick I managed to stand between two rocks just a few minutes ago collapsed, pulling the other side of the tent with it.

Lenny was nowhere to be seen and the others were still busy with their own tents. I frowned, stomping my feet, as I dropped the materials for the tent and made my way towards the cooler to get a water bottle. I took a quick break before continuing my complicated tent-making scenario.

"Stop! No!" I suddenly dropped my water bottle when a hard gush of wind passed by us, almost taking my tent with it.

I ran towards it as the black tarp rolled away from the campsite. I almost got it when another pair of hands appeared beside my own and pulled the tarp back. I looked back to see Harry.

"It looked like you really need someone's help here." He quipped.

"Nope. I'm good. Thanks, though." I grabbed the tarp from him and returned to my area of the campsite.

"Doesn't look like it."

I glanced back to see him following me while adjusting the strap of his camera around his neck. I inwardly groaned. No, I don't need help from you.

"Seriously, it's okay. Don't you have your tent to put up with?" I replied. I started to make my tent again, sitting down and connecting sticks one by one.