While Sam heard, for possibly the hundredth time in her life, the story of how Josh and Chris met, I decided to snap some pics of the scenery. It was dark, but not as dark as it was going to be in a couple of hours, so it made it a perfect time to take dark and mysterious pictures that looked beautiful. I had proclaimed myself the official photographer, and was going to turn and take a picture of my friends when I noticed something odd. There was a bright light coming from somewhere in the forest and as I zoomed in I noticed the smoke. I kept watching for a bit, hoping for something else, but nothing happened. I slowly put my camera down and turned to my friends, deciding to put that hallucination away in the back of my mind.
"...boom. Butterfly Effect." Chris finished his story triumphantly, looking from me to Sam.
"We're almost there." was all I said, wanting nothing more than to sit on the couch in the living room by the fire and read. Chris patted my head and smiled at me as if he were praising a toddler for their great observation skills. I pushed his hand away and fixed my beanie, a little annoyed. The way he smiled at me made me smile back in the end, so it didn't matter.
I looked at the area where I had seen the bright light, hoping to catch another glance of something, anything. The forest looked dark and taunting, but no bright lights appeared. Soon enough my view was blocked by the wall of the station, indicating that we had arrived and had to get out soon. I grabbed my things and got out before Chris and Sam, going as quickly as I could to the door. I wanted to see if I might be able to catch a glimpse of something, it looked like fire, but it was gone too fast for me to draw any conclusions. When I tried to turn the handle to no avail, I panicked a little. Just as I was about to turn and ask Chris what was going on, I felt him behind me and saw as he banged on the door.
We stood there for a few seconds, waiting to see if there was someone on the other side of that door. Then, through the little window in the door, Jessica appeared. Her gaze instantly met mine and her eyes narrowed dangerously. I tried my best to keep a poker face and was about to say something when Chris thankfully interrupted.
"Jess, can you open this? I don't wanna be stuck in here with these two!" that got him an elbow to the rib by Sam, but I kept still and emotionless, afraid that if I did anything wrong she would leave us in here. Jess slowly pressed the button that unlocked the door and moved back to let us through. I stayed close to Sam, my poker face firmly in place.
"Oh. My. God. I thought we were goners. Another ten minutes in there and I would have chewed off my own leg." Chris exclaimed as he tried, but failed, to grab one of his legs and pull it up. Sam laughed and Jessica only smirked, never taking her eyes off me. Then I noticed the envelope she was holding, and I wasn't the only one either. Chris saw it, and because she was so focused on murdering me with her stare, Jess failed to notice as he reached out and grabbed the envelope from her hands. That got her attention and allowed me to escape from her glare.
Chris started teasing Jess about the envelope and Sam was trying to stop him, telling him to give it back and whatnot. I turned away and looked at the mountains, ready to grab my camera and take a picture of all the beauty, when something Chris said caught my attention.
"Someone has a lil' crush on our good friend and dear class president Michael Munroe." I turned towards them, blushing furiously thinking he was talking about me, and saw that he was still teasing Jess. She looked a bit flustered, trying to reach for the envelope, but apparently that statement had no real effect on her. Chris continued his torture when she didn't answer.
"...What kind of sizzling erotica might our Jessica be capable of imagining." He smiled wickedly and handed Jess the envelope. My cheeks were now a deep red for her and I really hoped that was the end of this, when she said what made my heart sink to the fiery depths of hell.
"Mike and I are together now, so it's not just a crush." she was smiling and her eyes glinted with mischief as she glanced at me.
Chris and Sam both turned to look at me, as if I would break upon hearing this news, but I swallowed it all and just smiled reassuringly. Sam walked to me and held my hand tightly. She said a goodbye to Jess and walked me away towards the path that led to the lodge, Chris close behind. I shouldn't be acting like this, Mike was nothing to me. I pushed him away, I made sure he knew I wanted nothing to do with him, so I shouldn't get all worked up because he has a girlfriend. Then why is my chest hurting? I'm not supposed to feel this, I won't feel this. I pushed the thoughts away and put up a front, something I've been doing for a while. Sam looked at me with a worried expression and Chris just looked sorry.
"I stopped liking Michael a long time ago, the fact that he has a girlfriend doesn't affect me guys, don't worry." I smiled at Sam and hugged her, trying to let her know I was ok. We continued walking, listening to Chris tell silly stories of his younger days of mischief with Josh. He was telling a particularly entertaining one as we crossed a small bridge, but got interrupted by the thing that jumped at us from behind the trees. Sam and I screamed and hid behind Chris, who took an awkward protective stand. Then we heard laughing, his laughter.
Chris groaned and stood upright, Sam stepped out from behind Chris and looked really annoyed. I stood paralyzed behind Chris, clutching to his jacket. Mike continued laughing, barely being able to breathe.
"Should've...seen...Sam...behind Chris...like a bear..." He said, between gasps. I saw Sam chuckle.
"I will admit, Chris was pretty funny with his protective mama bear pose." even I smiled at that, but still didn't dare make a noise.
"Hey, I had to protect you somehow since you were too scared to do anything other than hide behind me." Chris sounded a little annoyed and was scratching the back of his neck. I could only imagine his pouty face as Mike and Sam made fun of him.
"Hey, it wasn't only me, Abby hid behi-" Sam stopped in her tracks and just looked at me. I could feel as things just got a little bit too tense for anyone's liking.
Mike had stopped laughing when I moved from behind Chris. He looked at Sam, Chris, the trees, at anything but me. The fun atmosphere was gone and was replaced by an awkward tension. Sam smiled and talked to Mike while Chris silently pushed me the rest of the way to the lodge. As we passed them, my gaze locked with Mike's. There was nothing, no emotion, just maybe contempt. I forced the tears away, bit my tongue hard. This was a consequence of the actions I took, this is what I wanted and deserved. No point in crying about it now.
