Run Little Lost Girl

Chapter Five

Edited✔️✔️

Please tell me if there are any mistakes. Thank you.

Chapter 5

Mia arose groggily from a dreamless sleep, with sand in each corner of her watery eyes. It took her tired brain a moment to remember where she was, and her heart spiked for a split second before calming down as she remembered all that had occurred within the last twenty-four hours.

Loud snored from all the sleeping boys surrounded her in the unfamiliar darkness, and a few were noticeably mumbling in their sleep incoherently.

She tried to fall back asleep, but was restless due to the fact her empty stomach hurt and wouldn't stop growling, reminding her of just how little she had eaten for dinner. Finally, she willed herself to get out of bed, swing her legs over and onto the fur rugs, and padded up the stairs that led to camp. Smoke was still emitting from the logs of last night's fire and Mia could hear the birds of the early morning chirping in the distance—something they didn't do when the boys were around, she noted.

Mia walked over to a random pile of red apples by a tree and picked the top one up. She cleaned it off in a bucket of drinking water, not bothering to dry it, and started munching on it slowly while sitting on a large log.

Being surrounded by the calmness nature, she finally felt like she had the peace and quiet she required to think through everything that had happened in the last few days. She thought about her friend, Anna, and how worried she must've been to wake up and see her friend missing, with the window open as the only clue to where she'd gone. And her poor mother who must have been worried to death, crying and praying to anyone who would listen to bring her only baby back home.

Maybe they think I'm dead, Mia wondered dourly, her heart feeling like a dead weight in her chest. Maybe they've already given up searching.

"Are you ok?"

Mia jumped and turned around to face Thomas. She was surprised to find her cheeks wet and stained with tears and hurriedly wiped them away, embarrassed and flustered and in no mood to talk about her emotions to anyone.

Thomas walked over with a genuine sorrow-filled look in his eyes and sat down next to her, sighing. "Do you want to talk about it?" His voice was quiet, like a whisper, and reminded her so much of Anna that it physically hurt.

"It's nothing important," Mia replied quickly and sniffled. She forced her emotions back with the promise that she'd return home in, at the most, a month. "Just some emotional, girly stuff you wouldn't want to talk about."

There was a pause and Mia could feel his stare on her temple. "Can I give you some advice?" Thomas asked and Mia nodded. "If I didn't want to talk about it, I wouldn't be asking."

Mia sighed and rubbed her puffy red eyes, looking up at the trees. "You're right. I'm sorry," she said. "I just figured, since you're a boy and all, you wouldn't want to talk about things like this." She felt wrong and sexist saying it, but it was the whole truth.

If this was a boy at her high school that she was talking to, she knew for a fact that he would've been laughing at her for being so emotional and 'girly'. Thankfully, that wasn't the case here, and Thomas smiled at her as if he found her reply funny.

He chuckled. "That's what most boys want you to believe." Thomas turned his body to face her and rested his hands in his lap. "So, miss, please do tell me what you were thinking about to make you so melancholy," he said in a horrible fake British accent, making her laugh.