Five thousand feet over you

Chapter Ten

Kat:
Alex instead I sleep in after the Late night we all had last night, but I feel guilty for not helping out. I walk into the kitchen to help make breakfast, Jackson more or less runs over to me wrapping me in his arms. He smells of soap and rain. I can't help but smile.

I pour instant eggs into a large bowl along with some powder milk and water. Then I pour them into a large griddle. I add the slightest bit of salt and pepper to make the people happy.

Everyone here works quick and silently, especially after last nights episode. Ali seems obviously confused with the tension in the room, which is so thick you could practically see it.

I fill a pot with water and let it heat up so there will be coffee which will instantly put everyone in a better mood. Ali looks around and walks over to me.

"Hey Kat, what's going on with everyone? What happened last night?" She asks, to my surprise she doesn't sound peppy, for the first time in forever. I just shrug .

"Stuff happened but it's nothing." I mumble, it's to early in the morning to explain all of this to her, and quite honestly I didn't trust her that much.

"Exactly what stuff happened?" To my surprise she gets super defensive. I knew girls like her back in high school. I avoided girls liked her in high school.

"None of your business." I snap back. Ali narrows her eyes at me and gives me a smirk.

"You know what, your old friend, he knows something is wrong, I bet he knows what happened last night." Ali smears. She pushes past me and walks over to Marc. I roll my eyes and get back to work.

"What was that all about?" Alex laughs. I just roll my eyes.

"Mean girls will be mean, even after high school." Alex gives me a questioning look.

"What did she say to you?" Alex asks getting kinda defensive. What is it with people today getting all defensive.

"Nothing Alex, I don't need you the protect me." I snap. Now I'm the one getting defensive.

Alex puts his hands up in surrender and walks away. I feel bad, but bad enough to do anything about it. I think we're all just tired from lack of sleep and lack of the truth in Ali's case.

If Marc knew anything about this I don't know what would happen. I can tell he's trying to make things better between the two of us, but he's making things worse between me and Jackson. He chose Jay over me a long time ago. Now it's my turn to choose and I pick Jackson.

I'm hear rain start to fall against the windows. People quickly start to spring into action. Changing plans and checking maps. Running up to look at the weather forecast every ten minutes or so.

"Did I ever tell you about my first trip up here?" I ask Jackson as he leans against the table next to me.

"No I don't think you did." He shrugs.

"It was my 14th birthday and I was hiking with my dad. The weather was good at the bottom, a little hot but nice. But the further up we got the more cloudy it got. Eventually we were in the clouds and it started to rain. We were well prepared but we were tired. It was my first hut hike. We didn't even realize we reached the hut it was so cloudy. We just saw the sign but it took us a moment to realize the hut was only a few yards in front of us." I laugh and Jackson puts his arm around me.

"I love it when it storms, it's beautiful." He smiles as he looks out the window at the stream the seems to be flowing down the summit.

"Me too."