Mindful Beauty

27) His Past

Happy New Year! I recently saw this one Tik Tok say that we need to enter quietly and not touch anything, and I thought that was quite funny. 😬😂 Anywho! Double update today, enjoy!

"Why is it so cold?!" Oliver whined loudly, his face scrunching into a pout as he trudged up the hill. "And why don't they have parking up there? That's suspicious!" He continued, ignoring the panned looks that Damien and Hope were giving him in hopes that he would finally shut up. He had been complaining the second he got out and started walking.

"I'd shut up before we end up accidentally losing you here. I heard there's a lot of bears." Kim lied. Even he knew that there was a limit to how much you could complain in an hour.

Oliver pouted harder, scooting closer to Katherine while Katherine made a face of disgust, using her hand that wasn't occupied to shove him off.

"It's cold, Katherine!" Oliver huffed, falling behind her to use her as a shield to block the frigid air that was slapping down on the group. Even Ella, who really enjoyed the cold weather, felt the air get in stuck in her lungs when she felt the icy wind smack right into her.

"You okay?" Damien frowned upon noticing her breath hitch as she quickly lifted her scarf up to her nose in order to breathe. Ella nodded, giving him a smile even though the only thing that he could see that indicated her smiling was her eyes that were squinted slightly.

"The cold air kind of knocks the wind out of you." Ella explained, allowing Damien to pull her closer to his side so that his larger frame could block it somewhat from her.

Falling a little behind the rest of the group, the couple was able to see and hear the bickering of their coworkers all throughout the entire hike up, which ended up being a good fifteen minutes before they finally entered the heated and cozy cabin.

"I get the master bedroom!" Kim dropped his large suitcase as he raced upstairs, nearly shoving off an already clumsy Ms. Neele.

Ella laughed softly, shaking her head as she set down her black duffle bag on the floor to give her arm and bag a rest. Just as she stretched, Hope grabbed her arm, lacing their arms together.

"Ella and I will be roommates." Hope declared loudly. The last thing Hope wanted was to be stuck in a room with Neele; she was so annoying. Ella, kind of surprised, looked at Hope with wide eyes. "What? Did you already have one?" Hope began to pout, quickly searching for Barnes instead. She didn't want to end up by herself nor did she want to room with Katherine. Both were scary ideas.

"No, no. It's fine." Ella patted Hope's hand gently before unlacing her arm to get her bag again. "Just find a room and I'll place my bag there."

"Awesome." Hope bounded her way up the stairs, and Ella trudged behind, a little tired from the hike already. "I'm really glad you're not rooming with someone else, but how come you and Damien didn't end up rooming?" Hope pondered once she found a bedroom that had two full sized beds on either corners of the room.

Ella shrugged. "I wasn't even aware that we were going to share rooms."

"Everyone but Kim." Hope snorted, throwing herself onto the bed and sighing in tiredness. "Ugh, we still have to make dinner. Kim wants us to play a couple of board games he brought, too."

Ella yawned, nodding along before she sat down on the bed, leaning back until she was lying down. Hope continued to speak, and to Ella, who was already tired from the long week, it was lulling her to a deeper tranquility until she was fast asleep.

"Right, Ellie?" Hope called out, waiting for a response that never came. "Ellie?" Hope tried again, and again, no response. "Ella?" Hope lifted herself from the bed by her elbows, finally seeing why Ella wasn't answering. Just then, too, there was knock on the door, firm and soft.