Chase You

46; camping III

the above picture is from the cast list for the prequel (smitten with him). It's just for some visualisation, although i reckon you probably had your own ideas in mind. You can deffo tell i had a thing for brown haired guys when i was sixteen or whatevsss. lol.

Ok, this chapter takes some time to get into the 'swing' (ha) of things, but it's all necessary dialogue/content!

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Zip lining was on the rota today. I can't say I was looking forward it, either. Why did I even come on this camping trip?

Nevertheless, I headed out after breakfast with everyone with a sinking feeling in my belly. It felt like my insides were torn out, and replaced by a bowling ball that weighed down my entire body, enough to feel like I was practically dragging my feet across the narrow, mud pathways.

I was surprised to see that even Jace had tagged along, I couldn't help but loathe his peppiness and he skipped between Ben and Zach and held different conversations. The reason I wasn't expecting him to come was because this was fully outdoors and well, he's just not the outdoors type.

The zip lining site was quite far, right into the forest and away from all the other activities because it required a lot of land, I'm sure there was a minibus service, but we just didn't do our research and instead walked through tall, overgrown grass. All that surrounded us were cliffs and trees. Sam checked us in, and we lined up beside a small group of people who were waiting for their harnesses.

Waiting was the worse thing of all.

After we had another group join us, and finally made up the necessary numbers, our instructor introduced himself. He was an average weight, fairly muscular, short man, probably in his forties or so with brown, narrow eyebrows and a wide, flat nose.

He spoke with a very slight accent as he explained how to put the harness on. There were several loops we could've put our legs through, so we had to lay them out flat on the ground to make some sort of sense out of them.

Some of the instructors that stood around assisted us in tightening the harness, warning us to not tighten the crotch area and to leave it fairly loose because it tightens itself especially on zip lines. Other than that, we all had to triple check our t-shirts were tucked inside and we each had a whistle. Everyone seemed pretty joyful about zip lining, they all jabbed at each other and laughed as we all went through the training to educate us on how to use the carabiners and which one to use, since there were actually three safety hooks for fastening yourself and they had to be done in a specific order.

I honestly felt like I was being a downer. Everyone's high spirits pestered me, but I couldn't help it. I didn't want to do zip lining, I've never done it in my life, and the fact I was so anxious about the whole situation didn't make a great combination.

Ben, well, he knew I wasn't feeling it, but he was insistent on having me try it out. "You can do one course, and if you don't like it, you don't have to complete the others." He says on repeat, much like a broken record. The instructor had also noticed my uneasiness, and told me the exact same thing, exaggerating that I would eventually wish there were more courses.

Thankfully, the very first course was the shortest zip line, as well as the lowest. For someone my height, it probably wouldn't take too long to touch the ground and catch my fall. We were told to start running to match the speed when we land if we're facing forwards, otherwise use the heels of your feet to slow yourself down.