Chapter Eight

The air suddenly feels cool against my sticky skin. A combination of the sounds of rushing water and various birds contribute to the most beautiful view. Across from where we stand is a magnificent waterfall that pours into a circular crater-like pool. All around are trees standing at different heights, all of their leaves different shades of green.

Our whole group is frozen in awe while we soak in the sight. I have to admit that the treacherous hike was undoubtedly worth it. Slowly, we begin to descend closer to the water.

We find a spot where the ground is mostly levelled, near a path that goes into the water. After shedding our clothes, we follow one another into the pool. The water is freezing, but it feels amazing after the mission we completed. Some of the others begin swimming to the waterfall, while the rest continue to admire the beauty of the area.

Left alone, I count to three and completely submerge myself. With my eyes closed and my nose plugged, I feel as if I’m in a different world. The sounds around me are muffled and distorted. Some part of me wonders if this is what death feels like. That same part of me wishes that I could stay in this moment forever.

Everything feels so far away.

Of course, my pathetic ass human body needs oxygen, so after a very long minute, I fly up to the surface. The sounds of nature and laughing adolescents ring through my ears. After regaining my composure, I swim towards where everyone is gathered.

“This is amazing,” I say once I cross under the waterfall. Everyone nods, looking out at the view.

Christian smirks and slings an arm around my shoulder. “You’re amazing.”

“I bet you said the same thing last night when you were balls deep in Oliva,” I snort.

Instead of cursing at me, he laughs heartily. He removes his arm from me so that he can wipe away his stream of tears. “You’re a funny one, Man Eater.”

“Shut the fuck up, Chrissy,” I spit out. He raises a challenging eyebrow, and I feel my face begin to warm at the memory of what had happened before we reached the lake. “Say something, I dare you.”

He takes a step closer, but I remain in the same spot. “First, you're telling me to shut up. Now, you’re telling me to say something. Make up your mind. What do you want from me?”

“You’re getting too comfortable,” is my response as I pass him to stand with Ariel.

I interrupt her conversation with Justin, earning me a cold glare from the latter. Ariel smacks him and says, “I’m so happy you decided to come along, Maya.”

“Me too,” I smile.

Two muscular arms come from behind and rest on my shoulders. I look up to see Ace with a lopsided grin on his face. “I’m happy you came too, My.”

“I’m always down for some quality time with the Scotts,” I beam. “Well, except for maybe Adonis. I can’t stand that guy.”

I back away from the edge of the water as Adonis takes a break from making out with Addison to stalk towards me. “Listen, I basically changed your diapers. That’s the problem with you kids today: you have no respect for your elders.”

“Yeah, okay, grandpa,” I roll my eyes.

Just as he is about to lunge at me, Addison grabs his arm. “You’re going to be 30 soon, don’t go picking fights with little girls.”

“Exactly. See, I knew I liked you, Addison,” I match her smirk as she pulls him off to the side.

While I’m distracted, Justin leads Ariel away from me. Ace and I watch as everyone jokes around closer to the water. Our eyes land on a particularly sore sight and he says, “Christian and Olivia, huh?”

“She does seem like his type, right?” I ask.

“And you’re not,” he replies.

I turn to face him, my confusion clear as day. “What do you mean?”

Ace shrugs, keeping his eye on the couple as they sit on the other side of the falls. “You’re too good for him.”

“Shut up,” I mutter. “I don’t even know what that’s supposed to mean.”

“He seems like he just cares about a good time and nothing else. I don’t know, I’ve seen him act like he’s interested in you, but then he goes and does the same thing with her. Just doesn’t sit right with me, is all,”

I nod, not bothering to agree or disagree. “Come on,” I say instead, “let’s have a race.”

*

Of course, Ace beat me in our swim across the lake. He made me promise to buy him ice cream tomorrow as his prize. After hiking back down the trail, we arrive at the campsite for a late lunch.

While the guys fire up the grill, I go to change into an oversized t-shirt and a pair of spandex short shorts. Once the food is ready, we take our seats. As I eat, I reflect on the past 24 hours.

This trip has been fun, for the most part. I hope that the whole group gets together at least one more time before summer is over. When I look around at everyone’s smiling faces, I know that this won’t be the last group adventure. Across the firepit, I see Ariel explaining something to Justin. Her eyes are sparkling and she looks radiant. Seeing her like this makes me extremely happy and I can’t help but smile too.

When I finish my food, I get up to throw out my trash. By the garbage bag, I see Eli leaning against a tree.

“What’s up?” I ask, leaning next to him.

He smiles down at me. “Just enjoying the calm before everything gets crazy again.”

“They’re something, aren’t they?” I chuckle.

Eli nods. “So, your list. What’s next?”

I shrug. “I don’t really remember, you know.”

“You are hopeless,” he jokes.

“Hey,” I put up my hands in defense, “do authors always remember every line of a book they wrote?”

He gives me a dead look, but I can tell that he is struggling to maintain it. “Maya, there’s literally only fifteen things on that list.”

“It’s not my fault that I have a horrible memory. Live with it,” I say sassily, causing his mouth to form his classic boyish grin.

For a moment, he turns serious. “About Christian, did you want me to talk to him for you?”

Why does everyone keep bringing this up? From the start, I’ve been saying that I’m not interested. Not every girl needs a man to be happy.

“No. It’s fine,” I mumble. It’s not until after the words leave my mouth that I realize how unconvincing it sounds.

“Whatever, let’s go back now. I’ve had my daily does of Maya,” Eli replies, taking my hand in his.

When we return to the group, it seems that everyone has started drinking. Adonis, Addison, Alex, Hailey, and Ace grab some drinks and head off to the lake, while the remaining group of us stay and just hang out.

“What do you guys want to do after school?” asks Zoe, after Eli and I grab drinks of our own.

Surprisingly, Olivia answers first. “Eventually, I want to be a pediatric nurse.”

It takes everything in me not to scoff. Not because I don’t think she’s smart enough, but because I can’t see her working anywhere near kids with this attitude of hers.

“I still have no idea,” says Ariel. “I was undeclared first year, so now I need to figure out what it is that I want to do.”

“You’ll figure it out soon, you still have until the end of summer,” I assure her.

Next, Adrian talks about sports medicine. Eli then explains that he originally wanted to be a lawyer, but now he’s changed his mind. Maddy is a biology major, but still has no clue what she wants to do with it. Zoe agrees and says that she’s in chemistry, but she feels the same way. Justin is an english major, and he says that he plans on being a teacher once he’s done. Finally, Christian says that he originally went to school with the intent of being a surgeon, but due to certain circumstances, he had to drop out and take last year off. Now, he’s not sure if he wants to go back.

“I don’t know,” I say when it’s my turn. “I haven’t planned that far ahead in my life.”

It’s true. I enjoy my program right now, but I’m incapable of seeing that far into the future. If I make it to graduation, I’d love to work with at risk youth., but again, that’s just an ‘if’.

We continue to talk and drink until we hear a rush of footsteps. Everyone in the older bunch shares the same panicked expression. Adonis, carrying Addison, rushes forward.

“What happened?” Zoe jumps up and sprints to her sister’s side.

“I slipped on a rock and messed up my ankle. I’m fine though, I don’t know why everyone’s creating such a fuss,” Addison blushes.

Adrian steps forward to take a look. “Ad, this is definitely broken.”

“That’s what I keep telling her, but she won’t listen!” Adonis all but yells.

“Okay, let’s pack up. You need to go to the hospital asap,” Adrian says calmly. “Please tell me not everyone was drinking. Who can drive right now?”

Ace raises his hand and steps forward. “I didn’t. I’ll drive Don’s car.”

“All I had was half a beer, I can drive Ariel’s car, if that’s fine with her,” suggests Christian.

Ariel nods, knowing she’s in no position to argue.

“I drank the least out of the rest of us, so I guess I’ll drive my car,” says Hailey.

We all hurriedly take down the tents and pack everything up. The entire time, Addison keeps telling us that she really is fine, and that we don’t need to be doing all of this.

“See! I can even walk on it,” she tries to say, but ends up crying out in pain the second her foot touches the floor.

Adonis kisses his teeth and rushes to support her body. Once everything is cleared up, we start the walk back to the parking lot.

“Okay, I’m driving to the hospital. There’s no need for all of us to head there, so whoever is coming with me, put your stuff in this car. That’s me, Adonis, Addison, and Zoe. We can take one more person,” Ace states. Maddy agrees to go with them.

I admire how Ace is handling the situation. You’d think that he’s actually the oldest brother, rather than the second youngest. They all pile into his car and, after agreeing to call us when they’re there, he zooms off.

“Alright, so in our car, that’s me, Ariel, Eli, Adrian, Justin, and Maya,” Christian says. “Hailey, you’re sure you can drive?”

She nods and swings her keys on her finger. “I only had a cooler, thank God.”

Everyone says goodbye and piles into their separate cars. Because of my luck, I ended up riding shotgun. Just before we pull out, I hear a tapping on the driver’s window.

“When can I see you again?” asks Olivia once the window is down. Christian shrugs. “Well, can I at least get your number?”

She hands him her phone and he fills out the contact information. When he hands it back, she leans in for a kiss. Christian speeds off just before her eyelids shut.

“Do you treat every girl this way?” I ask, genuinely curious. The Christian I’ve seen the past two days seems nothing like the one from the last time we hung out.

He slides his sunglasses up so that I can see his daring grey eyes. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

I ignore his response and opt to look out the window as we drive down a dirt road. Everyone behind me has already fallen asleep, so I pull out my phone and search through my apps for a game to play. After about half an hour of solitaire, I find myself bored. I spend a few seconds flipping through radio stations before just plugging my phone into the aux.

The next fifteen minutes are void of talking, only my humming along to my playlist filling the air. For the past five minutes at least, I’ve noticed that Christian keeps opening his mouth and looking over to me as if he has something to say, but he never ends up saying anything.

Finally, I can’t bear it anymore and I have to keep myself from yelling at him. In a neutral tone, I ask, “Something on your mind?”

He shakes his head, and after a moment, he says, “You confuse me.”

My eyes widen in shock. “I confuse you?”

Ignoring my accusatory tone, he continues, “I feel like you’re hiding something.”

“Please, Christian,” I start, “What could I possibly be hiding from you?”

“I never said you were hiding anything from me. I’m just saying you’re hiding something. Aren’t you?”

“You don’t even know me,” I argue, ready to end the conversation.

He looks at me from the corner of his eye. “I’m trying to.”

“I told you from the start that I never wanted anything to do with you,”

His eyebrows furrow, but I can’t bring myself to care. “Why do you have this wall up with me, Maya? I saw how carefree you were with everyone else. Do you feel like you can’t be yourself around me?”

Before I reply, I turn around to check the sleeping faces of my friends. “I just met you.”

“Don’t use that,” he prods. “Why are you acting like this?”

“I’m not acting like anything! You do not know me Christian, and honestly, it’d be best if you keep it that way,”

“Do you think you’re going to break my heart or some shit? I just want to understand!”

I can tell that he wants to yell by the way that his long fingers are gripping the steering wheel. Believe me, if we were alone, I’d be yelling too. Why are we even arguing right now? What is it that we’re arguing about?

His jaw clenches and unclenches. If I could hear his heartbeat, I bet it would be pounding.

“Calm down before you crash the fucking car, Chrissy,” I throw at him.

“Call me that one more time and I swear to God, I will,” he throws his sunglasses off and stares at me.

I feign innocence and bat my eyelashes. “Call you what?”

“Maya…”

“What do you want me to call you then?”

Fire suddenly feels like it’s coursing through my veins. I’m craving excitement,

and this is the closest thing I can get right now. A rush of boldness takes over and I can’t fight it. I place my hand under his chin, urging him to take his eyes off of the road for a second.

He instantly reacts to my touch. I observe how his Adam’s apple bobs up and

down as he visibly gulps. Still, he refuses to look at me. My hand moves from his chin to the side of his face as I cup and caress his neck. He leans into my touch and I smirk smugly.

“Hey,” I say, my hand continuing its journey down his neck to his chest, and finally, his thigh. “What do you want me to call you?”

“Anything you want,” he groans. His voice comes out husky and I am enveloped by a tingling sensation

Not taking my hand off of his thigh, I lean closer to him. With my lips mere centimeters away from his ear, I whisper, “What is it that you want?”

I slowly lean back into my seat, but not before reaching for the waistband of his shorts, giving it a little tug. I can hear the smack as I release it and it hits his stomach.

He shifts in his seat, still not once looking in my direction. “Hmm?” is all that he replies.

I can see him straining against his shorts, and I subconsciously bite my lip. Maybe it would be okay if we… no. Not happening. Bad idea. Horrible idea.

“You should get Olivia to take care of that for you,” I half-heartedly suggest.

In the split second that it takes for him to shoot me daggers, Eli chimes in from the backseat, “Can you guys chill with the softcore porn up there? I’m trying to fucking sleep.”

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Here's chapter eight, as promised!! Hope you enjoyed x