Page 45 of Into the Mountains
Red creeps into Elias’ face, from getting caught or from the chill caused by our clothes and I can’t stifle my laugh, even though I try to hide behind my hand. He nudges me with his forearm and he hisses like he’s in pain. Slowly, he rolls up his sleeve to reveal a superficial cut that bleeds into the hair on his arm. “Damn,” he says, trying to maneuver his body so he can see the cut.
“When did you do that?” I ask, moving my face closer to inspect it.
“Must have happened when you mauled me,” he jokes.
I stand and reach my hands out to him. “C’mon, I’m sure those two have a first aid kit,” I say nodding in Fran and Cordie’s direction.
As we walk the short distance to their camp, I can’t help but wonder what would have happened between us if our friends were far, far away.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
ELIAS
“You know, when we said we’d join you for s’mores, we had a different idea in mind,” Cordie jokes.
“Yeah, well genius over here decided to dunk us into the water–” Charlotte says, nodding her head towards me.
“And thenshedecided to make it a race.”
“Do you two ever quit?” Fran asks.
We look at each other and smile, knowing the answer. “Never,” we say in unison.
“I know. It was my fault. I wasn’t thinking. Just wanted to get Charlie back.” I nudge her shoulder gently. “Do you two happen to have a first aid kit we can use before we hike back to camp?”
“Of course we do.”
“Prepared as always.”
“We’ve just lived long enough to know what can and does happen.”
We follow them on the short walk to their camp where they dig out the largest first aid kit I’ve ever seen. It’s packed away in an old fishing box and the amount of supplies packed into this thing is incredible and I might ask if I can pay them to put onetogether for me. Charlotte takes the kit from her and lugs it over to the wooden picnic table a few feet away.
While she rustles through the kit, grabbing supplies, I settle myself on one of the wooden benches next to the table. Fran and Cordie stay by their tents to gather whatever they plan to bring back to our camp, leaving us alone on the bench.
A sting enters my skin as she sprays what looks to be peroxide on my cut, bringing my attention to her. There’s a few things now outside the box in various places around it. Cloth, gauze, bandages, and now the bottle of peroxide she used. Gently, she uses the cloth to clean around the cut before grabbing a clean one to clean the cut itself. Her hands are warm against my skin and I don’t ever want them to leave.
All I can do is sit and watch as Charlotte focuses on her task. She used to get a small crinkle right above her eyebrow when she concentrated too hard on her work. I search for it now and sure enough, it’s just above her right eyebrow, slightly at the edge. Her features have grown and shifted over the years, but they still seem so familiar to me.
“I can feel you staring,” she says softly.
“There’s nowhere else for me to look,” I lie.
“Look at a tree or something. Let me focus.”
I could listen to her. But what would be the fun in that? She’s wrapping my arm in gauze now, her hands a bit shakier than before. A strand of hair falls into her face and it’s like my arm has an automatic reaction, something so ingrained into it, I have no chance of stopping it. Not that I would if I wanted to. I tuck her hair behind her ear and let my fingers linger there, then slowly trail them down her jaw to her chin. I flick my eyes over to Fran and Cordie to make sure their backs are turned. They are. Either because they are too focused on what they are doing or are purposefully avoiding looking this way—doubt that—I don’t care. I just want Charlotte’s lips on mine again. I wantthe warmth in my chest to grow until it consumes me whole. Until she consumes me.
She cuts the gauze and makes sure it’s fastened before finally meeting my eyes. “All done.” Her voice is barely a whisper now, the air immediately more intense between us.
“I’m not,” I whisper back as I tug her chin toward me and kiss her. This one isn’t like the one a few feet away. It’s delicate. A vase balancing over the edge, waiting to fall or settle back in its place. I want to shatter it, but I can’t yet, so instead, I rest my forehead against hers and breathe her in. “Thank you for fixing me.”
“Thank you for…um…kissing me,” she responds, hesitantly and then starts to giggle at herself as if she can’t help it. I join in until we are both settled and content in our laughter. Once we catch our breaths, we start packing up the kit and return it to its place.
“Alright, I’m hungry, let’s head over to your group,” Cordie calls to us from the trail I’m assuming leads to the other campsites. We reach their side and she gives me a sly glance like she didn’t keep her back turned and saw everything. I just shrug my shoulders, because I’m not going to deny what just happened.
A ten minute walk down the path is all it takes before we hear familiar voices travel to us.
“I don’t care what they’re doing, they’ve been gone far too long and it’s already dark. They can’t sleep in the woods.” Avery’s voice is filled with worry and I feel a pang of guilt in my stomach from worrying her.
