We watch the sunset through the trees, taking turns slurping from a milkshake.
“Do you mean what you said about staying?” I ask him. We’re sitting in the back of his rented truck.
“Every word.” His eyes are set on mine. The onyx in them shimmers gold, the same color as the light fading around us. “Not everybody has plans to leave you, Hart. You’re worth sticking around for.”
He cracks a genuine smile, but I still see it as sexy. My heart flutters, both because of the words and the man who’s speaking them.
Goddamn. He couldn’t be hotter if he tried.
He passes me the milkshake, his warm hand brushing against mine. “I never intended to come out here and fall in love.”
The forest holds the echo of his words as I venture further in.
Sunlight peaks through gaps in the trees, lighting the path in front of me. But the undergrowth makes it difficult to see where the trail is headed.
I trial a few routes, but they lead nowhere, so I make the decision to turn back around. Only, I’m confused as to which way that is. Everything looks the same.
Nice one, Piper,I think to myself as I try to remember which direction I came from. Directions aren’t my thing. It’s also not helping matters that I zoned out mid-hike, more bothered about past events than I was about leaving markers to stop myself from getting lost in here.
I swing my arm around a tree and use it as leverage to help me up a bank. Perspective is everything in the game of life…
Only in this instance, I’m just as clueless as I was a few seconds ago.
I waste another minute contemplating a route, and decide to scramble back down to where I first started.
But now’s not a good time to be wearing flimsy sneakers…
I have no grip on the soles of my shoes, and go sliding down the other side of the bank into water. Extremelycold,fast-flowing water that numbs every nerve in my body.
“Fuck!”
And that’s not the worst part.
One foot is stuck under a rock. A rock that weighs half a ton.
Even if I manage to rescue my broken toes from this rock, I’m still screwed. I tumbled right into the heart of the stream, and the water gurgles around me, threatening to pull me under into the current.
I heave my foot out from under the rock, but it’s no good. Panicking isn’t gonna help me think rationally, but I’m too focused on my toe, and how many pieces the rock has crushed it into, to focus on anything else.
The fast-flowing water isn’t helping, smashing up against the rocks and hitting me. The chilled temperature manages to cool some of the sweat dripping down my face, but all it does is remind me that I’m still trapped with no way out.
“Fuck!” I curse again as the panic settles in.
On the count of three, I attempt to heave my foot out from under the stone. Bad idea. The force of trying to escape this boulder-sized rock lands me face down in the water.
And of course, my face justhadto make impact with the sharp point of a rock.
I’m unable to cuss this time, more focused on the excruciating pain that explodes through my cheek. I’ve never managed to suck up the sight of blood, and this afternoon is no different. An alarming amount of it drips down my face and plops into the water, turning it a murky red color.
I don’t bother counting down from three this time; I just muster enough strength to get myself the fuck out of the water.
But that’s when the shitshow starts.
I’m bleeding with at least one broken toe, and lost in the forest.
I think about ringing Jess, but I can’t ask her to come and save me from my own mistakes a second time.
Caleb.
