I've never understood the point of camping. You eat shit food, have to shit in holes in the ground, walk until your feet bleed, and sit around a fire doing jack shit. Then, you end the day by laying in this hard ass cold ass sleeping bag and waking up at sunrise to do it all again the next day.
My viewpoint didn't get any better when I was forced to go on this kooky "mandatory" camping trip five hours away from home (my parents forced me and I complied, not after long hours of screaming fighting).
The only kook I could tolerate was Sarah Cameron, but even she's just not like my friends. I'd rather smoke in an old shack with JJ than stay in a deluxe Disney resort with Sarah.
"Ok kids!" I hear a loud voice interrupt my thoughts as Anna speaks, clapping her hands together as she finishes setting up the last tent. I have no idea how Kie managed to get out of this. She was the only other girl on the island with a pogue dad and kook mom.
"Time to call it a night! If anything goes wrong with your tent feel free to wake me up, but other than that, lights out guys! No funny business!"
I sigh, rubbing my eyes in fatigue as I start to retreat into our tent. "Which bag do you want?" I ask. Sarah looks at me in almost sorrow and apprehension as she makes eye contact with a girl from across the campsite, then back to me.
"Um... yeah about that... I'm sorry y/n, but is it ok if I tent with Kayla tonight? Just tonight, I promise," she asks quickly, as if to not offend me. "Uh, yeah that's fine," I say with a beaming smile. Ugh, I'm such a people pleaser for no reason.
I almost called it- Sarah and I are on good terms, friendly even, but I'm definitely a last resort.
Oh, well. More room in the tent for me.
I huff out a breath as Sarah grabs her things and walks across the campsite to Kayla's tent without even looking back. I tuck my hair behind my ears, looking around, then my eyes catch bright blue ones burning into me from afar.
I'm not sure why Rafe is staring at me or why it's making my face hot and my back shiver, but I want to shrug it off and just get any sleep I can before the early morning we have tomorrow. He looks at me, at Sarah, then back at me before what it looks like to be fighting a smile, then retreating back into his tent with Kelce.
I furrow my eyebrows and crawl into my tent, zipping it up before crawling into my sleeping bag. I try to shut my eyes in hopes of sleeping, but of course, insomnia always wins. So instead of gaslighting myself into thinking I'll eventually fall asleep, I plug in my phone and turn it on, putting up the brightness.
I scroll on TikTok and before I know it it's 1 am. If that's not real than I don't know what is. I heard a few twigs snap in the far background like 15 minutes ago, but I try not to scare myself.
I know it's just me and the crickets, and unfortunately, the freezing cold. I try to roll myself further in my sleeping bag, wrapping my arms around myself to preserve heat, but nothing helps. I reach up and even my hair feels almost wet by how cold it is.
I sigh out loud, knowing this is gonna be a long night. Just as the cloud of air leaves my view, I hear twigs snapping again. Then again, more intensely and closer.
Oh God. Please no. Dying by a bear attack is so lame and scary.
As the footsteps start to get closer to my tent my heart starts to beat and blood rushes to my face. I sit up, trying not to make noise as I climb out of my sleeping bag.
I reach for my portable charger as a weapon and crouch as my heart beats in my head. Please let it be Sarah, PLEASE. Or any non-threatening being that's not trying to eat me as a late night snack.
