Wish It Would Rain

Chapter 20

Two stops and eight hours later, yes it was that long of a fucking bus ride, we finally arrived. Why they picked a camp site out of state and so far away, I have no clue. But I gladly got off the bus.

I groaned when Taylor finally walked over to me. It was around eight at night. And I was exhausted. It's sad. I felt like a grandma.

Taylor throws an arm over my shoulder, leaning on me. "Don't do that! I'm barely standing myself," I grumble. She chuckles and nods in agreement. Mr. Asshole, who had thankfully been on one of the other buses walks up to the big group.

"Everyone rejoin your parters! Find two other sets of partners to be in your section with you! Then go ask for your tent assignments!" He shouts. Cole walks up to me, glancing at Taylor. She clears her throat, slightly uncomfortable.

"Hey," she says, clearly hoping for a response. He doesn't give one. I glare at him, but he remained his usual emotionless self. Axel, Kayla, and Quinn walk up to us.

"So... we're all going to be in the same section?" Kayla asks, glancing at Cole. Quinn immediately nods, looking at Axel.

"Yup," she says. Taylor rolls her eyes, and curls her lip.

"God, let it be a big tent," she says, looking up at the sky. Quinn scowls at her, but I give her an amused look. When we were showed our section it was a little bit away from the other sections. Each set of three tents had a little bit of woods between them. Seeing as we were basically the last in line, we got a further section. Much closer to the open woods. But each section had a firepit in the center and logs surrounding it.

We all grabbed our bags and claimed tents. Cole went to the furthest one from the trail before I could even say anything. I give an apologetic look to everyone, except Quinn, and follow him. The tent had a tarp on the ground and we each had our own sleeping bags that we were required to bring. I gape at him and toss my bag to the side of the tent.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" I ask. He rolls his eyes at me, looking annoyed. I scoff. "Don't do that, don't pretend with me now. You can't even try to be civil with them?" I ask. He continues to glare at me. He still doesn't say anything. "They're still your friends! Hopefully not Quinn, because if you were friends with her I'd probably ignore you forever. But-" he chuckles. Well it was a combination of a scoff and a chuckle. Then he looks to the side as he sits down. "Like you're ignoring me now. Yeah, that... that's just great." I roll my eyes and turn my back to him to walk out of the relatively small tent. I hear movement against the tarp and a second later his arms wrapped around me.

I felt his lips lightly brush over my neck so smoothly it almost felt like they weren't actually there. But they definitely were. He held me against him, his arms tightly around me. His lips continued to ghost over my neck. Every inch of me wanted to just melt into him and give him the signal to do more than just brush over my skin. But my brain knew better. I clenched my jaw, and refused to give him any physical reaction besides annoyance. I was annoyed with his actions. For multiple reasons.

"You can't fix everything like that," I say. "I'm not just going to forget everything you do that pisses me off just because you pull shit like this." He finally presses a real kiss to my neck.

"Are you sure?" He murmurs against my skin, pressing yet another kiss. I huff. Alright. This time I really was pissed. I pull out of his grasp, turning to him, probably giving him a 'seriously?!' look.

"Yes! I'm not just a puppet that will do everything you want just because you pull the strings! That's not how this works!" I say. He stares at me. He looked like he knew he fucked up, but that wasn't enough. A look can't be enough. I turn, pushing at the flap to go out but he grabs my other wrist.

"Addie-" I pull my wrist out of his grasp, stumbling slightly.

"Don't." I cross my arms, walking over to a very confused Axel.

"Do I really have to kill him already?" He asks. I clench my jaw, and shake my head.

"No, no, it's fine." He raises an eyebrow at me. I sigh and shake myself a little, trying to get my nerves out. "It's fine, Ax. But, I'll keep that in mind." He chuckles and nods. He glances back at the tent and I raise an eyebrow.

"Why are you waiting out here?" I ask. His face flushes.

"Oh, uh, Kayla's changing," he tells me. I chuckle and nod.

"Oh." He glares at me as Kayla comes out of the tent smiling. She looks at Axel.

"Thanks," she says. He nods.

"Yup. No problem." He says awkwardly. I resist the urge to laugh. My recent interaction with Cole replaying in my mind made any urge to laugh disappear completely.

"I brought smore stuff, do you guys want to have a fire?" Kayla asks. I knit my brows. I'd never actually had a smore. Or a camp fire for that matter. Or been camping. Oh my God I'm a charity case.

Taylor runs over with a bottle in her hands. "And I brought the fun part of a camp fire! I'm in." She says. I raise an eyebrow. That part I was familiar with. "Holy shit have you never had a drink?" She asks. I scoff before I think it through.

"Oh, I have. Parties were a very good excuse to get out of the house," I explain. Then I tilt my head like I'm weighing something and point at the air. "Except the one time I shouldn't have, but whatever."

She seems intrigued. "I'm gonna have to hear about that one time." I force a small smile.

"Not much to tell. I snuck out to go to a party at a house that I actually liked. And they found out. They kicked me out, and then I was sent to yet another home."

"They kicked you out for going to a party?" Kayla asks, sitting on a log. I shrug.

"They thought I was going to be a bad influence on their real kids. So after that it was even harder for Maggie to find homes for me." They all frown. "I just mean, finding people that will take a girl with not only a police record but a record of sneaking out and getting into trouble at school, is hard. My fault."

"You were a troublemaker?" Axel asks, intrigued. I'd barely told my brothers about my life prior to coming here. And it's not like I was really a 'troublemaker' in the recent years before meeting them. Why should I introduce them to phases of me they never met and never will?

I smile slightly, remembering a few things. "Only in middle school and like freshman year. I was mad at the world and took it out on anyone and everyone who said something I didn't like." I push my hair back and let out a breath. "We're gonna need fire wood. I'm gonna go get some," I say. I may be ignorant to attending a fire but I've read how to build one.

I quickly walk into the woods, using my phone flashlight for light. I hear Kayla and Taylor behind me, also grabbing wood but intentionally staying out of my way. They probably sensed my sudden bad mood. I take a deep breath, smelling the all to familiar smell in the process.

"Addie," Cole says from behind me. I don't turn to look at him or acknowledge his existence. I just grab a few more logs and turn to go back to the campfire. "Please, just look at me. I know I'm an idiot."

I quickly whip around to face him, really fucking mad at this point. "Yeah, you are. You're right about that." He sighs.

"I wasn't trying to make you feel like-"

"Like a puppet? You surely didn't seem to be acting like that a little while ago," I say, rolling my eyes. I go to walk towards the campfire but he runs infront of me.

"I wasn't thinking. I'd never want to make you feel like anything less than perfect." I clenched my jaw. I was still mad at him. I needed to still be mad at him. I can't just forgive him everytime he slips up. Not that easily. "Please, Addie. I don't know how to explain why I acted like that. But-"

"But when you figure it out, then try apologizing," I snap, quickly walking past him. I put the wood down next to Axel who was building the fire. Kayla walked out of their tent with matches. Taylor sat beside me on a log and handed me the open bottle.

"You look like you could use it," she says. I scoff, taking the bottle and nodding.

"You have no idea." I quickly take a sip. The warm liquid that went down my throat would be my best friend tonight, apparently.