Lotus & Lilac

Chapter Five

Cameron's phone started to ring at six thirty the next morning. She was going to murder Joy. She had decided as soon as she saw her name on the called ID. With a loud groan and a near miss of almost falling off of her bed, she answered the call, wiping the sleep from her eyes.

"You said we were leaving at eight Joy. I have an hour left to sleep and you're stealing it away from me." she sighed but sat up and moved toward the edge of her bed so she wouldn't be tempted to curl back under the duvet and sleep the rest of the day.

"I'm sorry. The concept of time is an illusion." Joy responded easily. Cameron could almost see the taller girl shrugging with a smile. It made her roll her eyes.

"How very Carlo Rovelli of you." Cameron shook her head.

"Only you would know the name of the physicist who popularized the time is an illusion theory." Joy quipped. A smile worked its way onto Cam's face.

"Actually, since you understand the reference that means you do too." she pointed out, standing up from her bed and stretching her arms while still keeping the phone between her ear and shoulder. Joy made a small hum of agreement on the other end of the line. "Why are you calling me right now?"

"Oh! I wanted to remind you to wear a bathing suit and pack a towel. There's this little lake where we stop when we hike up at Black Creek. I usually spend most of the time tanning but everyone else goes swimming. I didn't want to forget to tell you since Asher just reminded me." as she listened to Joy's words Cameron wandered over toward her dresser and began pawing through the pile of bathing suits contained in the top drawer.

"Did Asher actually just remind you or did he tell you last night and you just remembered?" Cameron huffed, pulling out her safest option of a plain black bikini and tossing it toward her desk chair where the outfit she had taken out the previous night already sat.

"I plead the fifth." Joy's response was airy and Cameron laughed again. "Either way, now you know. I'll be at your place in an hour and a half to pick you up." The girls ended their phone call and Cameron resigned herself to the fact that she should just start getting ready for the day ahead. She put on the bikini before putting an oversized lavender t-shirt and nearly white light-wash denim shorts. She also added a pair of thicker than normal lavender socks that peeked out from the top of her tan hiking boots that were normally worn for aesthetic purposes on weekends at Olivia's family cabin. Still, they were broken in due to three years of previous wear and for that she knew she would be grateful.

She made her way downstairs to get herself some coffee and ran into her father. They mumbled greetings to each other but otherwise didn't interact. It took around ten minutes for Cameron to drink down her mugs worth of coffee and another five for her to make herself some suitable avocado toast which she plated and brought up to her room. She stopped in the hallway to grab a thick beach towel from the linen closet. Once she was back in her room Cameron folded the towel neatly and placed it into her tan nylon backpack she would be bringing along on the hike. The towel sat securely among her sunscreen, granola bars, and water bottle.

The next hour passed by slowly as Cameron ate her breakfast and completed the discussion board post that Professor Graves had assigned over the weekend. She noticed that Jamy had already added his own post to the discussion but Joy had yet to do so. Cameron made a mental note to remind Joy to add her post when she saw the other brunette. There was the sound of a horn honking out in her driveway so she gathered her things, dropped her plate into the dishwasher after a quick rinse, and ran out the front door with her backpack bouncing lightly between her shoulder blades. On the street was a beat up looking Ford Escape with Asher behind the wheel, Jamy in the passenger seat and Mitch in the back seat. In the driveway was the little Jetta with Joy, Matt, Shayne, and Liam already inside, though the aforementioned people other than Joy were in the back seat.