Imperfect

Eighteen - Callan:

We drove in silence for about an hour before stopping at a roadside café for breakfast. Lys was quiet but then again, she had been before we stopped at the gas station. But she'd fallen asleep, a small sign that maybe she was comfortable with us or at the very least felt safe. But now she was alert and wary.

She'd changed out of her dress and I couldn't help noticing the concern she felt for the fact she was dirty. I wondered if she felt the same after Ryan touched her without her permission. Dirty. Has he made her feel like that? Like she was somehow less beautiful? My mind was full of questions but I knew I couldn't ask her. It was none of my business.

She had fruit for breakfast. Again. And I decided then and there that I would make it my own personal mission to get her to eat on this vacation. She lived on a diet of fruit and salad. I don't think I'd seen her eat anything close to protein or carbs or sugar. And it bothered me. She was losing more and more weight, becoming skinnier and bonier, like those models on the runways of the fashion shows she was obsessed with.

She never used to be so strict with what she ate. I was sure Ryan had something to do with that too.

She didn't say much for the rest of the journey and when we arrived at the private campsite in Virginia several hours later, she didn't seem any better.

The car rolled to a stop after crunching along a single track, gravel pathway for about a mile. We hadn't met any other traffic on the way down and when we emerged through the trees to the clearing, it was deserted. Noah swung the car around to the left, nestling it against the trees with enough space to access all of the stuff in the back, and then killed the engine.

We'd been crammed in the car for about six hours since stopping for breakfast and my legs were cramping from the lack of use so I immediately forced the car door open and stepped out. My shoes crunched on the twigs that littered the forest floor but aside from that and a few distant tweets from birds high up in the trees, it was silent. There wasn't the slightest breeze to rustle the trees and nobody within earshot of our little camping spot.

It was a nice area, buried in the thick of the forest only a few miles from the coast. A narrow river weaved its way between the trees, gently lapping over rocks and then flowing out into a large lake. The vast plain of water was perfectly still, without even a ripple, and reflected the sun that sparkled in the clear blue sky above it. It was the picture of a perfect summers day and it was exactly what we had wanted, quiet, picturesque and isolated.

The acres that surrounded us were owned by Elliot's family and, while some of the pathways in the thick of the forest were open to the public, the area surrounding the lake was completely private. It wasn't a particularly big clearing, but was sizable enough to fit the car, a few tents and our camping chairs around a fire. "This is perfect," Noah commented as he surveyed the area, slamming the car door shut behind him. I nodded in agreement and drifted towards the back of the car where all our stuff was.

"We've got a couple of hours to get everything set up before the sun dips behind the horizon," Ben stated, joining us at the back of the car and beginning to remove things. Alyssa's suitcase came out first and he rolled his eyes at the size of it before dropping it with a thud onto the dirty forest floor.

When she finally seemed to understand that we were stopping here, she emerged from the car and, still in her high heels, stalked towards us. Her eyes narrowed at a speck of dirt on her case before lifting to where I grabbed her other bag and tossed it on the floor beside it. "There's nothing around here," she stated, surveying the area with a look of distaste.

"That's the point," Noah said in response before hauling the first of the tents out of the car.

She didn't seem to notice and a frown crossed her face. "So where's the house?"