Meet Me Halfway (EDITING)

Chapter 29: The Ditch

"When I first met up with all of you, I already knew I liked you, Jay. But at the same time, I also thought Chuck was a nice guy." Jay sniggered quietly, an edge of jealousy rising in his body. He scrunched up his face and thought she was about to protest on the answer she made herself.

"Don't get me wrong - I thought all four of you were nice and made me feel comfortable. But there was something about you two especially that made me feel more than that."

"But he was even more than that. Right?" Jay suggested, hoping to pretend proving himself right in front of her so that she could disagree. She slowly spoke on and ignored his statement, only returning the answer.

"When we played spin the bottle, I then thought because Chuck was actually talking to me more than any of you...I-I thought he might've felt the same way. I never knew you considered anything...I thought you probably didn't care."

"Are you kidding me? He was the one that didn't care when I wanted to come camp out just for your sake," Jay replied, almost starting to feel anger inside but calmed down instantly. Sarah looked back at him blankly, frozen solid with her eyes wide open. Sort of shocked but without care, she responded the way Jay had wanted.

"But I guess I'm wrong." She played with the lobe of her ear and ran her fingers softly along and over the bone structure of it. Jay's blood froze inside, unable to figure out or process in his mind what he had just heard. For a second, he thought she was joking, although her serious face showed nothing of it.

"I always liked you, Jay. Always," she repeated as the corners of her mouth turned upwards, curving into a small yet appreciative grin. She showed no teeth, yet she was still happy. Jay seethed between his teeth and opened his mouth to say something, but he was left speechless. His ears had stimulated and stirred upwards and he felt numb all of a sudden.

"R-really?" He stuttered, finding everything hard to accept now. His morning had suddenly become much brighter, not to mention this time not even Nate was awake and able to destroy anything. He felt a leaf nearby flow onto his arm and he shuddered at the contact. Sarah nodded in agreement, shutting her eyes completely as she did so.

Jay did nothing but smile back at her contentedly, creating large, handsome dimples in his cheeks. The wind blew inside streaks of her luscious, pretty curls. A tingly feeling came across her body. A tiny ant crawled up her forearm, and she flicked it off carelessly with a finger.

"I still miss him though," she said, keeping her head down at the dirt beneath her. Jay looked at her gutlessly, not wanting to reply even though he did anyway.

"Yeah. So do I."

Fifteen minutes had passed and all five of them were now up and ready. They had already eaten and had their bellies full for the day set ahead of them. They started folding up their blankets and began packing them away in their bags.

"Finally we can start walking again. We've been here for so long," Vince shrieked, dusting the dirt and extra dust off of the surface and bottom of his bag. The others all agreed silently, looking at him relentlessly.

They all shuffled through twigs and broke branches, always looking behind themselves in case Jerry's ghost was to pop out of nowhere and haunt them, perhaps even Chuck - even in the daylight. They all walked consecutively and stood by each other through the walk. Whenever someone had to stop, they would all stop. If someone was tired and needed to rest for a minute or so (mostly Vince), they would all do so conventionally.

They were a group and stuck by each other throughout the whole walk until they found a small, unfound ditch in the middle of another section of the campsite. They all broke off in two's - Sarah being the odd one left out, even though they didn't walk too far apart.