Treacherous

Chapter Nineteen

     “Okay everybody, listen up!” Tristan put his thumb and forefinger between his lips and let rip a loud whistle, cutting all of us off midsentence. “Drake and Lilly are going to drop off their stuff. Then first on the agenda for The Best Camping Trip Ever, is hiking. So suit up, lets go!”

     I internally groaned. Hiking? It wasn’t really up my alley.

     I fell to the ground dramatically. Lilly rolled her eyes before leaning down to drag me back up.

     “Come on, Avery, there’s not much further to go now.” She said encouragingly and I groaned, because I knew I’d have to walk more.

     “How is walking a hobby? Yeah, okay, lets go hiking, hiking. This isn’t hiking. Hiking is exploring, this is testing your skills in walking through dead grass and fallen tree branches.” I rambled, stomping through the grass and slapping a large leaf away from my face. “I mean, yeah, I want to go on an adventure, but I pictures something out of Alice in Wonderland, not something like this.” I comments, slapping another large leaf, only to have it fly back at my face. I sputtered and fell backward in shock. I heard laughter rumble from behind me and turned to glare and Hunter, Tristan, Carter and Alex. I grumbled as I pushed myself back up and lightly touched the red mark I’m sure was beginning to mark my chin.

     “I hate you all.” I mumbled, continuing to stalk off. Lilly and Harmony were at least trying to hold in their giggles, but Drake and Jason weren’t even paying attention, they were in a heated discussion.

     It was so weird, ever since Lilly and Drake had turned up it was like Jason didn’t want to touch me. Usually he was incredibly sweet and I loved it, but all day he’d been so distant and conserved, I felt like I’d done something wrong. Maybe he was mad at me for upsetting Leon? I sighed as I pushed through the large leaf once more, this time making sure it wouldn’t fling back into my face. Lilly fell back in step next to me, frowning.

     “Are you okay?” She asked, looking up with a bite of her lip.

I shrugged, “that leaf is no match for my amazing strength.” I joked, but she shook her head with a small smile.

     “No, I just meant are you okay? You had your thinking face on, but you looked kind of sad. What’s up?” She looked up at me expectantly.

     “I don’t know,” I sighed loudly. I peaked behind me and saw that everyone was pretty far behind us. Jason was still in a hot conversation with Drake, his face was taut with anger. I turned back around. “Well, first things first. Jason and I are together.” I said, waiting for her to squeal or something equally as girly. But when I heard nothing I looked next to me to see her smiling.

     “I’m glad, you look like you deserve some happiness in your life, Avery.” She said sincerely, and I almost felt the need to cry.

     “Thanks, Lil.”

     She didn’t miss a beat. “So what’s the problem then?”

     I tucked a stray curl behind my ear. “I don’t know, its weird, I mean, ever since you and Drake turned up its like he doesn’t want to touch me. Actually, he hasn’t even spoken a single word to me.”

     Lilly frowned and bit her lip. “Drake’s done the same thing. It’s like their avoiding us.”

     “Should we talk to them or something?”

     Lilly shrugged and ran a tired hand along her face. “God, all I want to do is sleep.” I nodded in agreement and stopped walking. We both looked behind us…and saw no one. Our heads whipped back to look at each other with a look of horror.