Esperança 》B. Blake

1.07

Murphy rolled his eyes as Bellamy, Nathan, and Atom laughed at her remark. Bellamy zipped up his backpack and handed it to Roseline who beamed with excitement.

In the dense forest, birds chirped and various animals scurried about as the five campers marched away from the safety of the drop-ship. Bellamy, with his tough and broad posture, led the group with ease, despite Roseline's attempts of taking charge. Alongside his left was Atom, holding a makeshift spear with an iron grip; and on his right stood Murphy, kicking pine cones and occasionally giving a cold stare back at the earth scientist. Nathan walked with Roseline, lost in his own little world. She guessed it had something to do with his father or boyfriend due to the faint grin he wore as he trailed along.

Roseline, with a bag larger than her torso strapped on her back, hopped around the forest with glee. Her eyes danced to each flower and tree, immediately coming up with the names and what they were useful for. She would excitedly point out a few of her personal favorite plants and tell the group an interesting fact about it, which slowly began to get on everyone's nerves; especially Murphy's highly delicate ones.

After two long and tedious hours, the occasional small, bitter comments Roseline and Murphy would make to each transformed into constant bickering. The other three boys tried to calmly pull them apart but the pair still found a way to push each other's buttons.

"We all got the same education!" Roseline exclaimed for the third time. "Intelligence doesn't come from privilege."

"Oh, bullshit. I bet all you kids from Alpha got into some sort of smarter program," Murphy scoffed and flung a low branch so it would hit Roseline in the face.

"Or it could be the fact that---ouch!---we actually paid attention to what they taught instead of screwing around and getting ourselves arrested," Roseline retorted, swatting away the branch that made contact with her cheek. In less than a second, Murphy swiveled around, stalked toward the girl, and held his drop-ship knife to her chest.

"I've had enough of your stupid little--"

The other three abruptly stopped and Bellamy was quick to Roseline's aid.

"Alright, hey, back off," Bellamy ordered, pulling Murphy away from a wide-eyed Roseline.

"Oh, c'mon Bellamy, you know damn well she's been getting on your nerves too."

Roseline rolled her eyes. "Oh, and you haven't? You're so full of yourself--"

"No, I've had enough of both of you getting at each other's throats, literally," Bellamy glared at Murphy. "We're splitting up. Miller, Atom, take Murphy that way to cool off. Rosie, you're with me. We'll meet back in the middle, got it?"

Simultaneously, both Roseline and Murphy huffed in annoyance as they parted their separate ways. As the two groups walked away from each other, Roseline could hear Murphy muttering obscenities under his breath, and Bellamy had to physically guide her away before she could give the boy a piece of her mind.

After a few minutes, Roseline sighed. "I'm sorry about splitting us up, Murphy just makes me so angry and--"

"It's fine," Bellamy murmured, keeping a steady two steps ahead of the girl. She frowned and jogged up to match his pace.

"No, it's really not. I mean, I shouldn't have let him get to me like that and it was super immature of me to --"

Bellamy stopped, causing Roseline to awkwardly stop three steps ahead of him before turning back to face the janitor.

"Rosie," he cut off, scratching the base of his neck. "It's okay not to like someone. Not everyone you meet is going to be the perfect definition of a good human. And not everyone is going to deserve your niceness."