UNTIL DAWN: Sam's story

III.

While Ash, Matt and I were waiting outside, we heard a loud bang from the lodge.

"We're freezing our buts off out here!" Ashley whined.

Chris finally came to the door and thawed the lock using a lighter and a deodorant.

"Thank you, thank you, I'll be here all week-" he started bragging, but suddenly an animal ran from behind him. "EEEK! Jeez!" Chris swore loudly, while we laughed at him. "Crap that thing freaked me out."

"What was it? Are you okay?" Ashley chortled.

"It was like a, bear or a tiger or something-"

"Aw it was just a cute little baby wolverine!" I corrected him, still chuckling.

"Baby?"

"Don't worry buddy, you're gonna be a big boy soon," Josh teased from behind me. I guess he must've come back thought the outside. "Home sweet home," he sighed happily as we walked in.

"Sweet is not the word I'd use," Matt mumbled.

"Oh my gosh, it's SO GOOD to be inside. Even if it's still kinda freezing in here," Ashley remarked.

"I'll get the fire going," Josh kneeled in front of the fireplace.

"This place barely looks any different," Matt hissed.

"Nobody's been up here," Josh mumbled.

"Even with all the police coming in and out?" Ash wondered.

"Not a lot of action up here lately," Chris guessed.

"Nope," Josh agreed.

Suddenly we heard steps coming from the hall. "What's up party people!" Mike shouted, while walking in, with his hands above him.

"Heeey!" Jess greeted after him.

"Hey!" Josh called back. "Make yourself at home, bro."

"Will do," he smiled at Josh, who was still at the fireplace.

I saw Matt shooting a hateful look towards Mike and got a bit worried. "Yeah. Come on in," he spat sarcastically. "Take a load off. Have whatever you want," he continued, getting up. "You just take whatever you want anyways, right?"

"Woah," Mike reacted calmly, as Matt got closer, "easy there, cowboy."

"What the hell were you doing with Em out on the trail, huh?" he asked defiantly.

"What?"

"I saw you and Em. Through the telescope."

"Before? We just ran into each other. It'd been a while, so we hugged, and I said hello. Is that against the law?"

"Right... yeah.... Duh. Sorry, it's been kind of a long day, I overreacted," Matt apologized, backing up a little.

"Nah, man, don't worry about it."

"We cool?" Matt wanted to make sure.

"Yeah, yeah. Totally," Mike reassured him and went to sit next to Jess, putting a hand around her shoulders and Matt sat back where he originally was.

I heard another person walking in. It was Emily. "Oh. My god. That is so gross. Are you trying to swallow his face whole?" she pointed to the kissing couple.

"Em...," Matt tried to calm her, getting closer to her.

"Seriously can she be any more obvious?" she interrupted him. "No one wants in on your territory, honey."

"Excuse me, did you say something?" Jess hissed, getting up.

"Oh, did you not hear me? Was your sluttiness too loud?" she answered sarcastically.

"Sounds like someone's bitter she didn't make the cut."

"Yeah. It's a big cattle call with that dreamboat. Congrats, you're top cow," they continued arguing.

"Cuts real deep calling Miss Homecoming a cow."

"Em, come on-" Matt tried to get involved.

"Shut up, Matt-" Emily shut him down.

"Stay out of it, you dumb oaf," Jess added.

"Hey, watch it-" Em protected her boyfriend.

"Oh, you're the only one who can put him down? No one else can play with your toys?" Jess exclaimed angrily.

"You're such a bitch," Em started to get mad as well.

"Whatever. I don't give a crap what you think."

"At least I can think. 4.0, bitch, honor roll. Suck on that when you're trying to sleep your way into a job."

"Who needs grades when you've got all the natural advantages you can handle." Jess pointed at her curvy body.

"Oh please."

"You couldn't buy a moldy loaf of beard with your skanky ass."

"Are you serious? Do you think that's insulting?" Emily laughed ironically.

"That bitch is on crack or something," Jess complained to Mike.

"Emily! Stop!" Matt insisted. "This is out of hand. There's no reason to fight like this!"

"Yeah, Em! Why you pickin' fights over your ex-boyfriend? Huh?" Jess kept pushing.

"STOP IT!" Josh suddenly shouted. "This is not why we came up here. This is not... helping. It's not what I wanted. If we can't get along for ten minutes then maybe we need a little bit of a break, right?" When nobody answered, he continued. "Mike – why don't you check out the guest cabin. The one I told you about." He finished pointing in an unknown direction.

"Yeah... Yeah, alright." Mike got up. "Want to go do that?" he suggested to Jessica.

"Any place without that whore." She looked at Em, taking Mike's offered hand.

"It's right up the trail," Josh navigated them as they left.

"Phew," Matt put his hands behind his head, imitating an explosion quietly. "... Glad that's over!"

"Yeah," Josh agreed.

"So, Josh... Uh, should we get this fire going?" he squatted at the still dark fireplace.

"Where's my bag?" Emily asked annoyed, looking at the bags Matt brought with him.

"Huh?"

"My bag! The... the little bag with the pink pattern! The one I got on Rodeo! Matt are you listening? Oh my god, don't you remember? Next to the Italian shoe place where I got the stilettos and you knocked over the rack while you were drooling all over that girl at the counter?"

"Well, I mean, she was asking about my letter jacket-"

"Right. Because she gave a shit about your 'designer' letter jacket."

"Why do you hate my jacket?"

"MATT! I need MY BAG!"

"Oh my god Em, maybe you just forgot it-"

"Do you seriously think I'd forget my bag?"

"Well, I-"

"Do you?"

"Guess not."

"You must have left it down by the cable car station."

"Ugh!"

"C'mon, hun. We'll be back soon."

"And then we can get warm?"

"We can get very warm," she gave him a seductive smile.

"Okay.... Okay. Let's go," he finally agreed as they walked out of the cabin.

After the two of them left, an awkward atmosphere hang in the air. This whole time I was quietly sitting on the stairs with Chris and Ashley standing next to each other, Chris leaning against a pillar. "Okay, I am going to go take a bath," I tried relaxing the atmosphere while getting up and walking up the stairs towards the bathroom.