Bridge of the Gods [ON HOLD]

Chapter 17 - Never Lose Your Flames

"Hey, hey, it's okay," I soothe Savannah, who is desperately trying to fight back against the tears. "I'm sorry," she sobs. "God, I'm such a mess."
"Sav, it's okay, really," I say again. Oh, how I wish to be back in London right now, so that I could comfort my best friend. It's almost unbearable, seeing her break down in front of me, but being unable to reach out and hug her. So instead I offer her all the comfort that I can give, talking lowly and about everything and nothing until her breathing calms down. "Ugh, sorry," she says as she wipes her eyes.
She takes a shakily breath and then exhales slowly. "Sorry. I'm- it's just a bit much. Finals are killing me and I've just realized that now we won't graduate at the same time and everything just feels off," she sighs.
I halt her words. I didn't think of that yet. How weird it is, to think that in a few years our lives won't align anymore. In a sense, it has already happened, but this is only temporarily. I get what Sav means, it's like life is slowly derailing in front of us, but the train isn't necessarily crashing yet.

Sav's voice is quiet and small as she continues. "I really like him Robyn,"
"Oh Savannah," I say. "It'll be okay. Really. Maybe you should just try to talk to him. It'll be awkward as hell, but it can't get worse than this, right?"

She nods, but I can see that's not really convinced. "Worst case scenario is that you kick him out." My words are harsh and forward, but I know that it's the best way to deal with a distressed Savannah. She doesn't like tiptoeing around emotions. "The apartment is still ours. You were there first. You have the right to ask him to leave if it gets too much. But talk to him, okay?"
Sav nods again, her face still worried and hurt, but a little less already.
"How are you guys doing?"
"Hah," I laugh. "That's an excellent question actually." She raises a brow, an amused expression appearing on her face. "You weren't attacked by fans yet?"
I shake my head. "Nope. We defied everyone hehe," I giggle.
A laugh bursts out of Sav. "Good god, what did you do?"

"We took a bus to a section a bit higher on the trail, so that people will be looking for us in the wrong place," I say, proud of my own evil-mastermindness.
"You really think people won't figure that out?" I shrug. "If there's one thing I learned on this trail here - beside way too much French vocabulary, it's that it's the best to take things day by day."

Sav hums in agreement. "I can follow that line of thought. But be careful, okay?"
"Do you really think I can't hold my own against a few stalky fans?" I say with a smirk. "My overly chaotic evilness will chase every human in a sphere of 5 miles away from us, believe me."
Sav, who has been the only one who never really was impressed with said overly chaotic evilness ever since - well, ever - just gives me a small grin. "I was talking about myself, actually. I'd rather not be bugged by photographers all the way to campus from now on."
She's making a joke, but still I internally panic at her words. "Uh, about that." I swallow. "Luke is uh, planning on tweeting something? To like ask for a bit of privacy and all. And since so many people are trying to figure out who I am..." I trail off.
"He wants to help you out," Sav continues for me. I nod. "Yeah. We were thinking about putting my identity out there. So that people would stop trying to find out who I was. I'm not really sure about it yet though. I mean, I'd be okay with it - here. But what is going to happen when we reach Canada? Will people actually follow me all the way to the campus in the morning?"

She purses her lips. "Yeah, I see where you are coming from."
"And there's something else," I say, lowering my voice even though I know that no one can hear me since Luke is outside anyway. "We, well... he almost kissed me?" I wince at the way Sav's face lights up and rush to continue before she starts squealing. "We didn't actually kiss though. But we did talk a lot. And he made it clear that he... wants to give us a shot? Please don't scream." I add when her face still doesn't go back to normal. She lets out a squeal anyway. "I knew it! I told y-"
"No. Nope. You don't have the right to say that sentence," I break her off. "You didn't tell me so, because nothing has happened yet." I try to look as threatening as possible, but really Sav's excitement is just too cute. Small friends. Sigh.
"Fine. Whatever," she says. "Tell me everything. Everything."

The next day, we leave in the early hours of the morning, deciding on walking a bit first before eating breakfast. There's something magical about hiking the PCT in those quiet hours before the world wakes up. There's a light mist hanging around us, not really blocking our view but just adding a very weltschermz-romance feeling to our surroundings. It feels like we are the only ones in the whole wide world right now. Yesterday, right before we went to bed, I told Luke to put my name on the tweet, but just my name. No link to an account or surname or any additional information that could let people know who I was. And then we picked out a few pictures together, pictures of the trail and of wide-smiling Luke and of my back with the world spread around me.
We hadn't checked our phones this morning, choosing the quiet and safety of the trail over the real world for now, but a text from both Luke's friends and Sav had told us that most responses were optimistic.

It's a quiet day on the trail today. We don't meet any other hikers, and we both enjoy the sheer awesomeness of being alone. "I don't think I'll ever tire of this," I say. "And I also have no idea how after all this I'll be able to fit back in London. Let alone go back to school." Luke chuckles at that. "Yeah, you're a bit of a caged bird sometimes, aren't you?"
I scrunch my face up at the dead-on comparison. "Pretty much yeah. I want to fly. To soar." I shoot him a dark look as he opens his mouth. "If you're going to sing High School Musical songs I'm going to kick you in the shins."
He holds his hands up in surrender. "Wasn't going to say anything." His face is so obviously angelic that we both know that he was nanoseconds away from doing a Troy Bolton.

"Anyway," I start. "You're right. I always feel like wanting to fly. Being free. Not just in the literal sense of the words, as in free to do what I want but free free. Without any rules and guidelines to follow. Seeing the world and being in nature and realizing that the world is so much more than just big blotches of earth and water, that it's actual magic." As I speak those words, I feel energy rushing through me at the absolute rightness of them. 

We set camp on a little plane on a mountain that night. The view is breathtaking, and we let everything rest for a while as we watch the sunset, sitting on that edge of the plane, feeling like we are above the world. Since it's still warm enough, I take my shoes and socks off, giving my tortured feet a bit of fresh air.
It's only three hours, when the sun has disappeared and the little light that we have is coming from the moon, that I realize my mistake. As I stumble around in the dark to use the bathroom (a weird use of words in this case, I know. But using the forest just sounds weird, doesn't it?), my foot collides with something. Something too heavy to be just a small stone, but something too soft to be a branch as well. My stomach drops as I realize what I hit. "Shit!" I hiss as I scramble back to the tent, thrashing through my backpack until I find my phone. "What's up?" Luke asks worriedly. I just shake my head and run back outside, angrily tapping at my screen until the torch function switches on. And even though I already know what I'll see, I still point the beam of light towards where I just stood.

It could have been a really dramatic scene if this was a theater. It would have been funny even. Darkness all around us, and just one small strip of light, focusing on a shoe that is lonely lying on it's side. Except that this is not a theater. It's real life. And that means that I just kicked my own hiking shoe off a mountain. 

A/N

Smoll chapter today because I felt like updating but also feel like sleeping because my lack of sleep is almost the size of Canada I think. 

I'm also getting a pro at ignoring school. 

Also my brothers and I just booked a vacation in Sweden, which means that next year in September I'll be able to spend 10 days paddling around in a canoe on a lake in Sweden. Sounds quite perfect, doesn't it? 

I hope you're having a great day (or night), and don't forget to vote! 
Also I'm bored as hell so tell me something about yourself! I wanna meet new people hehe.