ANDREA POV
I woke up to Sierra sprawled all over the bed. I move her arm out of the way to get out of bed. My head hurt from all the alcohol I consumed last night. After taking a quick shower I headed downstairs into the kitchen.
"Rise and Shine, beautiful!" Ash walks over and passes me a plate of eggs and toast.
"Good morning, you made me breakfast?"
"Of course I did." He replies with a wink, and I can't help but swoon over how sweet he was. As I start to munch on breakfast, Iris enters and she looks distraught and annoyed.
"Hey, Iris, anything I can get you?" Ash asks.
"No...but maybe you can tell your friend to stop being an asshole." She says while looking toward the kitchen entrance. Devyn leans on the wall with her right shoulder.
"Ohhhh. Yeah I'm not sure I can help with that." He assures.
"Can you not be so dramatic all the time?" Devyn says in an irritated tone.
"Me? Being dramatic? You can't be serious right now, Dev!" Ash looks at me and we both know we should walk out, so we get up slowly. As we leave the kitchen I can still hear their banter.
"Don't worry about them, Dev always has some sort of ruckus going on with her..love interests."
"I see."
"It's a beautiful day out." On the patio, I look around and it certainly is a nice day. The sun is shining and the trees are standing taller, and greener than ever.
"You know what that means." Gabe comes out of the door.
"Hell yeah!" Ash says with a smile.
"What are you boys up to?" Brianna stretches and yawns.
"The usual. Great day out for some water activities."
"Now that I can agree on."
"Jesus, does anyone have a fucking cigarette?" Devyn storms out and falls into a chair, while Sierra comes out after her, offering her a cigarette. She looked so full of anger that I thought smoke would come out of her ears any second.
"What happened? Trouble in paradise?" Gabe teases.
"Shut up." She answers.
"Do you ever relax?" I blurt out and everyone looks toward me.
"What?" She squinted.
"I mean you're always so up tight. Live a little." I look away while taking a bite out of my toast.
"Yeah take her advice." Iris joins us outside and it looks like she's been crying.
Devyn looks at her for a few seconds and then looks away. She takes another puff from her cigarette and the rings on her fingers glisten under the sun light. Her black hoodie hugs her, and her jeans fall loosely on her legs. The hairs from her messy bun fly onto her face as the breeze comes in, and she moves them away. My eyes trace back to her hands, they were perfectly manicured with her knuckles still having scratches. Her nails were short, I think she bit her nails a lot. Just like the rest of her body, her hands looked strong with veins to add the effects. All of a sudden I bite my tongue on an accident and yelp in pain.
"Shit."
"What happened?"
"I bit my tongue." Having enough of the food, I placed the plate on the table.
"Everyone get your stuff for today. We're going on an adventure!" As Ash announced this, everyone headed into their rooms.
"What do I need?" I ask Sierra.
"We might go a for a swim so bring whatever you wear to swim and what not. We'll be around rough land too so get a good pair of shoes."
"Okay." I change into my bathing suit and throw on a t-shirt and jeans. We all walk out while Ash locks the door.
"Y'all ready to hike?" Gabe cheers. Ash throws an arm around me as we start walking with Gabe and Brianna in the lead. We make our way up a cliff and I can feel my calves burn.
"Do you want me to carry you?" He offers.
"Oh. No, no."
"I think yes." Without a warning he lifts me off my feet and keeps walking, and I can't help but laugh. When we finally reach the spot that Ash wants, he lets me down. He's covered in sweat and I start to feel bad.
"Okay, so, on this side, there's a stream," he says while pointing to the right side," and on the left side there's nothing but forest." We unpack our bags and put down the blankets to sit on while Gabe plays music. I bask in the sun, taking it all in.
"Lat one to the stream has to finish everyone's math homework!" Brianna yells while stripping off her clothes, revealing her bikini. The guys start to take off their shirts too and Sierra gives me a quick poke.
"Hurry up!" I nod and take off my clothes, running after all of them. We all jump into the water with a loud splash, and the sheer coldness of the water freezes me.
"This water is freezing!" I yell.
"Come here." Ash swims to me and embraces me.
"Devyn! You're doing our math homework!" Brianna screams at the top of her lungs. Devyn is sitting by a tree, immersed in a book. She looks up to acknowledge Brianna and gives her a mini salute.
"Hey Ash, let's jump off this rock!" Gabe points at a huge boulder next to the stream.
"I will be right back." He whispers and then joins Gabe. I swim towards Brianna and Sierra.
"So you guys do this every year?"
"Yeah, pretty much." Sierra replies while letting herself float.
"Why doesn't Devyn swim?" Her ears perk up and she opens her eyes.
"I don't know if it's my place to say, you know."
"Oh, yeah. Right." I feel stupid for even asking.
"It's okay. She can swim, you know. She just doesn't."
"What do you mean?"
"She used to be a good swimmer, excellent even. You know Dev, the perfectionist. But then.. something happened and she just couldn't swim anymore. Every time she got in the water, she felt like she would suffocate. She panicked and couldn't swim."
"Oh."
"Yeah, she didn't tell me at first. But when we went swimming, years ago, she tried to, and almost drowned. I had to get her out."
"Damn, sounds like it's all in her head?"
"Yeah. Trauma does that to you." I wonder what had happened to her. I peer out over to where she was sitting, still so into that book.
"Woohoo!" Ash screams as he splashes into the water. He spots me and swims over, holding me.
"Have I ever told you, that you are drop dead gorgeous?" I blush as the words leave his mouth.
"Only...a hundred times." He moves me behind a stone, so that we were out of the view of the others.
"Have I shown you?"
"What-" Before I could finish, he pulls me into a kiss. His lips are cold as they touch mine.Pulling away he looks at me, waiting for permission. I kiss him back, putting my arms around his neck. His bulky arms hold my body up, and I feel his hands going down to my hips, and I let out a small gasp. Moving me, until my back touched the stone, he kissed me like he meant it. My hands went through his hair as I got lost in his kiss. As one of his hands is on my hip, the other one trails up to the top, caressing my right breast. My heart started to thump so loudly that I thought it would explode out of my chest.
"Wait-" I say as I pull apart from him.
"What is it? Did I do something?"
"No, no. It's fine. I just need a second." I shuffle out of the water, and walk towards my things. As I dry myself with the towel, my eyes wander off to Devyn. I put on my jeans, but leave my shirt because it was still hot.
"If you keep staring, you might fall in love." Devyn says while still staring down at her book. Goosebumps form on my arm.
"I was just staring and wondering how anyone could fall in love with someone like you." She closes her book and walks over to me.
"That's a little harsh, don't you think?" She stands face to face with me.
"You get what you give." A wicked smile appears on her face, and her dimples take over her cheeks.
"I see. I just know I'm irresistible," she leans in, " Even for you."
"I don't know who got that in your head. But I wouldn't even want to talk to you if I had the chance. Funny you'd think I'd want anything more." Her face turned into a grimace as she steps away.
"Well, maybe you've just got bad taste."
"Why are you always in my way? Are you falling for me?" I cross my arms over my chest.
"I'd rather jump off this cliff."
"Mhmm. I don't think so."
"Oh? You want to know what I think? I think you're just a leech. You're now stuck to my friends like a parasite, probably wanting favors." My jaws clench as anger builds up in me.
"Well, you're a selfish bitch, that has a superiority complex, thinking she can step on anyone she wants. You think you're so perfect when you're broken in every single way."
"I'm broken? What about you? Oh? Did you forget that night at the party?"
"You're just an asshole. You don't deserve anything that you have." I walk away from her and from the corner of my eye I can see her smiling. I swear, she makes me want to punch her in the face sometimes. After a few hours of exploring, the others finally got out of the water and ate snacks.
"You up for a game of fugitive?" Brianna proposes.
"Good idea. Let's do it." Ash says as the others nod in agreement.
"Wait, how do you play?" I ask and I hear Devyn grunt. She's probably rolling her eyes.
"Okay, so there's cops and fugitives. We play in the forest-don't worry there's a fence out there that you won't be able to pass. Everything else is safe. So, the cops chase the fugitives and have the capture them all. But if the fugitives grab the cloth on the fence," she grabs a yellow squared cloth from her pack," and bring it back here. They win." Brianna explains with a smile.
"Makes sense."
"If there's seven us-"
"Me and Ash will be the cops." Devyn butts in.
"Why?" I ask.
"We're the best at it."
"I'm fine with that." Iris joins in.
"I'm going to go tie this onto the fence." Brianna announces and runs off into the forest. After a few minutes our monitors give out a beep signaling she had placed it.
"Okay then. The rest of you have a minute head start..GO" We all take off into the forest.