A/N: HERE IS CHAPTER SEVENTEEN MINUS A DECADE. What? Don't mind me. Took me a while to write, I know, but I hope you forgive me cuz I made two long chapters to make up for it XD XD You know what I'm about to say. PLEASE. PROCEED.
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~Kristen's POV~
"You ready?" Alfire asked.
"You have no idea." A determined smile spread across my face.
"Okay kids, in the car, let's go!" My mom called, and Alfire and I jumped into the backseat.
"What about your mom?" I asked him quietly, knowing he had a thing about not leaving her alone for too long. She wasn't exactly the most mentally stable of people. She was kind though, so I worried for her almost as much as he did. I almost thought he would decide not to go. Which was why I was surprised when he shrugged.
"I called in one of her old friends who had been passing by. I asked if she could stay with her while I'm gone, and I'm just surprised when my mom told me I could go." He let out a chuckle, then his face dulled slightly as he gave an anxious smile. "But she'll be okay though."
"It's only for two days." I reassured him. "Thank you for coming, by the way."
His grin returned as he spoke. "Made you a promise that I'll have to make this birthday great, didn't I?"
"You never seem to stop reminding me, so yeah. You did." I laughed softly.
"Seatbelts." My mom said from the front. I groaned briefly before she looked at me through the rearview mirror. I sighed and put it on, glaring at Alfire as he tried to hold a laugh in. He sat comfortably with a seatbelt, but as I barely reached five-foot-three, the seatbelts seemed to serve no purpose but to squeeze my gut and choke me. I wasn't one to complain about my height, but this was just unfair.
The car started moving for about five minutes of silence. I had been staring out the window until I felt something touch my arm. I turned to see Alfire holding his phone out to me. I looked down at it, and then back at him.
"What's that for?" I frowned.
"You told me that this had to be a completely electronic-free trip right? I had to bring my phone so I could call my mom when I get back but for now," He held his phone closer to me. "here."
I raised my eyebrow. "You're really going to go along with what I say and give up your phone for two straight days?"
He shrugged, smiling. "Hey, if you can give up the internet for two days, then so can I. Besides, we can't risk violating any rules for your birthday-wish-upon-a-star-ritual now, can we?"
I rolled my eyes but laughed, taking his phone. I took out my phone from my pocket and tapped my mom's shoulder.
"Mom, could you take care of this for us? We don't want to lose it."
She looked at me with an amused smile and nodded nodded. "Sure honey."
"That also means neither of you can use your phones either." I dared to say.
To my surprise, she just laughed. "We're aware dear, you've been telling us that since you were eight. Don't worry, we won't."
I grinned at her and sat back in my seat.
For the next hour, Alfire began talking, telling me everything we had to try out while we were camping, and how he could teach me to make a fire with sticks. To my surprise, he looked serious. I had asked him if he had been a boy scout, but he shook his head saying he just picked up a few tricks here and there. I leaned back on my side as I watched him talk. It was already noon, but I hadn't been able to sleep a wink the night before, excited for this trip. One more day until my birthday. I thought.
I smiled as he looked even more excited about this trip than I was, and that definitely said something. I laughed a few times and nodded as I listened, but soon enough his voice started to fade away as my lack of sleep caught up to me.
~3 hours later~ (A/N: say that out loud in a French accent like in Spongebob... it sounds funny :P)
I was sitting on my porch, cuddled with a blanket and a warm cup of hot chocolate with marshmallows. I sat as I stared into the vast forest surround my house. For a brief second, a thought crossed my mind. Where did the forest come from? But I shrugged it away as I took another sip. Suddenly everything started shaking around me, my cup rattling on the saucer I was holding. I frowned as I looked around me, my eyes widening in shock as the ground seemed to be splitting through the forest as though it were an earthquake.
"Kristen." I heard, but couldn't decide where it was coming from. I looked around me, and suddenly realized something. Wait. When did I get a porch?
I heard my name being called again but I couldn't get myself to scream when my house suddenly split in two.
"Kristen!" I heard my name a final time before my eyes opened and I found myself leaning against the door of my parent's car, and saw Alfire shaking me.
"What the hell Alfire, I thought I was going to die." I groaned as I tiredly sat up. He frowned at me in confusion but I lazily waved my hand, telling him to forget it. "What?" I asked again.
"We're here."
My gaze shot out the window, but disappointment filled me when I still saw no forest surrounding us. I growled slightly in annoyance as I heard Alfire laughing behind me. "You woke me up for this?" I asked him in disbelief. "And I was finally having a good dream too."
"About dying?" He raised his eyebrow at me.
"Well it was pretty peaceful until you started shaking me like I was already dead." I huffed. "So if you don't mind, I'm closing my eyes now."
"No seriously though, your dad said we'll be there in around ten minutes. You should stay up."
I looked at him and he smiled. I sighed and stayed sitting up, and looked out the window again. He was right. After five minutes we were surrounded by trees that shadowed the road with their soaring branches and thick leaves.
Not long after I heard my dad shut off the engine, and we all slowly climbed out of the car, taking a moment to stretch our stiff limbs before taking in the nature around us. I began to explore a bit, and realized my dad had drove up onto a small hill. A part of it had ended in a cliff, I noticed, as I carefully stepped on to it, my breath caught in my throat as I looked at the sight before me.
"Wow..." I heard Alfire whistle beside me, and I nodded in agreement. The cliff had hung over a few trees, allowing us to take in the lowered sun as it glittered yellow over a huge lake.
"It sure is beautiful, ain't it." My dad's voice came up from behind me. "Your mother and I used to come here a lot a long time ago." He chuckled softly.
"Of course, back then it looked a lot different." My mom said, linking her arm into my father's. A wistful look lingered in her amber orbs. I went up to them again and gave them another hug.
"Thank you." I repeated. They gave me a hug back before backing away from the cliff and to the center of a small opening between the trees. Big enough for a comfortable camp site.
Soon after Alfire and I followed them and helped unpack the car, and I helped my dad set up the tent as Alfire assisted my mom with building the campfire. With my dad's instructions, tent set up had finished pretty quickly. I wiped a bead of sweat from my forehead as I marveled at our accomplishment. For the first time, I did pretty well as my dad's assistant.
I heard a whistle behind me and I smiled and nodded as Alfire joined me. We went and got our bags from the car and placed them into one of the two tents. My dad had a talk with us the day before, saying he would allow us to share a tent for the sake of convenience, but of course without a barely-subtle threat directed in Alfire's way. But being the model friend Alfire was, he agreed to my dad's conditions without hesitation and we both thanked him.
We went back out after a while and after all the chairs were set up and my mom had put an iron pot she had saved in the basement unused for years over the fire. As the sun set we all sat around the tamed fire that Alfire had created. But due to the slightly soggy sticks around us that could only be used for regular firewood, he ended up using my dad's lighter to kindle the fire.
"I bet if you were a boy scout, you'd have been able to use the sticks." I teased. He smirked my way.
"Sometimes you've just got to work with what you've got and take the easy way out if it's the most efficient."
I rolled my eyes at his quick response and went back to warming my hands by holding the still-hot thermos mug filled with amazing hot chocolate.
"You know, if you keep drinking that stuff you'll soon turn into it." He joked. I've had at least three cups of these yesterday and already drank two this morning.
"I wouldn't mind." I shrugged. "I like chocolate, and I wouldn't mind being hot." I smiled gleefully his way.
"Witty." He nodded towards me with slightly narrowed eyes. "You're getting better at it, Jade."
I rolled my eyes at his use of my middle name, but that made it easy for a shot back.
"Appreciate your notice of my improvement, Judy." I teased. His middle name had been Jude, and my main source of entertainment when it came to him.
"Oh funny, I am still laughing after the fiftieth time you've used that joke." He scoffed and I reached over and pinched his cheek.
"Awww, is wittle Alfie embawwesed?"
Before he could respond my mom scolded me for teasing him and only then I remembered my parents were watching. I glared at Alfire as he shot me a triumphant grin. What are you so happy about? I thought. You're still going to be stuck with me all night.
After I finished my drink we all began to eat as the starts started stretching over the sky. After we all finished my parents excused themselves and let us stay out while they got settled in their tent. I stared up at the sky for a while, letting my mind wander until I suddenly remembered the times I used to star gaze from Diana's backyard with her.
A small tear slipped from the corner of my eye when more memories rushed in. She should have been here with me. I thought sadly. This had been her dream too. I felt a hand on my shoulder and I saw Alfire looking at me in concern. I frowned, wondering what was wrong until his thumb reached out below my eye and wiped away another stray tear.
"I'm okay." I laughed quietly. "I'm just remembering some stuff."
He gave me a small smile. "Hey, I'm sorry, by the way."
I frowned again. "What for?"
"The other day. I didn't mean to ask you all those questions."
"Yes you did." I laughed, the guilty face he wore looked strange on him.
"Okay, maybe I did." He chuckled. "But I'm sorry I did it anyway."
"Don't worry about it, Al." I told him. "I needed to mention it some day anyway."
He nodded.
We continued to sit there for a bit longer until he held out a smore. "Want some?" he asked, biting into his own. I looked at the white filled cracker curiously.
"Is it good?" I asked.
His eyes widened. "You've never tasted a smore before?"
I shook my head.
"Dude, what have you been dong all your life?" He asked in disbelief and I rolled my eyes as I took the smore he held out and popped it in my mouth. My eyes widened in surprise at the texture of the marshmallow, and most of all the heat that still resided in it.
"Ith haw" I complained, trying to keep it from touching the roof of my mouth.
"Forgot to tell you to wait 'til it's cool first." Alfire frowned. "Sorry."
I shot him a look and he laughed.
I waited a bit longer until my tongue didn't feel like it was being branded by a hot iron before chewing again. As soon as I did the sweetness of the chocolate spread through my mouth and my eyes closed, enjoying every second of it. "Oh my god this is so good." I mumbled.
Alfire laughed and finished his.
After a few more, we decided to call it a night and hit the sack. I went into a small stand alone tent my dad had set up where we could change and replaced my jeans and shirt for leggings and a large t-shirt. I went back to my tent and saw Alfire had just replaced his top.
"What time is it?" I asked just before I snuggled into my new sleeping bag.
Alfire checked his watch. "Just past midnight."
"Oh."
Just as I closed my eyes, I mumbled a good night. It was a long day, and as I drifted off to sleep I could hear Alfire's voice again, leaving a small smile on my face.
"Night Kris. Happy Birthday."
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A/N: Sooo. SOOOOO. What do you thinkkk?
Yeah I've noticed too the specific type of guys Krissy here seems to attract. But if you're wondering, no, Alfire isn't in love with her. It seems that way I know, but he's just naturally into smooth talking. He asked her out two months after they met, but after the first time she said no, like it mentioned in the previous chapter, he likes teasing her for the sake of it. So he keeps asking just for the sake of it too. So yeah kind of makes him an arse, but cough cough, my kinda character. x'D So long story short, no he isn't interested in Kris romantically, but teases her only just above the limit that a brother does. But feel free to ship Alris or Kralfire if you'd like. I'm all for the ships x'D
ANYWAY IF YOU HAVE ANY COMMENTS OR QUESTIONS PLEASE HIT ME WITH THEM BELOW I LOVE UR OPINIONS. A little vote wouldn't hurt either *wink wink* HAHAHA
THANK YOU FOR READING GUYS. IT MEANS SO MUCH TO ME SERIOUSLY. THANK YOU.
*PEACE.
~Mari <(.^.)> (da birdie's upside down)