"Stop eating all of the granola bars!"
Logan quickly stuffed the rest of his granola bar in his mouth before I could snatch it away from him.
He chuckled with puffy cheeks as I glared at him playfully.
"It's not my fault lunch is so far away," Logan whined.
I rolled my eyes and situated my heavy backpack on my back, "You'll survive."
"Hey Eva," he said in a serious, hushed tone.
"Yeah?" I paused and looked at him.
"Still walking funny?"
"Honestly!" I cried and shoved him, "You're impossible."
I turned and kept walking up the trail.
"Aw cmon Eva, its funny," Logan laughed behind me.
My cheeks were pink with embarrassment. It wasn't my fault I had been stiff and sore earlier this morning.
Logan had taken it as an enormous ego booster after I reassured him that he hadn't hurt me. Now he was having too much fun with it.
"Okay, okay," he sobered up, "I'm sorry. I'm done."
I smiled in relief, "Finally. Thank you."
He bumped me with his bag, "So, how much farther until we get to the river?"
I looked at the map in my hands, "Hmm about another hour or so."
After we'd gotten ourselves together this morning, Logan and I had changed, geared up and left the clearing on foot to hike to the river on the map. It was quite a ways away and seemed like fun.
We'd dumped on bug spray, ate a quick breakfast and left. Our objective was to get to the river, camp by it for a night and then get back to the truck tomorrow.
"Ugh," Logan grumbled as he swatted some bugs away from his face.
I rolled my eyes and tucked a fly away strand of my ponytail behind my ear, "Thought you were a southern nature boy or something."
"I am, but getting eaten alive by a swarm of- the fuck are these?!" He growled, still swatting at some biting flies.
I pulled out my bug spray and coated him in it, "Big baby."
"Am not!"
We kept walking for a while longer. I know I've said it for every destination, but this place was absolutely beautiful.
We'd obviously found a scenic trail. Brilliantly tall, leafy trees swayed gently above our heads.
Birds sang loudly and I would be annoyed, had I not grown up in an enormous city that had more annoying things than birds.
I was enjoying the day, even though it was sweltering and muggy. It didn't bug me as much as I figured it would.
"Hear that?" Logan stopped for a minute and grabbed my arm.
I looked around quickly, "What? Hear what??"
"That is..." he trailed off and looked at me with a grin, "Water! Race you!"
My mouth gaped as Logan sped off into the trees, "Wha- hey!"
I followed him and tried to keep my boots from hitting things on the trail, my heavy bag thumping my back as I tried to catch up with Logan.
I grinned as the trees thinned and Logan was the first to run out of the woods.
The river was just in front of him and he quickly dumped his bag. I got out of the tree line just as he stripped off his shirt, his pants, and to my embarrassment, his underwear too.
"Logan!" I giggled as he launched himself into the river.
I'd worry the current would carry him away but we'd found a deep pool-like bend.
He resurfaced with a shit eating grin on his face and his wet hair matted to his head, "Come on in Eva, it feels great!"
"You're asking me to skinny dip with you?" I raised an eyebrow with a smirk as I dropped my bag on the bank.
He nodded vigorously, "I think we'd both enjoy it."
My cheeks were pink, but I was braver than I originally thought as I slowly unbuttoned my shirt, "Really?"
Logan's lips twitched as he watched me, "Well I already am."
I smirked and shrugged off my shirt. Unbuttoning my shorts, I slowly slid them down and stepped out of them, leaving me in my underwear.
Yes, I do realize that I'm performing a strip tease in the woods, no, I'm not ashamed.
"Killing me, woman," Logan groaned and flopped back into the water.
I giggled and quickly stripped off my bra and underwear. Logan came back up and as soon as he surfaced, I leapt into the water.
It was freezing. The air was sucked out of me as soon as I went under. My feet touched the rocky river bottom and I pushed myself up.
I rubbed my eyes and smiled as I saw Logan looking at me, "Still enjoying this?"
His arm wrapped around my bare waist and tugged me to his chest, "Oh yeah."
I hoped he couldn't tell I was blushing like an idiot.
"I hope there's no one out here," I giggled quietly, looking around.
Logan looked over my shoulder and shrugged, "Nah, just you, me, and the bugs."
I laughed and wrapped my arms around his neck, tugging us down a little, "Well I'm in great company then."
I squealed as Logan pushed down on my hips, shoving me under the water. Cold river water filled my mouth and I came up quickly.
Logan was laughing his ass off, but stopped when I spit the water into his face.
He didn't have the chance to wipe his eyes as I shoved his chest and sent him under the surface.
He disappeared as I laughed to myself evilly. I yelped as something pinched my butt.
I turned around and playfully glared at Logan, who was looking around innocently.
"So immature," I grinned, splashing him.
"Me? Says the splasher," he chuckled and splashed me back.
We played in the river until I got cold and then sat out on a flat rock to air dry. Sitting on a warm rock naked and next to Logan, who was also naked, wasn't as weird as I figured.
Logan was on his back with his hands behind his head, his eyes closed as he soaked up some sun. We probably looked like lizards basking.
I laid on his chest and flicked my wet hair away from my face. Logan sighed happily, trailing his fingers down my bare back and over my hip and thigh.
Eventually, it got cooler as the sun began to set and we had to get dressed, much to Logan's displeasure.
I opted for his shirt instead of my own pjs and some sweatpants. Logan dumped a load of firewood by our freshly set up tent and sat in the grass.
I drug a big dead log over to where he was setting up the fire and sat on it. Logan started the fire and grinned triumphantly, "This is why man conquers all."
"Like how you conquered those bugs?" I raised an eyebrow.
He threw a twig at me and I giggled. I speared a couple hotdogs on a stick and slowly rotated them over the crackling fire. Soon enough, Logan and I were chowing down.
I watched him root around in his backpack before pulling a couple packages out.
"What's all that for?" I asked, finishing off my hotdog.
"S'mores," Logan grinned.
"What's that?" I cocked my head to the side in confusion.
"I hope it's okay that sometimes, I wanna punch your parents in the face," he muttered. I silently agreed with him.
He grabbed two sticks and shoved a big marshmallow on each of the ends.
"My favorite is the burnt crispies on the outside, so I do this," he said, lowering his marshmallow into the fire and setting it aflame.
"It's burning," I nudged him and he laughed.
"That's the point."
He pulled the flaming marshmallow towards us and blew out the fire. What was left was a bubbled, black, flaky looking skin.
Logan slowly pulled it off the stick, leaving behind some sticky goo. He peeled off some of the marshmallow and held it out to me.
I took it and stuck it in my mouth. I made a face as it tasted like I had licked ash off a burnt log.
I spat out the black chunks, "Ew."
"What! You don't like it?" Logan chuckled.
I shook my head, "I prefer the gooey inside."
He shrugged and stuck a new marshmallow on the stick, then handed it to me, "Roast it how you like then."
I held the stick over the fire just long enough for the outside to turn a little brown and the inside to melt.
"Now what?" I asked.
Logan got out gram crackers and a couple chocolate bars. He put a chunk of chocolate on a cracker square before squishing his marshmallow in between the chocolate and another cracker.
I copied him skeptically. This wasn't looking too good to me.
"Perfect. Try it," Logan smiled, taking an enormous bite out of his s'more.
I bit down on my snack sandwich and waited for it to taste as gross as burnt marshmallow. I rolled my eyes as Logan snapped a picture.
I smiled as I realized it was absolutely awesome. My s'more was gone within the minute and I was making a second.
"I knew you'd like it," Logan grinned, staring at his camera.
"Whys it called a s'more?" I asked, lifting my marshmallow away from the fire a little.
"Because you always want s'more," Logan chuckled.
I laughed and leaned against Logan. Eventually, the fire began to burn low and the log was too rough to sit on.
Logan and I found ourselves on our backs in the grass and looking up at the night sky. I would never get used to the beauty of a starlit sky without the city lights to ruin it.
The moon loomed over us, casting blue light everywhere and making things look silver.
Logan sat up on his elbow and looked down at me, "Would you do this for the rest of your life?"
I looked at him, "Travel? To places like this?"
He nodded. I grinned, "Absolutely. I want to see a million night skies in a million different places. Maybe have a little house to come back to for a break."
"A little house where?"
"I dunno. Wherever I want. Somewhere away from the city. In a serine, clear place. Probably somewhere in the woods like this. I like the forest and how peaceful it is," I sighed happily.
Logan smiled and nodded. I was staring at the stars, trying to find the Big Dipper, and glanced at Logan when he hadn't looked away from me, "What?"
"You've got galaxies in your eyes," he said softly and I laughed.