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"Josh, be quieter! You'll scare away all the animals." Bo yelled at her boyfriend who was ahead of her, stomping around on twigs and jumping over fallen tree trunks.
"Sorry, Bo." Josh turned back to her with a guilty face and made his steps quieter. "Why do you want to see the animals so much?"
"My dad and I used to do this, before he got his job as-" Bo stopped herself before she could reveal her secret, "a Doctor...and forgot all about me. He taught me how to track down animals."
Josh started to walk backwards and grabbed ahold of Bo's mittened hand, smiling at her.
"Come on. Let's get to this Cabin. It's just up ahead. Then we should look for animals, before it gets dark." He lead her along the trail as she smiled at Josh. How this even came to be was a mystery. Bo wasn't popular, she never wore makeup ever, and she was the new girl. So why had Josh Washington asked her to date him instead of someone like Jessica, especially after what she did to him?
She remembered the day with great detail. It was after school, Bo was with Jessica at her locker putting away books.
"Come on, Bo. It's just one party! Why won't you go with me?" Jessica whined. Bo wondered why Jessica's provocative clothing was not dress-coded but then she remembered that the teachers and principles were perverted and loved every outfit she ever wore.
"I'm sorry, Jess. I just have a project to do and I'm not particularly one to party hard and get drunk." Bo admitted. She took her backpack out of the locker and threw it over her shoulder. "Especially under-age."
Jessica scoffed, "Sure you aren't. But just...at least give me a ride back?"
"No, Jessica, you're not listening." Bo shook her head in disappointment and sighed, "I. Don't. Want. Anything. To do. With. This. Party." She made sure to say it slowly so Jessica could understand.
"Well, my real friends would."
"Then why don't you go talk to them? That's right, they're going with. And I would drive you home, if it wasn't 2 o' clock at night! I'm asleep by then, I'm not gonna even get any calls or texts. Do not depend on me for a ride home." She clarified and watched Jessica storm away. She would be back anyways the next day to go to the mall or something.
Rolling her eyes, Bo went to walk away when her name was called. Turning around, she was faced with Josh Washington. She instantly groaned out loud.
"You're not going to try and convince me to go to this party, are you?" She interrogated. Josh gave her a confused look.
"No, what party?" He asked, genuinely. Bo's hard glare softened and her cheeks went bright red in embarrassment.
"Oh! Just this one that Jessica's trying to get me to go to so she can see me drunk or something." Bo looked over her shoulder to make sure Jessica wasn't still there.
Josh and Bo had been really close ever since Hannah and Beth's funeral. Maybe even closer than Bo was to Jessica, who was her very first friend here. She had gathered up the search party to find Hannah and Beth the moment she watched them run into the woods and had to be physically pulled away from finding them by EMT's that were doing their job.
"I can do this! I can find them!" She recalled screaming to the people pulling her away into the ambulance. She remembered struggling against them to continue on, bawling and crying out for forgiveness. She remembered Josh crying just the same as she had and being pulled away as well. Their eyes met once, his forgiving, Bo's devastated.
"So, Bo," Josh interceded the thoughts and memories of the night Bo was racing around with. She smiled at him, warmly.
"Yeah?"
"I'm guessing you're free this weekend but I won't keep my hopes up." Josh's head was tilted slight to the side.
"Why not?" She smiled in a confused manner, one side of her mouth turned more upwards than the other.
"Well, a pretty girl like you must have dudes wrapped around your finger, all full up on your calendar." He struggled with his flirting skills, Bo realized that and laughed lightly.
"Ha! Where they at, then?" She teased.
"Well, you got one right here." Josh's smirk widened. Bo felt he couldn't let his ego rise to high.
"Hardly."
"Hey!" He protested. Bo burst out laughing. "Alright, alright. I have to admit that was good." He chuckled slightly. "Anyways, seeming you're free...would you like to hang with me sometime?" Josh rubbed the back of his neck. "Like...on a date...?"
Bo stared at him with an expressionless face for a period of time, making Josh sweat nervously.
"Are you kidding!?" She replied a little louder than needed. Josh widened his eyes. Clearing her throat and avoiding eye contact with everyone who was staring at her because of her outburst, she smiled at Josh. "I thought you'd never ask." Bo quieted her voice, grinning at a relived Josh.
"Oh, thank God!" Josh sighed out. "How about I pick you up tomorrow at six for dinner and a movie?"
Bo nodded her head.
"Yes! Of course!" She exclaimed happily.
Bo remembered taking a lot of time just to convince her parents to let her even go out that Saturday evening, let alone go on a date.
But nevertheless, she persisted after she told them who his parents were and what church he went to (which was none, Bo made one up).
"Josh, look." She whispered, slightly off the trail. "It's fox tracks." She recalled as he stood next to her,crouching down to get a good look, with his hand on her back.
"Woah. That's neat. So do you want to follow them or just go to the Cabin?" Josh asked, standing back up along with Bo, his hand still on her back.
"Well, it would be fun to see all the fox but we should also get there before the crew so we can get everything ready..." Bo was really stumped. She wanted to track the fox but she also knew about all the things that needed to get done at the cabin.
"You know what? Let's go find this fox!" Josh exclaimed, with a grin. Bo laughed lightly.
"Really? You sure you don't want to go back?" She challenged. Josh shook his head.
"Yeah, let's go! It'll be fun!" He grabbed ahold of Bo's hand leading her farther into the woods and away from the trail. Laughing, Bo followed him until she took lead, scanning the ground for any more sign of the fox.
Crouching down, she rustled the leaves away to reveal not only one but several pair of tracks. Bo gasped dramatically.
"What?" Josh asked, peering over her shoulder.
"There's a whole troop of fox right over there." She looked up and pointed her finger east, where the prints were headed. "Follow me."
"That's what I've been doing." Josh laughed. Bo turned around to smile at him.
"If we hurry, we can see the fox troop and get back to the cabin in time." She said, tramping over the underbrush of the forest.
Josh and Bo made their way far out in the woods, Bo occasionally marking their way by sticking branches straight up from the ground and ended up finding the troop.
"Woah..." Bo sighed out. It wasn't just a troop, it was a family full of baby foxes and everything. "Look how precious they are!" She whisper-yelled to Josh. They both hid behind a boulder to keep from scaring the fox and her family. "The mom is so pretty!" She gawked. For some reason, Bo felt a pulling towards the animals, like something magical and mysterious. She wanted to just watch them live for days.
Josh chuckled lightly, craning his neck to see the animals but remaining hidden.
"We better get back, now, Bo." He admitted, standing up slowly. The mother fox only eyed him slightly but Bo noticed her calm disposition towards them. Taking that as her chance, she walked closer towards the fox.
"Hey, pretty girl..." She cooed. The mother fox tip-toed closer, her small babies behind her, rough-housing with each other. Bo gently extended her hand and outstretched her fingers towards the fox. At first, she jumped back but as she saw Bo had made no move against her, the mother resorted to sniffing her fingers. Giggling slightly, Bo made a bold move by making her way to pet the fox's head. Foxes were known to have sharp teeth, one bite could be crucial but when can you ever say you pet a wild fox before?
The fox accepted the contact, pushing her head against Bo's warm hands. The babies occasionally peeped and screeched from behind.
"Oh my God..." Josh marveled at the sight of his girlfriend actually petting a wild animal. "Make sure it doesn't-"
"Bite me?" Bo finished for him, with a smirk, as she stood up away from the fox who finally led her children away from the two teens. "I think if she wanted to, she would have already done it, don't you think?" She bopped his nose and continued to follow their man-made trail back to the Cabin.
Josh paused for a moment before continuing behind Bo, smirking at the attitude his girlfriend had.
As the two made their way back to the Cabin, they were met up with Chris who was there early to hang out with Josh and Bo before everyone showed up already.
"Ay, Josh!" A voice boomed. Bo felt the presence of all the animals disappear as a huge figure bounced around everything like a maniac, trying to get to them.
"Chris!" Josh cried, and laughed with a huge grin on his face. "How's it going man?"
As the two boys hugged and roughed around, Bo sighed and put her hand over her eyes in disappointment.
"You oafs just scared them all away!" She whisper-yelled.
"Scared what away?" Chris raised his blonde eyebrow and looked around as if to look for who it was.
"The animals." Josh finished for her, wincing at the realization of his actions. Chris scoffed.
"Who cares anyways, they're just animals." He said, playfully taking Bo around his arm into some kind of lazy headlock-hug.
Bo rolled her eyes, and smirked.
"Whatever Chris, I didn't expect someone as daft as you to get it." She teased, and put her tongue beneath her teeth before getting out of his grip, walking away from the two.
Chris turned to Josh and whistled.
"She's a keeper, huh?" He asked but before Josh could answer continued on the trail, rambling, "Also, do we get our own room this time? Sleeping in the living room wasn't very fun with Mike's snoring ass." He began to run to catch up with Bo, Josh doing the same, "Guys, I'm super pumped for this. This is gonna be so fun especially now that you two are a thing-" he suddenly stopped and bent down. "Woah..."
Bo cocked her head slightly to the side and took a tentative step forward.
"What's up, Chris?"
He never took his eyes off the ground.
"Guys, come look. It's some...carved thingy." Chris said, struggling to find words that described the object he was staring at.
"Well, you have to be a little more specific than that." Josh chimed in, stepping next to Bo.
"No, just come look."
Bo was the first to move, walking towards Chris.
"Oh. It's like...a Native American doll, or something." She reached down to pick it up.
"No, Bo, don't!" Chris swatted her hand away. Caressing her stinging hand, Bo gave him a nasty look.
"What was that for!? I just wanted to pick it up!"
"It's a strange object, in the woods, from a different culture. Is that not the slightest bit suspicious?"
"Well, if you put it like that." Bo rolled her eyes and made her way in the direction of the cabin.
"However, I'm curious as fuck so I'm gonna touch it." Chris said playfully and picked up the totem.
"Hey! That's no fair!" Bo cried, quickly turning around but grew silent when she saw Chris sitting there as if he was frozen. "Chris?" She asked and exchanged worried glances with Josh.
"Chris, I swear to God if your joking around with us, I will punch you in the throat." Josh intervened, marching forward and throwing Chris backward. He seemed to come out of a daze as he did so, jolting his limbs like he was having a muscle spasm.
"What the hell!" Chris shouted and threw the totem from his hands, his chest moving rapidly.
"What? What was it!?" Bo's eyes widened as she watched Chris's reaction. Suddenly, he began to laugh.
"You two should have seen your faces! It was just a wooden piece of crap, there wasn't anything." Chris teased the two. Josh was fuming.
"What- the- fuck- man!?" He shouted as he punched Chris each time he said a word. Chris began to laugh harder.
"Got you good." He smirked. Bo rolled her eyes.
"Ha. Ha. You won comedian of the year, now can we please just get to the cabin, without any more pranks, please?" Bo lead the troop of cackling boys to the cabin which was only up ahead a few yards ahead. She ha forgotten how big it was, but then again, she tried to forget as much as possible with last year's events.
"And here we are!" Josh ran forward and turned around so he was walking backwards toward the house with his arms outstretched. "The Washington forest estate!"
Bo laughed, cheerily as she shook her head lightly.
"Of course," he continued, "it needs some...extras like food, electricity, and basically everything to sustain our living standards, but hey!"
Walking up the wooden porch steps, Bo watched with a smile as Josh fumbled with the keys for the cabin after breaking eye contact with her. As if her gaze was edging him on, she tilted her torso slightly to get a better look. Josh sighed and dropped his hand with his keys to the side.
"Would you stop?" He turns towards her. Bo raised her eyebrow.
"Stop what?"
"That whole cutesy-stare-y thing. It's very distracting." He went back to his task of unlocking the door. Bo smirked.
"Aw, am I distracting to you?"
"No..."
"I believe you just said I was distracting you with my cuteness."
"I said your stare was distracting." He finally opened the door, and everyone stepped inside, including the third-wheeling Chris.
"Um, if I may intercede, I did hear the word, and I quote, 'that whole cutesy-stare-y thingy'. Emphasis on the cute." Chris teased, taking Bo's side. Her eyes widened and pointed back at Chris.
"See? I have a witness." She teased Josh. He playfully rolled his eyes.
"Alright, alright. So you're cute and you distract me, what's the big deal?"
Bo and Chris smiled at each other as if they had won the ultimate victory. Chris leaned forward, close to her ear.
"If this makes your heart flutter, you should hear the way he talks about you when you're not around." He whispered. Bo giggled slightly, before turning her attention towards her red-in-embarrassment boyfriend.
"So, when are the others coming?" She asked.
"Well, I left Sam right when we got off the lift so she should be here-"
"Right now." A voice finished for him. Sure enough, Sam was in the doorway with her bags and her hand on her hip. "You know it was quite rude for you to ditch me like that."
"Sam!" Bo cried out, and rushed to give one of her closest friends a hug.
"And Ashley, too. Don't forget about me, too." A small voice peeped from behind Sam. When Bo finished hugging Sam, she smiled brightly and stood by Ashley's side.
"We would never dream of it, Ash." She reassured her. Chris, however, grew strangely quiet next to Josh when Ashley had announced her entrance. Bo knew that the two of them had major crushes on each other from both Josh and Ashley herself.
"So," Josh interrupted the small party's random discussion, "I still have to get the power box running and you know...get a feel for the place again. You all can put your bags away, I'll be right back."
Bo followed the rest of the crew who were placing suitcases and duffel bags on the dense couches, Chris getting things ready for a fire.
"Bo?" A small voice peeped from behind her. She turned around to see Josh with the door half-way open. "Come with me, please."
"Of course." She handed her bags to Sam, who winked at her. Taking the outstretched hand of Josh, he lead her out in the cold, walking around to the back of the cabin. "You alright, Josh?" While walking, she wrapped herself into his warmth, practically hugging him while they walked.
"Yeah, just...have a lot on my mind." He answered honestly. Bo could tell since they arrived at the cable cars that he was troubled.
"It certainly isn't easy. Having everyone here." Bo related to him.
"I think having you here is more of my problem." Josh muttered.
"What?" She tilted her head away from his side as she was way shorter than he and only reached below his armpit. "What do you mean? Do you not want me here?"
"No, it's fine. But, I feel...I feel like it's just a lot. I feel like I have to protect you." Josh shook his head.
"Protect me?"
"I don't want you to get hurt."
"Josh, you're being very ominous here, how would I get hurt here?"
"I-I don't know. Just with my sisters, I let myself loose and look what happened to them."
"Don't compare me to your sisters. I won't leave you if it makes you feel any better." She tucked her head back into his side, and flipped herself in front of him so she was hugging him from the front. He wrapped his arms around her frame and rested his head on her shoulders.
"Thanks, but I should be fine. I guess." He spoke into her hair. Letting go, Bo walked around the corner of the edge of the porch to find the power box.
"Josh, you got the key to open the box?" She asked, fidgeting with the lock that binded the box together.
"Yeah." He answered, simply, turning his back so he was facing Bo and reaching his hands in his pockets to pull out a landyard that had several keys attached to it. "It should be that one." He separated a single silver key and handed it to Bo.
"Thanks." She said, unlocking it and pulling down the big lever that almost instantly turned on all the lights inside the house. "And God said, let there be light." She mumbled, reciting Genesis like her Pastor-child self.
"Did you say something?" Josh slightly tilted his head, catching Bo off guard.
"Oh, no. Let's head back inside before Emily, Matt, Jessica and Mike get here." She suggested.
"Yeah, lets." He followed as Bo walked on the porch and into the cabin once again. When she opened the door, she was horrified to see Emily, Jessica, Matt and Mike were already there. Arguing.
"Congrats, you're top cow." She heard Em's usual sass project throughout the house. Taking off her coat, she turned around to roll her eyes at Josh who chuckled in response.
"Cuts real deep calling Miss Homecoming a cow." Jess added fuel to the fire with her whole, 'homecoming' deal Bo was so sick of.
"Hey!" She shouted, interferring their bicker, storming over to where the two were ready to pull at each other's hair. "Knock it off, you two." Bo warned.
"Bo, please just-" Jessica started but was interrupted by Em blowing up at Bo.
"Shut it, Bo. No one asked you to play peace keeper!"
"Hey! Watch it! That's my best friend you're talking to!" Jessica defended.
"Oh, so you're the only one who can put her down? No one else gets to play with your toys!" Emily argued.
"Em, that's just disgusting." Bo wrinkled her nose. Both Emily and Jessica turned to the poor girl caught in the middle.
"Shut up, Bo!" They both shouted in sync.
"Whatever." Jessica rolled her eyes, returning to the petty argument. "I don't care what you think." She turned away and went to walk towards Mike.
"At least I can think. 4.0 bitch, honor roll!"
"Stop it!" Josh took control of the situation, waving his arms in the '3 strikes, you're out' move and taking sides with his girlfriend who looked honestly hurt. "This is not why we came up here. This is not...helping! It's not what I wanted. And especially to yell at Bo when she was trying to stop you from going as far as you did. She's the only one here who can do something good and you two are trying to put her down!"
Everybody in the room went silent. Not in fear, but in awe of how Josh handled the situation. Chris noticed Bo blush when he took her defense and smiled himself. He couldn't help but imagine when he would stick up for Ashely when he would finally get the guts to ask her out. Chris only dreamed of a relationship like Bo and Josh.
"Now. Before we situate into our desired rooms, let's go start a bonfire outside. Actually spend some quality time with each other. I feel we need it." He glared at the two still-fuming girls.
"I'm not spending time with that whore!" Jessica hissed.
"Likewise." Emily snarled.
"Fine." Josh counter-fired. "One of you can take your ass to the guest cabin if you seriously can't deal with each other."
"I'm not leaving." Emily crossed her arms across her chest.
"I'm not leaving either, I want to talk with Bo for, like, the first time in forever."
"Too bad, skank. You can take Mike and go where you guys probably would want to be anyways. Alone." Emily then continued to make insulting moaning noises.
"Emily!" A voice yelled at her. Everyone looked around at each other to see Matt, glaring at his girlfriend. "Just stop!" The whole room was silent as the carefully dreaded what was to come. Instead of a rage, the soft-hearted Matt only turned to Jessica and Mike apologetically. "I'm sorry. I honestly think you guys should go. Get away from here." He sympathized.
"I can't believe you, Matt." Emily growled and stormed away outside. Matt followed after. Looking around the room, Bo furrowed her eyebrows seeing it was only Sam, Chris, and Ashley left besides Josh.
"Anyone got a guitar?" She asked, meekly, moving the couch closer towards the fire. From the outside window, you could see (and hear) Matt and Emily fighting it out.
"I got a ukulele? Figured you'd use it if anything." Ashley shyly gave her input as she got up from her seat on the stairway and opened her suitcase, pulling out a wooden soprano ukulele and handing it to Bo.
"Thank you!" Bo smiled brightly, taking a hold of the instrument. "Anything to drown out the noise outside." She began to pluck the four strings, wincing at the tune of it and adjusting to her preference.
"Yes!" Sam got up from her seat next to Ashley on the stairs, Ashley following like a lost dog, and sat next to Bo on the couch. "S'mores and sing alongs? I'm up for it."
"Any requests?" Bo chuckled. When she received no answers, she strung a G chord. "That's okay. This song is necessarily a mood lighter but it needs to be sung." She looked around at all of her friends who stayed, silently thanking them in her head. When she reached Josh, she could tell he knew what song she wanted to sing and she looked at him, as if asking for permission. When he gave her a small smile and a single nod, Bo's face grew brighter as she took a deep breath and sang the first line softly.
"Now the night is coming to an end
The sun will rise and we will try again..."
Bo, after singing the last note of 'Friends In Low Places' and ending her accoustic session, got up from the couch as she set down her ukulele on the seat she was on, walking over to join Josh in his quest to tend the fire. As she approached him, she placed her hand on his back and knelt down next to him. Josh turned his attention from the fire to Bo.
"Hey, sunshine." He gave her a half-smile.
"Hey. I'm so sorry this whole...gathering and the fighting. Not necessarily an ideal memorial kind of thing." She slightly smiled back. Sitting down on the hard wood floor, she took the campfire poker away from Josh and nodded her head back at the socializing few. Matt and Emily had even joined but Em was too busy putting her stuff away.
"Don't worry about it, Bowie." He shook his dismissively. Bo couldn't help but playfully shove his arm at his stupid nickname him and Chris came up with a while back. He laughed heartily, and held onto his arm. "Be careful, baby, you almost pushed me in the fire."
"Call me 'baby' again, and I will go through with it." She jokingly glared at Josh, getting up from the ground. Bo tried to fight the yawn inside her but couldn't. She didn't want to be the buzzkill of the night party just because she was tired. Fortunately, but unfortunately, Josh caught her yawn.
"Aw, is my baby tired?" He teased her. She stuck at him in response as he laughed. "Well, you can go to bed up in my room. Figured we'd share it since you're the only one who can put up with me."
"Sure, but don't expect anything from it." She raised an eyebrow and pointed her finger at him. Bo walked over to her duffell bag and picked it up.
"Later?" He smirked playfully, and picked up the fire poker Bo had set down beforehand.
"Not until there's a ring on my finger, Mr. Washington." She was almost to the top stair when she heard Josh practically shouted out,
"Challenge accepted!"
Thanks for reading this chapter of "No More" ! So excited to see you all in the next :)
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Graphics credit @girlpotterheadxx