[ ADDISON'S POV ]
My mom yawned widely as the hours have pasted us by.
"We should get going to bed, tomorrow's gonna be a fun filled day!" Lisa tried to have excitement in her voice but she just comes off as tired.
"Yeah I'm beat." Ethan wipes his hands off then standing up.
We all stand up, collecting our blankets.
"Cameron and I will be cooking some bacon tomorrow morning on the grill down closer to the water, there's also yogurts on the coolers so just grab what you'd like when you wake up." Lisa tells us all before her and my mom walk off to their tent.
"I'll see you guys in the morning, goodnight." Cameron pulls Grayson into a hug, then Ethan.
When she gets to me I hug her and she walks off to her tent.
Ethan starts to pick up all of the crackers and left over chocolate-putting it onto the table.
"I'll see you guys in the morning, see you in a few Gray." Ethan speaks while grabbing his blanket, "goodnight Addison." He smiles at me then walking into his tent.
Grayson turned towards me, "goodnight, I'll see you tomorrow."
Unexpectedly, he leans down kissing my cheek softly.
I blush looking down to my feet, "Goodnight." I tuck a piece of hair behind my ear.
We both split ways and I crawl into my tent wrapping myself in all the blankets that I had. Shit it's so cold.
After thirty minutes of laying down listening to the woods outside of my tent, I heard a couple of sticks breaking.
My eyes quickly opened but I didn't move. I heard shuffling around outside and my worst fears were getting to me.
If I die right now, Jesus know I love you.
I tired to ignore it but I couldn't. It's one in the morning? What is outside of my tent at one in the morning.
Being the dumbass I am, I decided to check it out. I took a deep breath in then slowly unzipping the tent. I peaked my head out but it was really dark. All the shuffling stopped and the only thing you could hear were the crickets that talked in the trees.
I stuck my head back inside and recovered myself fast. I stacked all the blankets on top of me as if they could protect me and sealed my eyes shut.
I sat there for ten minutes realizing I wasn't gonna be able to fall asleep. The cracking noise from earlier officially woke me up.
I let out a huff and grabbed my flashlight deciding to just go for a little walk.
I put on my hoodie and put the hood on to try to be warmer. I unzipped the tent again and crawled out. When I stood up I adjusted my wrinkled clothes.
A light caught me off guard causing me to look up.
Grayson was sitting in a hammock that overlooked the lake. The wind swept him back and forth slowly. He had his hood on as he looked down.
I was quiet relieved knowing who it was breaking the sticks and we weren't gonna get mauled by a bear.
I quietly walked over to him standing beside the hammock but he was so deep into writing that he didn't even notice me.
He was focused down on his journal, writing away. His hand movements were fast as the pen wrote down his thoughts. He held a tiny flashlight in between his teeth that was aimed down onto the paper.
"Can't sleep?" I asked him.
His head jumped; shooting up to look at me. He quickly put the pen in his lap then closing the book.
I giggled at how much I had just startled him. "Sorry, i didn't mean to scare you."
He lets out a breath while one corner of his mouth bent upwards. "It's okay."
"Trouble sleeping?" I looked out to the lake watching the stars sparkle onto it.
"I guess. I don't really ever get sleep though." He shrugged not seeming to effected by it.
His fingers traced lightly back and forth over the cover of his book.
"You're writing in it, huh?" I grabbed the straps of the hammock for support.
He looked down at it and swallowed, "Yeah, it's helped a lot." His eyes travel back up to me.
I couldn't help but smile. Giving him that journal makes me feel a lot better about everything knowing that he's been trapping his feelings inside of it.
"I'm glad you're doing okay, Grayson." I admit to him.
He was about to say something but looked back down to his hands. "Here, come sit." He scoots over making room for me to sit by him.
I jumped into the hammock letting my feet dangle just like his.
He kept looking down to his hands then finally decided to talk, "I'm can't tell if I'm doing okay, Addison." He sounded like he was struggling; breaking my heart.
My heart started to beat faster scared for him.
"You can talk to me, Gray. Always." I put my hand onto his back and rubbed it lightly up and down.
He took in a breath of air and I could tell that he was struggling.
"Do you ever just want to tell people things but you realize it could ruin them? Or even ruin their happiness?" He asked fully turning his head to me.
I know exactly how you feel because you're doing it to me.
I nod my head as I watched to see if his facial expressions changed at all.
"I've just been struggling with that recently." He took his eyes off of me, looking back down to his hands.
"I have been too. It's rough not knowing what people are thinking because you're scared to mess up." I laughed to myself almost making fun of myself.
He nodded in agreement.
His fingers fiddled with the cover of the journal as if he wanted to keep writing but I was there so he didn't want me to see it.
"I'll let you get back to that." I roughly smiled then moving myself off of the hammock.
"Addison." Grayson gripped my wrist making my heart jump.
I turn back around to face him but his face immediately dropped.
"Just uh, goodnight." He sent me a soft smile, breaking eye contact with me then letting go of my wrist.
God damnit why can he not just tell me. I don't know what he's waiting for? He said he's been struggling with not telling people stuff?
I nod getting a little upset, "night."
____
I wake up to the sound of Ethan's laughter. My eyes slowly open as I see the brightness from outside of my tent.
I rolled out of the blankets and put on some sweatpants and a sweatshirt. I threw my hair into a messy bun and walked out of my tent.
Everyone was around the grill down at the lake, cooking, eating and at one point Ethan even chased Cameron around with a bug.
I jumped down some rocks as I walked down towards them.
"Good morning hun." My mom smiled as she flipped the bacon.
I looked around and didn't see Grayson.
"Where's Gray?" I asked as I grabbed some yogurt from the cooler.
Lisa hesitated, "he went for a walk this morning. I don't know how long he's gonna be but he wanted time to himself." She looked down being upset.
No. Not again. I can't handle seeing him hurt all the time. I just need him to open up to me.
Ethan took my out of my negative thoughts, putting me into the positive ones. His hip hit mine as he grinned taking a bite of his bacon, "sit with me."
I rolled my eyes at him while grabbing a water. I sat down next to him on the wooden bench. My mom placed bacon in front of me and I started eating away at it.
"How'd you sleep?" Ethans eyes looked down to mine.
"Pretty good actually, it was a little cold but I lived so." I chuckled looking down onto my plate.
"That's a shame, I was hoping you'd be tired so you would be behind and get lost on our hike today." Ethan joked winking at me.
"Rude!" I pushed his firm shoulders.
"Hey hey hey! I'm kidding!" He laughed historically. "You know I would just carry you."
The rest of the weekend went okay. Ethan and I got closer while it felt like Grayson and I were drifting apart yet getting closer.
Every time he would open up to me, i would help him. But there was some sort of awkward tension between us. I couldn't put my finger on it.
_______
MONDAY
"Addison!" I heard my voice being screamed for causing my head to shoot in the direction of the voice.
I close my locker and see Claire sprinting down the hall. My eyes go wide as she approaches me with such excitement.
"Geez Claire, slow down." I giggle flinging my back pack over my shoulder.
"Hot boy! Very hot boy!" She puts her hand onto the locker for support while she breathes in and out heavily.
"What are you talking about?" I narrow my eyebrows.
"His names Miles. He's from California. Super tan, brown hair and blue eyes. Super hot." She described in between her panting.
"Sounds like you type." I grinned nudging her arm.
Her head propped back as she stood up straight, furrowing her eyebrows. "Bitch I have Matt. I was talk about for you."
I gave her a look as if she were crazy, "Claire I'm not getting into another relationship. I just stopped talking to Ethan." I hissed at her a little rudely.
"Addison come on!" She dragged on as I started to walk away. "You've only dated the twins in your whole sixteen years of living! Try something new?" She shrugged as if it wasn't a big deal.
For some reason that pissed me off. I'm happy with only dating them in my whole 16 years of living. They are the brightest, kindest and most caring people I've ever met and she just wants me to throw that away.
"Bye Claire." I gave her a dramatic wave as I walked to my third period class.
I sat down in the back of the class where no one sat, getting a few "heys" from a couple of classmates.
I slouched back into my seat and crossed my arms waiting for class to start.
After a few long moments of waiting, the door swung open revealing a dark down haired kid that I have never seen before. I squinted my eyes as I watched him look around the classroom.
His hands held onto the straps of his backpack as he looked around for a seat.
He started walking towards a desk near me when he saw that it was open.
I watched as he flung his backpack onto the ground and slouched back into his seat just like me. He wore blue ripped jeans that rolled at the ankles with white socks and white vans along with a tight black tshirt.
His head turned towards me as a small smile appeared on his face, "I assume you're Addison?" He whispered catching me off guard.
I raised my eyebrow at him, "and how'd you know that?"
"A girl named Claire wouldn't stop talking about you last period. She said to look for a 'drop dead gorgeous' girl with long hair. You seem to fit both those categories." He shrugged still smiling.
Fucking Claire. I have to admit though, I'm flattered.
"So, why'd you move from California to Jersey?" I chuckled trying to change the conversation.
"Ah so she told you about me too?" He smirked to himself.
He turned back towards the front of the class. His cheeks puffed up with air then he let it go, "LA is not my place."
"Stressful huh?" I laughed at how stiff he seemed.
"Totally. All there is, is drama. People are so closed off, not here though. I've already made great friends." He started to play with the bracelets on his wrist.
"Who?" My noisy ass blurted.
He chuckled turning towards me, "well Claire first of all, then she brought me to Matt and he seems dope as hell. And in football this morning I met some of matts friends I think it was Grayson and Ethan? Their twins, do you know them?" He raised an eyebrow at me.
I chuckled to myself as I played with my pencil. "They're actually my friends. I've known them my whole life." I started thinking to myself.
"Uh oh, you're not dating one of them right?" He looked nervous.
I thought to myself for a second. "No. I'm not."
He looked relieved and let his chest let go of air, "woouuff! Thank god."
"Whys that?" I laughed at his words.
"I didn't want to get in the way of anything." He smirked at me, clearly hitting on me.
The corners of my mouth slowly curved up as I looked back up to the board.
______
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