It was the day of our annual summer camping trip. My best friends and I always hiked miles upon miles down a trail near my rural home and tent camped for a weekend every year in July.
This weekend was going to be perfect, the weather warm with no chance of rain for the days to come. This year was going to be a bit different though because we let the boys join us. All the past years we told them they could not come because they got too rambunctious, but we thought maybe by now they had settled down a bit.
I checked my backpack to be sure I had everything. As I rummaged through, I felt a pair of arms snake around me and pick me up. I began being shaken to death, laughing and kicking around in an attempt to try to free myself. I felt myself being let down and I turned to see my best friend Bastion smiling dumbly at me.
His dirty blonde hair was messy and he was wearing a tee shirt with Gizmo from the movie Gremlins on it paired with some blue jean shorts. His blue eyes held a great deal of humor in them as I shot him a small glare.
"Girl! Hurry your queen ass up! The rest of us are all done and waiting outside!" He said with a little too much sass, crossing his arms with a fake pout to his lips. I rolled my eyes and zipped my bag up.
"Relax, I am ready," I stated. Bastion turned with a victorious look and walked out of my room, his six foot tall, thin body leaving the room as he closed the door on his way out.
I walked over to my white painted wooden shoe rack and grabbed my pair of black leather hiking boots. I slid them on and tied them as tight as I could to assure they would not move a single centimeter while on the trek.
Standing up, I began to think about anything else I might need, furrowing my eyebrows slightly with concentration. Remembering the last necessity to hiking, I grabbed my assisted opening pocket knife and clipped it to my belt loop on my black jean shorts. I turned back once more, examining my bedroom before leaving it.
I walked out of my house to the rest of my friends who were waiting in my front yard. Bastion smiled and said "Oh look who finally decided to come out of her cave and join the rest of us!" This got a laugh out of most of my friends. The two who did not laugh, Lizzy and John, were busy dry humping one another near a tree, John's six foot two, slightly muscular body pressed against Lizzy's five foot four curvy one.
Once again I rolled my eyes and began walking. I looked around and did a head count. "Everyone ready? Last chance to pee in an actual bathroom for the weekend!" I asked. Everyone nodded and began walking down my dirt driveway with the crunching of stones undertow and into the field across from us and to the soft sounds of grassy footsteps. Down the side of the field was the beginning of the trail, and the beginning of a very long, adventurous hike.
We had been hiking for about an hour before the first real complaints began. Kaylee began whining that she was hungry and wished she had stayed home so she could have ice cream. Her boyfriend Cade simply laughed at her before scolding her, stating she would live a few days without the luxuries of ice cream and the internet.
"Kay, if I hear one more comment about ice cream or Arby's I will personally tie you to a fucking tree and leave you for the animals to gnaw on," Lizzy said to Kaylee. Kaylee grumbled something under her breath, but the lot of us found it humorous and a round of laughter sounded through our group.
We walked for another thirty to forty minutes before we unanimously decided a break from the sweat inducing hike would be nice. Everyone stopped and drank out of their water bottles and found a place to sit. Lizzy was sitting on her fiancé, John's, lap next to the tree Bastion had managed to climb into while Dylan and Maddie sat on a dead, fallen tree.
Kaylee and I sat together on another, smaller dead tree, her boyfriend Cade not far away on a rock. "When should we stop and make camp?" She asked.
I stopped and pondered for a second, but my thought was interrupted by Garret, who was our friend Bex's fiancé. "We really should stop in the next three to four hours. We need to be able to set up camp before it gets dark," he said. I turned Garret who was standing over Bex, who had made herself comfortable on a large rock. Taking another second to think his suggestion over, I nodded, deciding it was a wise choice.
"We should be able to make it quite a few more miles if we head out now," he said with a firm nod.
I stood up, reaching my hand out to Kaylee to help pull her up. I looked around and did another head count as everyone else began to rise from their resting positions. I furrowed my brow realizing one of us was missing. I named people off in my head. Kaylee. Cade. Bex. Garrett. Lizzy. John. Maddie. Dylan...
"Where's Bastion?" I asked. Everyone looked around confused about the disappearance of our friend.
Suddenly I felt my body cave beneath me as something jumped on my back, causing a loud crash in the dead leaves and sticks. I groaned and Bastion rolled off me.
"Sorry, needed a soft landing," he said as he stood up, brushing a few brown, dead leaves off of his legs. Everyone laughed as I glared at him with deadly daggers.
I pushed myself up, pulling my long brown hair from my pony tail out of my mouth. I groaned a bit as I brushed caked dirt off of my knees and shins before asking, "Everyone ready?" Everyone nodded and agreed as they stood up and got their bags on, still chuckling about Bastion's soft landing.
Trekking for another three hours, the sun was about to start setting and the area would soon be consumed with darkness and eerie shadows of trees.
"Morgan, we should stop here. It's a perfect flat area, and there's a field not too far if we wanna venture out and see the stars when it gets darker," Bex said, her crystal blue eyes looking at me with confidence in her words.
I looked around and visually confirmed what Bex had pointed out. "What does everyone think?" I asked. Everyone looked around as I had, plotting out good spots for tents and nodded before a round of verbal agreements to stop there to make camp for the night.
"Hey Mo... do you have any more candy bars?" Maddie asked me and I gave her a look of confusion.
"Yea, why?" She smiled wide and clapped like an excited child.
"Yes! I ate all mine. I'm still hungry for chocolate. Well, sugar. I haven't had a slurpee in so long!" She said with a whiny tone. I shook my head in amusement before hearing Lizzy speak up.
"Maddie, you ate all my candy bars too. And you had a slurpee before we left," she said glaring at Maddie and Maddie began to laugh hysterically.
"Oh yea, I did, didn't I?" She said, still laughing. Her boyfriend Dylan walked over and swooped her skinny body up into his arms, her long blonde hair hanging down.
"Enough sugar, you can help me put the tent up," he said walking away with her.
After everyone was set up with their tents and sleeping arrangements, we sat around the campfire John had built. Everyone had a blanket or two to sit on, creating a perfect cozy circle of blankets. The sun had already disappeared from sight, leaving the sky a beautiful green and blue haze. There was not a single cloud to be seen, preparing us for an amazing stargazing night.
Our tents were set up in a circle, surrounding everyone and our campfire with a feeling of protection. After a while of conversation and laughter, we all quieted down to listen to the sounds of the night forest. The air was almost completely still, the only sounds being made were from peeper frogs and crickets, causing an almost melodious tune throughout the dense forest.
After the sun had gone completely, taking the light with it, the moon began to appear behind the dark treeline. I looked over to Lizzy noticing she was looking up instead of at everyone else. Following her gaze, I looked up to see a magnificent star display peeking through the black silhouettes of the trees that surrounded us.
"I wanna see the stars in that field we went to last year!," Lizzy said with hope and excitement in her voice.
"Me too!" All the girls along with myself agreed in an almost simultaneous fashion. After giving the boys puppy eyes, they agreed to escort us out there.
The boys grabbed flashlights and we all began to walk towards the field. Everyone automatically began the buddy system, either holding hands or locking elbows. Bastion and I, being the only single ones there, locked elbows as I held the flashlight. We laughed and ran through the woods before breaking the wooded barrier, leaving us in total awe.
The stars were magnificent. There were hundreds upon hundreds of tiny shimmering spots in the sky. Bastion and I stood staring as we heard the rest of the group come out of the forest with gasps and expressions of awe.
As I was staring up at the sky, I saw a tiny green flash. I kept looking, focusing on the area I had seen the green mystery before I saw a couple more. I followed the flashing green dot, I soon realized what the show we were looking at. Looking on across the field, thousands of lightning bugs sparkle across the field for their mating season spectacle.
I nudged Bastion and pointed at the green flickering field, causing him to take his eyes off of the stars above us.The moon was light enough that I could see his face clearly to see he was smiling. Soon his smile changed into a smirk, and I was curious as to what his next move was going to be. He grabbed a hold of my hand and started running across the field.
I ran as fast as I could with him in order to keep up my heart pounding in my chest with excitement. We laughed as we ran all around the field chasing the small green flickering beings, and soon enough we were joined by everyone.
It turned into a game of freeze tag as it had many times during our childhood. The laughter during the game of tag caused my ribs to ache and sweat to trickle down my forehead and neck onto my face and shirt, but that would never stop the memorable fun we were having.
The air was perfect, it was not too hot nor too cold with a slight breeze blowing occasionally across the open area. The night, the friends, the memories. Everything was amazing that night. How would I have ever known that would be the last of the amazing nights with all of my friends?