Unfortunately, the next day was also rainy, so nobody bothered to even try and get up early. Everyone was lounging around the cave. I tried to busy myself by fixing up my appearance; I was sure I looked a mess. I decided to put on some leggings instead of the baggy sweatpants I had on yesterday. I also chose to wear an actual push-up bra, a white cami, and a tight, heathered yellow, long sleeve shirt that brought out the tan I'd been acquiring out here. After I changed, I sat down next to Jake and attempted to finger comb my hair into a side fishtail braid. I planned to undo later for natural looking waves.
My hair had grown a little since I'd been out here, so once I completed my braid it hung down to just below my ribs. I began tugging at the strands to "pancake" the braid so that it looked thicker, and pulled a few strands out to frame my face. Once I was satisfied, I held the braid up to admire my work, although I wished I had a mirror.
"That's really cool; you did it so fast," Jake said once I laid my braid back down. I didn't realize he had been watching me.
"Thank you," I smiled at him, "it's not that hard to do."
"Still. You look really nice today," he smiled back and nudged me with his shoulder. I felt myself blush a little at his compliment. I had to admit, he was looking quite handsome himself. He was wearing a green shirt that made his eyes sparkle, and it clung tightly to his big, muscular frame. I also wasn't the only one getting a tan out here, because Jake was looking nice and tanned as well. This just made him all the more beautiful as now his teeth looked so white and his eyes so green in contrast to his darker skin. His hair had grown out a little too into a messier hair due that I found to be quite sexy on him, and his facial hair was growing into stubble, which was very appealing.
I realized I had been staring at him for too long and quickly shot a response back to him. "You too. I really like that color on you."
His face lit up in response. "Oh yeah? Thank you; I'll keep that in mind."
I became distracted when Nathan randomly stood up and removed his sweatshirt, leaving a tight, white, athletic t-shirt on with his black sweatpants. His shirt really showed off his muscles and his new tan as well, and I couldn't ignore how his darker skin and lighter hair made his ocean blue eyes pop. He looked around briefly before starting to do various stretches.
"What are you doing?" Wes asked after a while of watching Nathan.
"I'm going to work out. We've been stuck in this cave for so long, I'm losing my muscle tone; and I'm bored," Nathan explained.
"Good luck building muscle in here. We don't have any weights, and crunches would suck on the hard ground," Adam scoffed.
"Cassie, can you come here for a sec?" Nathan asked while curling a finger at me.
The way he said it peaked my interest. "Um... why?"
"I have an idea. Trust me," he winked. I hesitated a moment before slowly standing up and working my way over to him, being sure to keep weight off my ankle. Nathan took a brief moment to scan my body before quickly snapping out of it and smiling at me. "Do me a favor and just lay back for me love; like we're dancing, and I'm dipping you. Keep your body straight."
"What are you doing?" Adam asked.
"You said we didn't have a weight. Here's one right here," he chuckled and gestured to my body.
"You want to use me as a weight?" I asked, shocked. I wasn't the smallest person. Part of me doubted he could do any curls at all using me.
"Woah, you're using Cassie as a weight? I want to try!" Cam said.
"I'm first!" Nathan replied, "Ready Cass?"
"I guess?" I said, getting into position.
"Great. Lay back." Nathan instructed as he hooked one arm under my lower back and the other under my legs. He gently lifted me up off the ground and I tried to keep my body straight while he bounced me around a bit. "Oh yeah... this will be easy."
I doubt it.
"One... two... three..." Nathan grunted as he curled me into his chest and back out. I was only partially aware of the other guys watching. Adam was the only one helping Nathan count out loud, and I would have joined in if I wasn't so concerned that he was going to drop me.
"Four... five... six..." he grunted. He was already beginning to slow down, breathing hard between counts, "seven... eight... nine," he dragged out the last one, not curling me in with as much momentum. On the 10th curl, he was just barely able to get me to his chest before setting me down gently on the ground and shaking out his arms. "Damn..." he panted, "I thought I'd be able to get more than 10, but it's much harder to use a person."
Some of the guys chuckled, "Wow Nate, I expected more from a farmer," Cam teased, referring to his comments from the night we were drinking.
"Oh yeah? Let's see you do better huh? Competition is officially on," Nathan quipped, gesturing with his hands towards me in an "after you" type of motion.
Cam strolled towards me with a cocky grin on his face. "May I?" He asked.
"I guess," I chuckled as I wrapped an arm around his neck.
"Hey hey no helping Cassie! Remember, arms in and keep your body straight," Adam warned.
"Sorry I forgot," I responded. It had become such a habit for me to just get scooped up by them that I was used to helping them out. I tucked my arms in and straightened my body as Cam adjusted me.
"One... two... three..." he began. This time, most of the guys were helping count. I could tell when we got to 6 that Cam was going to have Nathan beat by the pace at which he was still able to curl me; plus, it didn't seem he was working as hard. He started to slow down around 8, and was really slow to complete the 12th. He tried for 13, but he wasn't able to bring me up high enough to count it. He set me down gently, panting, but with a smug look on his face, "Who's next?"
"Jake you try! I want to see Cam get beat," Nathan said, poking Jake in the bicep.
"Oh, you think I'm the one to beat him?"Jake asked while cocking a perfect eyebrow.
There was a collection of nodding and mumbling "yes" throughout the guys.
"Well okay then," Jake chuckled while making his way towards me, "Ready Cass?"
"I suppose," I remembered what Adam said last time about not helping, and made sure to keep my body straight while Jake picked me up and adjusted me in his arms. He began curling in the same manner, bringing me to and from his chest at a quick and easy pace. All the guys were counting along now, excited to see Cam get beat.
"10... 11... 12," Jake grunted, and everyone else cheered. He slowed down a little, but was able to curl me back up to beat Cam at 13. He curled me back out, and was able to curl me 2 more times before giving up on the 16th. I'm not going to lie, I found this competition to be really attractive; stupid, but attractive.
The final ranking was as follows: Jake-15, Cam-12, Derek-12, Nathan-10, Luke-9, and Adam-8. Wes couldn't participate in the activity due to his shoulder injury.
I thought after the curling, the guys would be done. However, out of boredom and an abundance of testosterone in this cave, they decided to turn Nathan's little workout into a full blown fitness competition, utilizing me as the weight in each event. Curls turned into squats, in which I was laying across their shoulders in a fireman's carry. After squats, they did push-ups with me laying across their backs, and after that, they attempted to bench press me, which was the hardest for most of the guys; especially because at this point they'd already been lifting me in other events and they were getting tired. Also, due to the over-competitive nature of this group, many of the guys would try these lifts multiple times in order to try and beat another.
"Okay. I'm done," Nathan eventually said, wiping a hand across his forehead.
"Yeah me too. It's fucking hot in here. Can we go play in the rain?" Cam asked to nobody in particular.
There was a collection of excited agreements, "Cass, wanna go too?" Adam asked.
I wasn't working out, so I wasn't hot at all and it was cold out in the rain, but I definitely didn't want to stay sitting inside either. "Yeah I'll play!" I agreed and started hopping towards the exit. Luke, Cam, and Wes, were outside already and I was eager to join them.
"Woah hey," Jake said as he caught me around the waist.
I cocked an eyebrow at him, "What?"
"Bring a sweatshirt. You're gonna get sick if you go out in that."
I rolled my eyes at his overprotective statement, but he was probably right about the sweatshirt. "Okay. I don't remember where I put mine though."
Jake smirked and let his hand slip from my waist. He strolled to where some of his clothes were and pulled out a black Nike zip-up sweatshirt. "She has a million sweatshirts and can't remember where she put them in a tiny cave," he teased.
I took the Nike from him. "Well, maybe I just like to wear your clothes more," I teased back. It was true; his sweatshirts were bigger and warmer, and they smelled like him.
The rest of the guys were outside already, tossing a wet, wadded up t-shirt back and fourth like a ball. Jake leaned forward so that we were eye-level before speaking. "I like when you wear my clothes too," he said with a sexy smirk on his face. He was so gorgeous it still shocked me sometimes.
I was speechless, but I managed to smile back at him replying with one word, "Good."
Jake smiled back and turned around, crouching in front of me, "Alright short stuff. Hop on."
There were times when I would protest, but quite honestly I wanted to be close to Jake in the moment, and due to the joking nature of the day, I didn't feel like a burden. "Don't mind if I do," I agreed and launched myself up onto his back, locking my arms around his chest.
Jake chuckled as he hoisted me higher, and marched out into the rain to join the others.
The cool rain was pouring heavy around us, but nobody seemed to care. I admired the smiles on everyone's faces as they began a game of touch football. Although I was injured and couldn't play, it was still nice to see everyone letting loose and having a good time.
"Cassie catch!" Adam shouted as the makeshift ball was tossed at me. I caught it, and the impact of the soggy t-shirt sent water flying into my eyes. I blinked hard a few times, and was unsure what they wanted me to do with it since I was unable to run. I saw a few of the men running towards me and became even more confused. Were they gonna run into me?
I was going to back away when Derek came up and hefted me over his shoulder. I squealed and held on as he started running towards a pretend goal line. "Hold on tight Cassie! I'm on your team!" He said.
When he crossed the line he set me down gently, laughing loudly. I held the t-shirt up in the air and slammed it onto the ground with a soggy splat. "Touch down!" I hollered.
A few of the guys laughed. "Hey no fair! How come she's on your team?" Nathan whined.
"Because I claimed her," Derek shrugged.
Nathan smirked, "Well, I think Cassie should get to pick whose team she wants to be on."
Derek smiled, "Fine. Cass, whose team do you want to be on?"
"Who's winning?" I asked.
"We are," Derek replied.
"Okay. Then I'll stay on your team. Sorry Nate, but I wanna win."
He placed a hand over his heart, feigning being hurt. I chuckled and picked up the "ball." The teams were Jake, Derek, Adam, and I, against Cam, Luke, Wes, and Nathan. I searched around and tossed the t-shirt towards Adam. He jumped up to catch it before sprinting towards our makeshift goal marker. He was almost there, when Cam lunged at him, tagging him.
The game continued on for a while. I wasn't much of a help, but occasionally one of the guys would toss me the ball or pick me up and run with me. Eventually though, we decided to call it as the rain picked up and it became rather slippery and muddy. We were about to go in when Adam decided to bust out into song.
"Feel the rain on your skin, no one else can feel it for you," he sang and twirled around, letting the rain hit him in the face. I chuckled at his feminine choice of song, but his voice was actually quite dazzling. It was deep and velvety smooth and very much on key.
"Come on Cassie. Join me! I don't know all of the words," he reached his arms out and I grabbed on, letting him pull me up, holding me by the hips as we danced so I could dance on one foot.
"Only you can let it in. No one else, no one else, can speak the words on your lips!" I sang with him, swaying my hips. I felt ridiculous, but I was having too much fun with him to really care.
"Catch yourself with words unspoken," Adam continued.
"Live your life with arms wide open," I finished.
The next part we sang in unison, "Today is, where your book begins, the rest is still unwritten!" We ended up singing in perfect harmony, and at the end Adam dipped me. He pulled me back up, and we both laughed together. The rest of the guys hooted and applauded. Then, some of them even wanted to take a turn dancing with me. Eventually, we all were singing and dancing around.
Jake, Adam, Luke, Wes, and Nathan were all actually quite good singers. Cam and Derek needed some work, but they weren't terrible and they looked to be having a great time. Plus, what they lacked in singing they made up in dancing. They took turns swaying me around, passing me off from one to the next and dipping me as they so felt like it. I was feeling unstable on my foot, but every time I felt I was going to fall, one of them was there to catch me and keep me dancing.
Out of all the times we had out here already, this was one of my favorite moments. We were all carefree and having a good time, ignoring the situation at hand and forgetting how bored we had been. I loved how this group of guys made me feel so confident and comfortable in my own skin, and I felt free to be goofy without shame.
We were just all here in the moment together, acting silly and having fun. I knew we were acting kind of strange, but after being cooped up in a cave for days on end, we were all a bit slap happy.
After a while, everyone was starting to get chilly. Most of the men were only wearing t-shirts, and more thunder began to erupt throughout the valley. Nathan was the first to head into the cave when the thunder started, and everyone else followed when a giant bolt of lighting cracked through the sky.
I was getting really sick of the rain.
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Hello!
This is a fluff chapter I know.
I like to throw in moments like this though to show that it isn't all bad being stranded. Also, it shows how slow time is moving for them out there. They must be bored out of their minds most of the time. Thanks for reading!
-Haley