Below the Sky

Chapter 5: Lila

Chapter 5. Lila

One month later

"Lila, Lila, wake up," I groaned, and rolled over, pushing the person shaking me awake off. "Come on Lila, you gotta wake up, we're leaving soon." At last, I sat up, and opened my eyes a little bit, to see Riana, standing beside me.
"Ugh, no I don't wanna wake up," I moaned, and buried back underneath the covers.
"Lila, get up now, or else we're not going to get to go!" I finally jolted up in bed, and got up.

As I got dressed, I grew more and more excited. I had been waiting for this for a month, ever since the whole incident with Luke happened. Luke. I shuddered just thinking about him. I was terrorized, just remembering what he did to me, how he touched me, ached for me, and the pure rage in his eyes when I didn't return his feelings.
I shoved those thoughts away though, and instead prepped for the day ahead. My entire family (minus Dash, he was staying with some family friends), and Riana, were all going on a canoe trip. We would row during the day, and stay at campsites during the night. Papa had been planning this trip for the last month, and I was really, really excited.

Every summer, my family and Papa's intern all went on a small, fun trip. Last summer, we went hiking with Louisa. The trip in general was fun, but will
Louisa—well let's just say she didn't make the experience more enjoyable. This summer would be different though, this summer we were going with Riana.

Later on, I sat in our little automobile, crammed into a seat with Riana, to my liking. It was so early that the sun hadn't even risen yet, and it was still pitch black out. I was still tired, and rubbed the remaining sleep out of my eyes, while eating a piece of toast. Oliver and Maya were stuffed into the back row, with Mama and Papa up front.
Riana, who had awoken before me, was fast asleep, snoring on my shoulder. She looked really peaceful, and I could tell that she was probably dreaming about something soothing. I also eavesdropped on Mama and Papa, who were chatting up front.
"Have you seen the way Luke looks at her, I can tell that he likes her," Papa said.
"Ya, he definitely does, how much is the question though," Mama said in a concerned tone.
"What do you mean?" Papa asked.
"I mean, I don't want any teenage boys trying to advance on my daughter, she doesn't need that kind of trauma at such a young age," Mama shuddered at those words.
My face paled. They were talking about me and Luke's relationship, and telling by Mama's words, she already knew quite a lot...
"Are we almost there," Riana suddenly awoke, sitting up from my shoulder.
"I think we still have a while to go, you should fall asleep again," I lied, I actually had no idea how much longer the drive was, I just wanted Riana to get her rest.
"Okay," then she snuggled back into my shoulder, who breathing slow and soft within minutes.

At last we made it to the dock, where we would unload our canoes and packs. Mama got out of the car first, and immediately started ordering everyone around, telling them what they could do.
"Riana and Lila, you help Papa unload the boats and put them in the water, Oliver and Maya, you can help me get the packs." With that we were off to our assigned stations.
The canoes that me, Riana, and Papa had to carry were very heavy. We managed to get all three of them off the rack that we'd towed behind the car, though it wasn't easy. By the end of it, I was dripping with sweat, and my face looked like a tomato. Once we were finished unloading the boats and packs, we all partnered up, me and Riana being partners naturally, and picked boats. I chose the canoe that was in the nearest walking distance, and rushed over to it.
"Do you have a paddle?" I asked Riana. She shook her head no. "I'll go get our life vests and paddles, okay?"
"Ya, sure." I hurried away from our canoe, and over to Mama.

It took a decent amount of time to get everyone what they needed, but finally, we were ready to take off. Me and Riana climbed into our boat, I sat in the back, steering, while she stat in the front. When the entire crew was ready, we pushed off the shore, and started paddling.

It was a beautiful morning. The sun was about an eighth of the way into the sky, and it shone to the right of us, so it didn't blind us as we rowed down the river. The way it reflected off the water was gorgeous, and the sky was clear too, not a cloud in sight. It was a perfect bluebird day.

We paddled for hours in the morning, until my arms were tired and I felt blisters forming on my hands. I could tell Riana was tired too, because she was slouching her shoulders and paddling with a little less force than she had before.
"Mama, can we stop for a second to rest?" I asked.
"Ya, let's stop. It's also about noon, so we can eat lunch too," Mama said. I steered me and Riana's boat over to the shore, and stopped it as we sailed in.
In the packs in our boats, there was some peanut butter to make sandwiches with, so I got out the bread and spread the creamy snack onto the loafs.
"My arms are honestly pretty tired," Riana said as I handed her a sandwich.
"Ya, I know what you mean. I've been on a few trips before already, and my shoulders and grip was so sore afterwards, I could barely write!"
"That makes me really excited to finish this trip," Riana said sarcastically.

When we were all rested up and ready to go, we all packed up our packs, and started rowing again. We rowed for hours, the sun slowly leaving its point at right above us. We went through a few patches of white water throughout the day, but they weren't too big, mainly just a few bumps. Still, it felt amazing to get out on the water. I didn't really get to go out and just paddle on a river for a few hours, so this experience was really refreshing.
When we were all sore and exhausted from rowing all day, we stopped at our final destination, our campsite for the night. We all helped carry the canoes up onto the bank, and bring the packs up to where we could set up camp. After that though, when all the tents were set up, and Mama had a fire going for our dinner, she shooed us off to go explore. Naturally, Riana grabbed my arm, and pulled me away.
"Let's go swimming," she exclaimed, skipping down the path. She pulled me through the woods, to where we stopped at the brink of the river. The water lapped at our feet, as we started undressing down to our swim trunks.
Riana dipped a toe in, then immediately pulled it out, squealing with cold.
"Is it really that bad?" I asked. I learned the answer to that soon enough though, when I scooped up a little water, then rushed away from the river.
"Ugh, why is the water so cold, it's literally summer!" I yelled, at basically no one just to express my frustration.
"I don't know, let's still go in though, it'll be refreshing," Riana said happily. I looked at her, conveying how much I did not want to go swimming in freezing cold water right now.
Riana, somewhere having an internal heating system all of a sudden, ran into the water quickly, shivering.
"Maybe we'll get used to it," she said. I didn't think so, but still, I walked in up to my ankles.
"Oh my lord, how are you that far in, I would literally freeze to death!" I screamed.
"Come on Lila," Riana waded up to me, and grabbed my arm. Then, not to my liking, she pulled me the rest of the way in, underneath the frigid water.
When I first submerged, my first thought was hell, this is really cold. Then I noticed that Riana was standing up right next to me, and I immediately rushed to the surface.
"See, it's not that bad," Riana splashed a little bit of water on me. I giggled, the cold stinging like a bitch.
"Well, you may not realize this, but I get cold pretty easily," I said, a stern look on my face.
It was as if a meteor hit Earth all over again, one moment, I was smirking at Riana, telling her that I didn't like cold water. The next, she was closing the distance between us.
I seemed to swim in the pools of brown in Riana's eyes. Our faces were inches apart, and unlike my experiences with Luke, with this I felt a connection. With Luke, I felt cold, stiff, my heart pushed him away. This was very different though. I burned for Riana, and if I wasn't fed enough wood, I would flicker out.
She brushed a piece of wet hair out of my face, then leaned in closer, closer. I sunk into it, letting her get close to me, wanting her to close the gap, so we could become one person.
"Lila, Riana! Dinner's ready, come on!" I suddenly jerked away from Riana, and looked to where the voice was coming from. There wasn't a person standing anywhere, but someone, either Oliver or Maya, was calling to us.
"We should probably—go," I said awkwardly to Riana. Then I fled, trying to forget what had just happened between us.