𝐼𝓃𝒻𝒶𝓉𝓊𝒶𝓉𝑒𝒹

Chapter 32- Laughing Under the Night Sky

Chase's P.O.V.

I woke up in our large tent, sunlight infiltrating the thin fabric of it and falling directly on my face. Yawning, I looked at the empty sleeping bag beyond the slight, translucent separation of the tent, indicating that Cris had already left the tent. Of course.

I checked my phone. It was 8:13 in the morning. I apparently hadn't set an alarm yesterday night.

Yesterday night. A smile forced its way onto my face as I remembered how fun last night was. The 'nightly traditions' were us telling each other lame ass jokes as we set up a fire for a good amount of time, due to us laughing and goofing around. It felt so good. Especially because I knew she wasn't running away from me, like just a few weeks ago.

Later, as we roasted marshmallows, she told me a little about the galaxies above, when she caught me admiring the night sky which seemed more starred than the main city's night sky. I found out her two main interests through our talks last night: nature and space.

The way she narrated the many mysteries of space and the approximate size of the universe, among other facts, was so beautiful and effective that I found myself marvelling over each fact about the enormous cosmos that I'd always found pretty, but not interesting. Her words ignited in me, an admiration for space. I even found myself believing Hugh Everett's multiverse theory, something I didn't exactly care about till now.
Such was the effect of her words which she spoke passionately, not to forget the brilliant sparkle in her eyes as she spoke.

But it was with even more passion and love that she spoke of nature. It explained why she decided to join an NGO working for nature, for a high school job.

We'd eaten trail mix for dinner, finding no better alternative. I'd animatedly told her how my Dad and Elaine used to have luxurious camp nights in various forests of America till I was 16, when I left for Boston. She listened intently, even laughing along at some of my funny experiences. She seemed quite interested, and that was encouraged me to come to the conclusion that the sort of camaraderie I was having with Cris was different than with other friends of mine. I wasn't exactly surprised.

Afterwards, on getting into our tents, she'd climbed into the sleeping bag and fallen asleep almost immediately due to tiredness. So had I, apparently. The night was both enjoyable and tiring.

I climbed out of my tent after changing into my black ripped jeans and wearing my black bomber jacket over my beige sweater and fixing my hair to a temporary but neater style. It was pretty cold, a normal Boston winter.

Just then, Cris came walking over to the tent, still dressed up in the same clothes she wore yesterday, her hair perfectly spread out over the sides of her chest in smooth chestnut waves which shone golden under the sunlight, like her russet eyes. She always looked so perfect and appealing, I could hardly help guessing that she always got titled as 'The Most Scrupulous and Neat Kid' or 'The Sterling Example of Perfection' on classroom award days or some shit like that.

She carried a toothbrush and tube of toothpaste in her hands, and on seeing me awake, threw the toothpaste at me after gesturing at me to catch it. Never had any 'new friend' been so bold with me before, like Cris, and I loved it.

"Good morning, Walker. Let's leave early." She offered.

I sighed a little. "'Morning. And chill, we'll be leaving today. But I thought that afternoon was the time to leave?"

"Mrs. Tuffin, this grandma at the front desk who co-owns the motel, requested us to leave at 10 AM instead of 1 PM. They've got some guests begging for the camp night experience since yesterday." She rolled her eyes a little at the last part.

I huffed. "Ah, well. I can offer to pay more than those guests for an extra hour or two. We were the first ones, weren't we?"

"Don't. There's no need. We got our night, let's leave now."