Outside || Luke Hemmings

Chapter 63

After driving around a few more hours, we finally reached Whanganui.
‘I had an idea’ Luke said, looking at me  and parking the car in the parking lot.
‘How about we go camping?’
‘Camping as in…sleeping in a tent?’ I asked, I’d heard of camping before and I’d seen it in movies, I just wasn’t sure if that’s what he meant.
‘I mean, only if you’re up for it. We don’t have to I just thought it might be fun since we always sleep in hotels and stuff’
‘No, I’d love to do that. I just wasn’t sure if that’s what you meant, but do we even have a tent?’
Luke smiled and nodded.
‘It’s been in the trunk all this time, hidden behind our suitcases. I took it with me just in case I wouldn’t find a hotel to stay in’ he explained.
I nodded and looked around.
‘We’re going to be camping here?’
‘Yeah, there should be a river not too far away but this is as far as we’re going to get with the car. We have to walk the rest’
I nodded and we both got out of the car.
‘Oh, wait’ Luke said, biting his lip ring and scratching his neck.
I furrowed my eyebrows and looked at him.
‘Wait for what?’
‘Well…I forgot you can’t swim…and the only reason we’re allowed to camp here is because that way we can go kayaking tomorrow without having to drive here first.’
I looked at him and sighed softly, I was going to regret this tomorrow but I didn’t really care at the moment.
‘We can go kayaking as long as you promise me I’m not going to die’
‘Really?’ Luke asked.
I nodded and he smiled, pulling me in a hug.
‘I promise you there’s no way I’m going to let you die on that river’ he said, pressing a kiss against the side of my head.
I smiled and we started filling our bag with some clothes and a lot of food.
We got the tent out of the trunk and after I practically forced Luke to let me carry something too, we started walking.
You could hear the sounds of the water as soon as we left the parking lot behind us and we continued to follow a path that was walked so many times, nature didn’t have the time to restore itself.
After a 10 minute walk, we arrived at a field with perfectly green grass and a beautiful view of the river.
There were a few tents scattered around the field and there were people on the river in, what I guessed where kayaks.
We walked a little closer to the river and picked out a place to put our tent up.
‘Do you even know how to put this thing up?’ I asked when Luke told me he would put the tent up.
‘No, but it can’t be that hard right?’ he said, emptying the bag with the tent in it.
Luke started fumbling around with the tent when I noticed the instructions that were left behind in the bag.
‘Hey Luke, maybe this will help’ I said, getting the instructions out.
Luke looked at me and shook his head.
‘I’ve got it’ he said
I looked at him, trying to hide my smile.
‘Are you sure? Because the instructions say that what you’re doing right now is one of the last steps’
‘Trust me, I know what I’m doing’ he said.
I laughed and put the instructions down.
Deciding to just enjoy the view I had, and with the view I meant both Luke and the actual view.

After 20 minutes of Luke struggling to get the tent up, and failing, he gave in and I read the instructions to him.
‘Hello and welcome to Taumarunui Canoe hire and jet boat tours, would you maybe like some tea or coffee?’ a middle aged woman asked.
‘A cup of tea would be really nice’ I said, the woman nodded and focused on Luke, who asked for coffee.
The woman nodded and as she walked away, a tiny little kitten walked up to us.
Luke finished putting up the tent and sat down on the grass beside me.
‘Look how cute’ I said, scratching the little cat behind its ear.
The kitten walked a little closer and carefully laid down in my lap, resting its head to the side on my leg, softly spinning as I kept petting it.