Winding Roads {A Creative Writing Journal}

Stranded: Part 4

One down. Thirteen to go.
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     I can't believe I'm doing this,  I thought as I donned my jean jacket, my favorite hoodie having been burned to a crisp earlier. It was late, and the last thing I wanted to do was stumble around in a dingy passage with my scaredy-cat of a best friend and the class weirdo.

    "You done psyching yourself up for this, Archy?" Miranda asked while sitting on my bed and twirling my phone charger cord.

    "Don't call me Archy," I growled, annoyed that I was actually going through with this. The brunette only giggled.

   "Ooh, so sensitive."

  Not deeming that worthy of a response, I rolled my eyes and dug through my duffel bag for my—

     "Has anyone seen my flashlight?"

  Miranda grinned wickedly. "You mean this flashlight?" she asked while waving my pocket-sized flashlight over her head.

Okay, not cool. I quickly swiped it out of her hand, clicking it on and off in her face to make sure it still worked. I smirked as she threw her hands in front of her eyes to keep me from blinding her.

Was I being a bit petty? Yes. Yes, I was.

  "If you two want to go explore the dark, creepy, tunnel alone, I won't stop you," Diego piped up, and the grin instantly left my face.

    Miranda scrunched her nose in disgust. "Ew! No! Whatever it is you're implying, don't even think about it," she snapped before turning her gaze back to me, "My question is why did you bring a flashlight on vacation? You do know nobody carries those around anymore, right?"

     "It's not like it's a jumbo-sized one," I retorted lamely. I like being prepared. Sue me.

    "He's always been like that," Diego waved me off while scrolling through his instagram feed. "Ever since he forgot all his underwear during a camp week he's been a regular Boy Scout."

    "Dude!" I hissed. That was a need-to-know problem, and she did not need to know. Miranda's laughter only confirmed that fact.

"Let's just get this over with," I sighed, ignoring both of them as I opened the closet door and revealing the musty passageway we would be exploring tonight. My nose was immediately assaulted by hot, heavy air mixed with dust.

    "This feels like a bad idea," Diego mused while looking over my shoulder. I clicked on my flashlight.

"You wanna stay here?"

"And let you be stupid by yourself? No way."

   I sucked in a deep breath and stepped into the hall, cringing when my weight made the wooden planks squeak.

    "Okay, so stealth mode is a no go."

  Miranda followed after me, and Diego held up the rear as we tried to navigate the hallway single file as quietly as possible.

   In case anyone was wondering, we were failing horribly at that last part.

    "Quit shoving me!" Miranda hissed. From the sound Diego's grunt, I guessed she probably elbowed him.

   "Oh, man, that was low," he groaned.

  "Then stop pushing me," she retorted, not at all repentant, "Come on, Archy. We can't stay in here all night."

    "Stop calling me that. And this was your idea in the first place, so you can call it off any time you want to."

        "Let's just see if this branches off anywhere or if it's just connected to our rooms. Then we can call it a night, since you two are being such babies about it."