The Cave

Day One: Amber

It was going to be a really good summer; I could feel it.

We were all on a high after finishing our A levels, and for the first time ever, we were going on holiday together. “We” consisted of myself and my best friends- Elle, Tyler, Jared and Annaliese, as well as Jared’s girlfriend Beth. Apart from Jared, none of us knew Beth very well, but she seemed happy enough to come along and as far as we knew, she was alright.

“Can you open the windows, please?” I called to Elle, who was driving. She’d passed her test in June and amazingly, her twenty year old brother Jacques had let her borrow his car.

“Sure,” Elle replied, pressing a button and letting a heavy breeze stream into the car.

I looked round at the others; Tyler was sitting at the back with me, playing on a white PSP and Annaliese in front of me had been asleep for about an hour. Jacques’ car wasn’t big enough for six people, so Jared and Beth were being dropped off at the campsite by Beth’s mum.

“Are we nearly there yet?” Tyler asked for the fourth time.

Elle rolled her eyes. “Yeah, it’s about fifteen minutes now, I think. Can someone call Jared and check where they are?”

“I’ll do it,” I volunteered. I picked my phone up and dialled Jared’s number.

“Hello?” he answered.

“Hi, we were just wondering how long you’re going to be,” I said. “We’re about fifteen minutes away.”

“Um...” Jared was quiet for a few seconds, then his voice became hushed. “Probably about an hour, we’re stuck at a service station.”

“What’s up?” I asked.

“It’s nothing...Beth and I had an argument and she went all hysterical, and now we’ve stopped she won’t get back in the car.” Jared sighed.

“Oh.” I didn’t know how to respond to that. Having only met Beth briefly a few times, I didn’t know much about her, but Jared had mentioned that she had had some problems.

“Well, let us know when you get there then,” I said finally.

“Yeah. Bye.” Jared hung up.

“I think they’re gonna be a while,” I said to Elle. “Beth’s upset and they’ve had an argument .”

Elle tutted. “Is she being all weird again?”

“She can’t help it!” I protested.

“Yeah, well.” Elle shrugged. “If this week gets ruined because of her, I’m going to be pissed off.”

Twenty minutes later, Elle pulled into the campsite. I’d never been camping before, so I really didn’t know what to expect. The site was pretty much a huge field, scattered with tents and caravans of varying sizes.

As we carried on through slowly, I noticed that I could see a pale strip of blue in the distance, that I assumed was the sea. Slightly nearer was a dark, blurry, cliff-like mass. I looked away from it quickly. I hated heights, and just the thought of being at the top of something like that made me feel queasy. Our place was somewhere on the edge of the field, a few minutes in.  When Elle slowed the car to a stop, Annaliese and Tyler got out to begin setting up the tents.

There were two- a two man for Jared and Tyler, and a family-sized one for us girls. I sat in the car with Elle, watching as Annaliese and Tyler tried to set up the bigger tent.

“You two could help!” Annaliese called to us, struggling with a long pole.

Elle shrugged. “Hey, you said you can do this.” It was true- Annaliese went camping with her family almost every summer.