Ben, Mike and Zoe are on a hike being led by Erica through the Alaskan mountains, takes place before SSGN but after SSPX, Cyrus is back at camp while Catherine and Alexander are on a frosting run
Zoe's POV:
After 2.5 hours of straight hiking through rough mountain terrain, Erica had finally let us take a break next to a rushing river, she told us to sit for 15 minutes and then vanished into the trees. I quickly grabbed a snack from my backpack, hoping to quiet my grumbling belly. Mike looked through his backpack for his water bottle, and Ben sat down on a rock casually watching in the direction Erica had vanished. "How do you use the water purifiers?" Mike's voice, though quiet, echoed through the forest.
"Dude it's not that hard, just grab a tablet from the container, put it in the bottle and mix it," Ben snickered.
"So why are there 3 pages of instructions?"
"Because not everyone speaks English."
"Oh. You know it's really obvious now that you're saying it. but it was not clear at all before." Ben snickered again. I got out another protein bar and Mike chugged his freshly purified water. 2 minutes went by, and I suddenly realized Ben wasn't there anymore. Mike looked around confused. I turned in the direction of where Erica went, and then back toward Mike. He nodded and opened his mouth, but I quickly put a finger to my lips. I motioned in that direction and we tried to walk quietly towards where Erica and possibly Ben might have gone.
We found them together, because of course we did. They were sitting on a rock together in front of the rushing waterfall. Erica was laughing in a carefree way, I had never seen her laugh before, in fact I didn't know Erica even knew how to laugh. Ben was grinning at her looking like a love sick puppy. Erica seemed to notice he was staring at her, stopped laughing and gazed up at him her eyes losing the sharpness that they always had. They exchanged a few words before Ben reached out and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.
I looked at Mike and he looked back at me, 'Shes gonna be so mad' he mouthed, despite agreeing that we should try and sneak back to our backpacks, I didn't let him know, instead turning back to Ben and Erica, my curiosity winning out.
Ben was leaning in towards her, his hand cupping her cheek, and then, to my surprise, he kissed her. It was gentle, and soft, loving perhaps. I could feel my chest tighten, my stomach aching.
Erica tensed for a moment, before she wrapped her arms around Ben's neck, relaxing into him. I pursed my lips to avoid making a face and swallowed. They were completely oblivious to our presence. I glanced over at Mike, who was staring at them with a look of disbelief.
After what could have been 2 minutes or 20, Erica pulled back, her cheeks flushed. "We should get going," her voice was soft, much softer than I had ever heard it, "It's getting late and camp is pretty far." Ben nodded, but he didn't let go of her waist. I closed my eyes but didn't let any tears fall, not yet at least.
I pulled myself together and exchanged a panicked glance with Mike, like my heart wasn't breaking and considered our choices. Should we confront them? Or pretend like nothing happened? Confronting them was not an option, Erica would murder us so we had to act like we hadn't seen anything. We quickly snuck back to our backpacks before they could see us and sat down acting like we had been there the whole time.
Ben came back first trying and failing to look nonchalant, sitting down next to Mike. He fiddled with the laces of his boots, avoiding looking at anyone. Erica walked back soon after from a completely different direction. Her face betrayed no emotion as she said, "Its getting late we should head back." We all agreed, Erica had a better sense for this then any of us, and disagreeing would quickly put her in a bad mood, making every one else's life miserable.
We all walked back down the trail, trying to act like nothing had happened but Erica actually let Mike lead the hike back, something she never did, so she could walk in the back with Ben.
During the hike back, Ben and Erica kept sneaking glances at each other. As they walked side by side, Ben kept finding excuses to touch her, brushing the hair away from her face or rubbing their intertwined hands with thumb. Erica, despite her initial surprise, seemed to enjoy the attention and would smile shyly whenever he did.
It was definitely the worst hike I had ever been on, and not just because I forgot my water.
