BODYS ; M. MUNROE

CHAPTER THREE

★彡

DESPITE NOW being inside, Cassandra could still see her breath blow out in front of her, she dropped her backpack to the floor, resting against the coat rack; it was too cold to take her coat off yet. She rubbed her arms as she walked to one of the many covered sofas, sitting with her knees pressed against her chest, and her arms around her legs.

She watched as everyone began to settle into the lodge, even though it was freezing, and the interior looked like a haunted snapshot in time, it felt nice, having everyone back together; even if it was for something as depressing as the one year remembrance of two sisters that disappeared into the night.

Mike sat down on the other end of the sofa, he spared Cassandra a glance before starting a conversation with Josh, something about getting a fire started. Her eyes drifted to Ashley and Chris, watching them stumble around their words. Their coy flirting would never get them anywhere, both too shy, yet somehow too stubborn to do anything about how they felt, despite the feelings being explicitly clear, and mutual. Cassandra could tell Ashley had a crush on Chris the moment she saw them in the same room together.

Her eyes then drifted to Matt, who was trying to find something to do as he waited for Emily, she felt bad she hadn't asked where his girlfriend was, but she assumed she was busy catching up with Jess.

Seeing Chris move to talk to Sam, Cassandra pushed herself off of the couch and made her way to Ashley. "Ash, I just wanted to ask, did you talk to Matt about-"

"Hey losers!" Cassandra froze, hearing the distinct voice of Will.

She didn't look at first, keeping her eyes on the step behind Ashley's head, but eventually she turned, his hand was loosely in Jess', whose free hand was holding Emily's, until she saw Matt and quickly ran over to slink into his side. Cassandra thought back to seeing Mike and Emily only moments ago, she glanced to Mike, brows furrowing seeing he was already looking at her, he looked away the moment their eyes met.

"Will!" Josh greeted cheerily, pulling him into what Cassandra could only class as a bro hug. "How you doin' man?"

Josh liking Will confused Cassandra at first, but they both had a boyish charm that worked when they were together; yet they seemed to live in entirely different worlds, Will didn't even like movies, aside from westerns, and Josh was never one for sports.

Will smiled smugly, looking over to Jess who was reapplying her lip gloss, now Cassandra had got a better look at him, she noticed the corner of his mouth was glistening with the same gloss. "Well, you know..." The two boys laughed, and Cassandra wished she could sink into the floor. "Got my little spitfire — can't really complain." He pulled Jess towards him and kissed behind her ear. "We still cool to use the other cabin?"

"'Course dude, no question. Just... Don't ever let me know what you guys get up to, okay?" Josh laughed, putting his hands in his pockets.

For a moment Jessica's eyes met Cassandra's, the blonde gave her a smile she couldn't read, was it smugness? Sincere? Cassandra sat down beside Ashley and looked down. She felt foolish, why should she care what they did? It'd been a year to the day since they'd broken up. She'd moved on, hadn't she? Sure, she wasn't in a relationship, but that didn't mean anything. Was it because she'd always envied Jessica? It was true, she had, she envied her confidence, self assured nature, she envied how she spoke her mind, and didn't back down from things. She envied how she was everything Cassandra wasn't.