List, Love and Everything Above

Chapter Three: #1 Sleep in a Tent Outside

The cool night air blows against our bodies, making our clothes flap roughly against our bodies. My hair blows wildly in the air, and I can practically see the tangles form in the strands. The cold weather stings my skin, causing me to shiver a little bit.

"Are you sure you really want to do this?" I ask, rubbing my arms up and down in a sad attempt to warm myself up.

"Yes. We gotta start the list sometime, you know? So why not start now?" Finn shrugs.

"Isn't it a little too cold to be sleeping outside?" I ask.

"Its not even cold at all, its only like 60 degrees," Finn chuckles. He pulls his hoodie off and hands it to me. "Quit being a little baby and lets get this tent set up."

I let out a lengthy sigh and pull the hoodie over my head. I am immediately enveloped in his vanilla and mint scent, which I gratefully take in.

"I'm not being a baby," I whine, as he leads me into our shed and we look around for a tent.

Finn completely ignores what I just said and continues to look around the shed.

There's so much stuff in the shed, I can barely see my feet on the floor. My dads and I use this to store things we don't want in the house anymore, which includes the tent I begged them to get me when I was little and then never ended up using.

I push through the sea of useless objects in front of me, halfheartedly attempting to look for the tent. To be completely honest, I was kind of hoping that we wouldn't find the tent so we wouldn't have to sleep outside in the cold. I was honestly pretty scared of sleeping outside because of all the bugs and wild animals, and especially because weren't exactly safe, unless you wanted to count Finn as our protection.

Sure, Finn was incredibly muscular. He played soccer religiously and did weight training and worked out on his off seasons, which contributed to a pretty nice build. But I doubt he'd be able to save us both if a wild bear attacked us. Sure, he would definitely be able to out run the bear, that boy is fast as hell. But he would out run me too, leaving me to be eaten by the bear instead.

I silently hoped that my parents threw away the tent so we wouldn't have to sleep outside in it today. I know they probably didn't because they're both pretty much hoarders, but I still sent out a silent prayer to the tent gods.

"Found it!" Finn exclaims, holding up a bright pink princess tent bag. I groan and give him a scowl.

"Turn that frown upside down, Ellie, because we're going camping!" Finn exclaims, grabbing my hand and dragging me out of the shed.

"Do we really have to?" I ask, sticking my bottom lip out to try to convince Finn to not force me to.

"Well, do you want to complete the list or not?" He stops and asks me, looking me in the eyes with a serious expression on his face.

"Yeah, I do," I sigh.

"Well then lets get this tent set up and scratch the first thing off the list," Finn says, taking the tent and supplies out of the bag and setting them on the ground.

I turn the flashlight on my phone on, since the dark night sky wasn't really helping Finn put the tent together.

"You see, I learned how to put a tent up in boy scout camp years ago, so I can do this," Finn assures me, as he begins to put a few things together.

I watch as his deeply tanned arms get to work and start to put the rods together through the fabric, and he slowly but surely puts the small tent together.

"Wow, I'm impressed. I didn't think you actually remembered," I admit as he sets the tent upright and unzips the door.

"Wow, Ellie. I can't believe you didn't have any faith in me," Finn scoffs, looking at me with a fake sad expression on his face.