Lost Memories

Chapter 19 - Annie

Annie's POV

We had been walking for days and days without stopping, apart from for meals and sleep, no wonder my feet were killing me. We had only just made it to the bottom of the mountain and I sure as hell wasn't looking forward to the climb up it.

That evening, after we had washed, I helped Sade prepare dinner for the five of us and set up the fire ready for cooking the meat. Once the flaming embers were warming us up, I settled down next to Sade, leaning a against him a little, so that our arms were brushing, making goose bumps form on my skin and blush.

"How are you? Are your feet okay?" Sade asked. I turned to look at him and he looked concerned. Aw! He was so adorable.

"Yeah, I'll be fine," I replied softly, bumping him on the arm with my own. He smiled back at me and pulled me int a hug. I rested my head against his chest and took a breath in, he was so comforting.

"Does anyone want to play a game of cards?" Onix asked, no on in particular.

"Sure thing, how about poker?" Kennedy said.

"Again Kenny? Just because you have an amazing poker face, doesn't mean we want to see it," I say sassily.

"But.. but.. I like winning." She pouted, making Onix laugh. Kenny hit him on the arm, making him flinch. 

"How about a nice friendly game of Go Fish?" Sterling offered calmly, trying to distract Kenny from killing her boyfriend. That's right I just made them official, without them knowing. I made myself laugh as I thought about it, causing everyone to look at me weirdly.

"What? A girl not allowed to laugh once in a while?"

"Not when it's as creepy as your laugh!" Kenny exclaimed. 

"I'm not creepy! I'm adorable!"

"That you are," Sade said, squeezing me tighter to him. See, he's adorable!

"See, someone appreciates me!" I stuck my tongue out at Kenny, but she just smirked at me and raised one of her eyebrows. I replicated the look as I looked at her and Onix, that's right, they were getting pretty close as they sat together.

After Onix won three games of Go Fish, Kennedy got fed up and threw her cards at him. Sterling just shook his head at her and chuckled, when she did.

"You know, your father would do the exact same thing when I always won at cards? He was such a sore loser."

"Are you calling me a sore loser?" Kennedy asked, jumping to her feet and glowering at Sterling.

"Uh, no?" 

"You are so going to get it," Kenny growled, punching Sterling in the gut. Man, she's going to have to stop doing this, or someone was going to get... hurt? Eh, too late.

"Ow! Would you stop doing that?! We get it, you can physically harm us. Now my stomach is going to permanently hurt." Sterling groaned.

"But it's funny! See, Annie's laughing!" Kenny pointed at me, whilst I tried to smother my giggles with my hand.

"Way to drag me into this, Kenny!" I whined.

"Aw, no problem Annie," Kennedy said in a sickly sweet tone, making me roll my eyes.

We argued with each other until dinner was ready. We ate with similar small talk to every other night; seriously, how much small talk can we make? It had been just us four, for the past three weeks, and Sterling for the past week.

It wasn't long after dinner that Onix and Kennedy passed out together against a bolder and Sterling beside the fire. Sade and I were still awake, but only barely.

"You look tired, you should sleep." Sade suggested.

"I will, but I want to talk to you for a bit before I do." I say, but my speech is slightly slurred.

"What do you want to talk about?"

"Whatever you want," I replied.

"How about we talk about the fact that I really like you," Sade said softly.

"You do?" I asked, feeling a lot more awake now.

"You didn't notice?"

"Pfft, of course I did, i just wasn't one hundred percent sure..."

"Well I do,"

"Are you sure? I mean, yes I like you too-" He stopped my babbling by kissing me. He pressed his lips firmly against mine, silencing me where I sat. I returned his kiss, reaching a hand up to hold his cheek. Sade clasped my other hand, before slowly pulling away.

"Are you calm now?" He asked, his light eyes piercing into my own.

"Yeah, calm..." I trailed off, just looking at him. Sade chuckled.

"Sleep?" He asked?

"Yeah, sure, sleep..." He laughed again and pulled me against him, so I could settle myself and get comfy. It wasn't long before we both settled into a natural coma.

*****

"Wake up, Lovebirds!" A scream racked through my ears, causing me to flinch and cover my ears. My eyes fluttered open to see Kennedy and Onix standing over us, giggling like two children. I groaned.

"What do you two want?"

"Oh, you know, we want to know what you two were up to last night that would make you end up in this compromising position." Kennedy snickered.

"What compromising- oh," Realising that we were in each others arms with our legs tangled. "Well, that's just none of your bee's wax." They just kept on smirking.

"Yeah, well, we will be talking about this later madam," Kenny said sternly.

"Sure, sure whatever," I replied.

"Well, get up you two, we are leaving right after breakfast." Onix said, clapping his hands together.

The first thing we did was pack up all our camping equipment (so blankets and mats), cooked a small breakfast, seeing as though we were trying to stock up on supplies and not waste them. The final part of our pre-journey preparation, was gather in all the traps we had set over night. We had managed to gather six fish, two squirrels, three rabbits and a few birds. We were also able to collect some greens and herbs over the past few days, that will be able to last us. We didn't want to keep them for too long, otherwise they wouldn't have been fresh enough to eat. We ate hurriedly, that morning, wolfing down our food so that we could get going as soon as we could. 

Sade always took forever to roll and fold his mat and blanket, so it ended up with me doing it for him, like the lazy bones he is. Typical.

I heaved my own backpack onto my bag, just as everyone else did and we began walking as a group towards the sloping mountain face.

"How long did you say it was going to take to get to the road?" I asked, hesitantly.

"Uh, three days to get to the road, then one day to walk it." Onix said, looking sympathetic. 

"Yay, fun," I said sarcastically.

"Don't worry, Annie, we'll be at the road before you know it." Sade said, trying to make me more positive, I simply raised as eyebrow at him.

Three days; couldn't be too bad.